My final appearance for the year is, fittingly, on Miss Austen’s birthday: 16 December, and it’s back in beautiful Warrandyte, where I lived for years (wish I still did, except in bushfire season).
Come wish Miss Austen a happy birthday with me, at Warrandyte Library, 11am, 16 December. It’s free, but you do need to book.
The next day, though still 16 December in some parts of the world, Sharmini and I will be taking part in a day-long tribute to the birthday girl in the Cozy Mystery Lovers Facebook group. You’re very welcome to join us and a whole line-up of other authors and Jane Austen enthusiasts there. We’re on at 6-7pm US Eastern time, 10am in Aus (AEDT), or 12noon NZDT.
I’m very much looking forward to the Port Fairy Literary Weekendon 12-14 September. It’s a great program, and a gorgeous town.
My great-great grandfather William Mott was a whaler there – I could claim the adorable National Trust property Mott’s Cottage as my family home. I always go poke around in it when I’m in town. (We always thought it was his cottage but it turns out the family actually owned it in the early 20th century, when he was long gone.)
National Trust image of Mott’s Cottage
But back to the present day – my co-author Sharmini Kumar and I are on a panel with Lyn Yeowart and Belinda Lyons-Lee, chatting with my old mate Kate Mildenhall about writing mysteries, 5.30, Saturday 13 September. Program and tickets here.
On Friday 19 September, Sharmini and I are speaking with students in the Professional Writing and Editing course at RMIT – Author Conversations is a free program the students curate and everyone is welcome. The fabulous Lili Wilkinson is on the same day – double bill of authory fun (actually it’s a triple bill).
It’s also Writers on Campus on my own campus on 23 September, where I’m hosting a session on Writing Sport, with experienced sports journalist Merryn Sherwood and Pam Kappelides, an expert in sports management and policy, including writing about sport for communities. There’s no better time than Grand Final week in Melbourne to talk about it. So if you’re interested in how we write about sport from a range of angles, come along to the library on Bundoora campus of La Trobe University. All welcome. Free but book here.
On the evening of 25 September, I’m interviewing Vikki Petraitis about her fabulous new book, The Stolen, for a Sisters in Crime event at Darebin Libraries. It’s free, but you can book here.
And after all THAT, Sharmini and I are heading to the US for a huge Jane Austen convention, the Jane Austen Society of North America annual general meeting in October, in Baltimore, Maryland. But more on that later.
Miss Caroline Bingley’s unceasing attempts at world domination continue. We can’t stop her. God knows we’ve tried, but she persists, and who are we, mere authors, to stand in her way?
Coming up soon:
Warm Winter Reads, Northcote Library: 16 July
I’m looking forward to giving an author talk as part of the Winter Reads series at Darebin Libraries, on Wednesday 16 July at 6pm. You’ll hear about how and what I write, and especially the influence of Miss Austen and our version of Caroline Bingley. It’s free, but do book here. Fairfield Bookshop will be on hand and I believe there may even be cake! I know it’s hard to leave the house on a Melbourne winter night, but it’ll be worth it.
Virtual JaneCon, online: 19 July
Virtual JaneCon is billed as a “radically inclusive Jane Austen event”, and it’s held online so people can attend anywhere in the world. My co-author Sharmini and I appear with our dear colleague Dr Kylie Mirmohamadi, talking about Miss Bingley and Mary Bennet, two characters Jane Austen doesn’t seem to like much, and all the other sessions look fascinating. It’s over the weekend July 19-20, with video sessions posted on YouTube. You can see all the details here.
Afternoon tea, Antipodes bookshop Sorrento: 30 July
Join me and Sharmini for a special afternoon tea celebration of Miss Austen’s 250th birthday in Sorrento, at the always-stylish Antipodes Bookshop. Murder, mystery, and afternoon tea (there will be no actual murder, you understand, just discussion of imaginary murders). Also bubbles. 2pm on Wednesday 30 July. Bookings essential and details here.
Bendigo Writers Festival, 16-17 August
Always a terrific writers’ festival, with a huge programme and always thoughtful guests. I’m involved in three events this year:
On the Lam 10:15 am, Saturday 16 August. I’m part of a panel with Tara Calaby and Lucy Sussex, chaired by Steph Downes, on spirited women of the past – in fact and fiction.
Carrying On 10:30 am, Sunday 17 August. I look forward to interviewing Melanie Cheng, Kylie Mirmohamadi and Jock Serong on the nature of grief and ghosts, legacies and loss and their beautiful novels.
Edinburgh: Midnight and Blue 11:45 am, Sunday 17 August. I’m interrogating crime writers Fiona Hardy and Jock Serong about Ian Rankin and his take on justice, redemption and the blurred lines between right and wrong in the book, Midnight and Blue.
Talking crime with champion chair Jacqui Horwood and Zane Lovitt, author of The Body Next Door. We’ll be trying to answer the enormous questions, crime fiction: who writes it and why? 11.30am, Sunday 24 August, Hotel Bellinzona, Hepburn Springs. Tickets and details here, and check out the rest of the program because there are some great writers involved (Tony Birch, Nadia Mahjouri, Izzy Roberts-Orr and many more!).
Hope to see you out there!
PS This time two years ago I was walking (well, at this point, plodding along slowly and painfully with boots full of blisters) the length of Hadrian’s Wall, so here’s a gratuitous photo of that most spectacular country, because it never ceases to amaze me. In fact, I’ve written a whole novel set there now (still rewriting).
Miss Caroline Bingley would probably not have approved of travel to America in 1814. But we assure you, she does not mind in the least now.
Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Investigator, is officially published by HarperVia today in the USA and Canada, with this eye-popping cover by Sarah Kellogg.
Fly free, little book. Sharmini and I are so pleased to see you out in the world.
Things have calmed down a little, as Sharmini and I are in Hobart, working on Miss Bingley’s further adventures. We are grateful to the Salamanca Arts Centre for hosting us in the gorgeous cottage set aside for artist residencies, and we’ve been working hard, and plotting even harder. It’s the perfect place to think Regency, surrounded by Georgian buildings and exploring museum collections of the era. But more of that another time.
It’s not all long days bent over the desk. We’re appearing at Dymock’s Hobart on 11 June at 6pm, to talk about Miss Bingley, crime in the Regency era, and writing historical fiction. It’d be lovely to see some Tasmanian crime and/or historical novel readers there. Details and bookings here.
Then the events in Australia continue with an afternoon tea at Antipodes Books in Sorrento on 30 July. Bookings are essential for this one, and we anticipate delicious morsels! Find out more and book here.
After that, we have writers’ festivals and events lined up – I’ll let you know as they arise, but in the meantime, book ahead for the Historical Novel Society of Australasia’s History Unbound festival in Parramatta in November. Sharmini, Alison Goodman, and I will all be on a panel together, hosted by the magnificent Pamela Hart. Now, THAT’S Regency.
And if you haven’t seen it, here’s the stunning US cover.
Here’s where we are (in various combinations) next:
Launches at the Library In a way, it all started at a Jane Austen seminar in the Library at La Trobe University, hosted by my dear colleague Kylie Mirmohamadi many years ago. Now Kylie’s gorgeous novel, Diving, Falling, is out and so is ours, so we’re celebrating both books, with Sharmini, Kylie and me in conversation with another dear colleague, Carrie Tiffany. 12.30, 29 April, Seminar room 1.34, Bundoora campus Library, La Trobe.
Books in Bars Join Sharmini and me for a great night of cosy crime and murder (well, talking about murder), with the good folks of Dymocks Geelong. 6:30pm, 30 April, Waurn Ponds Hotel.
Utter Ruin! I’m interrogating – I mean, interviewing – Alison about her new book, The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, hosted by the lovely people at Ulysses Books, on 8 May. 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, in the bookshop itself, in Hampton.
A Very Austen AfternoonThe fabulous Wendys at Bookish in Bendigo have invited Alison and me to celebrate Miss Austen’s 250th birthday with a high tea and a conversation with the delightful author Katrina Nannestad, to discuss all things Austenesque – mystery, manners and the role of women in the Regency period. 2:30pm, 10 May, Mackenzie Quarter, Bendigo.
The same day, Sharmini is taking part in another very special Austen celebration: Jane Austen’s Music, Pemberley Revisited. In this performance, Austen’s razor-sharp wit and keen observations on love and society come vividly to life through carefully chosen readings and period-perfect musical selections, performed by Rachael Beesley, Aura Go, and Lizzy Bennet’s Band. Afterwards, Sharmini will be in conversation with Melbourne book editor, event moderator and bookseller, Jaclyn Crupi about Jane Austen, her literature and her legacy. 4pm, 10 May, at the Melbourne Recital Centre.
Anna Chancellor as Miss Bingley in the 1995 TV adaptation of Pride & Prejudice
When I write something – when I really write it – I inscribe it on my skin. On my self.
I start somewhere – anywhere – I hardly know. Couldn’t tell you. I feel my way in, slowly, as if through a tunnel. No. A cave. A labyrinth of caves. Some brightly lit, others black as winter: more often they are candlelight, welcoming paths, and it takes a while to make out the shape of it, of all of them, and how they fit and turn together.
It’s a feeling as much as a thought process as much as craft. I teach writing but I often can’t explain it, because how can I? I say: Here – take this headlamp and swim through the depths.
That’s partly why I do so much historical research – I bathe in the story, in the people, in the place, in the tiny details and the world-smashing questions.
And everything I write is then part of me. I feel it become part of me, as I fit the words together. I write myself into it and write it out of me and it never leaves, not even years later, when I’ve forgotten character names or plot points (although I’m sure I’ll never forget, I do). The story and the memory of writing of it are in me.
Here’s what’s coming up for the first little while as we take to the high road. Three authors, two books, wonderful booksellers, and plenty of laughs.
Sydney launch, Miss Caroline Bingley, Private Detective, Monday 7 April, 6pm for drinks and nibbles, followed by a conversation with author Pamela Hart – at Better Read than Dead in Newtown
Writers to Watch is an online event for librarians in North America hosted by Library Love Fest but anyone is welcome, featuring new or forthcoming books including Miss B. It’s broadcast live at 7pm ET (8 April in the US) or 9am Melbourne/Sydney time (9 April) and you can RSVP here for Facebook or here for Crowdcast.
Ballarat celebration: Sharmini and I, in conversation, on Thursday 10 April, 6pm, at the Old Colonists’ Club in Lydiard Street, with Collins Booksellers (free, but please book)
Austen Con: April 12, Abbotsford Convent – Alison Goodman and I are on a panel in the morning, and there’s a dramatised reading of a scene from the book, as well as all sorts of Austen-world delights. Sharmini is hosting as always.
Moonee Ponds, in conversation: on April 16, Sharmini and I will be in-store at Collins Booksellers in Puckle Street, having a chat and answering questions from 6pm (free, but do book)
Then we’re all having a little break over Easter to breathe and eat chocolate.
The novel, co-written with Sharmini Kumar, is published by HarperCollins and out now in Australia and New Zealand. It will be in shops in the UK next week (April 6).
We hope you like it.
We’ve got lots of events lined up, and some of them are with our friend and Regency co-conspirator Alison Goodman, whose fabulous new novel, The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin, is also out about now.
It’s an exciting time, but listen up, emerging authors: nobody tells you how nerve-wracking it is to have your book released, so I’m warning you now. And it doesn’t diminish with age or repetition. Well, maybe a little. For your first book, you think your world is about to change, and it kinda does, but then it settles down again. Unless you’re Helen Garner or Sally Rooney.
Anyway, I’m off again, like an old steeplechaser out of the gate, but this time alongside my co-author, Sharmini Kumar, for whom this is a first novel so she gets to have all the thrills, and I get to enjoy it.
I’ll post our upcoming events as I have details, but here are a few:
The Melbourne launch is on 3 April at Readings State Library but it’s well and truly booked out, so you can relax about that.
The night after, we’re on a panel at Sisters in Crime, with the lovely Alison Goodman, whose latest Regency rip-roarer is The Ladies Road Guide to Utter Ruin. 8pm, 4 April, Rising Sun Hotel South Melbourne. Bookings here.
On 7 April, we’re in Sydney for a launch event at Better Read Than Dead in Newtown, in conversation with the darling Pamela Hart. 6.30 pm: details and bookings here.
On 16 April, we’ll be at Collins Booksellers in Moonee Ponds, in conversation about all things Austen and crime. Bookings here.
On 30 April, we’ll be in Geelong for the legendary Books in Bars session at the Waurn Ponds Hotel with Dymocks Geelong. Details and bookings here.
I’ll post more Miss B events here very soon.
In the meantime, I’ve just emerged from running my first writers’ retreat at the gorgeous Continental House in Hepburn Springs. I mean, I go on retreats all the time, as regular readers know, and find them incredibly productive. But this was different – 13 writers and me, lots of teaching and writing and eating excellent food, in a lovely 1920s guesthouse. It was a huge amount of fun (and work, but I don’t mind that), and I look forward to many more. Now I’m planning future retreats and some new courses and masterclasses for after Miss Bingley comes out. Writers, watch this space.
Last week, it was my great honour to launch Marion Taffe’s debut novel, By Her Hand– a historical novel set in Mercia in the early tenth century that I highly recommend.
On 3 May, I’m launching another debut novel by a local author, The Butterfly Women by Madeleine Cleary. It’s set in the heart of Little Lon, and that’s where the event’s being held. Details and bookings here.
No rest for the wicked.
(Which reminds me, I LOVED Wicked. I’d just seen the new Melbourne production, which I think was even better than the first, with two incredible leads, so wasn’t expecting the film version to blow my mind. But it did, or at least it’s really grown on me.)
Kelly Gardiner 