Monthly talk: Stephanie Austin: Turning to crime in retirement
Our guest speaker in March was Stephanie Austin who gave us a revealing insight into how to turn to crime in retirement. A tantalising prospect! It was reassuring to know that this was purely in a world of fiction.
After a career in education and working in libraries, Stephanie wanted to have a go at writing her own novel. She has always been a ‘scribbler’ and had a draft novel in her drawer which she had written about 30 years earlier. She dusted it off and wondered whether it might be publishable. She found an agent, the essential element in getting published, who gave her valuable advice to make it a viable commercial project. Essential, in her view, was to place the novel in a real, named location in Devon rather than a fictional community somewhere in the area. This enables readers to relate to the locations and other details, and can picture the action clearly in their minds. In this case, the setting was Ashburton, a town which was described by the 18th century Methodist preacher John Wesley, as ‘the most sinful town in England’. A promising setting for crime! Even today, there is plenty going on there, and it is a town and area with a fascinating and often sensational history to draw on in her fiction.
Her novels have as a central character Juno Browne, an amateur sleuth with a knack for finding dead bodies. Her first story focused on the antiques trade which Stephanie was able to learn about through her friends. It is a trade full of shady characters! She likes to write about features of everyday life which people can understand, such as fly tipping or theft of farm machinery and other other features of rural crime. These can be a way into writing about more dramatic crimes including, of course, murder. This has proved to be a successful recipe for Stephanie as she has now had nine novels published, with one more to hit the bookshops soon, while she is also in the middle of writing her eleventh!
Stephanie gave us an insight into the realities of her new career. A writer needs to understand that a publisher will be in charge of matters such as the title and the design of the cover: they know their business and this needs to be respected. The publisher will demand a synopsis of the novel long before it is completed as the publicity and sales team need this to promote it. There will be pressure to complete the novel on time, and issues such as writers block are real.
Stephanie doesn’t map out the plot in detail, as some writers do, and said she often doesn’t know ‘whodunnit’ it until the end. Unlike some novelists who are writing a series of books with the same principal figures, Stephanie allows her characters to grow older and for their lives to move on. To help the reader who is not familiar with earlier books, it is important early in the novel to provide some character background on the main people in the plot as they all have a developing story.
After her talk, there was a brisk sale of books which Stephanie was pleased to sign. Perhaps some members of our creative writing group may be inspired to follow suit and turn to crime?
John Vick