News and Announcements
News and Announcements from Clan DestineNews, Announcements and general Clan Destine goings on.
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Death, Dying and other Dirty Words
So, here we are. Blog Numero Uno. For months I’ve been umming and ahhing about what to write. Do I give the big introduction, tell you all about me? Do I tell you how badly I want to be a writer when I finally grow up? Do I write about all the things in my life that brought me to this point? Or maybe the challenges of finding time with three small children to put words on paper?
Ho-hum. Seriously, I’m just not that interesting.
What I really want to blog about is this: Death.
Yep, I’m going straight for the jugular. No pun intended. At all. In fact, I probably write about the subject of death far too often, I guess most ‘normal’ folk don’t think it is, in fact, a normal subject to be – dare I say it – actually interested in.
Now, I’m not talking about death in fiction. I’m not referring to the fact that one of the characters in my novel-in-progress is, umm, not exactly living. I want to write about real death. The one that happens to all of us eventually. The kind of death that is looming right now, over the heads of my family like a thunderous cloud.
My Dad is dying.
I’ve already written about this numerous times. Most of my friends have read about the details of the horrible disease that is robbing my father of the incredibly full life he once led. Right now, I won’t be going into the ins and outs of his illness. Maybe I’ll save it for another day, maybe not.
I want to write about society’s attitude toward death, how we (the living) are supposed to cope with them (the dying).
Before I go any further, I would like to acknowledge two people: authors Karen R Brooks, and her friend, Sara Douglass. These amazing women inspired this blog. I follow Karen on Facebook, and, via the wonders of the keyboard and the inbox, have been fortunate to meet a real-life angel. She recently posted a blog written by Sara, who is extremely ill, on the subject of The Silence of Dying. Sara writes about society’s attitudes toward terminal illness, and how we expect the dying to remain stoic and strong. We often comment with admiration about how ‘they’ never complained, ‘remained upbeat to the end’, and, it turns out, being the ones in fact, who comfort those that will go on living.
What the hell is wrong with us?
Why do we expect this? Why do we admire those who never complain, never voice their fears; why is it so often the sufferers who find themselves in the situation of having to comfort their loved ones when they are given the heart-breaking news? Why don’t we talk about death with the dying? Is it because it’s so painful? And if it is because of the pain of watching a loved one wither away, why do we find it so hard to discuss our grief with them before they’re gone?
More importantly, why don’t we discuss their own grief, their own fears with them?
Sara wrote of her frustration of being told to ‘think positively’. Yep, there’s so much to be positive about when you’ve been told you only have X amount of time to live <insert eye roll here>. Instead, society dictates that we worry about the people who will be left behind, how difficult it is to care for someone with a debilitating illness (remember, I write from experience here). We wonder just how the carers cope, how hard it must be for them. (Disclaimer: Of course I also worry about how my Mum copes. She’s Wonder-Woman dressed as a Special School teacher). We encourage the dying to be bright and happy and keep up-beat, all for our own selfish sake. We don’t want to have to deal with their reality – the fact that they might actually be feeling like utter shit, are scared, in pain, sick and tired of it all – and fed-up with the expectation our society places on ‘them’ to be strong, no matter what horrors illness or treatment may throw in their faces.
The reality is, of course, we’re all going to die. We hope it will be quick and painless. But chances are, most of us won’t get hit by that bus, or slip away quietly in our sleep unexpectedly. Chances are, in this day and age of medical wonders, that we will bump heads with a terminal disease one way or another. Without doubt, we’re all going to have experience losing a loved one in this manner. So why the silence? Why do we mourn so privately, both before and after the event? Why do we expect those AT THE VERY CENTRE of our grief to behave in this silent manner?
The answer, so far as I can tell, is fear. Fear of exposing our true selves, and fear of not knowing what to say. Fear of upsetting the patient. Fear of our reaction to the way they may look or behave. But guess what? That person - you know, the one who’s actually sick - is generally aware of it. They know the reality. They know they are dying. They might even want to talk about it. What they may not want to do is pat you on the shoulder and say: “There, there, it’ll all be okay. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Because it’s not okay.
Sadly, our family (like many others in this situation) has had personal experience with the way so-called friends drop off the face of the earth when the reality of death comes knocking. I’m sure most of them use the excuse that they want to remember Dad how he was, not the shell he has become. Terminal illness is not pretty, in fact it’s downright ugly, uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing. But it’s real. And, although very sick, my Dad is still very much alive. He’s aware his condition makes people uneasy, makes them squirm and thank God it’s not them in his place. But he doesn’t complain, in fact, he never mentions it. He remains stoic (of course) in the face of this desertion.
I’m far from perfect so far as all this goes. Sara’s blog was a wake-up call for me. I care for Dad every Monday, and believe me, there have been plenty of Sunday evenings where I wonder how I’ll cope the next day. Selfishly, I wonder how I’ll get through the next degrading step in his illness, what to do if something happens while he’s in my care. But one thing I have been lucky enough to do is bond with him during our two years of Mondays – I’ve gotten to know him better than I had in the previous 35 years of my life. Not just as my Dad, the strong, traditional provider, but as a kind, loving man whom I admire greatly. I’ve found out things about him that I never would have otherwise. Who knew we shared a fascination with Vampires and other scary things that go bump in the night? Or what about our love of TV shows like Sanctuary, Smallville or the X-Files? I even introduced him to Buffy the Vampire Slayer back when he could see a bit better. He’s never been perfect, nor would I want him to be. His illness may have attached itself to him, but it’s not him. It doesn’t define him. It might own his body, but it doesn’t own who he is.
We’ve touched lightly on the subject of his funeral - you know - the easy stuff like music (Kenny Rogers – The Gambler) and place of burial. But I’ve neglected to find out how tiny and insignificant he must be feeling right now, how it feels to have his life snatched from under him far too early. All we seem to do is things TO him – we spoon-feed him his lunch, dress him, wipe his hands and face like a baby, clean his nose and place his pills in on his tongue for him. Doing, doing, doing. Never listening.
But I will be. Listening, that is. Thanks to Karen and Sara, I’ll encourage him to scream and yell, and if it were still possible for him to kick – well, I’d encourage that too. It’s not too late for my terminally ill father to know it’s okay to be pissed off at the universe for the way he’s going to die.
It’s also not too late for me to be there for him while he does.
Amanda
Thank you Karen and Sara for allowing me to publish this with your permission. Thank you also to my Dad, who has given his blessing for me to write about him and his illness.
Here's the link to Sara's blog: http://nonsuchkitchengardens.com/wordpress/
and Karen’s website: http://www.karenrbrooks.com
Had the Decorators In
Apologies for the downtime but Clan Destine has had a bit of a dust and polish up, we're back up and running now with a new layout but the same information about our wonderful authors and rising writers.
Please come by and check out the new look, and make sure you have a look at the Catalogue for any books you may not have in your collection already.
Golden Relic - ebook now available
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Late last century – before every household had the Internet, DVD recorders and plasma screens, long before Facebook and YouTube, and before every teenager was iPodded and iPhoned to the wider world – I wrote a murder mystery. While that makes me sound older than Agatha, I’m talking last century; as in, say, 13 years ago – you know when there were still phone boxes on some street corners, mobiles were the size of bricks and the only Internet was dial-up with a lot of drop-out. So what, you might say. Well, what I did in 1997 makes me a pioneer of the World Wide Web. Yep, me, Lindy Cameron, Australian crime writer – an Internet Pioneer. And I deserve those capital letters, because I really did boldly go where none had gone before. |
Without actually sticking a Lindy-flag in an intersection of the old Information Superhighway, I believe I was the first person in the world to be commissioned to write fiction specifically for publication on the World Wide Web.
Three years before the turn of the Millennium – and prior to the hilarious Y2K non-event – I was paid actual money to write a novel for this new-fangled thing that, in terms of home-use, was more un than usual. Seriously, ‘way back then’ surfing the net was kind of like taking a kick-board into a widdle wave pool.
Back then! Ha! I know teenagers who are now older than the then-Wonder of Internet surfing…from home.
But, back to me.
In those near-Dark Ages, I was commissioned by the Museum of Victoria to write a novel to help promote Melbourne and its museums in the lead-up to ICOM ’98 – the most important international gathering of museologists, museum professionals and other learned types that Australia had ever seen.
The Triennial Conference of the International Council of Museums (whose HQ is in Paris) is a really big deal. In the museum world, scoring the hosting of this prestigious conference is akin to a city hosting the Olympics.
In 1998 the honour went to Melbourne, Victoria. It was the first time the conference had been held in Australia and only the second time it had travelled south of the equator.
Despite the seriously high-profile nature of the thing, some wacky person on the Melbourne ICOM committee decided that a ‘novel’ way to let all the potential delegates – museum folk from all over the world – know about ‘our part’ of the world was to commission a murder mystery.
True.
The ICOM ’98 committee approached Sisters in Crime Australia looking for some likely writers to submit ideas for a murder mystery set in the Melbourne Museum but focusing on the conference’s 1998 theme of the repatriation of cultural artefacts.
That’s where I came into it – although there were four of us to start with.
Four excited, but bemused, crime writers turned up for a briefing session to face a boardroom full of semi-informed museum staff. That was the funniest part. Some of these folk – these professionals from various departments of the Museum – learnt of the ‘murder mystery PR concept’ at that same meeting. And many of them looked horrified at the thought of using a murder mystery to promote their professions, their institution and their city – to the international museum community.
By the end of the session however, they had not only warmed to the idea, but were suggesting likely candidates and telling us just how, and why he, she or they should be bumped-off.
We writers left with our brief. We came up with our individual story ideas and submitted them to the ICOM committee for selection.
And I got the job. Me.
I got this incredibly cool opportunity. And it still amazes me.
Why? Mostly because of who I was back then. But also because – from the comfort of this end of the first decade the 21st century – both the Internet and I have come so far in that short time that I realise just how totally awesome what I did was. For then.
So, who was I then? Nobody, that’s who.
I was an unpublished crime writer whose knowledge of, and love for, museums was limited to visiting them. While Blood Guilt, my first-written crime novel, had been accepted by HarperCollins Australia it was not due out until early1999.
But, in 1997 a public institution commissioned me to make up a story, titled Stolen Property, to help promote their conference.
Their International Conference.
On their website.
On the Internet.
What I did predated Stephen King’s pay-as-you-get-it serial foray of the year 2000. The bonus with Stolen Property was that, because I was commissioned to write it, readers got the whole book – all of it – over a 10 month period, for free.
Yeah, yeah – all you teenagers out there who don’t remember a time before Facebook, and you Gen-Other-Things who barely recall video cassettes – we know that happens all the time now. But a mere 13 years ago this was not usual.
When Stolen Property went up on the ICOM ’98 website, personal computers were still newish, and the proverbial ‘they’ were still talking about a time when ‘one in four homes’ might eventually have PCs; when one in 20 might get, not have, ‘get’ dial-up internet.
This was the olden days.
So much so, that even though the whole reason for me writing the story in the first place was to promote a conference through the conference’s own website, I had to do most of my book’s research at libraries. As in physically leave home and walk into a library building, search for actual books and borrow them.
Why? Because in the late 90s there still weren’t that many ‘websites’ you could just go visit to get your facts.
This was 1997 BG – Before Google.
Even in a novel designed for serialisation on the Internet, I made few references to the Internet itself, because it was technology so ‘new’ to me, and most people I knew, that I could not even ‘guess’ where it would be in six months – let alone the following year when Stolen Property went ‘online’.
There were a few other odd things I had to tackle in the writing of Stolen Property that were a twist on the skills we writers use everyday.
First, I had three months to complete the project. Three months! It was just as well my proposal had been really detailed. Ten chapters; 80,000 words; three months. Ha!
Second, I had to make stuff up, based on fact.
We do that all the time, I know. But I had to create an intriguing mystery, accessible to all/any readers, while avoiding telling granny how to suck eggs – or in this case without bashing the museologists about their own stuff, in order to ‘explain’ it to readers who were less in-the-know. Readers who were, in fact, more like me.
One of the reasons for this concern was that when HarperCollins, my soon-to-be first-time publishers, learnt of what I was doing for ICOM ’98, they came up with an incredibly awesome plan. They would publish the end result of my serialised mystery as an actual paperback. In time for the opening of the actual ICOM Conference in 1998. This book would actually come out before the one I had already contracted with them.
Hence my desire to make Stolen Property a novel for a much wider readership than the online international museum community. (Like they weren’t enough!)
Another aspect of having to make things up, based on fact, was a couple of minor real-world details.
When I started writing Stolen Property in 1997 the (old) Museum of Victoria was still in Swanston Street with the State Library of Victoria.
Stolen Property, however, was set a year later, between September and October 1998 when – if things went according to plan – the Museum as we had known it for 150 years would be closed to the public. Its curators and staff would be working to finish the packing, for storage, of the entire humongous collection – in preparation for the opening of the new museum sometime in 2000.
When I started writing in ’97, the space beside the famous Royal Exhibition Building in the Carlton Gardens was just that, space – lawn and trees and space.
When my hero Sam Diamond stands there, in what was my future but the book’s present, I had to imagine what she might be seeing – a year later in real time and in the midst of three or so years’ work on a huge construction site. Confused yet?
Would Sam see half-dug foundations for a mighty new museum? Would part of the building itself be up? Or would ‘the site’ still be lovely lawn and trees, because something had gone awfully wrong and not a single sod had yet been turned?
It was part of my brief to talk up Melbourne; introduce our city as great place, in its own right, for the conference delegates to visit, to enjoy, to look at. But what if I couldn’t get that little detail about the new museum right? No pressure at all. None. Nada.
Not to mention having to rabbit on about museums, and museum practice, and how it was all changing, and the whole repatriation of cultural artefacts concept, and… all for the ‘entertainment’ of people who chatted about such things over coffee. Did I mention, no pressure.
Righto. Blah-blah-blah, Lindy. I had the best time. Of course I did.
The serialisation of Stolen Property on the ICOM ’98 website between February and October of 1998 did exactly what it was supposed to do. HarperCollins Australia published my story as a paperback in October 1998. Retitled Golden Relic my book was launched on the opening night of the ICOM ’98 Conference.
Yay, go me!
You may wonder why am I telling you all this; apart from the whole waving my Internet Pioneer flag thing.
Well, Golden Relic as a paperback has been out of print for while now. In fact it is so hard to get hold of that second-hand copies are being offered via eBay and some online booksellers for $90 to $300!
While I am beyond-flattered by this turn of events, I’ve decided it’s time to bring my little murder mystery full circle back to a wider audience. Back to the Internet.
Stolen Property, the serialised internet novel, which became Golden Relic the paperback, is now returning as Golden Relic the ebook.
For a mere $8 you can now own a copy of a book that not only stands proudly as a quirky bit of Internet History, but is also a rollicking good yarn – if I do say so myself.
It’s the first in the Sam Diamond / Maggie Tremaine archaeological mystery series. And there will be more.
Golden Relic, published by Clan Destine Press, is now available online in a variety of formats for a variety of e-readers from the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal.
One last thing about the actual paperback. And this is perhaps something only other authors will truly appreciate. But the day that I received my advance copies of Golden Relic in the mail had it’s own spooky coincidence. Apart from the sheer thrill of opening the parcel, taking out my first published book, smelling it, fondling it, going all wackadoo about holding a real novel with my name on the cover and filled with pages of words that I had put into the right order… Um, as I said, apart from all that, that ‘day’ was also significant.
Remember, I wrote the thing the year before, in 1997. Allowing for the fact that I was actually using the real conference as a backdrop to the mystery, and that I wanted to have the denouement of that mystery happening at the official opening of ICOM ’98 (well, my fictional version of that opening, obviously) I had a timeline that my characters had to meet. I was also writing a serial – so I needed a lot of ‘racing around’ and end of chapter cliffhangers.
So I set up my plot, then worked the timeline backwards from the real official opening date of the real conference, and then picked a day/date at random to start the mystery.
A murder in the Melbourne Museum launches Special Detective Sam Diamond and archaeologist Dr Maggie Tremaine off on an adventure around the world and back to Melbourne – in time for the October 10 opening of the ICOM ’98 conference.
That random start date – which I chose back in about July of ’97 – was Wednesday September 16, 1998.
On that day, in fiction, Professor Lloyd Marsden of the Museum of Victoria was found murdered in the old museum.
On that date in the real world – 18 months after it was plucked from the air – I, Lindy Cameron received her advance copy of Golden Relic.
Yes – do-do-de-do – on Wednesday 16 September 1998, I opened my first-published novel, for the first time, and read:
Chapter One
Melbourne, Wednesday September 16, 1998
The hands tore at Professor Lloyd Marden’s flesh with a surprising savagery. It was hardly fair, he thought, that in his last moments of life he was also being tormented by a gathering of avenging gods…
You all know what to do now - Golden Relic
Women Who Kill: Radio 2SER Interview
For anybody who can who can listen, Shevonne from Radio 2SER will be interviewing Ruth and Lindy on their women's show Double X on Wednesday morning (26th May).
is now available here, via publisher Five Mile Press or in good bookshops.
This is a book that is starting to generate a lot of buzz.
Breathless by Evelyn Tsitas
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In 2009 Evelyn won a special commendation for her second story in verse - Breathless. We're lucky enough to be able to publish an extract of this story now for you to read - follow the link above.
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Undeceive by Evelyn Tsitas
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In 2008 Evelyn won both the Dorothy Porter Prize for Innovation and the Scarlett Stiletto for her story in verse - Undeceive. We're lucky enough to be able to publish an extract of this story now for you to read - follow the link above.
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Clan Destine Welcomes Felicity Young
We've very pleased to now announce that WA based writer Felicity Young has joined the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal.
Felicity's latest book TAKE OUT has just been released recently and you can see some of the reviews of it, and her earlier books at our Author Pages.
Deadlines by Evelyn Tsitas and Caroline van de Pol
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With apologies for the delay (dreaded lurgy striking all over the place), we now very happy to announce that the next story by Rising Writer Evelyn Tsitas has just been posted) Please follow this link to read another excellent offering from another of the talented Clan Members! |
Xenos by Evelyn Tsitas
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It is with much pleasure that we advise we've just posted an extract of Evelyn's award winning story Xenos - please follow the link to read. |
Clan Destine Welcomes Evelyn Tsitas
We're very pleased to be able to announce that Rising Writer Evelyn Tsitas has joined the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal.
You can see more about Evelyn and her current, extensive and very varied list of projects at our Rising Writers page.
You can also catch Evelyn's thought provoking inital post on her blog at http://www.clandestine-books.com.au/EvelynTsitas
Please join us in welcoming Evelyn to Clan Destine!
Fudgepuddle is Coming
Have you ever wonder what cats think?
Have you ever pondered what cats do when you're not around?
Sit down you Dog-People; we get that you think cats don't think much or do anything, but that's another story.
This is a heads up or flick of a feline tail to the forthcoming second instalment in a tale of unwarranted incarceration - known to humans as 'a holiday' - that's been thrust on an unsuspecting cat - or feeli - named Juno or, sometimes Megsy, Puss, Pud or the cat.
For those of you who haven't caught up with the purrfectly funny tale of Juno's cattery adventure then check out Chapter One of AKA Fudgepuddle - under Words on the Clan Destine Portal - before Chapter Two goes up on Wednesday.
Will it be Juno's latest new name that sends her 
all feelichatra, or the discovery that all feelis have 'special skills' - except her.
Juno will fill you in.
Not that her story is told for the benefit of we humans - or deuxjambs, as she calls us.
This is just her story, translated by a feeli-lingual deuxjamb known as Fin J. Ross.
Fudgepuddle is coming
Have you ever wonder what cats think?
Have you ever pondered what cats do when you're not around?
Sit down you Dog-People; we get that you think cats don't think much or do anything, but that's another story.
This is a heads up or flick of a feline tail to the forthcoming second instalment in a tale of unwarranted incarceration - known to humans as 'a holiday' - that's been thrust on an unsuspecting cat - or feeli - named Juno or, sometimes Megsy, Puss, Pud or the cat.
For those of you who haven't caught up with the purrfectly funny tale of Juno's cattery adventure then check out Chapter One of AKA Fudgepuddle - under Words on the Clan Destine Portal - before Chapter Two goes up on Wednesday.
Will it be Juno's latest new name that sends her 
all feelichatra, or the discovery that all feelis have 'special skills' - except her.
Juno will fill you in.
Not that her story is told for the benefit of we humans - or deuxjambs, as she calls us.
This is just her story, translated by a feeli-lingual deuxjamb known as Fin J. Ross.
Another OurSpace
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Uploading the photos of our author's Workspaces is tremendous fun - although I'm struck by how TIDY they all are. Just as well I didn't take a photo of our real office is all I can say. Yesterday I added Karen Tyrrell's wonderful writing space in Brisbane. |
Baby It's Stormy Outside - So the perfect excuse to go looking for reviews
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Victoria had one of those wild woolly weather sort of long weekends, although out here we got off pretty lightly in the damage stakes. But the lovely rain did mean a weekend stuck inside, so what better way to spend some of the time than looking at reviews of the books written by our wonderful Clan Destine Authors! You'll see we've started updating the author pages now with links to reviews - so if you have any that you'd like to point me in the direction of, please leave a comment here on our site, or over on our Facebook page. |
Clan Destine Welcomes Karen Tyrrell
We're very pleased to be able to announce that Rising Writer Karen Tyrrell has joined the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal.
You can see more about Karen and her current (extremely impressive) list of projects at our Rising Writers page.
OurSpaces - Rooms with Views
As a bit of fun (and because you'd be surprised how often people ask!), we're uploading some photos of where we work, and what we look at when we're "thinking".
Please check out OurSpaces and see if you can spot the difference between the serious writer(s) (as they post their spaces and the techy person who wants to prop anywhere within a few metres of a coffee machine!
Redback - extract of the Novel by Lindy Cameron
We're really happy that we've been able to post the prologue and first three chapters of Lindy Cameron's thriller novel Redback. One of my favourite books the year it was released, follow the link to read a terrific opening to a great seat of the pants style book.
Persia Bloom - Scarlet Stiletto Winning Short Story by Clan Destine Writer Amanda Wrangles
We're really happy that we've been able to post a copy of Amanda Wrangles' 2009 Scarlet Stilleto Award Winning Story - Persia Bloom. Follow the link to read a tremendous example of slow burner crime short story writing.
And there's still more on the way.
Brought to Book - Scarlet Stiletto Winning Short Story by Clan Destine Author Liz Filleul
We're really happy that we've been able to post a copy of Liz Filleul's 2004 Scarlet Stilleto Award Winning Story - Brought to Book. Follow the link to read a tremendous example of crime short story writing.
(And the best part... Clan Destine are a very talented bunch of writers, so we've still got winning stories and books to post in the upcoming days).
Clan Destine Welcomes Alex Palmer
We've very pleased to now announce that Alex Palmer has joined the Clan Destine Book & Author Portal.
Alex is a well known and respected Australian author, with a series of 3 books out in her Paul Harrigan and Grace Riordan series. Please check out all of Alex's books at our Author Pages.
