The Australian Crime Writers Association is 20 years old this year and so are the Ned Kelly Awards.

We are planning a year of anniversary celebrations with special events, competitions, retrospectives and a party for the Ned Kelly Awards – honouring the very best in local crime writing.

Entries are also now open for the 2015 Ned Kelly Awards for best Fiction, First Fiction and True Crime. And we’ll have exciting news in the next few weeks about the Sandra Harvey Short Story…

Announced last night - winners to be announced in September at the Brisbane Writers Festival:

2014 BEST CRIME NOVEL

Garry Disher, BITTER WASH ROAD

Kathryn Fox, FATAL IMPACT

Adrian McKinty, IN THE MORNING I’LL BE GONE

PM Newton, BEAMS FALLING

Stephen Orr, ONE BOY MISSING

Angela Savage, THE DYING BEACH

2014 BEST FIRST CRIME NOVEL

Peter Cotton, DEAD CAT BOUNCE

Candice Fox, HADES

Alex Hammond, BLOOD…

On Thursday 13 March I was welcomed by a very lively group of writers at the Chiltern Writers Group, Wendover, UK, where I was pleased to be able to pass on some tips and techniques on writing a novel.

My talk was on the perfect system for planning, researching, plotting and writing a novel. I covered from concept to completion using mind maps, plot lines; developing and keeping track of characters, and factoring in research.…

All... on behalf of the Australian Crime Writers Association, we've got a member looking for William Leonard Marshall (author of the Yellowstreet novels set in Hong Kong) and W. Glenn Duncan (author of the Rafferty novels set in Texas) who may now be living in Australia (or not).

If anybody can help would you mind dropping a line to us via an …

November is ACWA’s membership month.

Australia’s premier organisation for crime, thriller and mystery writers, ACWA, is looking for members AND you don’t have to be an author to join (although our authors are really welcome :) ). Crime readers are being offered free Associate Membership with lots of prizes to be…

The October issue of Writers' Tricks of the Trade E-Zine is now available for download. Filled with interesting articles from contributing authors, a review by Martha Cheves, writer's conference listings, handy tips and techniques and helpful links to blogs and websites plus much mo

re, it is rapidly becoming the E-Zine that writers (and readers, too) love to read and contribute to. Share it with your writer friends and writer's groups. You can find the link to the current issue and…

April is looking to be a busy month. First up is a visit to the London Book Fair to meet my overseas agents, my editor and my publisher, Severn House.  It's always great visiting the London Book Fair and catching up with all my friends and contacts in the publishing world.…

If you want to learn more about self-publishing, this is the presentation to attend.

LINK: http://exm.nr/poynter-LA

I'll be there!

MORGAN ST. JAMES

www.morganstjames-author.com

Los Angeles and Las Vegas Writing Examiner

Mystery conventions have to be some of the wackiest, most creative and high energy get-togethers around, Comic Con not withstanding (if you can stand a hundred Darth Vadersroaming around).

Years ago, when I was starting out in the mystery field, a small conference called Bare Bones took place in the hills above Escondido in a church camp near the town of Julian. We stayed in cabins, ate…

Ever see the riveting and emotionally charged movie The Bone Collector with Angelina Jolie and Denzel Washington? Then you are familiar with Jeffery Deaver. And his success doesn't stop there. Jeffery was chosen by Ian Fleming's Publications to write Carte Blanche. What's so great about that? I'll tell you. Carte Blanche is the next James Bond novel. Aside from that, he has additional novels coming out in 2012 (Kathryn Dance book) and 2013 (Lincoln Rhyme book). With how…

LINK: http://exm.nr/2011conf-lv

Once again the time is drawing near for the Las Vegas Writers Conference. Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this year, but that doesn’t stop me from singing its praises and telling everyone about it.

I still credit the first one I attended in 2005 as a career changer. Check out today's EXAMINER SPOTLIGHT. I talk about the conference and what I've gained personally from previous ones.…

http://exm.nr/online-LV

Do you get frustrated looking for information? There are so many great resources online for…

ARTICLE LINK: http://exm.nr/bloc-LA

Sometimes it pays to do generic searches. I wasn’t aware of Writers Bloc, but when it came up in a search for Los Angeles Writers I liked it enough to Spotlight it. Check out this interesting non-profit organization and some of the upcoming programs.

 MORGAN ST. JAMES

Las Vegas and Los Angeles Writing Examiner - www.examiner.com

VP…

http://exm.nr/location-LA

This is the link to today's Writers Tricks of the trade in the Los Angeles edition of www.examiner.com. Have you ever read a book set in a location you knew well, only to discover that the author didn’t? Wrong details or atmosphere can be very offsetting to the reader. …

I'm very adamant on the Internet and elsewhere that I don't believe in the notorious “writers block.” Most former journalists and newspaper people will agree with me. We couldn't couldn't look up at the editor in despair and whine, “I don't know, sir. The words just aren't coming to me right now.” That doesn't fly when there are column inches to fill and lay-out people impatiently tapping their…