Author-to-Author

[Geoff McGeachin]

The rain finally took a rest today, which was great timing as I had a mid-morning appointment at Circular Quay, meeting Lindy Cameron to pick up a signed copy of REDBACK. We recently arranged an author-to-author book swap and Australia Post only got it 50% right. Lindy was up from Melbourne just in time for one of the wettest February weeks on record but she was privy to my secret listing of all the best Laksa spots in Sydney and Laksa is never weather dependant. Being Laksaholics was only one of the many things we have in common. It was great to put a face to the name, introduce our respective partners and have a really interesting chat over coffee at a table halfway between the Sydney Opera House and the harbour bridge. The ferries came and went, the didgeridoo player did his thing and thankfully there were no bagpiping buskers operating in opposition. Lindy and I found we now share a common disquiet about showing up at any US port of entry following some of our more recent esoteric Google searches. We decided if we only get one phone call we’d make it to each other. ‘Hi Geoff, it’s Lindy I’m in Gitmo…” Lindy had a great photo to show me. They took a cruise on the harbour a few days back and the sun suddenly broke through the overcast to reveal an 80,000-ton car carrier sailing past Fort Denison island in the middle of the harbour. Replace the car carrier with a hijacked LNG tanker and that is pretty much the opening scene of SENSITIVE NEW AGE SPY that I’d mailed down to Lindy. She said she fell about laughing. Book covers, agents, publishers, deadlines were covered quick sticks and then ways to better promote Australian crime fiction and thriller writing both here and overseas. Damien at crimedownunder started that thread with a question on his current Author Snapshot project so he might deserve all the glory. The game’s afoot and now we need to see if it was just the caffeine talking. It’s a lot of fun to meet someone for the first time and feel like you’ve known them for years. And our partners also found they have a lot in common – they both have to put up with bloody writers.