{"id":511,"date":"2018-08-24T10:06:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-24T10:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/?p=511"},"modified":"2018-08-24T16:19:11","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T16:19:11","slug":"the-art-of-crime-writing-murder-most-female-at-the-beaney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/2018\/08\/24\/the-art-of-crime-writing-murder-most-female-at-the-beaney\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of crime-writing: Murder Most Female at the Beaney"},"content":{"rendered":"

There was a series of horrendous murders in the Beaney last night. Not, thankfully, in real life, but in the minds and the words of crime writers Lisa Cutts<\/strong> and Julie Wassmer<\/strong>, in a wide-ranging and fascinating panel discussion entitled Murder Most Female<\/em>. Women in crime fiction \u2013 both as characters and as authors \u2013 is a topic currently en vogue<\/em> in the lead up to the Staunch Book Prize<\/strong><\/a>, launched back in January and for which the inaugural prize in November \u201cwill be awarded to the author of a novel in the thriller genre in which no woman is beaten, stalked, sexually exploited, raped or murdered.\u201d Created in response to what Cutts recognised last night as the progressive darkening in tone of the genre, the prize has caused some controversy in its desire to combat what it sees as \u2018an overload of violence towards women in modern fiction.\u2019<\/p>\n

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Pearls of wisdom: Julie Wassmer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cutts and Wassmer write in contrasting styles; the former in the Police Procedurals genre, the latter in what has been called \u2018Cosy Crime,\u2019 a sub-genre which avoids graphic violent or sexual content; interestingly, last night both writers declared that they had not set out specifically to write in these styles, it was only after publication that they each found they had been labelled as such, in order to position their novels in the huge sea of fiction for the ease both of marketing departments and readers alike. Cutts, who also works as a full-time police detective, observed that \u201cit is men who are more likely to meet a violent end,\u201d and that the progressively darker tone of recent crime fiction will \u00a0appeal to some but not all readers. Wassmer replied by that perhaps this reflects readers exploring more gruesome aspects of society from the security of their own home: “they feel safe reading about horrendous crimes sat in bed with a cup of hot cocoa!”<\/p>\n

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Prize Cutts: Lisa Cutts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As for the labels under which each writer works, Wassmer revealed that she had to look up precisely what ‘Cosy Crime’ meant after seeing it applied to her books on Amazon, but in fact it challenges her to push her writing beyond the bounds such a label imposes. In contrast, Cutts is comfortable working within hers \u2013 for now, at least \u2013 as it is useful for marketing and helping readers, but not necessarily a priority for writers themselves.<\/p>\n

\"\"Both women stressed the importance of research to their writing. Cutts attended an autopsy in order to inform part of one of her novels; she came away, she says, awed by the amount of work and commitment which goes in to them. “They’re not as clean and quick as they are on TV; they take hours<\/em>!” she declared, whilst ruefully admitting to having worn the \u2018wrong sort of shoes\u2019 as she hadn\u2019t anticipated standing for so long. For her Whitstable-based series featuring private detective-cum\u2013restaurant-owner, Pearl Nolan, Wassmer spent last summer exploring locations including Reculver, Sheppey and Oare in order to widen the scope of her character\u2019s travels. \u201cDetails are important,\u201d Wassmer stated: “you don’t want a sackful of mail criticising a point in your book!” Although she balanced this by admitting that, for her, it is important to remember that, after all, it is the writer\u2019s own world, one that they have created, and that on one level they can do what they like. Wassmer has had reviews where readers take issue with the geography of Whitstable as it appears in her books, with particular roads not leading to exactly the right road. Cutts says she often ends up shouting at television programmes; “No, no, no; you didn’t caution<\/em> him!” before adding reflectively “it’s why I don’t really watch much crime drama on TV…”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Both writers also emphasised the hard graft required in writing, the need for self-discipline in order to see a work through to its conclusion. Cutts sits at the laptop each day, even when not enthused about the prospect. “Sometimes it feels like housework, and nobody wants<\/em> to do housework!\u201d Wassmer in turn referred to her experience writing for television\u2019s Eastenders for twenty years, which has stood her in good stead in its relentless expectation that she would deliver to a regular deadline.<\/p>\n

The work of both writers is unified by the idea of familiarity; \u201cWe both write what we know\u201d Wassmer observed incisively, with her work projecting a strong love for the community of Whitstable, where she has lived for twenty years, and Cutts\u2019 series starring Nina Foster informed by her work as a real-life detective, drawing on her experiences investigating murder and the protocols that are a part of the investigative process. Cutts made it clear, though, that her books do not simply draw on genuine cases, transplanting them into her work with the odd change of name and geographical details \u2013 \u201cNot only would it be incredibly disrespectful,\u201d she acknowledged, \u201cit would also drag families through something horrendous that happened in their lives. And that\u2019s what people perhaps don\u2019t realise \u2013 the far-reaching effects on people and families that murder has.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the event drew to a close, what was clear was the passion, enthusiasm and the dedication both writers have for writing crime fiction, underpinned by the sheer hard graft of getting the words down on the page. There was a clear friendship between them \u2013 both live and work in the local area \u2013 which was extended to embrace a fascinated audience, and both were happy to chat afterwards about their work.<\/p>\n

Crime writing aficionados can catch both women in action again at Murderous Medway,<\/em><\/a> part of the Rochester Literary Festival<\/strong>, with panel discussions and writing workshops on the weekends of the 6th and 13th of October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There was a series of horrendous murders in the Beaney last night. Not, thankfully, in real life, but in the minds and the words of crime writers Lisa Cutts and Julie Wassmer, in a wide-ranging and fascinating panel discussion entitled Murder Most Female. Women in crime fiction \u2013 both as characters and as authors \u2013 … Continue reading “The art of crime-writing: Murder Most Female at the Beaney”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1150,1201],"tags":[21880,168673,168678,168676,168679,567],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/620"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=511"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":531,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/511\/revisions\/531"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.kent.ac.uk\/pandora\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}