Hi everyone,

On 3rd September, 2011 at the Writers' Festival, I watched Lynda La Plante being in-terviewed by the ABC. I hope Lynda will motivate you and give you a few tips.

Lynda La Plante has been made an honorary fellow of the British Film Institute and was given the BAFTA Dennis Potter Writer‟s Award 2000. She was awarded a CBE in the Queen‟s Birthday Honours list in 2008 and inaugurated into the Crime Thriller Writer‟s Hall of Fame in 2009.

HERE IS MY REVIEW

I was drawn to Lynda La Plante‟s writing because she was colourful, funny, straight-from-the-shoulder and she introduced me to her books and taught me many lessons on how to form

character. She is five foot two inches tall, has red hair and had been cast as a prostitute on many occasions in televi-sion productions and was she was fed up. Then she turned to writing. Lynda had never had a writing lesson, but she said that it was her actor‟s memory that got her through.

One of her characters was a stall holder next to her own. The woman, she thought was a Cockney was a big woman who called out „fruit and vegie‟ to sell her wares or whatever was on special. Lynda was so intrigued with her im-age, she asked her if she could use her as the character, „Dolly Rawlins‟ in her production of „Widows‟. The woman told her to „f… off.‟

After a some time Lynda got to know the veggie woman well and eventually she agreed to let Lynda use her as a character. Vegie woman told Lynda that her husband was in jail, but Lynda said that she was surprised when the woman invited her home, she discovered that she lived in luxury, dressed well and was quite cultured and spoke well.

One of the lessons Lynda said that she learnt was to make sure that you send your manuscript to the right place. When she sent a manuscript to the Producer of „Minder‟ at Verity Films, she marked it with her married name „Lynda La Plante‟ for a change. When it was accepted by them she had to go for an interview. They said, „Oh it‟s not you is it? We thought you were a transvestite truck driver.‟ Her manuscript was accepted.

Because Lynda thought she was very green and wanted to make sure she was up to date with police protocols, she visited the Police Department and got to see the Governor who was extremely helpful. She even showed Lynda where the autopsies were carried out. Lynda had had nursing experience and was not phased by it. Lynda was dis-turbed about how often victims of crime were overlooked. She said that even twenty years after a loved one had been murdered, there was still „fury‟. Lynda said that she also saw the Ripper‟s face after he had been bottled by other prisoners.

The commentator from the ABC who introduced Lynda said that she could be likened to Dickens because she creat-ed her characters from real life. I am now reading Lynda‟s latest novel, „Blood Line‟ and I can‟t wait to read the oth-er twenty five books she has written. I would add that they're not all about crime. Some are historical.

SEPTEMBER MEETING Paula introduced us to writing from prompts and where to find them on the web. It cer-tainly motivated me and I look forward to experimenting with writing from prompts from now on. Thank you Paula for making our meeting come alive. The Board Room was enjoyed by us all with the tea room so close and ladies' room not far away. I have booked it for October and November meetings.

LITERARY SEMINAR Much work has to be done to plan this seminar, so I hope we can put our heads down soon and make it a reality.

October: We will have a guest speaker, Sue Braint.

SWWV President, Shirley Whiteway