Helen 0:00

The Kill City Podcast acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands we're on. Here in Melbourne, that's the Wurundjeri Woi Warung people of the Kulin Nation. We honour their deep connection to storytelling, a tradition carried across more than 2,000 generations, pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging, and we extend that welcome to all First Nations people listening today.

Leigh 0:48

My name is Lee, and I'm joined by my co-host Helen, and each week we're going to shine a light on Australian crime writing. We're going to feature regular author chats and we're going to talk to some of the fantastic Australian crime writers out there about their books, the processes they go through, and the journey that led them to where they are today. So Crime Riders of Australia, be on the lookout. If you haven't heard from us yet, you will soon. If you're an avid reader of crime fiction, we'll talk about the latest releases as they hit the shelves. And over the course of the year, we'll have some giveaways and competitions. If you're an aspiring crime writer, we'll be highlighting the events and festivals on the calendar, as well as the writing and publishing opportunities. So basically, if it relates to Australian crime fiction, we want to talk about it.

Helen 1:25

We sure do, Leigh. And thank you so much for inviting me to be your partner in crime on this podcast. I'm so excited to be able to be here and talk with you about something that we've spent so much time over the years discussing Australian crime novels. So and um we've got lots to explore and uncover.

Leigh 1:41

I'm excited about some of the things we're going to talk about this year. And obviously in the background, we're talking to a lot of authors at the moment to sort of lock in times to get them on the show. And I know we'll be having some fantastic conversations with them over the course of the year. So very excited.

Helen 1:54

Yeah, and look, I don't know about you, Leigh, but I think there's only one disadvantage to us doing that podcast, and that's the fact that we're really not going to get a lot of sleep as we used to, because we've got a hell of a lot of books to read. But you know what? I think it's a pretty nice problem to have.

Leigh 2:09

You are right, but there is some growing anxiety about the two be read pile that is growing at the side of my bed. Um if it wasn't big enough already, it's certainly it's certainly growing now. It's a great problem to have. Um I feel very privileged that there's so much good Australian content out there for us to read. Um but yeah, and I just can't get enough.

Helen 2:29

Yeah, I agree. And um I think you were telling me in the early days when we were thinking about names for this podcast that there's some pretty cool history behind the name.

Leigh 2:37

Yes, well, Kill City, the the title of our podcast is absolutely paying homage to the um crime book store that started in Greville Street, Melbourne, spent some time on Chapel Street in Peran as well. And I think there was a there was an outlet in or a store in Sydney as well. So our name is definitely paying homage to that. Uh, it was a really important store for me back in the day. It was where I was like finding sort of first-time authors that I'd never heard of, and it was, you know, it was just a dream, this store that basically just was all things crime writing. I was really sad when the store closed and I wasn't able to go there anymore because it had been a really important store for me. So um I I like being able to pay just a bit of a tribute to that. So it was quite the the cult store.

Helen 3:19

Yeah, and I think um the other thing I'm really gonna enjoy about doing this podcast is I thought I read a lot. I'm a really avid reader with quite a wide-ranging sort of genre that I like to choose from. But it's really nice to do a bit of a deep dive on this topic because it does really appeal to um uh the fact that we live here in Australia and there's so much good fiction out there that relates so much to our way of life and the challenges and things that people are dealing with. And I really just knew we're just scratching the surface because so we've got so much more to uncover and explore. And that's pretty cool.

Leigh 3:53

It's funny you say that um because I don't think I quite realized the volume of Australian crime fiction that is around at the moment. During the research, I would look at the bookshelves here at home and I would be constantly finding titles that I'd forgotten about, um, and was quickly blown away by just how much I already had on my bookshelves. And if I'm being completely honest, I mean I I don't profess to knowing it all or certainly having it all. So at every turn I kept finding a new author, or um, so if it's not looking at my own bookshelves here, it's looking online or looking in stores. There is just such a a wonderful amount of Australian crime writing out there at the moment that um we certainly have a lot to do as far as sort of keeping up with the We sure do.

Helen 4:42

That's such a good point. Look, there's so many authors out there, and how do we actually find them and access them? It's just a plethora of options. Um I'm a member of two different book clubs, so shout out to my book club peeps out there. Um that's a great way to get to know different authors, but on top of that, I'm a huge fan of libraries. Um, my local library has author talks, and I've managed to discover a few new authors through that. I love independent bookstores, especially when you go to your bookstore and ask them for recommendation and they're so well informed. Look, and I think we're just really lucky. Uh we don't have to just rely on sort of traditional media. We can access books through different forums, you know, we've got Kindles now and audio, and um yeah, it's just um yeah, so different from when we were kids, isn't it?

Leigh 5:28

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny. My wife is a massive reader, um, but she reads exclusively on Kindle these days, and I read almost essentially hard copy books. Um occasionally I read Kindle, but generally I'm hard copy. So um I'm kind of glad she moved to Kindle because I'm not sure we'd be able to fit all the books into our house because she is a prolific reader. But you know, there is just I mean, I think we just keep coming back to the same thing, whereas there's just so much out there, so it's a really exciting time. And I'm I'm glad we, after months of research and talking about it, I'm glad we actually have bitten the bullet and um and have got the ball rolling. And you talk about the library, I mean obviously we were fortunate enough to be at the Mooney Ponds Library recently where we saw Mark Brandy read um read an extract of Eden, his new book, um, and we got to hear him talk for f for an hour and it was uh just fantastically insightful. So um, you know, we're we're lucky in Australia and we're lucky in Melbourne that we get uh the opportunity to go along and attend these things and we have great festivals and um great bookstores and yeah, we're we're fortunate, it's great. So I'm I'm hoping that our podcast can have a little uh a role in that sort of the organism that is, you know, firstly Australian books, but you know, obviously we are looking at Australian crime fiction specifically, so it's nice to be a part of it and hopefully we can be a part of it for a while.

Helen 6:54

Exactly right. And um you did make me chuckle talking about Amy, because I actually think that my Kindle might have saved my marriage because it's backlit, so I don't keep my husband awake anymore if I'm reading into the early hours of the night. So that makes it easier to read more books.

Leigh 7:09

Yeah, she does read the the backlit light actually. So um she also can read from her phone as well, um, which uh my struggling, ailing eyesight um isn't uh quite equipped for that these days. So but um good on her for still being able to do it.

Helen 7:27

First world problems, hey, how do we?

Leigh 7:29

It is first world problems. Um And obviously we talk a bit, we have got the fields out there with plenty of writers. Um, so and we know that each book comes with so much blood, sweat, and tears, they don't write themselves. Um, so I'm really looking forward to us having some of these wonderful Australian writers on the show and just hearing from them about all things writing. So I'm I've always been fascinated by writers and the the art of writing and the mystery and the toil and the background, and so I'm um I'm looking forward to speaking to as many of these writers as we can. So on top of the fact that we've got some great episodes um that uh we have put together as well.

Helen 8:14

I know, it's very exciting.

Leigh 8:16

We are really looking forward to you coming along on the journey with us. We just want to jump on and quickly introduce ourselves. Um we've got some fantastic episodes coming up. Uh, but for now, we're gonna put the bookmark back in the book and we will see you next week. Ellen, I will see you then.

Helen 8:31

Absolutely. See you then, we can't.