Tag Archives: author

Cops, Crooks, Courts & Spooks

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Book launch with Ray Clift.

Wednesday 29 July, 6.30-7.30pm.

Books based on real crimes have become very popular with our borrowers.

In Cops, Crooks, Courts & Spooks, prolific local author Ray Clift adds to his collection of stories, based on his experiences in law enforcement.  His stories are full of down-to-earth humour and give us a unique portrayal of Adelaide’s social history.  Ray also delves into the realm of the supernatural, discussing his encounters with ghosts (which are often very funny) and his dealings with a ‘spirit guide’.

Ray is a retired police officer with the South Australian Police Force who has received numerous citations during his career. He has also served in the Army Reserves, working mainly in Army Intelligence.  Following his retirement from the police force, Ray worked as a court sheriff’s office in Adelaide’s northern suburbs of Adelaide.

If you are a fan of true crime stories, you might enjoy reading Ray Clift’s work.

A wine and cheese supper will be served.

This event will  be held in the Relaxed Reading Area, City of Tea Tree Gully Library.

Bookings are essential.  Book online or telephone 8397 7333.

Passion Play with Valerie Volk

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pp_frontSouth Aussie author Valerie Volk will be talking life, writing and her latest book Passion Play at a special author event at the Library on Wednesday June 4.

Originally know for publishing quality poetry, Valerie in recent years has become an acclaimed fiction author, culminating in her most recent work, Passion Play.

Passion Play is a tale which centres on a group of a very different people, who are drawn together for diverse reasons while travelling to a small German village that has staged a Passion Play every tenth year since the 17th century. Along the way they reveal to us with painful honesty their own lives and motives.

Copies of Valerie’s book will be available for purchase and signing. A wine and cheese supper will be served.  Check our news and events page for event and booking details.

 

Whispering Shadows book launch with Rose Helen Mitchell

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whispering shadowsTomorrow night, SA author and People’s Choice Winner 2011, Rose Helen Mitchell will be talking about writing and her latest book, Whispering Shadows.

Her first acclaimed novella, Siege of Contraries won her the South Australia Writers Festival People’s Choice award in 2011 and has been reprinted three times.

Her current book, Whispering Shadows is a collection of short stories spanning much of Mitchell’s writing career. Copies will be on sale at the event from 6.30pm on Wednesday May 14. Wine and Cheese supper provided. Check our news and events page for all event and booking details.

Spotlight on: Anne McCaffrey

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It hasn’t been a good year for speculative fiction, with the passing of Diana Wynn Jones, Sara Douglass and now Sci Fi Grand Master Anne McCaffrey.

 

Anne McCaffrey started writing in the early 1950s (she was born 1926), with two short stories, the first appeared in Science Fiction Plus magazine, the second in The Year’s Greatest Science Fiction. She felt that women were unfairly and often exploited in Science Fiction and wanted to address this issue and did so when her first novel, Restoree, was published in 1967 featuring a young female protagonist who is abducted by aliens.

McCaffrey combined both the Sci-Fi and fantasy genres with her Dragonriders 0f Pern series, set on an alien planet where ‘the Few’ ride dragons to repel invaders. Arguable her most successful series it spawned over 25 sequels! She has penned at least 85 books in her time. Anne was the first woman to win the Hugo and Nebula awards. Ironic as one of her early roles was to hand carve the Nebula Award trophy!

 

Spotlight on: Tess Gerritsen

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Tess Gerritsen was in Australia just a few weeks back, promoting her latest novel, The Silent Girl. Tess in a Chinese American who is actually named Terry, but decided to ‘feminise’ her name when she started out writing romance novels. She always wanted to be a writer, but her family indicated that an established career would be financially safer to begin with. Thus her career began as a medical doctor in 1979, however her love of writing was still there, publishing her first Harlequin romance novel in 1986. Several more ‘romance thrillers’ followed and in 1996 she published her first medical thriller Harvest. From there her already successful writing career exploded resulting in several awards and fourteen more novels!

Spotlight on: Ian Rankin

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Ian_RankinNotable creator of the Inspector Rebus series of novels, sometimes controversial Ian Rankin’s first novels were not crime related but mainly Scottish traditional novels.  He has written 25 novels in total, most set in his home land, and primarily in Edinburgh.

His most recent Rebus novel, Exit Music, has been awarded the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Author of the Year in 2008, and was shortlisted for Theakston’s Old Peculiar Crime Novel of the Year Award 2009.

Like several of his contemporaries, Ian Rankin has recently delved into the comic book scene, writing a six-part storyline for DC Comics’ John Constantine: Hellblazer, to be published in September.

Ian is also a literary critic, which has led to some controversy when he is critical of the works and lives of his fellow writers.