The Big Thrill Discusses The Wrong Girl With Yvonne Eve Walus

Yvonne Eve Walus recently sat down with The Big Thrill to discuss her latest domestic thriller, THE WRONG GIRL.

Q: When you first created your protagonist for this book, did you see an empty space in crime lit that you wanted to fill? What can you share about the inspiration for that character?

A: The recurring character in my crime fiction is Constable Zero Zimmerman who’s a mixture of very analytic and orderly (almost on the autistic spectrum) but also very good at reading body language and sensing whether someone is telling the truth or not (something an autistic person struggles with). She’s... (read the rest here)

The Wrong Girl - a review

 Reviewed by Viga Boland for Readers’ Favorite

It’s been four years since I discovered the excellent writing of Yvonne Eve Walus when I read her book, Serial Wives. Though not her first novel, it was her first mystery murder featuring New Zealand policewoman, Zero Zimmerman. I loved both the story and the protagonist, so I was delighted to find Zero is back in The Wrong Girl, and what a terrific read Walus has for fans like me. The setting for this novel is a boarding school for the daughters of wealthy parents. Following a staff drowning, the suicide of a male student in the nearby boys’ school, and now what might be either a suicide or the attempted murder of a popular female pupil, Zero, a “human lie-detector”, has her work cut out for her.

Through Zero, Yvonne Eve Walus leads readers down varying and chilling paths of possibilities as she tries to discover the truth behind these deadly occurrences. But don’t feel bad if the sleuth in you doesn’t discover who and why these unfortunate events have happened: Walus is as highly skilled in keeping us guessing as Zero is in tracking down the truth! While I love Walus’ complex plots, the other things she brings to her stories make me want to stand up and applaud. In The Wrong Girl, Walus addresses current polarizing topics like gender issues. She delves deeply and thoughtfully into parenting problems, and she understands teenage crushes, jealousies, and angst. It’s fascinating how well she explores the roller-coaster of emotions teenagers face while Zero and other adults in the novel parallel the same insecurities when it comes to romance and love. How does she weave all that raw humanity into such a well-plotted novel? That’s what you will find out and enjoy when you read The Wrong Girl. Bravo, Yvonne Eve Walus!

The Wrong Girl - author interview

Interviewer: A novel is such a major undertaking; there’s the writing of it, of course, then you’re spending months and months revising, polishing, and then promoting it. How did you know this was the book you wanted to spend the next couple of years on?

Yvonne Walus: As a mother of teenagers, I knew I wanted to write about the issues that Generation Z faces: gender identity hype, very real gender dysphoria, the desire to conform to trends, depression, suicide ideation, heartbreak. I’m hoping to start a conversation about our children’s drive to label themselves: gay, autistic, non-binary, vegan, communist, cat lover, city-dweller. In their search for identity, do they create boxes and borders and societies divided?

Read the rest of the interview here.

Book Trailer - The Wrong Girl

 

Check it out here.

Serial Wives

Serial Wives

Operation Genocide

Operation Genocide, a thriller published by Stairway Press, will hit the shelves in 2013. Here is the cover.

GenreCon Sydney 2012 - Part 2 - Fight Scenes

Picture this: GenreCon Sydney 2012, Saturday 3 November. The session is Writing Effective Fight Scenes. The speaker, Simon Higgins. His favourite weapon: the katana. Let me quote the GenreCon website: "A former police officer and homicide investigator, Simon came fifth in Iaido’s World Titles in Japan in 2008."

That in itself would have been good enough for me. But Simon's also a writer and a highly entertaining speaker. What I got out of the session would take pages and pages to report (I took pages and pages of notes, and actually wish I'd recorded the session, copyright laws be damned). So, here are a few memorable pointers:

• When you're in a fight, time slows down.
• Mention the above fact in your writing, but don't go overboard reporting every excruciating detail in slow motion.
• Like in a sex scene, Tag A Into Slot B gets boring pretty fast, unless you include emotions, senses, stakes. So:
• When writing, less is more.
• Do your research.
• Mr Spock was so wrong about the pressure point. Human Nature Interesting Fact 1: everybody in the audience wanted to know where the correct pressure point was. When I got back to my hotel, the 8-year old and the 44-year old both wanted to know where the correct pressure point was. Human Nature Interesting Fact 2: The 10-year old's female, and all she wanted to know was what Simon's fighting clothes looked like. :-)

Have a look at Simon's books and at the photos from the session (yes, I volunteered for the pressure point demonstration):

Simon Higgins and Yvonne Walus - this is one of the pressure points

Simon Higgins and Yvonne Walus - this is _not_ one of the pressure points ;-)

GenreCon Sydney 2012 - Part 1 - Adult Themes

GenreCon Sydney 2012 - where do I start? Chronologically, or with the highlights?

My writer's soul tells me to go with the highlights, the trouble is, everything was a highlight. From meeting new people and seeing new places, to learning about Windsor "Win" Horne Lockwood The Third's fighting secrets and having my website reviewed by a Smart Bitch (thank you, Sarah).

And so, chronologically it will have to be.

Picture this, Sydney, Australia. The day is Friday, 2 November 2012. Actually, it's night already. We've all had a few glasses of bubbly at the GenreCon cocktail party. The scene has been set for the inaugural panel of the conference: Adult Themes. Participants: Yvonne Walus aka Eve Summers, Martin Livings and Denise Rossetti. Expertly chaired by the gorgeous Rosie Courtney of Fangtastic Fiction, who reminded us to set our phones to vibrate, the panel tackled questions ranging from what's acceptable in modern fiction as a theme and what words are too offensive to put in print.

We touched on the responsibility of the author towards our readers. We drew fine lines between titillation and shock. We side-tracked onto a certain female-flavoured four-letter word that starts with a C.

Best of all, we laughed.

From your left: Denise Rossetti, Rosie Courtney, Yvonne Walus, Martin Livings.  

And afterwards I went home to this view:

View from my room at the Shangri-La hotel in Sydney. Magnificent!

 

Murder @ Play

Here is my book, MURDER @ PLAY, a guest on Chris Redding's blog.

Yvonne Walus is on Crime Watch

Here, on Crime Watch, is what charming Craig kindly wrote about my radio interview and our Murder In The Library evening.

Murder @ Work: Another print run

Murder @ Work

Christine Chamberlain doesn't want much from life: a steady job, a baby and a Fields Medal. Her boss, however, wants money and he is willing to do anything to get his way, even if it means getting Christine involved in a project that not only jeopardises her dreams, but might also put her in danger.

When Christine complains to her colleagues, they joke about killing the boss to solve the problem. They discuss the murder by email. Almost everybody has an obvious motive to get rid of the boss from hell... and a few hidden ones they don't share.

The next day, Christine brings fennel oil to work. In itself, it's not the world's deadliest poison, and Christine would of course never dream to use it as such. Or would she?
 
 
Book Information:
ISBN: 1877161330
Title: Murder @ Work
Publisher: Echelon Press
Year of Publication: 2004
Author: Yvonne Eve Walus
Category: Crime Fiction

Twice and a 1/2 Upon A Time

Yvonne Walus is proud to present "Twice and a 1/2 Upon A Time", published by Pipers Ash (UK). Now on Kindle!

Y is for Murder @ Play....

An excellent post here on Crime Watch New Zealand.

I can write better than Agatha Christie!!!

I started reading Agatha Christie's books when I was 10, and it's been my dream to write like her ever since. Every single book of hers was a bestseller, and she still ties with Will Shakespeare for the title of Author Who Sold The Most Books (and no, J.K. Rowling doesn't come close).

So imagine my surprise when, listening to the audio book version of "Elephants don't forget", I found myself mentally red-pencilling all the echo words and fact-repetitions. While the puzzle itself is sound enough, the writing could have done with a good full edit. Certainly my two murder mystery cozies, Murder @ Play and Murder @ Work, read heaps better than "Elephants don't forget".

OK, so perhaps a fairer test would have been pitching myself against "A Murder Is Announced" or "And then there were none"... but I'll leave that to my readers. :-)

"Witch Hunts on the Internet"

Just a quick note to let you all know "Witch Hunts on the Internet" is now available on fictionwise.

I've been interviewed!

I've been interviewed by Linda Faulkner on:

http://lindamfaulknertips.blogspot.com/2009/12/interview-with-yvonne-eve-walus.html.

Have cover, will travel....

Here's the long-awaited cover for my Echelon Press short e-book, "The Hanukkah Time Capsule". Beautiful, isn't it? And just perfect to convey that holiday-SF feel.

Now, if you're wondering what made a good Catholic girl like me write about Hanukkah, you'll find the answer here.

Click here to buy the book.

Win great holiday ebooks!

Ready for great holiday ebooks? Join Echelon Shorts between December 1-December 12 as they celebrate 12 Days of Great Reads!

During this celebration, Echelon Shorts will be brining you the best new holiday releases and posts each day from the authors. Find mystery and romance, mainstream and fantasy, thrillers and young adult stories. The release schedule includes short stories from Carl Brookins, Austin Camacho, Mary Cunningham, Lois Carroll, Christine Verstraete, Michelle D. Sonnier, Lance Zarimba, Karen Syed, Yvonne Walus (yes, my own "Hanukkah Time Capsule" is one of the books), Jeffrey Martin, Vonnie Winslow Crist, and Regan Black.

Stop by http://echelonshorts.com to find these posts and stories and for your chance to win free ebooks!

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You know you're a parent when...

You know you're a parent when...

• The last ten books you've read are "The Gruffalo", "The Secret Seven", "The Famous Five", "The Gruffalo", "The Gruffalo", "The Secret Seven's Adventure", "The Cat in A Hat", "The Gruffalo", "The Secret Seven Do It Again" and "The Gruffalo".
• You enter a library to give a talk to a group of adults, only to be sidetracked by a room full of toddlers singing "The wheels on the bus go round and round".
• (You hum "The wheels on the bus go round and round" for the rest of the day.)
• Your dinner repertoir consists of sausages, fish fingers and chicken nuggets.
• You refuse to read any books in which bad things happen to children.
• (You don't have time to read any adult books anyway.)
• As an author, you start censoring your writing in case your children get into the computer.
• You think it's more important for your children to be happy than for you to win the Orange Fiction Prize.
• You finish your blog post mid-sentence because your children call you down to -

Yvonne Walus chatting on Savannah Chase