Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Greenwood
Kerry Isabelle Greenwoodis an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, and children's stories, as well as plays. She is unmarried but lives with a "registered wizard"...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth17 June 1954
CountryAustralia
easier household loved stories three younger
I used to tell my three younger siblings stories because that was my household chore, and I told long stories in installments because it was easier and more fun than making up a new story every night. I loved it.
certain detective interest lies number readers
Most detective story readers are an educated audience and know there are only a certain number of plots. The interest lies in what the writer does with them.
adding aware bound finding genre layer plots spin stories writers
There are only so many stories in the world... Duplication of plots is bound to happen because most writers have read very extensively in their genre and have become aware they are adding an extra layer to the meta-narrative, finding a new spin on the original.
age john relying
I remember talking to John Mortimer, and he said he was relying on Rumpole to keep him in his old age; well, I'm doing the same with Phryne - she's my mainstay.
books costs detail gets historical major people reasonable since three tv year
I have to write three books a year to make a reasonable living out of writing - unless, of course, she gets a major American film deal. Phryne has been optioned since the very first book, but to make a historical TV movie, it costs $30,000 a day extra for the historical detail to be correct, so most people aren't doing it.
amazingly classmates literate situations
I got out of difficult situations when many of my classmates didn't because I was smart, and I was lucky, and my parents were amazingly literate and helpful.
people
I don't think the process of writing books is in any way sensible. It's not logical, and it's not reasonable. I do write very fast, and I just do it in a binge. Other people binge-drink; I binge-write.
account looked
I didn't want to write a grown-up account of Gallipoli. I wanted to find out what would happen if I looked at Gallipoli through the eyes of an innocent.
advantages decided female serious
I decided that if I want to write about a female hero in the 1920s, I'm going to have to give her all the advantages I can because she has serious disadvantages in being a woman. I wasn't going to have her cowed or overawed by class, so she had to be titled.
admirable grabbed historical novels offered saw
A publisher saw one of my historical novels and thought I would write an admirable detective story, so she offered me a two-book contract, and I grabbed it.
You need a crime, a detective, and the solution.
based detectives flawed
When I first started writing the books in the 1980s, all of the female detectives were flawed in some way because they were based on noir characters.
There's something magical about the idea that you can write something down and someone else can read it. I'm still mildly agog about that.
ditch work
My work is very carefully researched. Sometimes I have to ditch an idea because I can't prove it.