Crime and Hormones

(Sorry, I couldn't think of a better title for this post!!)

Hey there, guess you're all wondering where I've been hiding out and the truth it I've been hitting a lot of homey-type blogs. I've been spending a lot of time reading about other people's families, their homes etc. I really enjoy it - must be some crazy nesting thing. I even thought for a while of starting another blog that did a similar sort of thing but then realised that I hardly bother to write on this one and another one would just be too extravagant. So here I am, back here. And yes for a while (at least until this baby is born in May) there may be some slightly unusual, non-writing related blogs on here. Please forgive an expectant mother with raging hormones!

So, let me give you a quick update on my writing before I go all domestic on you. I've taken a big liking to crime fiction and have been writing a lot of that. I've also been delving into research on psychopaths which has been immensely interesting (I was a bit worried about all that grizzly stuff crossing the placenta but my good friend who is a psychologist assures me that as long as I'm not reacting to it physically should all be good!) One of the most interesting books I've found was on Google books and is called Without Conscience: The disturbing world of the psychopaths amongst us, by Robert D. Hare. You can read some of its preview here . Robert D. Hare is a renowned psychologist who has done a lot of research into the definition, classification and personality characteristics of psychopaths. You can read more about him at his own website http://www.hare.org/ Normally I'm not a big fan of wikipedia but I found their site on Hare's psychopathy checklist particularly useful.

Useful for what you may be asking? Well, if you want to develop a villain in your crime fiction you may want it to be someone who askes "without conscience." There are a number of different villains that you could use in a crime novel, and, naturally, there are thousands upon thousands of websites that tell you how to create them. Here are a couple that I found useful (and of course this list is by no means exhaustive):
Suspense & Mystery - Shane P. Carr
Characteristics of the Genre: Villains - from detnovel.com
How to Create a Credible Villain in Fiction

I've also been busy re-vamping Orpheus into a crime-style novel. I'm really excited about it, because I get to keep so much of what I'd written (don't forget that was like 130,000 words!!) without making it a time travel story. Very excited. And of course I'm still working on my other one which is set here in Canberra and is very much crime fiction, with the main crime revolving around art theft and bikie gangs.

Anyway, N has woken quite crankily from his nap so I better be off!

But please stay tuned, especially if you're interested in hearing about my crazy nesting impulses (trust me crazy is the word!!)


Kirsty x