north east regional extra | 28 November - 4 December, 2018
nemedia.com.au
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28 November - 4 December, 2018
north east noir
By KYLIE WILSON THE depths of the human psyche, and the ways in which even the most innocent of settings can be a backdrop for crime inspire North East author Joanna Baker. And local landscapes have inspired her to the point where she continues to write a crime trilogy using the geography of North East towns as a setting. She said she writes simply because she feels driven to. “I don’t know why I write books,” Joanna said. “I just started one day, when my kids were little, and I never seemed to stop,” she said, adding that she also did a PhD in Creative Writing at RMIT. “That helped me to work out exactly what kinds of books I wanted to write, and gave me confidence to do it. “Up until that point, I think I’d been trying to write all kinds of things – the books I thought other people wanted. “And that never really works. “You have to write the books that you write, if that makes sense. “There’s just no other way.” Joanna has caught the attention of readers ever since publishing her novel Devastation Road – set in Yackandandah - in 2004, when it received the Davitt Award from Sisters in Crime for Best Young Adult Novel of the Year. “I set out to write a classical Agatha Christie style clue-puzzle mystery, with dire deeds set in an innocent-place,” she said. “In casting about for a setting, I soon realised I had the perfect peaceful, pretty village right on my doorstep in Yackandandah. “I have followed Devastation Road with two sequels, involving the same main characters, set in Beechworth (The Elsinore Vanish) and Bright (Evermore).”
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◆ PRODUCING PAGE-TURNERS:Joanna Baker takes inspiration for many of her books from the North East. PHOTO: Nat Ord.
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