Scarlet Stiletto Bites

When Judith won the trophy in2014, she had sold a few stories to That’s Life and been published in a few obscurejournals with three readers. Flying to Melbourne and attending the event made her feel recognised as a writer. When she returned to Perth, there was a work thang summing up the year so far and the University Librarian said “and now we have an award-winning writer”, which was terribly exciting, she says. Since then, she has been published in a lot of anthologies and her flash fiction has been read live, recorded, translated and made into tiny films. Her creative urge at the moment is best satisfied recording songs with her duo The Additives.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

In 2013, Candice Graham was studying her Masters in Clinical Neuropsychology when she won the Scarlett Stiletto Award. Just one year prior, she won the Catherine Leppert Best Environmental Theme Award with her first ever Scarlet Stiletto entry. Candice reportedly remembers thinking at that time (surrounded by such talented ladies) that first prize was probably out of her reach. Above all else, Candice believes the Scarlet Stiletto Awards teach us what we’re capable of – both in writing and murderous intent! Candice set out to create something memorable and unique with her winning entry, “The Bunyip’s Last Wish”. She hopes that everyone enjoys this story, which was itself a joy to create. Since then, Candice has spent many rewarding years working as a psychologist, primarily with children and young adults. Candice and her husband share two wonderful young children of their own. Candice reports that their lives have pivoted in unexpected directions over the past year, impacted by storm damage, moving house, and winning some battles to become financially stable. Sadly, Candice has stepped back from her work as a psychologist due to severe pain from endometriosis. She believes the time feels right, however, to start writing the multitude of novels brimming in her mind…

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled and inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Eleven years elapsed between Josephine Pennicott’s first Scarlet Stiletto shoe for “Birthing the Demons” in 2001 and her second shoe for “Shadows” in 2012. This taught her a lot about tenacity and belief in self. Winning the Scarlet Stiletto helped Josephine gain attention from a major publishing company, which led to her securing a literary agent. Since then, she has had five books published both in Australia and internationally. Her mystery novel Poet’s Cottagewas a Spiegel bestseller in Germany.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled and inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Angela Savage is an award-winning writer, former CEO of Writers Victoria, and current CEO of Public Libraries Victoria. Her debut novel, Behind the Night Bazaar, featured Jayne Keeney, the Thai-based P I in her story which won third prize in 1998. The book won the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript, and all three of her Jayne Keeney PI novels were shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards. Angela’s short stories have been published in Australia and the UK and she won the 2011 Scarlet Stiletto Award with “The teardrop tattoos”. Angela holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Monash University, giving her the Bond villain-like name of Doctor Savage. Her latest novel is Mother of Pearl.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled and inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Sometimes an investigation on a hot case unearths a revelation about a cold case. In today’s story, a rookie Constable must sort through her suspicions to find the prime suspect…

Fin J Ross has become a repeat offender, winning several Scarlet Stiletto category prizes in the past ten years. She finally kidnapped the coveted Scarlet Stiletto trophy at the 2022 awards with her entry, “Tuesday Jocks”. She has two published novels, and several short stories published in various anthologies, along with five novels languishing in limbo on her laptop. She has co-written three true crime anthologies with her sister, Sisters in Crime convenor and former president, Lindy Cameron. Aside from last year’s winning entry, she’s barely written a word for 18 months, since discovering an addiction to mosaics, which she now teaches in her Paynesville studio.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Bad dreams often come from bad deeds, but who’s bad deeds….

Janis Spehr lives in northern Victoria. She has published five story collections and a novel with Ginninderra Press. She is currently writing her second novel, The Blue Door. Her writing journey has taken her away from crime fiction but she retains fond memories of the Scarlet Stiletto. She won first prize two years on a trot, 1999 and 2000.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Everyone seems to be buying, selling, even collecting online – but scammers are lurking in cyberspace and even hard copy vintage books are targeted, as you’ll see in today’ s story.

When Liz Filleul won the Scarlet Stiletto Award in 2004, she had recently rediscovered the children’s books she’d loved growing up in England – books like the Famous Five, the Chalet School, the Lone Piners, and Antonia Forest’s Marlows series. This inspired her winning entry, “Brought to Book”.

At the time, Liz hoped her Scarlet Stiletto success would be a springboard to a career as a novelist. And it actually did lead to having a detective novel set in the world of vintage children’s fiction collectors published by a niche publisher in the UK. But the success she’d dreamed of – having a mainstream novel published – didn’t happen, and still hasn’t.

For over a decade, Liz worked on various novels, periodically taking time out to write short stories. She continued to do well in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, with the runners-up prize in 2007, 2011 and 2016, and the Cross-Genre Prize in 2011 and the Mystery with History Prize in 2016. Eventually, it dawned on her that maybe her forte was writing short stories. Liz put one of her YA novels on submission and decided to focus on short stories for a while.

It was the best writing decision she has ever made. In the past three years, she has had 40 short stories and three serials published in UK magazine The People’s Friend, and she has also been published in the USA magazine Woman’s World. One of her crime stories in The People’s Friend, “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, set in 1830s Van Diemen’s Land and featuring a convict constable, was a finalist in the 2023 Derringer Awards, run by the Short Mystery Fiction Society in the USA.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Some crimes are solved by intuition or gut instinct. Others by serendipity. In today’s story an OpShop provided clues...

Cate Kennedy has been writing short stories for going on 30 years, ever since entering the first Scarlet Stiletto Awards in 1994 and winning two trophies in a row (after which she was invited to become a judge). Cate rapidly became one of Australia’s most admired and awarded short-story writers. She’s also written and published a novel, a travel memoir, and three collections of poetry. Cate works as a writing teacher and fiction advisor on the faculty of Pacific University’s Creative Writing program in Oregon, finally completed her PhD in 2021 and is now trying to clear the decks to finish writing another book.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

The outback of Australia can hold many mysteries and secrets. And its vastness can cover a criminal’s tracks and a family’s hidden past...

Hayley Young lives in Canberra with her family and enjoys writing across multiple genres. In 2021, she was at work (sneaking a snack) when she returned a missed call to learn she had won the 28th Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto Award and Scriptworks Award for a Great Film Idea. Winning inspired further dedication to her love of writing, and in 2022 her success was followed by second place as well as Best Thriller in the 29th Scarlet Stiletto Awards. She was also the winner of the inaugural ACWA Louie Award 2022, and Audio Arcadia and MNC Writers’ Centre short story competitions in 2021. She has been published in multiple Australian and international works, including four anthologies by Stringybark Publishing, and two shortlisted entries in the Hammond House International Literary Competition (UK). She is currently working on three novels.

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023

Murders happen in the strangest places and for the strangest reasons… as today’s story illustrates.

When Aoife Clifford won the Scarlet Stiletto in 2007, she was at home with two small children, suffering terrible morning sickness with what was soon to be her third. Now her eldest has left home and her third crime novel is about to come out in hardback in the UK and she is writing her fourth. The Scarlet Stiletto opened publishing doors but just as importantly introduced her to a community of crime writing friends to enjoy the crazy ride with.

Aoife Clifford was born in London of Irish parents and now lives in Melbourne. She is the author of best-selling literary crime novels, Second Sight (Highly Commended at the Davitt Awards), and All These Perfect Strangers, (long listed for both the ABIA General Fiction Book of the Year and the Voss Literary Prize). Aoife is a S.D. Harvey award winner, has been shortlisted for the UK Crime Association’s Debut Dagger among other prizes. Her award-winning short stories have been published in Australia, UK and US. Her latest novel is When We Fall (Ultimo Press)

Credits

Concept designer, co-producer and narrator: Susanna Lobez

Co-producer: Carmel Shute

Announcer: Leigh Redhead

Production Manager: Tim Coy

Graphic Designer: Caz Brown

Music: sampled & inspired by Prokofiev

Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia 2023