Crime author with a seafaring past
Gail Killen
Gail Killen is an emerging crime writer based in Bundaberg, Queensland. Metal and Bones will be her first crime novel and is currently working on the second book in this series. She has been an active member of Bundaberg Writers Club since 2018 where she currently holds the position of treasurer. Gail is also a member of the Queensland Writers Centre, Sisters in Crime and Australian Crime Writers. She has a passion for crime fiction and enjoys finding ways to kill characters and dispose of corpses, on the page.
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Chronicles of Crime
Dive behind-the-scenes on Gail Killen’s works in progress, short stories, and explorations in the literary world.
review edit delete repeat
The pain of the edit When my short story evolved to a novella then into a full-blown novel, I encountered a problem. I am sure I am not the first person, nor will I be the last to deal with this when starting out as a new writer. The problem seemed to be with the...
Research and dodgy information
This month, I address the issues I experienced researching my yet-to-be-published crime novel, Metal and Bones. This amounted to no research at all. It all came down to relying on my preferred reading material and TV entertainment. Production companies that invest in...
Gail Killen On: Dipping my toe into the digital pond
Dipping my toe into the digital pond The fabulous set-up for this website comes from the artistic efforts of a lady called Jemma Pollari. A Sunshine Coast-based photographer, author and creator versed in the dark arts of website creation. Apart from running her own...
Where ideas come from: emerging author Gail Killen
Gail Killen, emerging author from Queensland, speaks on where ideas come from (and the upturned boat that started her novel Metal and Bones).
Welcome to Chronicles of Crime
Gail Killen is an emerging writer based in Central Queensland where she has lived for the past fifteen years. Born in England, she emigrated to New Zealand with her family in the 1960’s.
About Gail Killen
Travel is in Gail Killen’s blood
England to New Zealand to Australia
Gail Killen is an emerging writer based in Central Queensland where she has lived for the past fifteen years. Born in England, emigrating to New Zealand with her family in the 1960’s. Schooled in Auckland she grew up in a family with its roots in British culture and history, reading was a strong influence in her early life.
Starting work in computers in the early 1970’s, she did a stint contracting in London then returned to New Zealand. She decided to move to Western Australia in the 1980’s. Always an avid reader, Gail continued to absorbed crime fiction, thrillers and spy novels to fill in the nightshifts.
Adventures on the high seas
As an active member of the Fremantle Sailing club and the blue water racing scene, the next step had to be cruising. In 1992, sailing with her husband on their 40-foot yacht from Western Australia, they headed up the west coast and cruised the Indonesian islands to Singapore on what was to be a five-year circumnavigation to land back in Western Australia.
Twenty-five years later they had sailed to on to Sri Lanka, India, Oman, Djibouti. The route up the Red Sea led to stops in Sudan and Egypt. Gail and her husband entered the Mediterranean, stopping in Cyprus, Turkey, Greece and landing in Spain. From there, the adventure of working in the yachting industry took off. Various stints in Bahamas and up the Eastern seaboard to Maine extended the five-year estimate out to eighteen years of ocean passaging.
From writing home to writing stories
With all this time at sea the writing bug hit, with long letters home about their adventures. With no internet access on their yacht at the time, the only entertainment being reading or watching movies, the need to read stayed within the crime fiction genre.
When book swaps netted unwanted hefty tomes of bodice rippers, these were left unread and passed on to the next cruiser. When access to the books ran out, she turned to writing.
How hard could that be?
After accumulating numerous notebooks full of ideas for novels, half-finished short stories, movie plots and character names, she finally bit the bullet to actually start writing seriously.
Crime writing, back at home
In 2010, Gail and her husband settled down to become a landlubbers. She joined the Bundaberg Writers Club, lapping up the atmosphere to produce her first full manuscript. Very protective of her work, she has concentrated on the process to craft a police procedural/cold case crime story called Mud and Bones.
Set in a central Queensland town where the crime takes place in the late 1970’s the repercussions have impact on families in present day. Metal and Bones is the first in a three-book series. While going through the final edits on her current manuscript, she has been plotting out the next two books.
Gail has written a few short stories. These have yet to be submitted for competition. Not comfortable with the short form story writing, this is an avenue yet to be explored.
Apart from crime fiction, traveling has been a big part of her life. She has been collating stories of her adventures at sea. These are mainly for family consumption but if viewed favourably there could be the prospect of an anthology. Maybe this will be a standalone project or incorporated into an existing story line. Who knows, there is plenty of material for her detective to work with.
Watch this space.