Lindy Cameron is the author of three novels featuring Melbourne Private Investigator Kit O'Malley. The first, Blood Guilt, is now available worldwide thanks to her American publishers Bywater Books. The sequel Bleeding Hearts (HarperCollins) won the Readers' Vote in both the Ned Kelly Awards (2001) and Davitt Awards (2002); and its sequel, Thicker Than Water, won the 2004 Davitt Readers' Vote. Both books will be published by Bywater in the next 12 months. Golden Relic, featuring Detective Sam Diamond and archaeologist Dr Maggie Tremaine, was commissioned by the Museum of Victoria to promote the prestigious International Council of Museums Conference (ICOM '98) and was originally serialized on the Internet. Lindy, who is a national co-convener of Sisters in Crime Australia, and editor of its magazine Stiletto, also contributed essays to both editions of On Murder: True Crime Writing in Australia. A closet warrior princess and unashamed resident of the Xenaverse, Lindy is also a Buffy and Ripley fan, a Trekker, a Scaper and a philogynist—who obviously doesn't mind being labeled.

She lives with her wonderful partner and their ever-expanding menagerie on Victoria's beautiful Mornington Peninsula, (southern coast of mainland Australia) where she's usually working on several things at once. These might include two sequels; a queerish espionage thriller; a lesbian-sf-crime-adventure; a novel of historical-fiction or fictional-history about the Amazons (or some Amazons); and the perfect laksa recipe.

Can you remember if there was any specific event that made you decide that you wanted to be a writer?

I don't recall an event, but reading Enid Blyton's Five Go to Smuggler's Top several times when I was about 8-years-old made me want to round up my own real-life Famous Five, so I could write about our thrilling exploits. Sadly, although I did have some great and adventurous friends, we didn't really have any 'adventures' as such (or a faithful doggy companion), so I realized very early on that I'd probably have to make them up! The adventures, not the friends; although two of us did have imaginary dogs.

My first book, started but never finished at the age of 11, was a mystery called The Manor House Mischief Makers.

In my early teens I progressed to reading Biggles books and then James Bond – so I was destined to write crime or adventure. It was only in hindsight, as a grown-up lesbian, that I realized I had much more in common with the Famous Five's tomboy, George, than I'd ever hoped at the time. For if George was not the archetypal dyke-in-the-making – then, neither was I.

I got sidetracked for a couple of years with a desire to be a famous scientist. No idea in which field I was going to achieve that fame; but I was covering all bases with my requests for microscopes, chemistry sets, and telescopes. My hopes were ultimately dashed by the revelation that I sucked big-time at both maths and science.

I had no choice but to return to the real world, where I could just make things up.

Which authors do you consider to have had the biggest influence on your own work?

British crime writer Val McDermid is my hero. I love the way she writes, the way she thinks and the sheer scope and variety of her books. Given her penchant for writing dark and scary stuff she is also, in real life, a bloody funny human being. When I first started writing Blood Guilt my dream was to become 'the Australian Val McDermid'.

Other writers who've grabbed my attention - in terms of 'influence' or the good-old 'Man, I wish I could write like that' - include my all-time-favorite male writer Tom Robbins (Tom not Harold) because of his wacked-out imagination and his cleverness with words; Sara Paretsky for giving us all V.I. Warshawksi; Jean Redman for proving that an American lesbian crime writer can be as good as Val McD; Sarah Dreher for proving they could also do 'funny and endearing; Robert Heinlein for introducing me to science fiction; Douglas Addams for making sf funny; and Joss Whedon for proving, with Buffy, Angel and Firely, that the best television comes down to great writing.

You're currently finishing the new Kit O'Malley book, Bleeding Hearts. Can you give us a sneak peek at what Kit's going to be up to?

I've actually already finished Bleeding Hearts (and its sequel Thicker Than Water).

In BH Kit is working two investigations: one into the strange threats made to TV presenter Rebecca Jones; and the other into even stranger threats made against several candidates in an upcoming State election. Of course, any investigation that involves politicians, even wannabe ones, also involves things like money laundering, tawdry sex, power games, love unrequited and murder. There's always murder. Oh, and there's also a serial killer on the loose in Melbourne – which of course means more murder.

What sort of research did you do for Bleeding Hearts?

Not a lot actually. When you make things up you, well, you just make them up.

And of course I'm making that up too; although it's almost true.

When I began writing Bleeding Hearts we had, here in Australia, a brand new political party that was highly-questionable in terms of actual or workable policies, common sense or political know-how, but nonetheless somehow attracted far too many voters. Now almost defunct, that party gave me the idea (without stretching my imagination at all) for a fictitious party called True Blue which is basically a racist, homophobic, insular, right-wing and dangerous bunch of bigots.

As a national co-convenor of Sisters in Crime Australia (most of our members are readers not writers) I am lucky to have access to an ever-expanding source of 'experts in their fields'; women who are real-life forensic pathologists, magistrates, cops, lawyers etc. So when I need to verify, qualify or correct something I've made up, I've always got someone I can call.

If you look at Kit from the first book, Blood Guilt, up until now, in what way would you say she's changed?

Given that there's only a few weeks between the happenings of all three books, Kit hasn't really had much time to 'change'. Falling hopelessly in love in Blood Guilt means she starts looking at her world in a different way, although she still can't believe how lucky she is so there's a fair bit of typical Kit-type questioning of her new reality.

Is there any of yourself in Kit? Does she have any attributes you wish you could have had yourself?

There's a bit of me in Kit, partly because she was my first fictional creation and I wanted to make her as real as possible. The fact that she's a lesbian is just part of who she is, not the reason for the book. There's not an ounce of angst from anyone in the books about being gay; being in love or lust, yes; but not about being a lesbian – which is pretty much how I was. I wanted Kit and her friends to be - in a sense - just like me and my friends and acquaintances: wonderfully ordinary, normally mad, slightly eccentric, and, mostly importantly, interesting and likeable - or not - for themselves not what they are. I certainly didn't want them to be strange or exotic because they're gay, or for them to fit any kind of stereotype.

Kit is way braver than I am. Either that, or she's that famous rushing fool. She also far wittier than me. I mean she just comes straight out with the stuff it takes me weeks to put in her mouth!

Will you be writing another standalone book set apart from the O'Malley series some time soon?

Not a standalone but another series or two. Golden Relic, my second published book is features the straightish female sleuthing team of Special Detective Sam Diamond, of the Australian Crime Bureau, and archaeologist Dr Maggie Tremaine. It's a mystery adventure (out of print at the moment) set in Melbourne, Cairo and Peru. The sequel is on the way.

And I'm currently working on an espionage thriller.

What's your writing space like? Do you have specific rituals you adhere to when working?

I have a great office with a view of our outside sitting and barbeque area: complete with fish pond, ferns, giant elephant statue, Buddha's, Egyptian busts and the outdoor play tree-climbing runs for our five cats.

My office itself is long and narrow – with my partner's piano and a regularly-used (not) home gym at one end, and lots of bookshelves – with lots of books. The walls around my desk, where the windows aren't, are covered in…well, basically it's a shrine to the great warrior princess, Xena of Amphipolis, and her sidekick Gabrielle. Can't help it; a girl's gotta have a weakness of some kind.

But no rituals. As long as there's coffee.

Do you ever suffer from writer's block?

No. I am, however, afflicted with writers' procrastination which can result in pretty much the same thing – blank pages.

What's the Australian crime market like right now? Any new names in the field that you'd like to share?

In the lesbian crime market there's me, basically. Oh, and Claire McNab of course - except that she doesn't 'live' here anymore.

In women's crime, of the straighter kind, my favourite new writer is Leigh Redhead who has given us a wonderful new character called Simone Kirsch, who's a stripper turned private investigator. Leigh herself is an ex-stripper, so knows what she's talking about; her two books so far, Peepshow and Rubdown, are very funny; and she is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous.

PD Martin (Body Count) and Kathryn Fox (Malicious Intent) are two other really good new Australian crime writers.

And then there's established writers like the wonderfully-inspiring Kerry Greenwood and her 16-book Phryne Fisher series set in Melbourne in 1928; Sydney writer Gabrielle Lord; and ex-Canadian model turned Melbourne crime writer Tara Moss.

How do you think mainstream publishers relate to queer writers? Is there still a hesitancy to publish stories with GLBT characters?

Now, this is a tricky one. All four of my books (Golden Relic, and the lesbian three in the O'Malley series, were published here by the big mainstream HarperCollins Australia. And they took the lesbian Blood Guilt first; and then the 'straight' Golden Relic.

But, in just a couple of months with independent Bywater Books in the US, my 'first book' Blood Guilt is already available to a far wider audience than it ever was in its original incarnation with a 'mainstream' publisher.

We are such a small market - and by that I mean Australia, not the lesbians in Australia – compared to the US, or even the UK, that our big publishers tend to give most of their attention to international bestsellers. And I'm not talking about Aussie-written bestsellers to the world; but the rest-of-the-world's bestsellers to us. Janet Evanovich, Val McDermid (yes!), Patricia Cornwell, Dan Brown, Stephen King, in fact any bloke, get all the broo-ha-ha here.

One of our most prolific female crime writers reckons that most Australian publishers only publish 'local' crime writers (male or female) to keep them a secret.

Tell us something about Lindy Cameron no-one else knows…

I am an open book.

A group of people are over at your house for dinner, and between the main course and dessert the acerbic millionaire's widow is found dead in the conservatory. What's the first thing you do?

Dispatch my watch-cats to search for the alleged conservatory; video the crime scene, once it's been found; make sure the wife was shot or stabbed, so we can all still eat the trifle and custard; and sack the butler for knocking off the wife instead of the millionaire, because now we'll have to do a new forgery of his will.

What are the fundamental elements of good storytelling?

Good storytelling requires a gift of the gab; translating a good story to the page…hmm?

Good writing tips: show, don't tell; use realistic dialogue; create 'believable' characters and a vibrant sense of place - that way you can have them do anything you like.

What are some of your favorite books from 2005?

Peepshow and Rubdown by Leigh Redhead

Body Count by PD Martin

D.E.D. Dead! By Geoffrey McGeachin

What do you consider to be your best and worst attributes?

I'm loyal and I procrastinate. 

What's the biggest challenge for you personally about being a writer?

Believing that I can finish another book and that once I have, other people will actually want to read it.

What advice would you give to aspiring writers trying to get their break in publishing?

Never give up. And remember: a rejection from a publisher sometimes means they simply don't know what they're turning down. Or that they just don't 'get' your manuscript.

Sometimes it really can be a case of getting the right person on the right day – or, rather, not getting a commissioning editor on a bad hair day; or the day her girlfriend dumped her; or the day her car broke down on the way to work and she had to walk six miles in the rain only to get to the office and discover someone had used the last of the coffee, and the office techie - while trying to work out why her computer had made every other computer in the office crash - had presumed it was okay to adjust her chair for his long legs, and it was now stuck forever in the very-low position, not that it matters because her computer's stuffed now, so what the hell she may as well make a start on all those unsolicited manuscripts.