Emma Viskic says the initial part of writing her crime fiction is based entirely on instinct.Credit:Eddie Jim
Her writing canters along between subtle and funny,lyrical and action-packed,emotionally moving and absolutely terrifying. There’s gore and there’s tenderness. There are psychological aperçus you want to write down and discuss with your therapist. And the plot twists are heart-stopping.
"The first part is instinct,and after that it's craft,"she says."I write my way to the characters and I write my way into the story. It's not until I'm in it that I know what I'm writing about. And then it's rewriting."
Viskic is midway through a trip to the US. It's a junket for crime writers that she’s undertaken on the eve of the publication of the third in her Caleb Zelic series,Darkness For Light. All the titles have a biblical resonance:Resurrection Bay was the first,And Fire Came Down the second.
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Viskic's voice is calm and practical. She was a professional clarinettist for 20 years and specialised in chamber music,which is a conversation between voices with no managerial authority vested in a conductor.
"It's very like creative writing. There is the analytical side and the fine detail,and the communication. For some writers and some musicians it’s all about the perfection of the idea and the clarity. For me,it's about exploring emotions and how people communicate,and the way we are human beings."
Viskic's personal life is as complex as her books. She draws deeply on it without making her books feel like a masked first-person journey. Her father is Dalmatian,her mother Irish Australian from Tasmania. Viskic grew up just outside of Frankston,a very English environment then.