{"id":45219,"date":"2023-12-26T11:00:03","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/?p=45219"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T10:13:12","slug":"meet-the-author-shelley-burr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/suffolkcommunitylibraries.co.uk\/bn\/meet-the-author-shelley-burr\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the Author: Shelley Burr"},"content":{"rendered":"

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26 December 2023<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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Shelley Burr is an Australian author who is an international bestseller and award winner. When not writing, Shelley is working to establish a small permaculture farm and is studying agriculture at the University of New England, with a focus on soil science. She is an alumnus of the ACT Writers’ Hardcopy program (2018) and a Varuna fellow.<\/p>\n

Wake<\/em><\/a> was a Top Five bestseller, won the CWA Debut Dagger Award in 2019, was shortlisted for the Indie Book Awards Debut Novel Award, the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award and the Bath Novel Award. Shelley also won the ABIA’s 2023 Matt Richell Award for New Writer of the Year for Wake<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Shelley’s latest, Murder Town<\/em><\/a> is published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton in December 2023 and is also available from the Suffolk Community Libraries catalogue<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Who were your influences as you were growing up and what part did books play in your early life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I was born in Newcastle, NSW and grew up there with my mother and brother, but also spent a good chunk of time with my father and grandparents on their property outside Glenrowan, Victoria.<\/p>\n

My father is a big science fiction and fantasy reader, and raiding his bookshelves meant that I read a lot of Anne McCaffrey, Raymond E. Feist, Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov growing up. These days I\u2019ve noticed more and more crime fiction appearing on his shelves.<\/p>\n

My maternal grandmother also encouraged a love of reading. She wasn\u2019t a big reader herself but knew it was important to me, so visiting libraries around Newcastle was our special time together.<\/p>\n

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What was your path to publication?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t pursue the arts\/writing as a career from a young age. I\u2019ve always loved to write, but considered it a hobby. I studied commerce at university, then worked in the public service as an accountant and later in environmental policy. Writing was something I did for myself at night or on weekends.<\/p>\n

I started writing Wake<\/em> because it was a story that would not leave me alone until I got it onto the page. It was the first full novel I finished, and polished to the point I thought it could be worth pursuing publication.<\/p>\n

To that end, I submitted it to several unpublished manuscript awards. It won one, the CWA Debut Dagger, and was shortlisted for the Bath Novel Award and an Australian award, the Kill Your Darlings Unpublished Manuscript Award.<\/p>\n

I then met my agent, Sarah McKenzie, at a pitching event run by the Australian Society of Authors. After some more edits she submitted the manuscript to publishers in Australia. Three publishers were interested, which meant I got to choose the right home for it, which is a real privilege. My Australian publisher was so keen they showed the manuscript to their UK counterpart Hodder & Stoughton so they could present a joint offer, which is how I came to be published in the UK.<\/p>\n

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Your debut, Wake<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, won the CWA Debut Dagger. How did you cope with the sudden transition from debut author to ‘international bestseller’?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Dagger really marked the moment writing went from my private hobby to something I was \u2018known\u2019 for. That was an odd transition! At the same time, I still had to get on the bus that day, go to work and write a report on meat exports.<\/p>\n

Living in a small town keeps me grounded. Very few people here are impressed by me. I think I\u2019m better known for the time I left a gate open and let all my neighbour\u2019s cows out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wake<\/em> has several twists. Are you a plotter with everything mapped out or do you let the story develop as you write it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a big plotter. I like to start with a detailed outline, and refer back to it constantly while writing my first draft. I\u2019m working on the outline for book three right now, and can\u2019t imagine working any other way.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Can you tell us a little about Murder Town<\/strong><\/em><\/a> and how it was to write?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Murder Town<\/em> is set in the fictional town of Rainier, which was terrorised by a series of murders in the early 2000s. The town\u2019s name is now inextricably linked to the \u2018Rainier Ripper\u2019, and everyone who lives there still grapples with the trauma of what happened.<\/p>\n

Now in economic decline, the town is approached with a proposal: let a \u2018dark tourism\u2019 company run a walking tour of the murder sites. This will bring desperately needed customers to the town\u2019s struggling businesses but means trading on the memory of their lost friends and family. Before they can come to a decision, the tour operator is murdered in a way eerily reminiscent of the first Rainier Ripper murder. The initial idea for Murder Town was sparked when I read this article about Snowtown, South Australia. The fictional Rainier Ripper murders are not in any way based on the tragic events in Snowtown, but the present-day circumstances in Rainier and the terrible choice they\u2019re facing are directly inspired by the questions posed in the article.<\/p>\n

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How did the character of PI Lane Holland take shape in your mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Wake<\/em>, the character of Mina McCreery came to me first. I needed a character to shake her out of her self-enforced isolation and set the story in motion.<\/p>\n

I read an article about an unusual type of private investigator, who make their living solving crimes where the police have offered a reward for information. These investigators are generally older, often retired police officers. I wanted Lane to be close in age to Mina, so I needed a reason why a younger person would have all the necessary skills and education to solve crimes, but chose to walk this precarious path over a safe career in the police.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what I can tell you about book three:<\/p>\n