From the time Lea Scott picked up her first crayon, creative writing has been one of her lifelong passions. Her mother’s cupboards are filled with self-illustrated books and stories penned from an early age. Other random life skills she has gained along the way include the ability to bait her own fishhook and shoot with a deadly aim…
My name is Lea Scott and I am a Brisbane-based crime writer. I like to excite readers with page-turning thrills but a strong theme also running through my crime novels is showing victims overcoming trauma to become survivors. I am an appointed writing
mentor for the Queensland Writers Centre, helping aspiring writers along the path to achieving their writing and publishing dreams.
I have been writing as long as I can remember. I recall that I traced all the words in my Little Golden Books and pretended that I was writing them. As a child, I was a big fan of mysteries. I had a whole collection of Nancy Drew, Trixie Beldon and later Agatha Christie novels and I loved trying to solve the crime before making it to the end. It was a natural progression when I began writing that I chose the genre I most loved to read.
I published my first crime novel, The Ned Kelly Game, in 2009. This was followed by Eclipsed and One for All, so I have racked up quite a high body count. For the record – I can’t stand the sight of blood – but I can write about it!
I have recently completed a novel for a PhD project. My project aims to represent trauma in crime fiction in a way that can have therapeutic benefits for readers who have had similar traumatic experiences. The novel is about a young child who goes missing and the impact this has on the mother. On top of the trauma of losing her only child, the mother also has to deal with being treated as a prime suspect by the police and a trial by media.
I am hoping to publish my PhD novel this year – a domestic noir crime thriller called ‘Ebb and Flow.
The premise of my research is that fiction allows suspension of disbelief and encourages your sub-conscious to expand the story, so this may lead readers to imagine solutions to work through their own situations and symptoms. I’m really enjoying the research for this book, because the ultimate aim is to help people who are suffering.
A little thing called ‘flow’ introduced by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (try and say his name after a few drinks!). It is that heightened state of consciousness where you become so absorbed in the process nothing else seems to matter. Blissful hours can just disappear while I am writing. And the after-effects are almost as good as…chocolate 😉 I am sure that fellow writers like Kate will understand the feeling I am talking about.
You can find out more about Lea and her books on her website: www.leascott.com
Kate Kelsen 