Saturday Be the Press

In the am we began in the session 'Be the Press' in which we were able to ask three authors: Anson Cameron, Anna George and Erika Hayes questions as if we were reporters. I am now of course fully convinced that I want to be an author, and there were some interesting things that came out of this session for me.
The authors agreed that it is much easier for them to work with a new character that they've created. New beings are malleable. They then create back stories for their characters to articulate how they came to be the person that they are. These fully fleshed characters are at this point problematic beings.
I was interested to know how to make a living out of being an author so I put my hand up and asked "do you have other jobs, and if so, is that by choice or necessity?"
Anna and Erika both said that they don't have other jobs, but also that they do not make a living off their writing. Although they do make a small profit, Erika said that "I'd couldn't eat if my husband didn't work". This is interesting. I wonder how Jason would feel about supporting me while I try to make it as a writer.
Anson, who is a novelist and a columnist, is a full-time writer, but says that it doesn't pay much.
I learnt more about how to tackle research. Anna writes crime fiction, and I have always wondered how to approach getting the authorities characters authentic. She said that she has been emailing a medium liaison in the the police force who's job it is to deal with the media. Erika said that this can also be done with other investigating agencies such as the FBI and that they like to be represented accurately.
Finally, all the authors said that they set their stories in Melbourne Australia. This has been a pretty popular theme for most of the different authors that I have seen, however is not popular from the point of the views of British and American publishers. The reason that they do use Melbourne is because the writers know Melbourne, and therefore can facilitate an authentic experience for the reader. I whole-heartedly agree with writing about Australia, whether the genre be romance, urban fantasy, horror, crime fiction, etc. I love Australia, and as Anson said: “Australia is just as important a world as any other, Australian hearts still break with the same poignancy as those of Kings and Queens”.