Footscray crime writer JM Green was a western suburbs librarian for years before she was shortlisted for a Premier’s award for best unpublished manuscript.
Now a full-time writer, Ms Green will host an author’s talk at Altona Meadows on how to get started, and about her debut book, a crime fiction based in Melbourne’s west.
Her talk also launches 10th birthday celebrations at Altona Meadows Library and Learning Centre, which attracted more than 120,000 people last financial year.
Ms Green’s book, Good Money, introduces Stella Hardy, an Ascot Vale social worker with a thirst for social justice, good laksa and alcohol.
She says her talk will include a presentation about her “years of rejection”.
“I struggled for a really long time and didn’t get anywhere,” Ms Green said. “I was trying to write a literary novel, like a lot of crime writers do, and I got nowhere with it so I abandoned it and started a crime novel.
“That ended up being shortlisted for the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for an unpublished manuscript in 2014.
“That was basically a turning point, so I went from being nobody and being rejected, to getting an agent and a book deal.”
Her novel’s protagonist will feature in her next book, due on her publisher’s desk next month.
“She’s in her 40s, very jaded about the world, about men and her job,” Ms Green said.
“She has a neighbour who she gets to know, a very attractive young woman, and it turns out she has this mysterious past as the daughter of a very wealthy mining family from WA.”
When the young woman goes missing, Stella Hardy begins to investigate, and a tale unfolds.
Ms Green’s talk is on February 23 from 6.30pm-7.30pm. Library celebrations wrap up with a birthday party on February 27.
