News From the Continent by Gitta Edelmann

Days in Red and Black
 A Murderous Meeting
by Gitta Edelmann

Imagine a group of ladies, all dressed in red and black and all of them full of murderous ideas. A lot of them
writing, all of them reading crime fiction. And all of them raiding the little town of Rendsburg in the North of
Germany, not too far from the Danish border.

Yes, I’m speaking of the Murderous Sisters. Of their Ladies Crime Festival 2024.

A group of Murderous Sisters photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

I have been a member of this women’s association for over 20 years now and I’ve seen us grow and thrive.
Founded in 1996 as Sisters in Crime, German Chapter, we have focused our attention to crime fiction written in German. To point out this core theme we set up our own association and changed our name to Mörderische Schwestern in 2006.

Starting as a little group of women with the great idea to promote crime fiction written by women in German, we have meanwhile become the biggest network of mystery and thriller-loving women in Europe with nearly 800 members. And once a year in November we come together somewhere in the German-speaking countries for a members’ meeting, for lectures and workshops, for personal exchange of plans and plots, of publishing strategies and comfort if something doesn’t work out as hoped.

This time our venue was in the far north of Germany. Of course, not everyone could come but our great technical team led by Klaudia Zotzmann-Koch made it possible to stream most of the conference programme online. Yes, we have experts for everything.

(member of the technical team) photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

 I definitely wanted to meet my sisters in person. And I also had a special, secret task that made it absolutely necessary to be live at the festival. So, I set off one cold Thursday morning at five in the morning from Bonn towards Cologne, Hamburg and at last Rendsburg – a ten-hour trip because of the realities of German rail.

I have to admit that I didn’t see much of the little town. We stayed at the Nordkolleg, an educational and conference centre set in a park near the North Sea—Baltic Sea Canal (great to walk along!) with so many buildings and rooms and entrances that we needed a special map to find our way. I still got lost every now and then.

The TransCrime group, a task force responsible for contacts in foreign countries and workshops at home and abroad, had decided to meet on Thursday, a day before the actual event. We wanted to start celebrating our dear colleague Fenna Williams, our ‘travels lady’ and, by the way, like me and our Scottish sister Marsali Taylor also a member of the Mystery People.  Fenna is this year’s worthy winner of the Goldene Auguste!

Since 2009, the Murderous Sisters have awarded the Goldene Auguste every three years to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to crime fiction written by women. And Fenna has undoubtedly done this. Not only by writing great mysteries like those featuring Pippa Bolle, a sleuthing housesitter, that are set in different European countries, but also by supporting fellow female authors in workshops and coachings, by organising writing and reading retreats and research trips for the Murderous Sisters in Germany, Austria, France, Italy and the UK. And she is still full of plans …

Fortunately, the Nordkolleg has a very nice bar in the basement where we could get together and have a drink or three after we had got rid of some men from a trade union meeting. And before you ask – yes, they are still alive.  Photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

 But let’s go back to our main meeting. I especially enjoyed getting together again with friends and colleagues that I hadn’t seen for a long time. Or sometimes just for a short time like Marsali Taylor, our Murderous Sister from Shetland. I had met her in October on a reading retreat in Kent and it was great to talk to her again. But, of course, it was also fun to meet new writers, bloggers or readers and to find out what we have in common besides our interest for clever misdeeds and more or less grizzly murders.

This year’s special guest was the Canadian and British author Jessica J. Lee, who gave us a wonderful insight into New Nature Writing – in German! Thanks, Jessica, I feel inspired and have a little plan of my own now.

 Jessica J. Lee
photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

 Obviously, a members’ meeting was held, then there were workshops about creative writing techniques as well as about topics we might need to know about for our books. To listen to a psychotherapist talking about child endangerment was not at all amusing but still very informatory.

The DNA-analysis talk, however, was great fun. Privatdozentin Dr. Nicole von Wurmb-Schwark, head of Forensic Genetics and Medicine at the Institute of Haematopathology in Hamburg not only informed us about the current state of DNA analysis but also about things that can go awry by DNA transfer using some shrewd examples that made us laugh. I also enjoyed learning that DNA analysis is sometimes used to find out if the puppies of a pedigree bitch are really the offspring of the purebred dog chosen for breeding (which makes them expensive) or of neighbour’s mongrel. One of the highlights of the Festival was the Ladies Crime Night open for public.

 Audience at the Ladies Crime Night with Marsali Taylor
 photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

 

Our LCN is a special and copyrighted reading format: Eight writers read from their novels or short stories, but only for seven minutes. Then the sound of a gunshot stops them in the middle of a word. This is great fun for the audience, not only because they get to know very different kinds of crime stories but also because of the startled faces of the authors!

Though I was not one of the authors reading this year, my work was still on stage. Marsali Taylor read her story Murder at Up Helly A in English, then Fenna Williams read my translation into German.

We had all worked together for the anthology Slàinte Mhath – A Literary Tour Around Scotland that has been published in German and English.

Of course, the evening ended in our bar, but I won’t tell you more about that.

On Sunday morning we held a ceremony in honour of two wonderful writers of crime fiction. First, we celebrated Karin Müller who won this years’ grant for a very amusing writing project in the making that we all want to read as soon as possible.

 And then it was time for the Goldene Auguste. This prize is named after the Austrian writer Auguste Groner who created the first serial detective in German literature in 1892.

I had been chosen to give the laudatory speech and present my colleague and friend Fenna Williams with the beautiful little gilded statue. An emotional moment for her and me and all of us.

Fenna Williams and the Goldene Auguste.
 photo: Christiane Nitsche-Costa

And then there was a last little lunch and it was all over. We said good-bye hugging and looking forward to next year’s Ladies Crime Festival. I changed from my red dress and high heels to jeans and walking shoes to prepare for my long journey home, tired and yet full of sunshine in my heart. It’s great to have so many sisters! 

(Fenna and Gitta with Christiane and Sandra
(members of the board))
photo: Jürgen Lauterbach

 

Gitta Edelmann is an author of mysteries for adults and children. She also writes romance, historical fiction and fantasy and occasionally works as a translator or editor.  She is a member of PEN, the Murderous Sisters and other writers’ associations in Germany and of the Mystery People. (photo by Christa Henke)

www.gitta-edelmann.de