Scarlet Stiletto Bites Sisters in Crime Australia

Liz Filleul won the Scarlet Stiletto Award in 2004 and in 2011 she came close to doing it again, with her story “Crime Traveller”, taking out both second prize and the Cross-Genre Award.
Liz hoped her Scarlet Stiletto success would be a springboard to a career as a novelist. And it did actually lead to having a detective novel, set in the world of vintage children’s fiction collectors,
published by a niche publisher in the UK.
For over a decade, Liz worked on various novels, periodically taking time out to write short stories. She continued her success in the Scarlet Stiletto Awards, as runner up in 2007 and 2016, ad well as 2011, and the Mystery with History Prize in 2016. Eventually, it dawned on her that maybe her forte was writing short crime stories, Liz put one of her YA novels on submission and decided to focus on short stories for a while.
It was the best writing decision she has ever made! In the past few years , she has had 40 short stories and three serials published in UK magazine, The People’s Friend, and she has also been published in the USA magazine Woman’s World. One of her crime stories in that American magazine, “Dead Men Tell No Tales”, set in 1830’s Van Diemen’s Land and featuring a convict constable, was a finalist ion the 2023 Derringer Awards, run by the Short Mystery Fiction Society in the USA
Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

Author of Death in the Skies, 2020 winner of Scarlet Stiletto Award & Mystery with History Award..
Jessica has always been able to put a string of words together. Throughout school, she won quite a few small writing competitions and she always knew that regardless of what else she did, she wanted writing to be a part of her future in some way, shape or form.
She moved to the UK in search of adventure and travelled the world for several years before Covid clipped her wings. But being back in Australia gave Jessica the chance to have her first flying lesson, which led to “Death in the Skies”, the Scarlet Stiletto winning entry.
Had anybody told Jessica that she would write a crimes story, let alone win a crime-writing competition, she would have laughed in their faces. But being stuck at home in a world of lockdown will do strange things to a person. The Scarlet Stiletto win has given her the confidence to pursue a career in writing.
Since the win, she has expanded this short story into a full length novel and is in the final editing stages.

Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

Cock-a-Hoop was inspired by a true story told to sarah Evans at a rural community event celebrating women where she was a speaker. At the time she was home schooling my children and attempting to live a sustainable lifestyle. Between teaching, growing and harvesting produce, she was also writing short stories for competitions and novels for publication. Winning the prize for the Scarlet Stiletto funniest crime story in 2011 was a welcome and much needed enthusiasm boost. She has since had many short stories and novels published both in Australia and overseas. Last year her crime series was optioned for TV. More info here:https://sarah-evans-author.com/
Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

Fiona Drury is a corporate writer and editor and an international exhibition agent for major museums. She is originally from the UK and has lived in Melbourne for over 34 years.
An avid reader and writer of crime fiction, Fiona is a long-time member of Sisters in Crime.
Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

2011, the year Kim won the Scarlet Stiletto Judges’ Prize was the year her second novel, The Courier’s New Bicycle, was published. Being a creature of many colours, the novel was shortlisted for two crime fiction awards (Ned Kelly, Davitt) as well as making the Tiptree Honor Book list and winning two speculative fiction awards (Aurealis, Ditmar). Until that year, she really didn’t know if she could pull together a crime-themed short story or novel. The Stilettos gave her a shot in the arm, she says. she still has the commemorative bottle of wine, vintage 2010, called ‘The Killer’
Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia

Mary Evans wrote Stage Fright while she was being homeschooled by her mother, crime writer Sarah Evans, who encouraged Mary to write and submit her works into competitions from an early age. Winning Scarlet Stiletto was a great boost to her confidence and encouraged her to continue scribbling. Mary wrote short stories, poetry and, eventually, songs. She’s now a singer-songwriter and performs her whimsical songs and murder ballads under her professional stage name Mary Myfanwy
Credits
Concept designer, co-producer, and narrator: Susanna Lobez
Co-producer: Carmel Shute
ProductionManager: Tim Coy
Graphic Designer: Caz Brown
Copyright Sisters in Crime Australia