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I love the English language - here are some Australian colloquialisms from the Harry novels!

25/2/2019

I love, that's LOVE, the English language - so much sheer vocabulary, delightful irregularities, variety and nuance; and then there are all the regional versions in the wide spread of English-speaking countries around the world.
Down here, that's "down under" here, we have our own little quirks: Australian words and phrases that a visitor from another English-speaking land hears and says, "WTF does that mean?!!!" Of course, all our cousins around the globe have their own gems, but here are some Aussie colloquialisms as used in the Harry novels, Harry's World and Harry's Quest. These all appear in the "Glossary" section in both books, but I've culled the lists to leave the particularly Aussie stuff. I concede a few may also be colloquial elsewhere. And some of them are definitely local police slang.
Enjoy.

arvo - afternoon
baccy - tobacco
Baygon - brand of insecticide
bewdy - a beautiful thing
biffo - fist-fight, punch-up
binos - binoculars
bogan - red-neck, rough-neck
Brizzie - Brisbane (capital of Queensland, an Australian state)
brumby - wild horse
bush (the) - the Australian countryside
chicken - child victim (paedophile slang)
circle work - doing 360 degree burn-outs in a car
D / demon -slang for ‘detective’
deli - delicatessen (corner store, convenience store)
dero - tramp, itinerant
dinkum - the real thing, genuine
doona - duvet, Continental quilt
doss house - lodging house, somewhere to sleep
dossing - lodging, crashing somewhere to sleep
doughnuts - see ‘circle work’
drum - information
dunny - toilet
eckys - ecstasy tablets (the drug MDMA)
fair suck of the sav - fair go, fair chance
Feds - Australian Federal Police
gat - handgun
GDs - general duties (uniformed police)
good sort - attractive girl or woman
grog - alcohol
hammer - heroin
job (in the) - in the police force
klicks - kilometres
Malachi Crunch - sexual position sandwiching a female between two males
MO - modus operandi(method of operation)
moolah - money, cash
ped - paedophile
pineapples - Australian $50 notes (yellow in colour)
piss - alcohol
Plastic Fantastics - derogatory term for the Australian Federal Police, used by the state police forces
pom - English person
Port Jackson - the first historic name of Sydney
P-plate - the “P” sign provisional drivers must attach to their cars
recce - reconnaissance
rego (plate) - registration number/plate (of a car)
rock spider - paedophile, child molester
‘roger’ (in dialogue) - police jargon for ‘affirmative’, usually used over the police radio
roger (to) - to have sexual intercourse (originally English slang)
root - sexual intercourse
rort - trick, deception
rorter - someone who pulls off a rort
rubbernecking - bystander watching behaviour at a scene
sav - short for ‘sauvignon’, in wine terms
schooner - a beer glass (in NSW 425ml, or 15oz)
shadowing - following, as in surveillance
sheila - girl, woman
shout - a round of drinks at a bar / to buy a shout
skippy - slang term used by immigrants to Australia to refer to Australians (from the TV show about a kangaroo called “Skippy”)
sledging - throwing insults
Special Constable - armed officer with limited police powers assigned to protection duties
stubby - a 375 ml bottle of beer
super - short for ‘superannuation’, an Australian pension system
thunder-box - an outdoor toilet
town bike - promiscuous girl or woman
tradie - tradesman
true blue - genuine

Cheers,
ABP

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Book Review - "Breaking Glass" - a masterful dose of noir.

20/2/2019

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I’m happy to shout from the rooftops that I love Alec Cizak’s work, and this latest masterpiece of hard-boiled noir is incontrovertible proof that he is at the top of his game.
We met the female protagonist, Chelsea Farmer, in the excellent Down on the Street, where you could be forgiven for thinking young Chelsea had had it pretty much as bad as it gets – used, abused, and exploited by every man in her life, and derided by other women.  But, of course, life can always get worse – the best noir thrives on downfall and tragedy. Without giving anything away, by the time we meet Chelsea again in this novel, she’s tumbled down the tunnel from sexual exploitation to chronic drug addiction.  Sadly this is so often the trajectory from what I’ve seen in my professional life.  And Chelsea is hanging out with the bottom rung – anarchically violent robberies paying for all the drugs.  She’s in her version of Hell.
But Chelsea’s got innate verve and courage hiding in the haze of opiates.  She grabs for some higher rungs, or what the righteous types in society (namely the power Establishment) dictate as the ladder.  The façades of modern society are laid bare by Cizak in his true manner: caustic, penetrating, and brutally honest, but with palpable empathy for the genuine human beings out there, as flawed as they (we) all are.  It’s the “American Nightmare” in Cizak’s words.  All the sacred cows of societal hypocrisy and the Establishment’s “respectable values” are rounded up, slaughtered, and then barbecued.  How’s this for a great quote: “Surrounded by mansions, by people who’d landed in the good dimension, the one where they had enough useless shit around them to convince them their lives had meaning.”  And as for the political zeitgeist, Cizak captures the crisis of western liberal democracy perfectly: “Every four years the same two parties ran miserable, rotten candidates, and people wasted their time going to the polls to pretend they had any say in who ran the country.”  He’s talking about the USA, but, hell, sounds to me just like Australia as well.  And, no doubt, most of our comparable countries. A tragedy in itself.
Cizak’s writing is the perfect weaving of story with social commentary, and he deserves a place amongst the great writers of socially incisive fiction. Aside from riotously entertaining storylines and richly drawn characters, Cizak’s work makes you read and think, then re-read and think a whole lot more.  Not to mention the regular punches in the guts.  I cannot recommend Breaking Glass highly enough.  And when you’ve savoured it, go back for his other works.  I’ve done that and read them all, for now.  I’m just quietly willing Mr Cizak on with his next project – but I’m a patient man, especially when something is so worth the wait.
Cheers,
ABP

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COPS WRITING CRIME - 5 more American members for The Squad!

19/2/2019

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Another 5 colleagues join The Squad today, and it's an all-American day.
Many thanks to Jonathan Zeitlin (the first new member today) for reaching out online - always great to touch base with a fellow "cop writing crime". Great to have you on the team, Jonathan.

So, today The Squad grows to 155 cops and ex-cops (and some PIs) who have taken to writing crime fiction. You won't get more realistic crime tales than those from this Squad!

We have joining us today:
1. Jonathan B. Zeitlin - former police officer in Cobb County PD, Georgia, and now a serving FBI Agent, with a couple of crime novels so far.
2. William J. Caunitz (deceased 1996) - served for 30 years with the NYPD and wrote numerous crime novels.
3. Steve Armstrong - served with the Petersburg Bureau of Police, Virginia. He has written a number of crime novels.
4. Mark Bouton - served for 30 years with the FBI. He has written several crime novels.
5. Lee Kohn - served with the Mobile PD in Alabama, and has written several crime novels.

Our Squad now consists of:

75 American
40 British
10 Australian
9 Canadian
4 New Zealanders
3 Finnish
2 Dutch
2 Swedish
1 French
1 Bahamian
1 Norwegian
1 Italian
1 Czech
1 Russian
1 Hungarian
1 Spaniard
1 Pakistani
1 Irish

I'll keep adding more as I come across them, and if you know of any others please feel free to drop me a line.

Check out The Squad:
Also: Cops Writing Crime

And please remember, my list is only for CRIME FICTION - not all the true crime and/or memoir writing by cops and ex-cops that's out there (as good as so much of that is).

Cheers,
ABP

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Book Review - "Sydney Noir"

18/2/2019

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I've read some of the other "(Insert city) Noir" series over the last few years, so was keen to see the very recent offering from my own city (current home, at least), especially being a writer of hard-boiled and noir crime myself.
So, this is an eclectic collection - some well-known names on the crime writing scene here, others I'd never heard of, in the crime genre anyway. Overall, the writing is good quality and the book is an entertaining read. Being a local here in Sydney, many of the stories definitely conjure up the local scene and feel pretty well. I enjoyed all the stories, without exception, although some resonated more with me than others. My stand outs are those by Mark Dapin and Leigh Redhead. There are certainly some beautifully drawn characters in various of the tales, and there are some lovely twists, as one would hope for from a "noir" label.
My only reservation is one of personal taste - I like my noir reading to be gut-punchingly dark and with little regard for sensitivities. I like controversy, discomfort, and brutal rawness. For me, this collection erred towards the tamer side of noir - I didn't come across pages which leapt out and smacked me in the face, unlike the hard-core noir I'm used to reading from Americans (and some Brits). This is very much a personal opinion, but I tend to find Australian fiction these days does seem to be preoccupied with not causing offence or upset. I guess that may be the result of this country's obsession with political correctness. And that's something which, in my view, is incompatible with the harder side of noir.
However, that said, if you're happy with your noir on the tamer side, then you'll probably find this a 5-star read. The storytelling is solid, after all.
Cheers,
ABP

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COPS WRITING CRIME - 5 new members join The Squad!

13/2/2019

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I'm working my way through the swag of new potential members for The Squad, so here's another 5 colleagues joining us today - 4 Americans and 1 Australian.
This now takes us to 150 in number, with our 5 new members.
That's 150 cops and ex-cops (and some PIs) who have taken to writing crime fiction. You won't get more realistic crime tales than those from this Squad!

So, we have joining us today:
1. Art Adkins - served a long career with the LAPD and then the Gainesville PD in the US. Two crime novels I could find, plus non-fiction works.
2. Theresa Handrahan - a serving Federal Law Officer/Customs Officer with Homeland Security in the US. One crime novel I could find reference to.
3. Nelson Andreu - serving as the Chief of Police in the West Miami PD, following a long career with the Miami PD. One crime novel I could find.
4. Roger Bray - British-born and ex-Royal Navy, but emigrated to Australia and served with both the Australian Federal Police and the Queensland Police. Three crime novels so far.
5. John M. Coyle - served a long career with the LAPD and the FBI is the US. One crime novel I could find.

Our Squad now consists of:

70 American
40 British
10 Australian
9 Canadian
4 New Zealanders
3 Finnish
2 Dutch
2 Swedish
1 French
1 Bahamian
1 Norwegian
1 Italian
1 Czech
1 Russian
1 Hungarian
1 Spaniard
1 Pakistani
1 Irish

I'll keep adding more as I come across them, and if you know of any others please feel free to drop me a line.

Check out The Squad:
Also: Cops Writing Crime

And please remember, my list is only for CRIME FICTION - not all the true crime and/or memoir writing by cops and ex-cops that's out there (as good as so much of that is).

Cheers,
ABP

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Video of "Harry's Quest" book launch!

11/2/2019

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Finally, I have loaded up the video of the book launch a couple of weeks back - hours of technical hell with file formats, sizes, etc. There are days I hate technology!!! Okay, strop over.

So, for those who couldn't join us at the delightful Nude Bar at the Australian Youth Hotel, here it is. The video is split into two parts, due to the file length. It's about 1 hour 8 minutes in total.
The acclaimed thriller author, L.A.Larkin, a writing friend of mine, introduces the new novel, and I chat about writing it, as well as meandering off who knows where! The event is held together by my MC, Allan Yates, friend and fellow corruption investigator.
After the chat, there are audience questions and some very lively answers.
Watch here on the website: MEDIA
Or there's Youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7sdJeZfWbE

Enjoy the watch.
Cheers,
ABP

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I love the English language - here are some Australian colloquialisms from the Harry novels!

Book Review - "Breaking Glass" - a masterful dose of noir.

COPS WRITING CRIME - 5 more American members for The Squad!

Book Review - "Sydney Noir"

COPS WRITING CRIME - 5 new members join The Squad!

Video of "Harry's Quest" book launch!

A.B.Patterson

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