Skulduggery abounds in the most everyday places, as author Diane Andrews reveals in The Speed of Darke

Diane Andrews looks nothing like her stories. She doesn't sound like them and she certainly doesn't give the impression of being a dark person. But as the clich goes, it's the quiet ones you've got to watch and she's certainly worth watching.

After a lifetime of writing and being published, Diane, 55, has just released her first tome of tales. This is not bedtime reading, she warns, because you have to think about the stories and that's the last thing you need before going to bed.

Some of the stories, as the title The Speed of Darke suggests, are a little dark and for the sensitive among us, that also may be a bad thing before bed. But they are nothing if not thought-provoking.

Dianne finds inspiration all around her - people on the street, stories on the news, or personal incidents she knows of. For her, skulduggery is everywhere. And if not, she creates it in her stories.

Published around the world, Dianne is known among the local arts community for initiating Night Voices poetry gatherings.

The Speed of Darke has been described as "propelling the reader very easily from page to page", with acclaim that "characters are engaging and have depth". She has been actively writing for about 20 years, following in the footsteps of her mother, Edna Pithie.

Edna was well known in Wellington, New Zealand in the 1970s for the children's stories she wrote for her own children and which became well loved by others. Though she died when Diane was just 17, Edna had a huge influence on Diane's life and writings. "I guess I grew up thinking that's what you do," Diane laughs.

Laugh is something Diane does often throughout a conversation - at herself and at situations people find themselves in.

"You have to find the humour in things," she says, and this is clear from the twists and turns in some of her stories. Before moving to Australia with her husband Dennis 20 years ago, Diane had worked as a waitress and was a full-time mum.

But it was when the couple sailed up the Queensland coast and Dennis wrote the log-books that Diane thought she could write it in a more entertaining style.

"I thought it was too boring," she laughs again. Poetry nights have helped refine her craft, as she reads the audience reaction while she reads them her creations.

"If they move further away and I ask them why and they say they didn't like the person I was reading about, then I'm happy with that," Diane says.

Feedback, accolades and prizes from editors around the world also have helped confirm her style, as has the fact many have been chosen to be published in compilation books. Diane's own style has evolved over time through her own sardonic wit. She has taken a couple of online workshops, but prefers to develop in her own way.

"Sometimes if you have a group of people sitting around in a class you end up with exactly the same thing at the end of it," she explains. "It's a clone factory."

Conscious that character development is one area she feels her stories are lacking, Diane makes an effort to focus on that aspect of her stories these days.

While she and Dennis moved to Cairns 15 years ago, they never moved off the boat, and the characters surrounding them on Trinity Inlet provide plenty of inspiration.

Although a long way from family, the internet has opened up their world.

"I got the internet last year I'll be chatting to my grandson in Perth on Facebook and he'll tell me to either write him a story for school or else he'll poke me," she says.

The Speed of Darke self-published compilation was the result of Dennis's urging, saying if those who had already read Diane's stories liked them, surely others would too. Diane says stories or poems can take a couple of years of refining, leaving them, coming back to them, before she is happy with the end result. This too, is a sign of her evolving style. A very descriptive writer, Diane says every sentence should be interesting in its own right.

"My stuff's weird, but I like it," she laughs again. She uses a voice recorder to capture thoughts and ideas and prefers late afternoon for writing.

"That's after I've been to town and I've seen the people walking the street. Then I come home and write their story," she laughs again.

Night Voices, Cairns poetry nights, is again looking for a new venue, after Kings on McLeod closed earlier this year.

It is the second time the group's meeting place has closed, but Diane is confident the right venue will come up at the right time.

She has been organising the poet/muso night since 1998 and it is a unique part of Cairns' culture.

Watch out if you see her watching you down the street, as she may use her vivid imagination to weave you into a story.

The Speed of Darke is available at Angus and Robertson, Earlville or from dianeandrewspublishing.com

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