It’s been a slow start to the year which is why this newsletter is coming way later than usual. I feel like the first half of every January always involves some effort to pull your head back into work mode after long stretches of either lethargic nothingness or wild socialisation and not a lot in between.
This year’s Christmas/New Year’s break wasn’t as much of a break as last year’s, although I still had plenty of time to recharge. But I’m woefully behind on the still unfinished (but almost there) Backstory, which has proved one of the more complex and challenging things I’ve ever written.
I don’t regret this in the slightest. Backstory, out on Audible in October, was always supposed to be a departure from the type of thrillers I’ve been writing the last few years, an epistolary Rashomon set in the literary world. What’s slowed me down significantly is having to keep track of four different heavily biased versions of the same events, across which the presentation, motivations and behaviours of every character can vastly diverge. And I have to work out how clues in each interpretation can point us towards the truth.
I pivot between being excited by this book and so terrified that I’m woefully out of my depth. But look, in the end I think you’re not doing your job if you’re not scaring yourself at least a bit with each new book. In this case I happen to be scaring myself a lot, but time will tell what that’s indicative of.
Elsewhere there’s nothing major to report. I’m juggling a couple of other projects on the side and gearing up for this year’s releases and the beginning of filming on The Hunted’s screen adaptation.
But there have been some cool things to share over the break, plus I’m bringing back my recommendations section with a couple of movies that blew me away in the last week, so read on for everything I’ve been up to since December.
Andromache in the Dark has a cover – and is available for pre-order
This is something I’ve been very keen to show off for a while now. Jessica Liu’s cover for Andromache Between Worlds is probably my favourite of any of my books, but now she’s gone and given it a run for its money with Andromache in the Dark.
These two are going to look so good side by side and I can’t wait to see the final copies. It’s not long now – Andromache’s second adventure hits shelves on July 2. Check out the blurb below along with a pre-order link.
“Andromache Peters thought that saving her dad from a parallel universe would be the end of her adventures. But then Vincent Black, the villain who sent him there, escapes from prison, and suddenly everything Andromache fought so hard for is at risk.
So when a secret organisation asks Andromache for her help catching Black, she's all too ready to say yes, especially with her best friends Rylee and Tobias along for the ride. They'd already defeated him once, after all; how hard can it be to do it again?
As Andromache's quest takes her to strange and dangerous new worlds filled with robot police, giant centipedes and suspicious soldiers, she'll soon learn that sometimes the deadliest threats come from the last place you'd expect.”
Shlock and Awe podcast – talking all things Hannibal Lecter
A little while back I joined the legendary Lindsay Wilkins on her Shlock and Awe podcast to discuss two great Hannibal Lecter films that are not The Silence of the Lambs – Manhunter and Hannibal.
Naturally I have a lot to say about the topic of Doctor Lecter – in fact, a whole book’s worth – so getting to spend a couple of hours diving deep into these two underrated gems was a blast. Have a listen here or wherever you get your podcasts for some deep dive nerdiness.
John Marsden
In December the Australian literary world mourned the loss of John Marsden. John was a hugely influential figure on so many levels. He wrote the greatest Australian YA series of all time, The Tomorrow Series, among many other beloved books. He ran writing camps that proved seminal for so many aspiring authors, including a twelve-year-old me. He opened two alternative schools.
His impact was seismic. I wrote at length about my own relationship with him in this blog, and was very moved to be quoted in The Australian’s below tribute to him.
I owe him a lot. So do many, many other Australian writers.
The Bounty
Later this year the third instalment of the Dark Deeds Down Under anthology will be released. Anyone in the crime writing scene knows what a treat these collections are, bringing together short stories from a murderer’s row of Aussie and Kiwi thriller writers, often involving beloved and familiar characters.
This time around Maggie and myself are joining the party with a brand new story that brings our girl to Sydney for a bounty job, only to learn that she is the bounty. It’s a lot of fun. Keep an eye out for the anthology’s release.
Character Key
This isn’t really news in any meaningful way but I figured I’d include it all the same. A little while ago my agent asked for a grid that could indicate which recurring characters of mine turn up in which books. I figured I’d share it as readers looking to get across more of my work could get a sense of where to find their favourites, and what might come in future.
Recommendations
I’ve been really slack on the recommendations front in recent newsletters. The truth of this is simple and a bit depressing – I just haven’t had a lot to recommend. Last year was so busy and flat out that I barely got to the movies and I only finished reading a handful of books.
I’m making a real effort to amend that this year. There’s no quicker way to stagnate as a writer than not reading or watching stories. Luckily, I’ve seen two films in the past week that I loved and can heartily recommend.
The first is less recent and probably has been seen by a lot of people reading this. That’s 2022’s Bullet Train, a Brad Pitt action thriller about a down-on-his-luck assassin who takes a seemingly easy job stealing a briefcase from a bullet train only to find he’s stuck aboard with several other killers chasing the same thing.
It sounds like it could easily be Dad-bait Liam Neeson or Denzel Washington fare, but it’s kinetic, funny, colourful and completely ridiculous in the best way. This is a film that does not take itself seriously and yet still manages to pack in some stealth heart and tons of lore. It is, in short, the kind of thing I try to write, and it’s done very well.
I laughed and gasped and had a great time. I was exhilarated by how much I enjoyed this movie and couldn’t believe I hadn’t yet seen it. But what I could believe even less was the seemingly tepid response it got from critics on release. A lot dismissed it as stupid wannabe Tarantino/Guy Ritchie schlock.
To which, two questions. First, do you hate fun? And secondly, have you ever seen a Tarantino or Guy Ritchie movie? Just because there’s quippy dialogue and structural playfulness doesn’t mean it’s the same thing. Bullet Train is so obviously doing its own far more heightened and lurid and candy coloured thing. That’s not to say it doesn’t take influences, but to call it a knock off is pretty reductive.
Anyway. It’s great. If you haven’t seen it, do.
The second recommendation is not one I expected to be making, and that’s the new Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. The one where he’s a monkey.
Look I was bemused by the concept, to the point of mild curiosity, but I doubt I would have seen it if my friend Rose Flanagan, who so brilliantly led my lockdown web-series The Pact, hadn’t been in it. Even so, I went in thinking ‘how the hell could this work?’
It works. It really works. Right from the start the reason for the monkey is established, but it does something very clever apart from being an attention grabbing gimmick. The moment you accept that Robbie Williams is a monkey because that’s how he sees himself, you accept every other reality bending moment of insanity throughout the film. And because of that you do not roll your eyes at the otherwise very basic musician biopic formula so brilliantly skewered in Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and so stubbornly clung to by Hollywood to this day.
As a story Better Man is entirely conventional, but the presentation isn’t and that allows it a soaring sense of imagination and playfulness. It’s funny and charming and at times disarmingly honest. It has no right to be so good but it is.
A lot has been made in the press about how hard this film is flopping. There’s plenty of ‘who thought this would be a good idea?’ eyebrow raising. And look, on paper that argument can be made. This film is an insane proposition. It doesn’t help that it’s not remotely family friendly but in many ways unfolds as a traditional musical. There is a legitimate question as to who this film is for, and if it was so niche why anyone would spend $110 million on it.
I can’t deny that as a business proposition Better Man makes no sense. But as a movie, against all odds, it does. And whatever you think of its choices, there’s something thrilling about such a currently risk-averse industry taking such a mad swing.
The more risks we take in what we go and see, the more risks Hollywood takes in what they produce. I’m glad I saw this one.
If you ever have the chance I would highly recommend you also read the book version of Bullet Train.
As someone whose own written work is going to be adapted for the screen i'd then be interested in your thoughts on the book vs movie debate.
I totally get that they are separate entities but I read the book first and thought it way better in every aspect.