Today is Day Boy’s US trade paperback publication day. That book has done far better than I ever expected. The Text Australian edition was shortlisted and longlisted for more awards than any of my novels, and it won two Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy and Best Horror novel.
I’ve lived in that world for a very long time, elements of it are as old as my writing career, and it has been interesting to see how it has changed as I have changed. The world of Day Boy and The Stone Road is one of harsh and sudden transformations over which a thin curtain of scrub-dry pastoral fantasy has been stretched.
It is the fantasy of Australia and the fantasy of a rural life that never really was, and an ideal that was neither inclusive nor particularly true.
At least that’s how I see them, of course you can never trust a writer to see their work clearly, we’re too down in the muck of it where any reading is also buried in the way we produced the work: a word at a time.
Regardless, I am proud of Day Boy and the journey it has made from paperback to hardcover to paperback. It’s as close to a cult novel I’ve ever written (as in it’s known and loved by a very few ). Some of the sentences sing and startle me with that lovely jolt that has me wondering how I ever wrote them.
And the book’s lived a life longer than any of my other works, and that’s more than I ever expected. People still find it and love it or hate it, and I am extremely grateful. And now, more people will encounter it. Thanks to Erewhon Books.
The Audio Book is out and about too. It's read by the talented Adam Fitzgerald. May it find even more readers.
I don’t normally ask this, but if you’ve loved the book and haven’t reviewed it on any of the usual sites I’d be delighted if you did.
And I’m also delighted to announce that Brent Wilson and I have signed a two-book deal with Penguin Random House, Australia. Brent and I have been working on these books all year and we have created an amazing world that I can’t wait to share with you.
Brent is an incredible talent, and it has been a delight working with him. I think we’ve both pushed ourselves in new directions that also celebrate the things we love.
I know I’m being vague, but as details are released, I’ll share more on the webpage. Needless to say, this is a dream project with a wonderful collaborator. There's a teensy tease above drawn by Brent, of course.