Good Young Men

Good Young Men is out now!

This book means so much to me. It began as an idea in 2021 – a scene of a boy leaving his secret boyfriend’s room after a meet up. I then worked on this idea while on an alumni residency at Varuna Writer’s House in Katoomba in late 2022. That story blossomed into Jordy’s first few chapters. After about twenty-thousand words, I shelved the idea. I had gotten to the point where Jordy’s story starts in Good Young Men, and didn’t know where else to go.

Sometime in 2022, after finishing the edits of my second novel, I started another story about a boy who’d just been expelled from a fancy private school. I was inspired by The Catcher in the Rye, which I loved, and wanted to explore a similar story from the perspective of an Aboriginal boy from a small country town, who came from near poverty and this scholarship he’d received to attend the school was not just a big opportunity for him, but a big opportunity for his family as well. I’d gotten to about the third chapter of Kallum’s story before I decided to shelve the idea. Again, I didn’t know where to go after he’d returned to his hometown and reunited with his old friends.

After shelving these ideas, I wrote my third novel. Sometime in the editing period of 2023, I saw a story in the news about an Aboriginal boy who had been killed by a police officer during an arrest. This was sometime after the white police officer was cleared of any responsibility. It was around the same time as the Voice to parliament referendum, and it was a difficult time to be an Aboriginal man in this country. Well, it was that way for me, anyway. In the pain of that time, I began to form the story of Dylan, whom we meet later in the book. I wrote about half of his story as it appears in the book, then began to feel a desire to revisit Kallum’s and Jordy’s stories. I’m sure it’s a pretty common thing for authors – competing ideas, unsure which to give the creative energy to at the moment.

Then, like a real lightbulb moment, I thought: what if they all grew up on the same street?

I wanted to explore what it felt like as a friend, as an old friend, as a community, when such a tragedy occurs. And so I began crafting the story of Good Young Men.

This book feels different to me than my others. I guess as a writer, you always feel like you get better with time, but I really do believe with my whole heart that this book is my best so far. For teen readers, they will read a story that is funny at times, infuriating at others, and filled with tragedy and hope. I hope I got the balance right. Books are so important because they are magic. They have the power to change you, to show you different truths, to speak to something inside you that you didn’t know existed. Books for young adults are arguably more important, as they speak specifically to the leaders of the future at a time in their lives when they are forming their identities and figuring out what impact they will have on the world. I hope my book speaks to them in a way that means something. That said, it’s easy to get caught up in the mindset of ‘books have to say something about the world’, and ‘books have to mean something’. They do – I’m not saying they don’t have to say something. But I do hope readers genuinely enjoy this book and don’t feel like they just wasted hours or days or weeks with these characters. While it is a dark book at times, I do hope my readers have some fun along the way, that they found the writing engaging and, most importantly, that they cared about these characters.

I care about these characters. I spent years with them, and they are a part of me now – like Jackson, Jamie and Jonah – just as I am very much part of all of my characters, too.

Now, the book belongs to the readers, and I’ll go off for a couple months and speak about it until people get tired of hearing from me. And I’ll move onto the next project, armed with the tools and skills I’ve earned from writing this one.

If you read my books, one of them or all of them, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Gary

Here's to 2026

 
 

I’m sitting here on the eve of release of my fourth YA novel, and I’ve been feeling very reflective lately. I’ve been thinking a lot about the journey to this point. I think this is because Good Young Men feels different. I am not feeling the usual pre-release anxiety that I did with my last three books. Instead, I’m feeling determined to do everything I can to make the book sell and reach its readers. I believe in this story with all my heart, and I am confident it’s a story that’ll reach wide and resonate strongly. It will make me sound a little bit egotistical to say this, but I believe this new book is as good as I get as a writer. I feel like it is the book I was always meant to write, the one I’ve been working towards all these years.

It feels different this time.

Once the book hits the shelves, I no longer have any control over it, and I have no say in how well it sells or how readers receive it. I hope it’ll sell well, and I hope readers love it, but all I can do is hope now, and get my face out there as much as possible. I’ve got a number of events over the next few months, which means I will get to speak to readers directly, sign the books they’ve bought and learn a little about them each time. This is the author life I dreamed of as a kid – speaking at book festivals, signing books at tables, hearing directly from readers and sharing these magical moments where you remember why books are so special.

Leading up to the release, I’ve been thinking back to the release of my debut quite a lot: The Boy from the Mish. I didn’t know anything about being an author (except for the writing part). The book did overwhelmingly well, sold multiple rights before release, helped me quit a job I hated, earned a U.S publishing deal, got me invited to a literature festival in Germany, sold film & TV rights (that ended up going nowhere, but still). It sold thousands more copies than any of my subsequent books. And most importantly, it was the right book at the right time – a story about a gay Aboriginal boy falling in love with another gay Aboriginal boy - written by a gay Aboriginal author - at a time when that didn’t really exist in the market.

The book changed so much for me – opened me to a world of people I feel so lucky to know now, allowed me to rub shoulders with a couple of my heroes.

I think about the person I was when that book came out, way back in February 2021. I was depressed, living in the between covid lockdowns. I was unhealthy. I was abusing alcohol. I was lonely, having shut myself off from dating for a long time after a bad experience. I was grieving still, had never had a therapy session yet. I hated so many parts of myself at the same time I was so excited to be standing on stages and talking about this little book of mine.

I’m glad to say that things are different for me now in a most of those ways. The journey from my debut, to book two, to book three, and now, to book four, has been eventful. There have been health challenges, more grief, financial struggles, more jobs I hated (though I’m glad to say I love where I work now!), and the always-present shadow of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.

I’ve also fallen in love and gotten engaged, experienced what real happiness feels like. I’ve managed my way through the health challenges and found the joy in exercise, and if it’s even possible, have fallen in more in love with writing.

There’s only three environments/conditions that I’ve experienced so far where I have felt truly myself:

1.      When I’m in bed with my amazing fiancé on a lazy Sunday, and we’re just talking shit and sharing little moments where nothing else matters.

2.      When I am at a Kylie Minogue concert.

3.      When I’m writing.

Writing is healing for me. Writing takes away the noise. Writing helps me to trudge through the dark things that always linger within me, helps me understand them and let them go. Writing is like a vital organ my spirit needs, and when I am deep in the act of writing, I am whole.

I’ve been reflecting on who I was in 2021, because I’m so much happier now in every way. I am much more confident in my ability and my value as a writer of young adult fiction. I am really living out the dream I had as a kid, and I know all the things I’ve been through that could have stopped me from trying. But they didn’t. I feel for who I was in February 2021. I didn’t know how good things would become.

Lately, I’ve been trying to write while at the same time being consumed by the upcoming release of Good Young Men. The last two manuscripts I wrote have been dark stories. They’ve explored themes that take a toll on my peace, and I was about to write another dark story before I decided to write a fantasy instead. It’s an idea I’ve had for about a year, and I’ve just passed 16000 words in the first draft. After the last two manuscripts, I needed to move onto something fun for my next project, and I’m having a hell of a time so far (in a good way).

I’ve got a busy few months ahead, but I’m so looking forward to it. Here’s to a big, productive 2026!

I WON AN AWARD!

It’s been a while since my last blog – one year and one day, actually!

I was thrilled to travel to Canberra in August to attend the CBCA Awards 2025, where I’M NOT REALLY HERE won the Book of the Year Award for Older Readers. A highlight for me from the event was when students and young people who represented the youth shadow-judging each provided reviews of the shortlisted books. It was a real thrill to try and not be emotional while a young reader spoke about my book at the podium. I want to extend a big congratulations to my fellow shortlistees on your success.

I never really know how to express myself when I receive accolades or praise, let alone when my books win awards. All I can say is I’m extremely grateful to the CBCA judges and I’m very proud that as a young person, I maintained my determination to improve and grow my writing skills and that I always kept my eyes set on a dream to one day be a published author. Awards are really just nice extras that come with the fact I am able to write stories that get shaped into books and sit on bookshelves, that they get picked up and purchased by readers who form opinions about them. My dream was always just to be an author who hopefully was able to make a bit of money from my writing. The ultimate dream of being a full-time author is still quite far away, but I do hope to get there one day.

I’ve had a quieter year in 2025 in regards to events and school visits, but I do feel like I needed to step back from public commitments for a while. It’s also really hard to balance maintaining a full-time day job (which actually requires a lot of mental strength) with trying to exercise more and eat healthier, all the while trying to write books and nurture story ideas, on top of trying to visit schools and deliver workshops and talks and attend literary events.

In the background, I have been working on my fourth young adult novel, which is due to be published in early 2026. I can’t say too much about it just yet, but it is called GOOD YOUNG MEN, and I think it might just be my favourite story I’ve written. In between editing phases for this book, I’ve been drafting a new manuscript, which I hope will be my fifth book! I’m about three-quarters through the first draft, so fingers crossed I can finish a draft before the end of the year.

Finally, there’s a very special book coming out later this year, called Rivers Flow: Reflections on the songs of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, which is Edited by Kim Scott and Casey Mulder. I’ve contributed a short story to this anthology – a short story inspired by the Archie Roach song, Place of Fire.

Keep an eye out!

 

I'M NOT REALLY HERE IS OUT NOW!

 
 

It blows my mind that my third novel, I’M NOT REALLY HERE, is published today. There was a long time in my life that I held onto a dream that one day I might have a book published. And here I am, three books later. My first two books have been shortlisted for numerous awards, even won a couple, and now, my third novel is published.

In a lot of ways, I’m Not Really Here is a message to my teen self. Teen Gary was closeted, angry, confused, and in Jonah, I have written a character who has already accepted his sexuality by the time we meet him. He’s embraced it, even.

Teen Gary was also grieving, trying to make sense of his mother’s sudden passing. This book began with the idea of a boy who didn’t know how to navigate grief, who had yet to confront the death of his mother. That was very much me for a long time. I really wanted to explore that idea in a story, and that’s why I love writing fiction so much: because you can explore things in a way that allows you to enhance and navigate the things you fear or don’t understand through another’s eyes. Maybe some of the time you make sense of it, maybe you don’t. The point, though, is to provide an experience and a character that readers can resonate with and engage with.

I recently re-read the book from start to finish, as I did with my other novels. It’s a kind of final read-through I like to do. I was nervous that I might beat myself up with the way I’d written certain scenes, or maybe I hadn’t explored something as well as I could have. And while I can definitely say there are some things I’d like to do better, I am extremely happy with what I’ve written. There are all these funny, little moments in the book – Jonah’s thoughts, his interactions with his brothers, exchanges between him and other characters – that I think readers will love. There are scenes filled with emotional weight that will make readers empathise with Jonah. They will feel his pain, his joy, his excitement, his worries, his insecurities. There’s something about Jonah that feels so real to me. Maybe because I wrote him, and he lived in my head for so long. Maybe because so much of his story mirrors my own in my teen years. Maybe because I kind of think of him as a son, in a way.

The thing I love most about books are the emotional connections I make with characters. I think Jonah might just be my best one yet.

I wrote this story from the bottom of my heart, and now it belongs to the readers. I hope it means as much to you as it does to me.

I’m Not Really Here is out now!