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!

A.C.T Literary Awards 2024!

‘We Didn’t Think It Through’ won the Marion Writers ACT literary award for fiction for older readers!

I’m truly humbled whenever someone gives me praise or any kind of positive feedback, so it absolutely blew my mind to receive this award! I never really know how to respond to praise or recognition, but I am extremely grateful to the judges for loving my book and so grateful to all who took the time to read it.

This book took a lot of hard work - easily the most effort I’ve had to put into anything before. The book is also the product of many helping hands along the way, particularly my publisher, Jodie Webster at Allen & Unwin, and my editor, Sophie Splatt. I also found the heart of my story during a week at the Varuna Writers House in Katoomba (I’d highly recommend a visit for any aspiring or established writers out there). The magic of the place gave this story something it didn’t have before: love.

And now, five years since I started writing it, ‘We Didn’t Think It Through’ has won an award.

Writing is such a solitary, private thing for me, as it is for many writers. In your writing, you manifest your feelings, your hopes, your fears, your desires, your anger - parts of yourself that people don’t see when they shake your hand and say hello to you - and you commit them to words in a way that hopefully resonates with other people. To send that writing out into the world to be consumed by strangers, and to be understood in ways you never realised it could be, is something special. It’s like once the story meets the world, it no longer belongs to its creator but to those who see something inside the lines on the page that speaks to them, that speaks to something inside them. That’s why books are so special. I write for myself, first and foremost, but there comes a time when I am done with my creation and I must move on. After it is finished with me also, it belongs to the readers.

I sincerely want to thank all my readers for giving my book a life that extends beyond my time with it, and express my deepest gratitude to Marion Writers for the honour of this award.

I'M NOT REALLY HERE

I’M NOT REALLY HERE is my third young adult novel. I’m thrilled to reveal it’s cover and I am so in love with it. The cover was illustrated by Tori-Jay Mordey, an established First Nation, Indigenous Australian artist and illustrator based in Meanjin/Brisbane, and designed by Hana Kinoshita Thomson (or Hana Underthetree).

The protagonist of this story is Jonah, and he’s probably the most personal character I’ve written. With each story, I inject parts of myself into the main characters, but with Jonah, those parts felt like some of the most intimate, locked away parts that I keep very close to my chest. Jonah is an a gay Aboriginal boy, who is an aspiring writer and struggling with his body image, but also desperate to have real friendships - something he’s never really known before. I can’t wait for you to meet him.

I’M NOT REALLY HERE out September 3rd, and I’ll talk a bit more about it later. For now, here’s a rather great blurb:

A wonderful coming-of-age queer romance from the multi award-winning author of The Boy from the Mish. Jonah is the new kid in a country town. When he joins the local footy team to be closer to his crush, Harley, it feels like a fresh start – but he still has to navigate new friendships, an unresolved past, and the same body image issues he's always had.

Footsteps approach behind me. I turn and see an Aboriginal boy arriving at the doorway. He's tall, taller than me. He's got curly hair. His body is fit. His chest is chiselled and bare and he's wearing only football shorts.
When 17-year-old Jonah arrives in a new town – Patience – with his dad and younger brothers, it feels like a foreign place. A new town means he needs to make new friends - which isn't always easy. Especially when he's wrestling with his body image, and his memories of his mother.
When he joins the local footy team so he can spend more time with his new crush, Harley, he feels like he's moving closer to something good. But even though he knows what he wants, it doesn't mean he's ready.
Emotionally compelling, honest and featuring warm and authentically vulnerable characters, I'm Not Really Here is a beautiful novel from an internationally acclaimed bestselling Indigenous author about navigating family and friendships, and finding a way through grief towards love.