The Underdog
We were watching telly when we decided to rob the dentist…
from mz
A book can find you anywhere – even a routine visit to the dentist. I was twenty-two and I remember that visit well; walking out afterwards, sweating in the humid Sydney air. A thought hit me: What if two brothers tried to rob their local dentist? What a strange start to a writing career.
Up to that point, I’d been working at it for more than five years, taking it very seriously, and mostly failing. But when the right idea arrives (ludicrous though it might be), that’s when the work pays off.
Three manuscripts had been written across those five years. Two were rejected by publishers. One I didn’t even send, because I knew it just wasn’t good enough…But this idea – it just had something. A ridiculous yet truthful energy.
It became a short, almost plotless novel, of boy-meets-girl, boy-doesn’t-get-girl, with no real hope of publication…until it was published. I sent it to Omnibus Books, a small but reputable publisher in Adelaide, and it was picked up off the slush pile.
The surprise beginning of everything.
from the publisher
Cameron Wolfe is a dirty boy. He knows it. His brother Rube knows it because he’s one, too. They could change, but what would it take?
From a new voice in Australian literature comes a comedic, heartfelt coming-of-age story.
final note
I look back so happily now.
There’s a kind of raw exuberance, and initial clues to the methods in my madness.
First, I know if I want to write a book from the very first sentence.
Second, and this is really important, I think – it was a moment of letting go. I’d been fighting so hard, and then I just went, ‘Write something for fun.’ And it all came pouring out.