The Weekender, Albany WA
Author listed for Miles Franklin
The list includes previous Miles Franklin winners Thomas Keneally, Peter Carey, Alex Miller and David Foster.
The former journalist and sometimes-comedian and motivational speaker said he was still coming to terms with yesterday’s announcement.
“First of all, when they said I was on the long list for the Miles Franklin I thought they said there was about 50 other authors. When they said ‘no, it’s about 15’ I started to have difficulty breathing,” he said.
“That’s when I started yelling and screaming and crying a bit.
“Then I thought they would eventually realise they’d made a mistake. This sort of thing is really beyond me.”
Boy on a Wire was immediately sold out after its release last April.
It was re-printed by Fremantle Arts Centre press prior to Christmas.
Described as a “dislocated memoir”, the highly amusing debut novel draws on the author’s personal experiences as a captive schoolboy during the 1960s.
The story follows the early teenage years of Jack Muir who is sent to boarding school.
It charts a life spent in the shadow of an older brother and the sometimes difficult relationship between boys and their fathers.
Young Jack gets by with a quick wit and a fast mouth, but others aren’t so lucky.
Jack’s years of survival and his coming of age in a boarding school strike a nerve with those who were there.
The 2010 shortlist will be announced in April prior to the winner of the $42,000 award being announced on June 22.
Set up as a charitable trust in 1954 by a bequest of Stella Miles Franklin, the annual award is made to Australian authors for the advancement of Australian literature, to improve the educational style of authors and to improve their literary efforts.
The award is presented to the novel of the highest literary merit which presents Australian life in any of its phases.
2010 and all is well
No it isn’t. It’s stuffed. Everything, most things, a lot of things, have gone the way of the pear.
However, that book I wrote, you may have heard about it, Boy on a Wire, sold out before Christmas and the publisher had to re-print it. Nice.
This year this writer will again visit the Big Two - Sydney and Melbourne - on book matters and a number of much smaller towns like Perth and, he hopes, Adelaide.
The big question everyone asks is: What are you writing next?
I always answer: A letter to an old friend.
Then i smile like a sheep and walk sideways.
In the meantime, I have neglected blogs to bring up to reasonable speeds.
Doust leaves Albany and heads east
Jon Doust is heading east to shove and push and generally talk up his new book, Boy on a Wire. It’s a heavy book, yet light, and easy to read.
It’s time to push. Sales are good, but could be better. Lots of folk on the eastern seaboard have not heard about it yet.
Oh yes, the reviews have been great, but how many people read them? Lots, that’s why sales increase with good reviews.
But reviews have to be accompanied by appearances, handshaking, door knocking, and annoying behaviour in order to attract attention.
That’s where Doust steps in.
Here’s his itinerary.
TUESDAY 11 August
Life Matters ABC Radio National
With Richard Aedy
9.30am
TUESDAY 11
Shore Bookclub
7.30pm
WEDNESDAY 12th
Wenona Girls School
WEDNESDAY 12 August
Bowen Library Talk
669 Anzac Parade, Maroubra
7pm to 8pm
THURSDAY 13 August
East meets West
Canberra Writers Centre
6pm
MONDAY 17 August
774 ABC in Melbourne
With Richard Stubbs
2.30pm.
Penguin Novel Selection Evening
5pm
TUESDAY 18 August
Melbourne Athenaeum Library
188 Collins Street,
Melbourne
1pm to 2pm
The third answer
A good friend of mine, Mary Nixon, recently posed a number of questions in response to her reading of Boy on a Wire. She challenged me to answer them. Mary expected that I would not, when answering, move a foot back. I have tried not to.
This is the third.
3. Have you ever thought how Jack would have behaved as a boy without the rules imposed by God to help him control his fierce emotions?
You had a strong set of rules imposed on you by High Church Anglicanism - was it a straight jacket or a safety net? (pp 11,12, etc.)
If Jack had not had God watching over him, tempering him, adding to his fear, insisting on certain commandments, yes, he would have been a lot less restrained. Me too. But not only did I fear God, I was also afraid of those who constantly judged your manners.
I was brought up by two people and one of their parents to believe that “manners maketh a man”. My father sometimes sat at the head of the table with a strap to ensure that we held our knives, forks, and spoons correctly and that we sat upright, arms placed accordingly and that our speech was befitting of our class. My mother was even more severe although not as violent.
On reflection, I realise that the heavy handed rule from the top taught me basics that nurtured respect, courtesy, and, even more important, restraint. Given the fire that often burnt quick, deep and fierce within me, God and manners kept me from raging blazes that could well have had tragic consequences.
However, there is no doubt that as my life moved along its random path, the safety net proved to be a straight jacket, which is why I, like many of my baby boomer colleagues, revolted. And revolting I remain.
The second in a series of answers
A good friend of mine, Mary Nixon, has posed a number of questions in response to her reading of Boy on a Wire. She has challenged me to answer them. Mary expects that I will not, when answering, move a foot back. I’ll try not to.
Here is the second.
2. The importance of heroes as distinct from role models (p8) Jesus Christ, Tom Brown’s school days. (pp 61,62) for boys and young men.
Heroes seem to be crucial to boys. Most of my friends had a hero but not many of them looked to Jesus Christ.
My Jesus was not a compliant God-fearing sycophant. He was an action man of peace. When it came to addressing a large crowd on forgiveness, on life everlasting, on peace and goodwill to all humankind, then feeding them with morsels, he was up to it. And when confronting a bunch of greedy traders in a temple, he did not hesitate. Not to forget his championing of the poor, the unfortunate, the disenfranchised, the diseased and the unforgiven.
As he was being knocked out of me by the Church I turned to Tom Brown, the Phantom, James Bond and then graduated to what I would prefer to call guides: Paramahansa Yogananda, Kahlil Gibran and, not quite finally, Carl Jung.
Why such a diverse range of folk? Well, that broad, all encompassing, ever deepening conversation I really wanted to have with my father, the one about everyone and everything, was only available through a range of heroes, people whose voices and attitudes I recognised and understood. Each one offered something a little different at the various stages of my life. And it’s not easy to find a poet who loves footy. Or a dreamy idealist who has a burning need to kill feral, imported wildlife.
I was never going to hang on to one guide, or hero, forever. There are boys and men who find the one they want, and cling onto him or her until the last breath. There must be a need. My needs were and are ever changing. However, there are two books I have re-read most of my adult life: Hermann Hesse’s’ Siddhartha and Albert Ellis’ A New Guide to Rational Living.
The book, Boy on a Wire, is published by Fremantle Press
The first in a series of answers
A good friend of mine, Mary Nixon, has posed a number of questions which I will attempt to answer. They are in response to her reading of Boy on a Wire. Mary expects that I will not, when answering, move a foot back. I’ll try not to.
Here is the first.
1. Opposite the contents page you say that you “have cobbled a life together”. Can you expand on this?
It has become clear to me over the course of my life that there is a large group of people who are very clear about what they are doing, when they are doing it, and why they are doing it. Then there are others, more like me, who seem to do things at random because something smacks them in the mouth, they are stationary at the time, they are looking for something else to do, or the police are knocking on the door and this is a smart time to move house.
In my time so far I have worked in a bank, as a retailer, a child minder, journalist, farm worker, comedian, cool-room attendant, joke writer and at other tasks that have slipped from memory. The only bit planned was the bit I seem to be in now – writer. And maybe that’s something many writers have in common - they find an income however they can, doing almost anything, all the while making notes.
In addition, I married twice without meaning to and helped one wife get pregnant without either of us knowing what we were up to.
Add to all this the inner self-doubt I constantly grapple with and the outer extraverted attitude that reeks of overconfidence and you have a life that can only be cobbled together despite the conflicting streams, meandering interests, rampant passions and a body heavily poisoned with insecticides and heavy metals that is forever driven by its owner to run, climb, lift and surf.
The book, Boy on a Wire, is published by Fremantle Press
Jon Doust, the man, talks about Boy on a Wire
BUY Boy on a Wire
Some answers to some questions
1. How long did it take you for your first idea about writing “Boy on a Wire” to have it printed in your hand?
This question is almost impossible to answer. The idea came into my head probably in my twenties, but did not become really serious until after I had written two children’s books. So, the immediate answer is six years.
2. Who’s your favourite character in the book? Why? Were they based on any one?
Jack Muir is, of course. He is based on me in a boarding school. But my other favourite is Brett Jones and he is based on a couple of boys, including one called Brett Jones.
3. What does your son think of the book? Has he read it?
I don’t know and I don’t know.
4. Are the characters in the book based on people in your life?
All the characters are composites. In other words, I have borrowed aspects from a number of people to create each individual.
5. What inspired you to write the book?
It was always a story I was going to tell and having learnt much from the process of writing a book by working with a well established author on the two previous books, I gathered courage and got on with it.
6. What has the press said about it so far?
So far the press has been very good.
Here is an example:
The boarding school memoir or novel is an enduring literary subgenre, from 1950s classics such as The Catcher in the Rye to Curtis Sittenfeld’s Prep. Doust’s recognisably Australian contribution to the genre draws on his own experiences in a West Australian boarding school in this clever, polished, detail-rich debut novel. From the opening pages the reader is wholly transported into the head of Jack Muir, a sensitive, sharp-eyed boy from small-town WA who is constantly measured (unfavourably) against his goldenboy brother. The distinctive, masterfully inhabited adolescent narrator recalls the narrator in darkly funny coming-of-age memoir Hoi Polloi (Craig Sherborne)—as does the juxtaposition of stark naivety and carefully mined knowingness. (‘Only those who can find the mean streak in them survive.’) Jack’s heroes include Paul McCartney, Atticus Finch, Jesus, and Tom Brown. He delights in his best friend winning an ice-cream eating competition against a school bully; earns the nickname Coco’ (after the clown) on his first week at school, and makes an enemy of the headmaster with his everready wit. He fiercely adores his mother and yearns for affection from his father—a man cast in the mould of ‘real men’ like John Wayne. This is a funny and moving book by an assured new writer.
7. What does your wife think about it ?
She is reading it now. So far she thinks it is “excellent”. She is an avid reader and not easy to please. Her answer made me cry.
8. How many publishers did you take it to before they accepted it?
I sent it to three other publishers. Two wrote very nice and very positive notes and one completely ignored it.
9. How long did it take to edit it?
About three months.
10. How do you think your family will respond to it? Will they be reminded of there own lives?
My family are small town people. They don’t say much, about anything. To date, only one of them, a Y-Gen, has responded. She smsed me, saying she enjoyed it. And the rest? I have no idea.
11. How many books do you think you will sell?
Millions. I hope. But probably thousands.
12. Is the book a dramatisation of your life?
Yes, in part. The publisher has called it a “dislocated memoir” and I like that description. What I have done is take my life, and the lives of others as I observed them, twisted them, distorted them, re-moulded them, and used them to create a bigger story, a story with underlying messages and meanings.
13. Was boarding school really like that in the 1060s in Western Australia?
Those who have read it so far, those who were there, are saying “yes”.
15. Could you write a bit down about your life so far, your achievements, where you live, other books you have written and any that are coming up ?
My achievements? Easy: I’m still alive; I have a long-term marriage, and are still in love, with the same person; I have a decent, kind and generous son.
Things I have started include: the Laugh Resort Comedy Club, one of the longest running comedy rooms in Australia; the Manjimup Cherry Harmony Festival; one of the founding members of the Wilderness Society in WA.
I am from Bridgetown and I live in Albany.
Books: How to lose an election; Magpie Mischief; Magwheel Madness; Mega Mayhem.
You can almost see the book
Boy on a Wire is a book by this blogger. You may seen the occasional reference.
It is ready now, almost. This first thing to do is launch it and this will be done next week, on Thursday March 19th, at Christ Church Grammar School, Claremont, West Australia, a school a bit like the school in the book. No, not any more, but once, a long time ago, it might have looked like it.
The great news is it will be launch by West Australian playwright, actor, and ex-boarding school boy, Reg Cribb.
Here is Reg’s bio:
Reg started out life as a musician and an actor. One day he came to his senses and wrote 10 plays in seven years. His plays have been performed both nationally and internationally. He is one of the most awarded and produced playwrights in the country.
Reg lives in Bassendean, Perth with his wife Kirsty. His house is directly opposite Rolf Harris’s old primary school. He hopes the magic will one day rub off on him.
His plays include: The Return: which has been produced all over Australia and internationally as far abroad as Japan and Romania, Last Cab to Darwin: Directed by Jeremy Sims for Pork Chop Productions, which toured everywhere between The Sydney Opera House and Broken Hill and is one of the most awarded Australian plays in the last 15 years, Gulpilil: A one man show about the life of Aboriginal acting legend David Gulpilil, in which the actor played himself (Adelaide International Arts Festival 2004, Brisbane International Arts Festival 2004 and Belvoir St. Theatre – Sydney), Chatroom: Nominated for numerous awards and currently touring nationally, and Ruby’s Last Dollar: Again directed by Jeremy Sims.
Last Train To Freo, the feature film adaptation of ‘The Return’ is his first feature.
He is currently working on an adaptation of his play Chatroom to be directed by Samantha Lang and produced by Sue Taylor, and Bran Nue Dae by Jimmy Chi to be directed by Rachel Perkins. His half hour film Grange was shown on ABC T.V in 2005.
Keep you eyes on your local bookshop.
Boy on a Wire will be there any minute.
If you click on the above, it’s quite nice.