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AREA
7 is without doubt the most far fetched novel ever to arrive at Writers'
Forum. Yet for sheer pace and non-stop action there's no reason it shouldn't
follow Matthew Reilly's previous books into the international best-seller
lists.
As
thick as a brick in a glossy cover, the book is the literary equivalent of
one of those Hollywood blockbusters where the machine guns never run out of
bullets, the walk-ons never stop getting blasted to bits and the hero
barely suffers a scratch as he charges from plane crashes to speedboat
chases to spectacular explosions armed only with American grit and a ready
supply of quips.
The
plot involves a madman who has fitted a miniature transmitter to the
President's heart. If he dies, off goes a nuclear bomb in every American
city. The trouble is, he's trapped in an impenetrable US airforce bunker
with five bands of crack troops trying to kill him and only a handful of barely
armed marines to protect him.
"Whoever
wins gets the country," announces the baddy. And from there on not a
hint of reality is allowed to get in the way as the book plunges into
nearly 600 pages of chases, shoot-outs and state-of-the-art weaponry, with
a cliff-hanger on every page and an ever more incredible escape on the
next.
Reilly's
prose is as hysterical as the plot - full of italics, exclamation marks and
double takes, as if even he can't believe some of the stunts.
It
was a torpedo!
He fairly yells from the page. And he's happy to confess: "I want to
write about action and thrills and adventure... and if developing
characters slows down the action then developing characters gets the
chop!"
But
if the against-the-odds escapades of Area 7 hero Shane 'Scarecrow'
Schofield seem bold, they are no more audacious than the way his
resourceful creator leapt over the slush pile in a single bound to become
one of Australia's most successful writers.
He
wrote his first action thriller, Contest, when he was just 19. It set the
pace and tone for his later work, pitting its hero, Dr Stephen Swain,
against tremendous odds in a fight to the death while trapped in the
claustrophobic labyrinth of the New York State Library.
"I
was in my first year at university, studying law and arts. Quite frankly, I
found that the thrillers I was reading were becoming too slow. I wanted to
read a novel that was action all the way, with no 'down time' or rest
breaks. I realised no-one was doing that, so I would have to write it
myself.
'The
starting point was the idea of a sporting event not unlike the Olympics or
the World Cup that is used once every 1000 years to determine the best
species in the universe. Competing would be an: honour but would mean
certain death. I wanted to create the ultimate contest - something that was
valued everywhere else in the universe but here!"
Among
Reilly's literary influences were Michael Crichton ("Pace, pace,
pace"), Tom Clancy ("for the geopolitics") and Jeffrey
Archer ("the sheer joy of telling a good story"). To an even
greater degree he was influenced by movie blockbusters such as Raiders
Of The Lost Ark, Die Hard and the James Bond films. "You can't
take yourself too seriously in the action genre these days, and I think you
can see my sense of the outrageous in all my books."
With
all those high octane influences bubbling away in his head, Contest
took Reilly a year to write.
Unfortunately,
it was rejected by every publisher in Sydney. Not because it was no good,
Matthew deduced from the pristine manuscripts that returned through his
letter box, but because they hadn't even read it before tossing it back in
an envelope with a rejection slip.
Every
frustrated author has suspected that, haven't they? But like one of his
all-action heroes, Matthew was not a man to give up. Instead, he decided to
self-publish his book. Not with the goal of selling thousands of copies,
which he knew as a one-man band he could never do. His plan was simply to
catch the attention of a major publisher and get them to actually read his
book. Once they had done that he figured they would realise his worth and
sign him up to a multi-million dollar deal.
His
first stop was some of the desktop publishing houses in Sydney. But he
quickly discovered they barely knew the size of a paperback novel and
realised he would have to organise the whole project himself. The cost of
printing was $8,000 dollars; for 1000 copies, which necessitated a; $5,000
bank loan and a $2,50Q investment from a friend's father. But; Matthew didn't
stint on quality to create a striking glossy cover befitting an airport
blockbuster.
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If you want
longevity as a creative writer you have to re-invent yourself constantly
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To
complete the professional look, he put a 'K' on the spine to represent his
publishing house, Karandon Entertainment - a Karandon being one of the
creatures faced by the book's hero.
His
boldest stroke was to pull in a favour from Cleo, a women's magazine
for which he had previously written freelance articles. Asked for a pre-publication
review, the magazine's book critic gave him the cover quote, "An
electrifying first novel for the X-Files generation."
Thus
equipped with an expensive looking product, Matthew went door-to-door
around the bookshops of Sydney. The first door he knocked on was an
independent shop called Read'N'Write where the owner was so impressed with
his entrepreneurial spirit that she not only ordered ten copies but gave
him the names of several major central Sydney bookshop managers, telling
him to mention her name and say that she'd sent him.
With
those contacts, Matthew was able to place 30 books with Angus &
Robertson -one of the biggest bookshops in the city, just two blocks from
Pan Macmillan.
With
his product of the shelves, all he had to do was get people to buy them. So
he put Phase Two of his plan into action.
First,
he called his local newspaper and, always hungry for stories about local
people, they sent a photographer and a reporter to interview him.
Second,
he gave away some signed copies to his work colleagues and friends, knowing
that if they enjoyed it they'd tell their friends.
Finally,
every day on his journey to and from home he sat at the front of the bus,
avidly reading his book and making sure that everybody could see the cover.
Within
a short time, Angus & Robertson had sold their 30 books. When he
restocked them, Matthew persuaded the store to make a prominent shop front
display of 150 books, alongside such big names as John Grisham and Tom
Clancy.
It
was then that his plan paid off. As he had theorised, publishers spend a
lot of time in bookshops - seeing where their books are positioned, and
checking up on the opposition. In his case, Cate Paterson, the buyer of
mass market fiction at Pan Macmillan dropped in from her offices just down
the street - and was immediately intrigued by the prominent display of a
book by an author she had never heard of.
Exactly
as he had hoped, she bought it, read it, loved it and phoned the number he
had included on the copyright page. By then, Reilly had begun work on his
second novel, Ice Station, and on the basis of the first 50 pages he
found himself signed to a two book world rights deal.
Five
years on, Ice Station has sold more than half a million copies
world-wide. His third book, Temple, is selling even more strongly
and Contest - the book that was initially turned down by every
publisher in Australia - has not only been published by Pan, but the film
rights have also been sold.
Attesting
to Reilly's increasingly high profile, Area 7 instantly became the
reading matter of choice among Australian troops in East Timor, and has
been seen on TV being avidly read by the housemates in the antipodean
version of Big Brother.
"Best
free advertising I've ever had!" quips the author, who attributes his
success to, "Escapism. My novels are designed for one purpose: to take
you away from your everyday life for a few hours or days."
As
for why the Australian writer chooses to write about American characters
and settings, he explains, "I like stories where the fate of the world
is at stake, where the balance of world power is at issue, and
unfortunately, much as I love my country, Australia is not a player in the
world-power stakes!
"The
other thing is, just as many people read to escape, I write to escape, which
means I like to travel the world in my imagination. I can see Australia
every day!"
Reilly's
plans for the future are to write an even faster paced adventure than Area
7.
"It
can go faster," he insists. "I'm talking lean, mean and totally
out of control. In the downtime since finishing Area 7, I've been
toying with structures, figuring out ways to make the narrative just zoom
along. I think if you want longevity as a creative individual you have to
evolve, constantly re-invent yourself, and take your craft to a new level.
So the future involves pushing myself to a new level of speed.
"And
then I'm going to make a movie!"
Area
7 is published
by Pan price �6.99 and is available from all good bookshops.
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