Finalised covers and a new interview

I get very excited when I receive cover artwork. What writer wouldn’t? Here is the finalised version of the cover for the US and Canadian release of ‘Den of Wolves’, on sale there in June. This design will also form the cover of the Australian and New Zealand re-release, to coincide with the release of ‘Nest of Vipers’, in April.

And here is the finalised version of the cover for the Australian and New Zealand release of ‘Nest of Vipers’ in April, which is the same as the US and Canadian release of the book in August. I think it’s truly sumptuous.

Here’s the transcription of an interview I did recently with ABC Local Radio, here in Australia.

Q: Please describe what it is you do for a living?

A: I’m a popular writer – I write in the desperate hope it’ll make me popular. In my twenties this led me to write black comedy plays for Fringe Festivals where I’d sit in the back row and laugh loudly at all my own gags in order to give the audience the hint that I was a genius. In my thirties this same desperate hope led me to create characters, storylines and 1,500+ scripts for Aussie soap operas. When I regained my health and sanity again in my early forties I turned my still desperate search for popularity towards writing fiction, or more specifically, a series of “swords, sandals, sex & sin” novels set in ancient Rome. I think my desperate need is about to be met at long last with my books going global. Well, let’s hope so anyway.

Q: What was your first job?

A: As a drinks waiter at a Spanish-themed resort on the outskirts of Perth in 1984. Famous for its dancing Andalusian horses, working there was certainly colourful. The bastard of a manager called me “possum” (and not in a kind way) and I had to wear a sombrero on my head and say ‘Ola!’ with a tray of free sangria ready for when drunk wedding parties piled out of their tour buses. The stink of horse shit clung to every surface and the highlight of each evening was watching six hundred nannas get up to do the birdy dance. I’d probably be right into that now, but at the tender age of eighteen I was not enamoured. My WORST job was several years later as a kitchen hand in a café in one of Perth’s premier suburbs – run by Ivan the Terrible and his troll wife. I was sort of “forced” to take the job when the Department of Social Security felt that I had been benefiting from my “unofficial arts grant” (the dole) for too damn long. Consequently, I was grotesquely exploited, under paid and working eleven hour shifts without a break at this place. I had one of the first productions of my plays on at the time and Ivan the Terrible wouldn’t let me swap a shift so I could attend the opening night. I staged a vanishing act during the café’s rush hour, taking a tin of dolmades with me. I never went back.

Q: How did you come to be in your line of work?

A: From the age of fourteen I never wanted to do anything else. I discovered Noel Coward and Evelyn Waugh, and then a whole lot of other writers, and through them I realised the power and joy to be gained from using words to delight people. That desperate search for popularity began right there…

Q: Where did you grow up?

A: The Perth Hills, Western Australia. A semi-rural area, very attractive, which of course I was at pains to flee from as soon as I had means. What an ungrateful brat. Nature has had its revenge, however. Several years ago I moved to rural central Victoria, to a town that is almost exactly like the area I grew up in. My parents continue to find ironies in this.

Q: What is your father like?

A: Before he retired he was a very hard working public servant who stayed with the same WA Government Department for close to 40 years – an old-fashioned loyalty to his employer that I truly admire him for. He gave me his strong work ethic and his own deep love of words. He’s a bibliophile – he collects rather arcane books, many of them history-related, and all of which I suspect I’ll be left in his will.

Q: What is your mother like?

A: Determinedly optimistic – something she passed on to me. Before she retired she was a social worker at a big maternity hospital, helping young teenage mums. She gave me her love of (fictional) drama. She reads a novel a week and watches every drama that the ABC broadcasts. This meant that my childhood was very influenced by BBC “frock shows”, as I call them. I was instilled with a love for historical stories from a very early age, thanks to Mum.

Q: What were your grandparents like?

A: My grandfathers were before my time, but I was blessed with two wonderful grandmothers. Resilient, lovely women who had been through the Depression and WWII. Gran, my Mum’s mum, was an orphan, raised by Anglican nuns. That suggests a horrible childhood but it was anything but – her Children’s Home family numbered in the hundreds. Her own family has gone on to number several dozen, when all the generations are counted. We know absolutely nothing about her parents, sadly, which is a great mystery that my family would dearly love to solve. My Dad’s mum, Nana, was a young divorcee who did a million jobs to make ends meet, but always came back to pulling beers as a barmaid. She was born in London’s East End, which certainly coloured her approach to life. She was used to hard knocks but was also a very warm and loving – a “big” lady.

Q: Where did you go to school?

A: Eastern Hills Senior High School, which, at times, I have referred to as “Bogan Senior High School”, perhaps unfairly, though probably not. “Bogan” is an Australian word that doesn’t really translate very well. The best American equivalent is probably “red-neck”. This was a school that style passed by. It was stuck in a time warp in the early 80s, so I only pray it’s recovered now. I’m sure it has. Back then there was only a semblance of school uniform. Students instead wore tartan sheepskin jackets called “lumbies” and black desert boots. I remember I caused a minor sensation when I cut my hair to a short back and sides in 1983 – I’d betrayed the brotherhood of the mullet. Academic achievement was discouraged by the student body – if not the poor staff – along with creative endeavour and words of more than two syllables. I had a “posh” voice (I was told), clearly the result of watching too many BBC frock shows. You’d think such a school might have made up for a paucity of learning by excelling on the sporting field? Think again. We got slaughtered at every interschool carnival. Despite all this, it actually had some marvellous teachers. I was set on my path in life by several very dedicated English teachers who saw a spark of something in me and actively fanned it. I also had some utterly brilliant, like-minded friends. I’m rare among my contemporaries in that my old high school mates are still among my most treasured pals today – their friendship means all the more to me because it’s lasted close to thirty years.

Q: Cast your mind back to the school playground… are you in the ‘in-crowd’? The ‘sport’ crowd? The ‘clever’ crowd?…

A: At the time, certainly for my senior school years, I would have considered myself deeply of the “in crowd”. But I bet my observers may have held a very different view. I never hung out on the oval botting ciggies, it must be said, so that’s one level of “in” that I was out of. But all the same, I never lacked for party invitations either, and whenever I threw a party, man, that invite list was EXCLUSIVE.

Q: Have you travelled and seen much of the world?

A: Yes, but not as much as I would like. This is something I’m redressing – with help from my book sales, God willing. I’ve spent short stretches in Paris, London and Amsterdam. Plus even shorter stretches in Spain and Germany. I’ve been to Indonesia and I love New Zealand. In my twenties I never travelled when all my friends did – I was so obsessed with writing and chasing down every opportunity to make something of myself. So I missed out on carefree backpacking. Now I’m too damn old for youth hostels. It has to be fluffy bathrobes and turned down sheets for me all the way.

Q: Do you have a place you’d recommend for people to visit?

A: The Hotel New Amsterdam at the top of the Herrengracht, in the old part of the Dutch city. Get a canal room in summer and stay for two weeks, you won’t regret it. You look out through trees to a beautiful stretch of 17th Century canal-scape that gives you 24/7 people-watching, Netherlands style. That part of the world remains in sunshine til after midnight in summer and then the sun gets up again around 4.00am. You completely fall out of the habit of sleeping, but it doesn’t matter because the city is so stunningly lovely. It’s a stroller’s paradise. It’s a deviant’s paradise too, but I didn’t get up to any of that naughtiness. Well, not really. There was just this one Coffee Shop with a name that no ex-soapie writer could ever resist. It was called ‘Amnesia’…

Q: What do you do to relax?

A: I’m actually a keen gardener. At least I call it gardening, my other half would probably just call it “creative weeding combined with occasionally successful planting”. We have a very large garden and a dam. I also read a lot, walk my dogs in the bush, go out to dinner with friends. Does that sound insufferably middle-aged and middle class? Then good.

Q: If you could spend a day in the life of a character from a piece of fiction, who would you be and why?

A: I think I’d quite like to be Miss Agatha Runcible from Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Vile Bodies’. She spends the whole novel in a dizzy daze of cocktails and going to parties in airships etc, with all her Bright Young Thing mates. She makes comments like ‘that’s too, too sick-making’ or ‘that’s too, too jealous-making’. She’s a real hoot. She goes out in style too, ending up in a racing car rally by sheer misadventure and driving her vehicle into a tree. She’s euthanased in the last chapter, still holding her champagne glass and dancing the Charleston under the hospital sheets. All that sounds pretty good to me – for a day.

Q: If you could travel back in time and whisper something to a younger you, what might it be?

A: “Don’t dye your hair black in 1985 – you’ll actually look rather less ‘Beatles’ than you think you will, and a whole lot more Yoko Ono.”

Empress of Rome in USA & Canada

I couldn’t have asked for a nicer Christmas present…

I found out last week that both ‘Den of Wolves’ and ‘Nest of Vipers’ are to be published in the USA and Canada next year through Random House and Trafalgar Square Books.

‘Den of Wolves’ will appear on North American shelves in June 2010.

‘Nest of Vipers’ will appear just a couple of months later, in August 2010.

The cover design for Book 1 has been sent to me already and of course I love it. It’s very similar to the original Australian & New Zealand cover, utilising the same design elements.

New covers, new words…

Greetings to you and thanks for dropping by…

The Spanish edition of ‘Den of Wolves’ will be appearing in Spain at the end of this month and I love the classic simplicity of the cover design. Very nice. The Spanish title is ‘La Emperatriz de Roma’. Visit my home page for more information.

The Serbian edition of ‘Den of Wolves’, called ‘Gospodarica Rima’, is selling extremely well, I am delighted to report, and the lovely people at Alnari have been brilliant with their publicity. Here is the English version of an interview I recently did with a newspaper in Montenegro:

Q: What were some of the challenges for you in writing ‘Empress of Rome: Den of Wolves’?

A: One of the biggest challenges was finding enough time to write. It took me several years because I also worked full-time as a television writer. I was creating storylines and editing scripts for a long-running serial called ‘Neighbours’ here in Australia. ‘Neighbours’ is famous for its light-hearted style and I think ‘Den of Wolves’ started sneaking into my imagination as an antidote to all those nice stories and characters. I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to write about people who were not nice in any way. It was my dark side emerging… I have just completed my second ‘Empress of Rome’ novel, which is called ‘Nest of Vipers’ here in Australia, and will be published next year. This one took me considerably less time to write – about nine months. I’ve been very lucky that the first book is doing so well. It’s meant I don’t have to do so much writing for television any more – I can spend all my time writing books about Ancient Rome. This is a joy for me.

Q: What can you can tell us about the historical background of your novel?

A: The books are set in a period of history when the centuries old Republic of Rome was finally self-combusting after decades of civil war. It was evolving into the Roman Empire. Rome replaced its relatively democratic system of government with an autocracy. This was the dawn of the Age of the Emperors. It is fascinating because, even though Rome attained stability and great prosperity during this time, the bloody civil wars and vicious treachery of the Republican era simply continued, in miniature, behind the Emperor’s palace doors. Outside the palace, Rome was peaceful and happy. But inside the palace it was horrific. The ruling dynasty, an extended family known as the Julio-Claudians, are among the vilest, most vicious and violent families ever known – which is why they’re so grimly compelling. Some of them, like the Emperors Caligula and Nero, for example, are famous for their depravity and madness. But others are less known, although their crimes were just as ghastly. I love the Julio-Claudians. I certainly wouldn’t want them as my next door neighbours, but I find their appalling deeds highly entertaining – viewed from the safe distance of two thousand years, of course.

Q: Did you use historical sources in your writing?

A: Yes I did. The works of the ancient historians Tacitus and Seutonius – written nearly two thousand years ago – were the starting points. Many events in my story were taken from those historical accounts – along with most of the characters, of course, who were all, with the exception of the slave narrator Iphicles, real people. But the works of Tacitus and Suetonius have a number of rather intriguing gaps in them. The explanations behind some of the events are rather inadequate, and some of the purported motivations for characters’ actions seem very bizarre and unconvincing to the modern reader. At least, that was my reaction when I read the works. I had far more questions than I did answers. My desire to address those questions became the ‘Empress of Rome’ story. My books are like a secret history of Rome, a hidden history. ‘Empress of Rome’ is the story of those who schemed in the background – the women, the children and the slaves. In addition to Tacitus and Seutonius, I saturated myself in dozens of other books about everyday life in Ancient Rome. These gave me the flavour of the times and all the little incidental details. I find the ancient history of the Balkans region quite fascinating too. The ancient ancestors of modern Montenegrans were scary and tough! It doesn’t surprise me at all that the Romans were absolutely terrified of your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandparents.

Q: LOL! Can you give me some examples from Montenegro’s past?

A: The ancient people of Montenegro were the Illyrians, of course, a race of warriors famed in the ancient world for just how hard they were to defeat in combat. Even though much of the Balkan region was conquered by the Romans in the century before Christ’s era, the Illyrians certainly never accepted their fate. They waged constant guerrilla offensives and occasional wars against the poor Romans, who must have regretted ever stepping foot on those harsh and unforgiving mountains. The Great Illyrian Revolt of AD 6 lasted for four long years and cost many Roman lives. Apparently, when the last of the Illyrian rebels realised they could not win because of the sheer volume of soldiers Rome could supply, they chose to retreat into the snow-covered mountains instead, in order to freeze to death rather than face being enslaved. I think that’s very moving. And tough.

Q: Why did you choose to focus on the women of Rome?

A: Well, I love writing about women, I suppose. I’m sure I’m not the only man on this earth who finds women supremely fascinating! It seemed to me that while there were many novels about Ancient Rome available in bookstores, they were all about the great Roman men. I think the stories of some the great Roman women are even more extraordinary than the familiar stories of Julius Caesar, Mark Antony etc, so I felt inspired to bring them to life. I wanted readers to know about the remarkable impact many of these women had on history.

Q: Your novels have a lot of knowledge of everyday life in ancient Rome – and especially sexual life! Where does your fascination with these things come from?

A: How to answer this without blushing? Well, the truth is Ancient Rome was really rather a sexy place when viewed from a modern perspective. Most people today would be shocked to learn just how free and open sexuality was in Ancient Rome. This is the period before Christianity became dominant, of course. Under the pagan gods there was very little guilt or shame about sex. It was all out in the open! So, how could I ignore this when writing about the times?

Q: So many stories from Ancient Rome seem to have parallels in the modern world. Can you compare your characters with people from our time?

A: One of the amusing similarities that shows how little things change is in the story of the great, golden general Germanicus and his glamorous wife Agrippina. They remind me so much of Bill and Hillary Clinton – and even Brad and Angelina. Germanicus was perhaps the most loved man in Rome. He was seen as the heir apparent to the Emperor Tiberius, his adopted father. But in truth he was somewhat flawed. He was not a great general at all and his military record was a long list of embarrassing failures. But the people adored him for his good looks and charm, and Germanicus and Aprippina were absolute masters of spin – they never let the truth tarnish their glossy public image. Rome greatly preferred the beautiful lie to the uncomfortable truth about Germanicus. And when Germanicus was finally off the scene, Agrippina remodelled herself as a formidable politician in her own right – at a time when no woman could ever hope to openly hold power. She also managed to be a mother to six children – but I suspect she may not have been a very attentive mother. She was too caught up in political intrigues. Her youngest son, Caligula, became one of the most depraved rulers in history. This might not have been so if Agrippina had shown him a little more discipline as a child!

Q: You have said that you wanted ‘Empress of Rome: Den of Wolves’ to feel like an ancient world ‘Hollywood Wives’. Please explain!

A: Well, I’ve always loved the sexy thrills of Jackie Collins and other writers like her, and ‘Hollywood Wives’ is especially good fun. What I love about that book is that it’s set in a town where the men seem to have all the power, but in reality it is the wives and mistresses who are scheming in the background and pulling all the strings. The situation is pretty much the same in ‘Empress of Rome’. The men are deluded – they also think they’re in power – but the beautiful, brilliant and deadly women in their lives are enacting secret plans behind their backs to rob them of it.

Q: Who is your favourite: Livia, Julia, Antonia or Agrippina?

A: All those women fascinate me, but I find Livia especially alluring because she’s so mysterious. Certainly, the ancient historians like Tacitus and Suetonius believed she was a deadly serial murderess and I’m inclined to agree with them. The coincidence of so many important members of her family dying in such extraordinary circumstances is too hard to ignore. But some of those deaths did not benefit Livia at all, which is why I believe she was not responsible for every murder she has been blamed for. I think there were other killers working in the shadows. I also have a great affection for Livia’s step-daughter, Julia. The story of her terrible fall is one of my favourite parts of ‘Den of Wolves’. Julia is one of those examples of ancient historians’ explanations not quite convincing the modern reader. She is accused of crimes and betrayals that simply don’t make any sense. I believe she was, in fact, a helpless victim of the schemes of others, and I thoroughly enjoyed writing the secret story of her tragic demise.

Q: Colleen McCullough also writes excellent books about ancient Rome – do you read her works, and those by other writers? And are you also interested in Ancient Greece?

Yes, I love Colleen McCullough’s books about Ancient Rome – and we’re both Australian. I’m fascinated by Ancient Greece, as well. It was my childhood discovery of Aesop’s Fables that led to my lifelong joy in the stories and people of the ancient world. From Aesop I discovered Greek Mythology, and from there grew my interest in the Mycenaean, Minoan and finally the Roman civilisations. But, in truth, I just love a good story – and the ancient world has so many of them. Among other authors who write about Rome and Greece, I particularly enjoy the books of Steven Saylor, Conn Iggulden and Robert Harris.

Q: You worked on the famous Australian soap ‘Neighbours’ for many years. What did the job of Script Producer entail?

A: I was like the Emperor of the Script Department! I oversaw the creation of storylines and the writing of dialogue on ‘Neighbours’ for nearly seven years – or 1,500 episodes. But I was quite a benign emperor – more of a Marcus Aurelius than a Caligula – even though I suspect I went a little mad by the end of it, just as Caligula did. But I never tried to marry my sister, however. Or make my horse a senator…



Finally, the rough cover design for the Australian and New Zealand edition of ‘Nest of Vipers’ has arrived, Book 2 ‘Empress of Rome’. The wording at the bottom of the page will likely become a press quote, and yes, it should be called Book 2, not Book 1, but it compliments the original ‘Den of Wolves’ cover perfectly and I love the aquamarine colour.

Nest of Vipers Update

I’m a tardy blogger but a tireless writer. That’s what I tell myself anyway. I’ve been very productive over the last few months and a milestone has been reached. The first draft of ‘Nest of Vipers’, Book 2 Empress of Rome, has been delivered to my Aussie publishers, Random House, and I am delighted to report they have reacted with undisguised glee and effusive praise. That’s certainly a weight off. So the countdown begins. I will complete my second draft within the next few months, juggling time between other projects. This will be no where near as arduous as it might sound. All the backbreaking labour has already been done with the first draft. Doing the second draft is something akin to intensive tweaking, tinkering and polishing – at least for me. My very good friend, Dr Chris Dent, is the only person outside my agent and the publishers that I ever show my work to, and he’s delivered a truckload of suggestions. As usual, he’s on the money, so I’ll be incorporating all his insights into the final version. Thank you, Chris.

And apologies to expectant readers who are hanging out for the next instalment, hoping it will appear this year. Random House have told me that it will go out on Australian and New Zealand shelves in April 2010, which is a little later than originally planned. Sorry for the extra wait. But I promise it’ll be worth it.

In other news, the first of the non-English language editions of ‘Den of Wolves’ has appeared – to my considerable excitement…

‘Gospodarica Rima’ went on sale in Serbia last month, published by the wonderful people at Alnari. It’s a beautifully produced edition, too.

At the end of May, I thoroughly enjoyed my time as Ambassador for the 2009 Emerging Writers’ Festival at Melbourne Town Hall. It was a fantastic weekend and it’s a miracle I still had a voice left at the end of it. Here’s an amusing picture of the attention-junky Ambassador hogging the mic at one of the sessions:

On either side of me are two fantastic authors that I was delighted to befriend: Daniel Ducrou and Kathryn Heyman. Kathryn looks especially bludgeoned by my remorseless hamming

A writer I greatly admire is Steven Saylor, my email buddy, who writes glorious novels about Ancient Rome. He’s got a new book out, ‘The Triumph of Caesar’, the latest in his Roma sub Rosa series. Visit his excellent website: Steven Saylor.

Finally, for those who are considering pursuing a career in television drama, I am running an intensive weekend workshop in Sydney this August about writing and creating serial dramas (or soaps, if you prefer). I’ve run this course quite a few times in recent years and I can promise you a weekend of enlightenment and fun. Visit the website of the Australian Film, Television & Radio School for more information.

Luke @ the 2009 Emerging Writers Festival

The 2009 Emerging Writers Festival kicks off in Melbourne on Friday 22 May and runs through until Sunday 31 May. It’s a fantastic opportunity for all those taking their first tentative steps towards calling themselves “writer”. It’s a festival packed full of events, seminars and good old fashioned advice sessions where industry professionals drawn from a vast spectrum will talk about the steps they took to get a foot in the door, and what you can do to follow them.

I was greatly honoured when asked to be an Ambassador for the Festival. I will be fulfilling my role at Melbourne Town Hall on Sat 30 and Sun 31 May for the Festival’s second weekend. This is when the lion’s share of the many events are happening. Look out for me if you come along, tap me on the shoulder and say hello. Being an Ambassador means I am AVAILABLE and APPROACHABLE to talk about everything and anything connected to writing and what you might do to get your own work out there into the public eye.

The Sunday Age printed a terrific article yesterday, complete with a few words from yours truly.

See you there!

Hello Istanbul

Sometimes it can feel all TOO quiet in writing land when it seems like it’s just you, the computer screen and a tepid cup of Earl Grey to keep you motivated for weeks on end. Then a flurry of activity reminds you you’ve still got a pulse.

I was informed the other week that ‘Den of Wolves’ is to be published in Turkey later this year and I couldn’t be more delighted. The publisher is Marka, an exciting and relatively young publishing house based in Istanbul. I’m thrilled to be joining them!

When I’m not writing, I do a lot of teaching, mostly in the arts of storytelling and screenwriting. I do face to face class work at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School (AFTRS) and The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University (RMIT Uni), plus I also run courses on-line for AFTRS. These on-line classes enable students to learn from home, wherever they might be. I run these on Tuesday and Thursday nights, via chatrooms. They’re fast and furious and always a lot of fun, both for me and the students.

The next on-line course I’m doing for AFTRS is an Introduction to Screenwriting for Film & Television – a ten week course running from early-June to mid-August. Information can be found here. Applications close on 19 May.

Some further excitement for me has been a commission I have received from Melbourne’s wonderful Malthouse Theatre to do an adaptation of one of my all time favourite plays, George Feydeau’s outrageous French farce, ‘A Flea in Her Ear’. It couldn’t be more different from Ancient Rome, which is probably why I’m so excited about it. A change is as good as a holiday! And this will be quite a change. I’m flying straight into this one when ‘Nest of Vipers’ is finally handed over to the editors.

So, yes. I’m busy.

Finally, Joanne Renaud and I have been having a lovely exchange of emails since she was revealed to me as the writer of the juicy toga porn article in a previous blog post comment. Joanne’s illustration work is just gorgeous – a saucy example of it is included here. For some reason she thought I’d like this one particularly. I can’t imagine why…

Visit her website here.

At the Australian Romance Readers Convention 2009

It’s not the best snap in the world, but all the same I’m very grateful to the lovely lady in the audience who took it for me with my camera. Here I am, the thorn between four powerhouse roses, at the 1st annual Australian Romance Readers Convention, which was held in Melbourne on Feb 21 & 22. And before any readers start splitting hairs, yes, I know my books ain’t strictly romantic, but I was invited to be part of the panel that was discussing ‘Sex & Suspense’, so you can see why I look so very much at home!

The session was a hoot, as you can imagine. From L to R, are:

Sandy Curtis, Bronwyn Parry, yours truly, Sherrilyn Kenyon, and Dianna Love.

It was particularly nice to meet so many readers afterwards too, and I’m thrilled that so many of you are keenly looking forward to ‘Nest of Vipers’.

A million thanks to Maggie Nash for her genius at organising such a successful event, and to the lovely Paula Roe for asking me along!

In other news, a nice review appeared in Melbourne’s MCV newspaper in the last week, which delighted me, and if I’m not wrong, I think I’ve scored my first on-line reader’s review, which is something I’ve half been fearing, because these things can sometimes be rather stinging! Here it is on The Nile’s Australian website. Many thanks to reader Natalie. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

Holidays and Heroes

Happy New Year to you!

In a sure sign that my Z-grade celebrity status has lately crept stealthily towards Y or even X-grade, I’m delighted to report that my summer holiday arrangements have been declared newsworthy. This little ‘postcard’ from me appeared in Melbourne’s The Age newspaper on the same day I crippled myself for four hours on a Virgin Blue flight to Perth. I think this bodes well for a good 2009.

I’ve had a marvellously relaxing break, thanks for asking. I’ve now been away from ‘Nest of Vipers’ for a whole month and this week I am contemplating my return. If the Romans had a god to help you avoid procrastination I’d be sacrificing my entire flock to him.

One of my joys while holidaying in the West was in being reunited with a very special book. Well, very special to me, anyway. I had long thought my once-treasured copy of Charles Kingsley’s ‘The Heroes’ had been tossed out to the op shops years ago. What’s more, I thought I was the one who’d been stupid enough to toss it. But no! My mum and dad, bless them, found my long-lost copy in one of their many bookcases and made something of a ceremony out of reuniting me with it.

This book is very special to me because it is THE book that kicked me off into my love for and fascination with the stories of the ancient world. I picked it up at a school fete for a few cents when I was only eight or nine. It must have been the cover that I especially liked, I suspect. I can well remember how avidly and repeatedly I used to read it in bed at night. It contains three thrilling Greek hero sagas, made kid friendly – Theseus, Perseus and Jason. I loved them all. This edition also has some quite splendid illustrations in art-nouveau style. My copy dates from 1915. There’s an inscription inside the front cover that says it was a prize from St Matthew’s Sunday School, Boulder, in the WA Goldfields, given to young Maurice Mann by the Rector. I hope Maurice enjoyed it as much as I did.

Anyway, I thought I’d share it. I’ve attached pics of the cover and one of the illustrations.

While I was away in Perth I was pleased to get some correspondence from Via Magna, the publishers of the Spanish edition of ‘Den of Wolves’. The translation is progressing very nicely, I am informed, and the book will hit Spanish shelves in September, later this year. I can wait to see the cover.

Favourite Reader of the Week!

This is the sort of email that I love finding in my in-box:

I wasn’t book shopping at all. I have too many books I am trying to
work through at home. But twice I walked past your book, and twice was compelled to stop.

The third time I bought it and it was read in a day.  Damn you Mr Devenish, for now I am aching for the nest installment!

Congratulations on a magnificent read.  It’s deliciously Roman.

As a lover of those long forgotten periods I have been reading of Rome and Greece and Egypt since I was four. I’ve had a fascination with these countries in particular for as long as I can remember and your book felt very, very real.

Congratulations I can’t wait for more!

Warm regards

B. fitzpatrick

Many thanks, B! I’m particularly impressed by how your resolve weakened over several days… The power of a good cover!

B told me off in a follow-up email for taking the time to reply when I should have been writing ‘Nest of Vipers’. B, I’m writing as fast as I can! Fear not, the next book in the ‘Empress of Rome’ saga will appear on Australian and New Zealand bookshop shelves in September 09, with other territories to follow later. Those nine months will simply FLY by, I promise.

At my desk…

Luke Devenish's desk, December 2008

Whenever I go to the homes of writer friends I always try to steer my way towards the room they like to write in – purely to snoop. I wouldn’t dream of touching anything (fear not, friends) but I certainly have a good old LOOK. And if my writer friends are with me when I do it, then all the better, because then I get to ply them with probing questions. Back when I was a kid in the 1970s there used to be a series of magazine ads for Glomesh handbags where celebrities would spill open their bags for readers to pick over. I remember finding those ads weirdly fascinating and clearly I’ve never recovered from it. I find the rooms and shelves and desks of other writers quite absorbing and hugely illuminating. So, to atone for all my snooping sins, I’ve posted a snap here of my own desk. Welcome to the view I spend an inordinate amount of time staring at for your (eventual) reading pleasure.

Items of interest:

Two computer screens. The one on the left is the ‘writing screen’. It’s vertical so that I can fit a whole A4-equivalent page of text on it. ‘Next of Vipers’ is actually on the screen in this snap. The screen on the right is for email and Internet. The background picture is another of Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s paintings – this one of some well dressed Roman ladies cavorting at the baths. Perfect.

Bust of Antinous. Sitting on the left as a paper weight for tax receipts. Found this at an antiques fair last summer and have kicked myself ever since that I didn’t also buy the bust of Mars that was on sale with it. My miserliness is a curse. Poor old Antinous. He was the “very special friend” of the Emperor Hadrian before he mysteriously drowned in the Nile. Hadrian went unhinged with grief as a consequence. A rather fascinating tale!

Note book. Sitting in front of the key board is one of several notebooks I use to plot in. I try to carry one around with me everywhere, which is why smaller notebooks are better – they fit in pockets. This way I’m prepared for when plot revelations strike, which happens quite often when I’m in the middle of the writing journey. I had a big revelation the other day about curse tablets – those wonderful bits of black magic nastiness from Ancient Rome. And I thank the gods that I had my notebook with me, because curse tablets now play quite an important part in ‘Nest of Vipers’.

Roses. From my beautiful garden, of course. I think these are Crepuscules. They’re intensely perfumed, they fill the whole room with it, but they’re not crazy about being shoved in vases, which is why they drop petals everywhere. I bet the flora-mad Emperor Elagabalus loved them too…

Chairman Mao statuette. Standing on the right side of the desk. It’s like a red China Oscar. Deeply culturally insensitive I know (I’ve also got several framed vintage Cultural Revolution posters), but I find all megalomaniacs fascinating and Mao is no exception. It’s why I like writing about them. My other half found me this in a little shop in Sydney.

Books. I cycle the books I keep on my desk quite regularly. The books on the right side are all Roman in some way. There’s a Steven Saylor there, plus a couple of Robert Harrises, to remind me of the sort of sales figures I aspire to. Three of Anthony A Barrett’s excellent books are there too, plus a Michael Grant, plus the big fat Dictionary of Greek & Roman Antiquities, which is an invaluable reference tool. In the right bottom corner of the desk, conveniently close to my mouse, is my well-thumbed copy of Tacitus. I’d be lost without him! On the left hand side are recently read novels. I try to read at least one new novel a fortnight, but it’s difficult when I’m in the middle of an intensive writing period because I never feel like leaving my own fictional world. So at the moment I’m only reading non-fiction.

One the wall behind my desk (note that I do NOT look out onto a view – walls are better for me) are a few artworks by various artists. The painting on the right of the young bloke combing his hair is my favourite. It’s called ‘Sat-dee Night’ (which needs to be said in an Aussie accent) and it’s by the Tasmanian artist Stuart MacFarlaine. The art work in the middle is a beautiful watercolour view of Rome.

Under my desk is a doggy bed! I’ve got two half-witted dogs, Tess and Audrey, who snooze under my desk all day ready to spring up at any provocation in the hope of going for a walk. They get two excursions a day, but they’re always up for more, naturally.

There. Do you feel you know me better now?

If you haven’t come to this blog via my website homepage, then check it out because Paula has uploaded the first ‘coming soon in 2009′ blurb for Nest of Vipers. She’s also put up some new links for me in the ‘Luke in the News’ page, including a READABLE pdf file for my Sun-Herald interview, plus a couple of other press articles from my long-ago soap days.

Here another little press splash about ‘Den of Wolves’ that a reader unearthed for me. This one’s from Grazia magazine. Very kind! My ego can never be stroked enough…

Den of Wolves in Grazia, 1 December 2008