Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Friday 18 November
7:30 PM - 8:30 PM
Self-publishing success stories don’t come more spectacular than the story of action-thriller writer Matthew Reilly.
In 1996, aged 22, the Sydney-based writer took out a bank loan to self-publish his first novel, Contest, after his manuscript was rejected by all major Australian publishers. A commissioning editor at Pan Macmillan stumbled across a copy of Contest in 1997, and the rest is history: Reilly has since published more than a dozen novels, sold more than 7.5 million books and had his work translated into 20 languages.
A childhood fascination with Hollywood blockbuster films has inspired much of Reilly’s work as a novelist. These days, the author of Seven Ancient Wonders and The Tournament is living the dream in Los Angeles. When he’s not driving his amazing Delorean DMC-12, he’s working on a TV series with Speed producer Mark Gordon based on his Jack West Jr books.
Reilly will be back in Australia in November for the release of his latest book, The Four Legendary Kingdoms. Join us for his only Victorian event, talking career thrills and spills and the transition from page to screen with crime fiction nut, ABC 774 Melbourne’s Rafael Epstein.
Featuring
Matthew Reilly
Matthew Reilly is the international bestselling author of nine novels: Ice Station, Temple, Contest, Area 7, Scarecrow, Hover Car Racer, Seven Ancient Wonders, The Six Sacred Stones, The Five Greatest Warriors and Scarecrow and the Army of Thieves. His latest book is The Great Zoo of China.
In 2005, Matthew was the first author to participate in the Australian Government’s ‘Books Alive’ initiative, for which he wrote the short novel ‘Hell Island’, featuring Shane Schofield. Over 200,000 copies of that work were given away for free in August of 2005.
Matthew’s books are published in over 20 languages and he has sold over 3.5 million books worldwide. Walt Disney Pictures have optioned the movie rights to his children’s book, Hover Car Racer, while Ice Station was optioned by Paramount Pictures.
ABC US Network Television has bought the rights to the Jack West Jr series of books for a TV series put together by ABC US Studios.
Rafael Epstein
Rafael Epstein is a journalist who has worked in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Timor, Indonesia, Europe and the Middle East.
He has covered national elections in the UK and Australia, East Timor’s vote for independence in 1999, the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, the 2005 London bombings, and the arrest of several high profile war crimes suspects in the Balkans.
Rafael won a Walkley Award for his reporting on the links between police and Melbourne’s underworld wars. He won a second Walkley for his coverage of the Mohammed Hanif case, the Indian born doctor charged over his connections to the failed bombings in London in 2007.
He has also worked at the Investigative Unit at the Age, focusing on politics as well as Australia’s special forces and their role in Afghanistan. Rafael currently hosts the Drive program on 774 ABC Melbourne. His first book Prisoner X is published by Melbourne University Press in March 2014.