Work is proceeding apace on Murray 7 - "The Split".
The time is 2002 - it is now four years since Murray's translation to the federal sphere where he finds himself a lowly Labor backbencher at the height of the Howard ascendancy. It was a time when 'national security' was the issue at the forefront of the political agenda. We were alert if not downright alarmed and persons of middle eastern appearance were apparently up to all sorts of insidious activities. And since the seat of Coolaroo contains more ozzie mossies than you can poke a kebab at, Murray is not far from the action.
Over the next few months I will be incommunicado, debriefing Murray at a secret location. The resulting output will then be put through the Brunwick Institute's patented fiction-o-meter, rigourously interrogated by the legal department, pruned of superflous superfluities by a crack team of ball-busting editors at Text Publishing, transmitted on-line to Madras for proof reading, then finally sent to a sweatshop in Vietnam to be printed on paper manufactured from woodchips sourced from the last remaining stand of Tasmanian old-growth forest. After the covers have been glued on, it will then by published in the later part of next year.
In the meantime, Text publishing is putting together the second collection of the Murray Whelan trilogy - consisting of The Big Ask, Something Fishy and Sucked In. It should be in the shops towards Christmas this year.
While I am away, details of speaking engagements, festivals, library talks, etc will be posted here on the upcoming events page.