Q: Fighting Ruben Wolfe is one of the most effective brother stories I've read. Which of course leads to the question do you have any siblings? If so, what was growing up with them like?
A: I have an older brother and two older sisters. Growing up with them was all about playing football in the backyard, wrecking my mumÍs flowers and then being sworn at with a heavy German accent. We actually used to encourage our parents to swear because it sounded so good. We also played a bit of One-Punch in the backyard. It was brilliant.
Q: Where are you from? What's it like there?
A: I live in Sydney in a place called Gymea. It's near the beach and close to where the Sydney bush fires always happen. I set Fighting Ruben Wolfe closer in the city, where I used to live a few years back, walking around the streets and waiting for trains.
Q: The underground world that the Wolfe brothers fall into in this book is entirely gripping and feels entirely real. What kind of research did you have to do?
A: None. All I had were two brothers I knew very well two characters to work with. I just asked the questions, "What if one became a great fighter? What if the family needed the money? What would give them some respect?" The research was in the characters. Once I had them, I only needed to give them something to react to. The underground world is totally constructed in my mind.
Q: Ruben and Cameron are fighting so many things at once. What's it like to write about such a constant struggle?
A: I've always felt that struggle is a beautiful thing. Nothing has ever come easily to me. I've always had to fight to get anywhere. I was never even a good writer at school, but I decided that I was going to be a writer when I was sixteen and that nothing was going to stop me. I love stories that are about people trying to survive in harsh circumstances, because so many people seem to be doing it and the heroic things they do are not always big things. To me, the real hero of Fighting Ruben Wolfe is Mrs Wolfe, working non-stop without complaint, for everyone else to survive.
Q: Clearly the Wolfe brothers mean a lot to you while it's not uncommon to see an author take a character to heart, it's rare to see an author identify with a family so fully. What's it like to write characters that have grown so familiar? What are the challenges?
A: The biggest challenge is always the question, "Do I believe this?" I think no matter what a writer chooses to work on, whether itÍs fantasy, or action, or whatever, he or she has to believe it as they write. They have to believe it when theyÍre in it. So when I wrote about the Wolfes, I wanted it to feel completely real to me. I wanted them to have truth.
Q: What's next for the Wolfe brothers?
A: TheyÍre making beer iceblocks [Popsicles] as we speak.
Q: You've had some very odd jobs how does being a writer compare? How do you go about your writing?
A: Yeah, I've been a janitor, a painter and other things, but nothing compares to writing. I'm happiest when I'm writing well. As far as going about it, lately, I'm editing my next book that's due out here in Australia in October. I'm reading it for the seventh time now so I get up, listen to music a while and put something energetic on to get a bit pumped up, and then I get to work. When writing the story outright, I can tell it's going well if I wake up thinking about it, and I'll usually write in two sections mid-morning to mid-afternoon, and then later at night.
Q: What are your literary influences?
A: Roddy Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Peter Hedges (What's Eating Gilbert Grape), Hemingway, and an Australian writer named George Johnson. Mostly though, my crazy friends, my family and the incompetence of my own life are the biggest influences.
Q: What are your musical influences?
A: Radiohead, Led Zeppelin, Garbage, Ziggy Marley, Dylan, the Ramones, Beethoven ...
Q: Please please tell me now is there something I should know?
A: There are a lot of things you should know. When you find them out, fill me in, because I don't know bloody anything ...