his is a transcripted version of a broadcast interview Matthew Reilly did on Triple J, an FM Radio Station on August 29th, 2001, with DJ Adam Spencer.

Transcript courtesy of Andy Wakeley. Click Here to listen to the MP3 Version.

AS: We are joined this morning by Australian adventure novelist/action writer Matthew Reilly. How are you this morning, Matthew?

MR: I'm very well, thanks Adam.

AS: Is adventure novelist/action writer? How do you classify yourself? What genre do you deal in?

MR: Yeah, adventure; action thriller. That's what I'd call myself.

AS: You've had Temple, Ice Station, Contest; three novels that all exceeded expectations and placed you on the world stage as a writer. And the latest one is Area 7.

MR: That's right.

AS: I thought for a second it might be a biography of the Melbourne scar band. Ah, but no, turns out it's people... shooting people and blowing things up again; you're back on familiar territory.

MR: Mate, a lot of people being shot, a lot of people being blown up, a lot of objects being blown up. Um, all for 500 pages.

AS: It was great; I was reading the book and I got up to about page 37. I thought, lovin' it. Great characters. Sounds exciting. There's something, I'm not sure, there's something just not quite right here. It's, I don't know, I think Matthew's changed his line. Now, nothing -- no one's -- been taken apart with explosive-tipped bullets. Page 38. BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Reilly's back.

MR: Yes, I was thinking of Area 7 as my, uh, you know my Grisham's Painted House for a while there. But, I actually think that the body count for this book is higher than any of the other books.

AS: And the thing with your books, and we'll talk about this later -- we'll get some quotes from the book-- do you know the actual body count?

MR: Ah, no. I counted it for Ice Station, and it was about 183, I think.

(Adam laughs)

AS: Was that the one that began with the monks?

MR: No, that was Temple.

AS: That was the Temple... bloody hell.

MR: About 18 people dead by page 5 in Temple, yeah.

AS: Yeah, you went out at world record pace and then you eased back a bit. One of the things with, with... not only do you describe those things quite beautifully; um, you research your books fairly hard-core, yeah? What was your research agenda before Area 7, because it's basically to do with an American president and American politics.

MR: Yeah, um... I actually studied US politics when I was at university. And for the book itself I went to Utah, because Area 7 is an Area 51 style base, so the whole book is set during this Presidential visit to this ultra-ooba top-secret base.

AS: High-tech military gear.

MR: Yeah. And, they basically get stuck inside and there's a big fight and everyone gets killed...dadadadada. Uh...

AS: Join the dots.

MR: I went to Utah. I went to a place called Lake Powell, which features in the book. It's like a cross between the Grand Canyon and Venice. Imagine the Grand Canyon and someone left the water running and it just filled up halfway.

AS: OK.

MR: Went there. Got in a boat. Got in a helicopter. Flew the whole thing. Checked it all out.

AS: How do you sort that sort of gear? You just write and say, "I'm thinking of writing a novel about high-tech military gear, could you let me into an absolutely prohibited site, please?"

MR: Ah, you're not actually allowed to fly over Area 51, although those Russian satellite photos came out last year. But, you know, got close. Go to Dallas Air Force Base. Go to the edge of the gate.

AS: See, those Russian satellite photos of high-tech military bases; that's like net porn for you, isn't it?

(Matthew laughs)

MR: Yes, yes.

AS: That's what you get really excited about -- you love your toys, you love your bombs, you love your high-tech bases.

MR: I like my toys. I like my bases and I like my hardware. Yes.

AS: OK. Well we'll talk more with Matthew Reilly about his hardware in a few minutes.

(Song)

AS: We're talking with action author extraordinaire Matthew Reilly. Before we hear a couple of your, uh, choice bits of prose from the past, Matthew, you're about to start on a School's Tour. What I like about, and your books are a great read, but I do like the story... this is someone who, this is an Aussie kid who'd thought, bugger it, I'm gonna try and bang out a book, and it's all gone superbly for you. School's Tour; what's your message?

MR: My message is to chase your dreams. My message is... when I wrote my first book, Contest, it was rejected by every publisher in Sydney, so I took it upon myself to self-publish it; get it into bookstores so that it would be seen. I did that. The book was seen, by the people at Macmillan. What you've got to do is... nobody is going to give you your dreams on a platter. You have to go and get them. I did it with Contest. Wrote it. Self published it. Got noticed.

AS: You literally at that time were doing it after school, after work, on the weekends, that sort of thing. It took you how long to bang out a book?

MR: It took me 12 months, to write that first one. Part time; while I was at uni.

AS: And we're talking a book that might now get made into a Hollywood movie one day?

MR: The rights have been optioned. Ah, last I saw, they'd done two screenplays of it, and yeah, uh, it could go big time.

AS: So we're going in schools around rural New South Wales and Victoria.

MR: Yep.

AS: Starting in Orange High this Friday?

MR: Orange and Bathurst this week, and off to Shepparton, Bateman's Bay, and then all the capital cities as well.

AS: OK. www.matthewreilly -- and that's an R-E-I-double L-Y -- MatthewReilly.com's got the details. If you're in a rural New South Wales or Victorian school, and you want to come along and talk action/adventure, and maybe one day, you'll be penning lines like this. I want you to drop a few choice Matthew Reilly quotes into the weather list.

MR: OK

AS:It's nearly cloudy and 31, Townsville sunshine and 27.

MR: From Ice Station: " Champion's head exploded."

AS: Brisbane dry and 21, Newcastle rain and 19.

MR: From Temple: "Dupont's head exploded like a watermelon."

AS: Sydney more showers and 18, Canberra showers and 13.

MR: Also from Temple: "The rotor blades of the chopper sliced through Anistaze's neck like a chainsaw through butter, removing his head from his body in a smooth, frictionless cut."

AS: 'Cos, you just don't want a frictioned cut, when your chainsaw's going through butter, do you? Hobart rain to clear 12, Adelaide cloudy and 15. These are quotes from Matthew Reilly.

MR: From Ice Station: "I can't die, I'm the hero of this story," spoken by the hero of the book.

AS: There you go. Perth showers and 17, Darwin sunny and 31.

MR: This one's a little longer, uh. This is from Area 7: "What Mother now had in place of her natural left foot and shin was a state-of-the-art prosthetic limb, which, so it's makers claimed, guaranteed total and undiminished body movement. Featuring titanium alloy bones, fully rotating joints and hydraulic muscle simulators, its operation was so sophisticated, involving nerve impulse reception and automatic weight shifting, that it required and internal pro-logic computer chip to control it."

AS: The internal pro-logic computer chip. Alice Springs sunshine and 21, Melbourne becoming fine and 14. One last piece of Matthew Reilly.

MR: From Area 7: "McConnell's head exploded like a burst balloon."

AS: Oh, there's more heads exploding. Best of luck with the School's Tour. Congratulations on the book.

MR: Mate, thanks a lot.

AS: If, if you think you can write something, if you want to write something, if you want to sing something, if you want to draw something, get out there and have a shot.

MR: Do it.

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