The Official Matthew Reilly Homepage

Hey there everybody. After surviving my US author tour in February, two days after I got back, I left Australia again...this time to go to, of all places, Nepal.

Now, I know. Before you all email me and say, "Hey! What are doing going to Everest! You should be writing a new book!" let me explain: it was a holiday. My first in ages! And also the source of a few great story ideas.

Walked all the way up to the base of Mount Everest itself, to a height of 5600m above sea level (Everest towers above you at 8848m). Since going to the Himalayas, some people have asked me if I would ever want to try and climb Everest. The answer is a resounding "not really". Especially after reading...

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Perhaps the definitive book on climbing Everest, Into Thin Air recounts the real-life disaster of May 1996 when 12 people (including two highly respected commercial guides) died on the upper reaches of Everest. This is possibly the biggest-selling English-language book in Nepal. Every bookshop has it. My whole tour party all read it.

And it is good. Very good. Readable, exciting, and full of intrigue as you follow the colourful array of characters, wondering who will survive and who won't (the South African "bad guys" are just sooooo rotten!). In the end, though, Krakauer describes climbing Everest as an intrinsically irrational act. By the time you reach the summit, you haven't eaten for days (altitude affects your appetite - believe me, even at the base of Everest, you don't feel like eating! I can't imagine how you'd feel at the very top), you haven't slept for over 50 hours, and you really couldn't care less. But you take your photo on the summit and you (hopefully) bring it back down, and get a lifetime of bragging rights.

It is utterly amazing to read this book within sight of Everest. The mountain is the villain of the book, and to see it up close is to appreciate what a pitiless behemoth it is.

You know you have achieved world domination (ha!) when...you find your book in a bookstore eight kilometres from the highest mountain in the world. That's right. At Gokyo (a small hamlet 4900m above sea level and practically in the shadow of Everest) you will find a bookstore. And in that bookstore, you will find CONTEST!!!!! The store owner nearly keeled over when my travelling companions told him that I was the author of one of the books he was selling!

Yes, despite all this recent travel, I am halfway through my next book, which is a third Shane Schofield adventure. The book doesn't have a title yet, but it is absolutely rocketing along. With this novel, I have tried to refine my style in order to make it read faster, faster, faster...and I think it's working! The book absolutely flies! And it is really, really BIG.

As for a sneak peek, well, obviously I can't give away too much, but some things which will appear in the new book include: Schofield, Mother, Gant...several international locations, a Porsche GT-2 and some really, really fast planes!

As someone who visits a heap of schools and who talks to young people a lot, it is my pleasure to be an Ambassador for "National Youth Week" here in Australia this week.

Check out www.youthweek.com for all the action. It's about chasing your dreams, getting noticed, getting that big break, whether you want to be a writer, a rock star, or a movie maker. My Australian publisher, Pan Macmillan, have jumped in as a sponsor, and I know that the head fiction publisher at Pan was a judge in the writing section! So you never know who might have read your work! Get noticed! Any way you can! I'll be a doing a chat-room discussion on www.ninemsn.com this Thursday night, 11 April, at 7.15pm (EST, Australia), talking all about why you should chase your dreams, and then I'll be going on JJJ straight after that (at about 8.45pm). So listen in!

Well, I now have a really large action scene to write. So I'd better get back to the keyboard... Hope you are all well. And as always, keep reading!

P.S. Taking a break from indoor cricket at the moment, so no updates about the antics of the mighty Full Tossers.
P.P.S. But what about that 300-plus run-chase by the Aussies in South Africa yesterday! Go Ricky Ponting! Go Gilly! Although, seriously, I go away for a couple of months, and by the time I get back, both Waugh brothers have been dropped from the one-day team. Gawd, those selectors are ruthless (but effective)...
P.P.P.S. Oh, and I am eagerly awaiting the soccer World Cup in Japan/Korea, even though Australia missed out!