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| On the way up or down? |
Not many writers have the career highlights to which Jack Heath can lay claim. Notably, how many of us have submitted a manuscript, our first, and had it picked up by a traditional publisher? Quite a few, you might suggest. Yes, yes. But how many of those lucky ones had their first manuscript picked up by a traditional publisher at the age of seventeen? I wouldn’t have a clue. But, of those who had their first submission selected for publication at the tender age of 17, how many have had that same book go on to become an international bestseller AND be named Young Australian of the Year for good measure a few years after that?
Hmmm. I would guess not many. Certainly not me on any of the counts.
I listened to Jack speak from the middle of the jam-packed dining room at the Carrington hotel in the Blue Mountains a few weekends ago. Microphone in hand, I was doing my best to blend in, fade, and jump outstretched legs to avoid undue intimacy, whilst attempting to reach those in the crowd who wished to ask a question of the esteemed speaker.
Audience member: Excuse-me, you’re blocking my view. (that was to me, not Jack)
Me: Oh sorry.
Audience member no. 2: I can’t see now. (that, too, was to me)
Me: Ah. Got it.
“Your turn now” (again, me, whispering as I placed the microphone in a different audience member no. 3’s hands and stood back to block the view of yet another)
Audience member no. 3: Jack, can you tell us how you navigated that period of not knowing whether you could do it? It is easy for you now that you have ‘made it’ as an author, but back then, can you tell us how you felt and what you did specifically to help with that feeling?
Jack: (laughing gently) I’m not sure that you ever feel that you have ‘made it.’ Today, this very second could be the zenith of my career. But, let me tell you that after the success of book one, books two, three, four, five, six and seven* were all flops.
Deep in contemplation of that number of failed manuscripts, I must have missed the next bit where presumably he spoke of his emotions and then said what I have heard over and again from writers about writing being his life, his incapacity to not write, or the urgent need to write …or maybe not.
I re-connected when I heard the word lunchbox (food tends to get my attention) and lost focus again for a few seconds. It was mid-morning after all.
Jack: I realised that I needed to be honest about my journey for those who are trying to get somewhere (I heard him say after having metaphorically consumed a pickle-and-mortadella sandwich of my husband’s school days).
Kind. That is so very reassuring. Now, all the budding writers in the audience (most I’d say) can feel confident that if their treasured words are not cutting the mustard with the industry gatekeeper publishers right now (or on their next six or seven attempts), when they get to their 40th, 50th or 69th published book, like Jack, they can look back on his encouragement to just keep going and nod sagely.
Oh, I forgot to say that Jack’s first crime thriller was voted one of the 100 best books of all time … twice.
*I might have lost count here
The links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.
- But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
- Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
- Love, fear and a return to France: A family memoir
- With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s
- Talk and Play with your Child in French
