Four Funerals and a Wedding

No, I’m not seeking to rework the classic 1990’s British comedy, but to give an explanation of how a high school dropout ended up pursuing a career as a writer.

Through the first half of life, I’d barely read a book let alone considered writing one. In my twenties I did attempt to write a screenplay, inspired by a vivid dream I’d woken up in the middle of. It took a decade to complete a first draft and by the time I begun attempting to edit, the holes in the script were obvious enough for me to admit defeat.

I was in my late thirties and still had no idea of what I wanted to do when I grew up. In the next three years, I lost my stepfather, my grandmother and my father. In each case I was asked to do a eulogy, and in each case I wrote a more accurate and more moving tribute. To most people in attendance I had demonstrated a special ability to convey meaning and emotion. There is not, however, a career to be made from eulogising loved ones.

Writing progressively became more of an interest. I began travelling and wrote extensive journals and letters about my experiences on the road. I didn’t anticipate there being any wider interest, but I considered everything I wrote to be getting better. I also started developing a love of reading, and while I’ve never believed I would be capable of writing at the same level as the authors I admire most, my love of reading and writing are united by the love of great stories. Hearing, telling, reading, writing – it is all connected.

In 2020, my short story ‘One Person at a Time’ won a prize in the Campbelltown Literary Awards. While the prize only funded my next few months worth of book purchases, it had the more important result of giving me independent feedback that I could indeed tell an engaging story.

In 2021 the fourth funeral and the wedding both came within a month of each other. On the 21st of May I married my long term partner Alison. Exactly one month later, was the funeral of my beloved Uncle Marty. Writing wedding vows, a wedding speech and one more eulogy saw me receive so many plaudits for my words. I became more convinced that there was a career path for me in writing.

The common ground in all my good writing was the passion for the topic. The style I wrote in varied greatly, but my words at each of the four funerals and my wedding were driven by love. So long as I continued to allow love to drive my writing, I was convinced there would be a readership for my work.

I hope that when you read one of my novels you will feel the love I have for what I’m doing and that it will translate into an engaging and enjoyable experience for you.