The Next Big Thing - Destination Cambodia

My pal P.M. Newton, the acclaimed Australian crime novelist, has tagged me with the Next Big Thing Meme. In the true spirit of procrastination, I have embraced the opportunity. So here goes:

1) What is the working title of your next book?

Destination Cambodia 

Washing the Buddha in Battambang, Cambodia

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

It is really the continuation of a lifelong journey that produced my first book, Destination Saigon. I have been visiting Cambodia for sixteen years, and my publisher at the time, Maggie Hamilton, said she wanted to hear about my experiences in that amazing country.

Walter Mason reads his first book, Destination Saigon

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Travel memoir.



4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Who could play me? As an ex-thespian, I am afraid I would have to cast myself in the role. 



5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

An affectionate, insightful and intimate glimpse of modern Cambodia.




6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

This is a very American question. I don't have an agent, but am published by Allen & Unwin, one of the oldest and most prestigious publishing houses in the world. 

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

Oh dear. Not yet finished! To date, ten months.


8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Hmmm...this is a trick question to make me sound like a self-deluded egotist. Bill Bryson, William Dalrymple, Pico Iyer...

Inspiration: Pico Iyer

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I have to say that it was Paul Theroux who made me want to be a travel writer. But ultimately Cambodia is inspiration enough - there are a billion stories there.



10) What else about the book might pique the reader's interest?

There's quite a bit of magic - I mean, real magic, not the literary kind. 

Cambodian magical tattoos

Book Busking at Pages & Pages

Yesterday I spent the most wonderful morning at Pages & Pages Booksellers in Mosman.



They were hosting a book busking marathon, and I was privileged to open proceedings with 15 minutes reading the funniest pieces from Nancy Mitford's comic masterpiece The Pursuit of Love, one of my all-time favourite books.
It was all in aid of Indigenous Literacy Day, a fundraising effort to help raise literacy rates among indigenous communities in Australia.
What a star-studded lineup it was. I also caught crime novelist P. M. Newton reading a fascinating series of letters by Aboriginal leaders from Australia's past, radio personality Robbie Buck doing a very spirited reading from Richard Flanagan's Gould's Book of Fish, and novelist Charlotte Wood reading a passage from Kim Scott's award-winning That Deadman Dance and, excitingly, a tantalising snippet from her soon-to-be-released novel Animal People!










Jon Page, the owner of Pages & Pages, is to be thanked for his energy and enthusiasm throughout the day, and for so consietently supporting such a good cause.