Story by Sam Eyers
Photo by Ryan Low
In his youthful wisdom, Will decided to email publishers saying he had written a book that he actually hadn’t. To seem more professional, Will used his “home email” that he had made in Year 3, but his youthfulness made him naive to the fact that the email may have been a tad inappropriate. He was shocked when six minutes later the publishers responded eager to read his “new” book. When he brought up this issue with the long-serving Newington librarian Mrs. Jagger, she brought him to a room in the library and locked him in there. She told him to write the greatest first chapter that he had ever written. Throughout the day Will slaved away at the first chapter of the soon-to-be novel and produced a masterpiece. He sent this off to the publishers who had been avidly asking for a taster of his new book, expecting to receive a response in six months after he would have time to write the book. He was yet again shocked when 10 minutes later the publishers responded even more keenly than the first time, asking for the whole book. Will, obviously unsure what to do, emailed the publishers about how busy he was at the time with his HSC. They responded saying that they knew he was nervous, and it was ok if he only wanted to bring in a little bit of his book, he could. Happy with this outcome, he worked on six pages of his novel whilst he was doing the HSC. He brought this into the publishers, and they thought that it was not as good as its first chapter. They told him to scrap the whole rest of the book he had supposedly written and gave him some time and money to rewrite the rest of his book.
A year later, he returned to the publishers with his book and “Loathing Lola” which was released as his first book. After dousing himself with lynx to disguise his school uniform, he returned to the publisher only to be informed that his book had not sold as well as they hoped for. The publisher encouraged him to maybe pursue a different career.
Distraught that a year’s hard work had now been flushed down the drain, Will decided to try pursuing different avenues of work. He was a journalist at Channel 9, which he despised, he also wrote websites based on “the Block” and other TV shows. He hated his work and wanted to return to creative writing, a place where he felt happy and free. Drawing on his past experiences, he created more novels that were packed with humorous moments from his childhood.
One of these moments was when his Yiayia went to Spotlight to buy some new sheets to sow with. In a thick Greek accent, she asked a worker if they had any “high quality sheets”. Will bent over, gagging at the swear word her grandmother had subsequently said. The store person asked her to repeat what she said, as he could not decipher her Greek accent. “Huh, this guy stupid” she thought; so, she shouted, “do you have any high-quality sheets” seemingly to the whole store. These funny moments with his Yiayia encouraged him to create his book “The First Third”, but instead of paying out his grandmother, he gave her a bucket list.
The loss of his best friend Ben inspired him to write “Sidekicks” which is about a guy who dies, and all of his friends must band together to deal with the loss. On a sadder note, it was only at Ben’s funeral that Will learnt that his best friend was gay. Will lamented on his own experience about coming out, he was shunned by schools and not allowed to talk. Yet his mood had lightened as gay marriage had been voted for, and more inclusive mindsets spread. However, he has recently noticed that some negativity has returned as Big W wouldn’t stock his books and he was forced to put a “Mature Content” sticker on his newest book “We Could Be Something” because it included homosexual scenes.