30.04.08  Practical Boat Owner

Rob Melotti interviewed me for this month's PBO.  His verdict of The Storm Prophet: "a powerfully intriguing story with believable characters and a thrilling conclusion". 

Thanks, Rob...

20.04.08  Beaulieu BoatJumble

Next Sunday, I will be signing copies of The Storm Prophet at Beaulieu.  Come and say hello at stand M013 in the Marquee on 27th April.

And here's a nice letter from a reader:

Dear Mr Macdonald

                                        I just had to email you!  I was given your book The Storm Prophet, for my birthday by my sister.   Once I started to read I couldn't put it down.   I love the book and could see lots of things in Petra that I liked.    One piece which I think is just how I feel about the sea….

  ' Sometimes I wonder about those people who've never seen the sea, never stood on the shore and stared out over empty reaches of sunny blue or stern cold grey.  Never felt the lift and tumble of a hull beneath their feet. Where do they go when they need to be alone?  Where do they think? How do they breathe?'

This is just how I feel.   I was born and live in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the most easterly point in Britain and come from three generations of Sea farers and my nephew is on the Lowestoft lifeboat, so the sea is in my blood and i'm at my happiest when i'm by the sea.

 Thank you once again for writing such a wonderful book and I can't wait for the next book about Petra Woods, and by the way, my sister got me a signed copy!

Every success in the future,

                               Yours Sincerely

                                              Ann Collins

03.04.08  RNLI Review

The latest edition of The Lifeboat, the RNLI's quarterly magazine, has a review of The Storm Prophet:

"This extraordinary novel... is a truly gripping read with a strong and courageous main protagonist... the plot's twists and turns will keep you hooked to the end."

For every book sold to RNLI members through this website, I am donating £2 to the RNLI.  Postage is free in the UK.

27.03.08  Readers' Reviews

I promised you my comments on 'The Storm Prophet'.  I took my copy with me to Jamaica for my wedding and honeymoon and found the reading environment conducive to a sense of empathy with the story's climate.  I found the storyline compelling and at times gripping and exciting.  I am pleased to say I was unwilling to put it down, proving it to be a real 'page turner' that was filled with interesting and informative detail.  I came away from the book  with a vivid set of images of both the characters and the events they lived through.  I have already recommended it to a number of my friends.

Commander Steve Birchall RN

 

I just finished The Storm Prophet. AMAZING!!! You have once again reinforced why I believe you to be one of the best writers from this generation. You handled the sailing jargon with such ease that even though I don't know bow from stern, I never felt adrift in the language. It just didn't matter in your capable hands. Even when I wasn't actively reading the novel, I couldn't stop thinking about the characters.
     All three of your novels have a special place in my library. Thank you and congratulations. I'm very proud for you, sir.
 
In Kuwait,
 
DeWayne Stevens
International Educator

Your book was fantastic. It was impossible to put down and I eagerly await your next one. Please let me know as soon as it is published.

With good wishes for your continuing success,

Annette

We met at the London Boat Show where I bought The Storm Prophet and I promised I would stay in touch.

I must tell you that I immensely enjoyed your book. It's a really compelling story and I read it in a quite short time since it was hard to put the book down!

Warm regards,

Francesca Giordano

 

Dear Hector MacDonald,

I was just emailing you to say how amazing you’re book was, and how enjoyable the experience of reading it was, for a young teenage girl who loves to go sailing. I was thrilled to meet you at the London Boat Show in January, and after you recommended ‘Storm Prophet’ to me, and very kindly signed my copy, I went home and started reading. Having spent a week sailing in Australia with my family in 2001, and a great interest in any yacht races going on world-wide, I found your book a perfect read. The story was captivating and the descriptions inspiring. I loved the characters and the adventures and experiences which they went through.

I love sailing, and have done so since an early age. I am very fortunate to have sailed in some of the most fascinating places in the world, and my love of sailing has only grown deeper having read your book. Some of your descriptions of the storm made me recollect some of the more terrifying of my experiences; the large waves, the coast guard weather warnings etc. I am looking forward to the next sailing holiday I am going on during the Easter holidays, but hope that the weather is slightly more favourable for me and my family.

I am taking my GCSE’s this summer, and for one component of my English course, I have to do a talk, and am thinking of doing my talk on your book, and the stories and characters involved, and more generally the Sydney Hobart Race. Your website has been most helpful on all of these topics, and I just wanted to thank you for giving me these resources and the original spark of inspiration for my talk.

Thank you for writing such an captivating, breathtaking, powerful book…

Lizzy Harnett

 Postscript:

I gave my talk yesterday on a combination of your book and the Sydney Hobart race. I did very well, and thanks to your writing I got 38/40, which gives me an A*!

Your book really was fantastic...I am looking forward to the sequel

Lizzy Harnett

31.01.08  Readers' Reviews

Dear Hector

What a super but super book. My husband Barton (an Aussie) bought  it for me at the recent London Boat Show and you signed it with a wonderful strap line "Down to the sea in ships".

One thing that really fascinated me was how you wrote it as Petra and so understood how female thoughts and emotions work.

We love the sea and have a summer home on the IOW and the RNLI which is a bit similar to the Sydney Coastguard is very close to our hearts.

Also of course we visit Sydney where Barton's family live so I got very excited in knowing all the places.

I became totally intrigued with Moses and sorry about the cliché but there was no way I could put this book down.

I think you may be getting the idea that I enjoyed this book - more than any others for ages.

Congratulations and please will you do a sequel soon.

All good wishes

Poppy Guthrie

28.01.08 Readers' Reviews

We spoke briefly at the Excel London Boat Show and I said I was part way through reading Storm Prophet. I have now completed the book and I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed it. I found it a gripping read with a good blend of sailing drama and human emotion and dilemma. Well done!

Best regards

Sue Heddon

25.01.08  RNLI SOS Fundraising Day

It's an important day for the RNLI, and supporters are out all over Britain raising money.  Please be generous!  You never know when you might need to be rescued.

For every book sold through this website today, I will donate £5 to the RNLI.

You can donate directly to the RNLI at  http://www.rnli.org.uk/sosday/donate2 

21.01.08  Yachts & Yachting

A superb review from Bob Fisher, 12-times veteran of the Sydney Hobart, Guardian correspondent and chairman of the Yachting Journalists Association:

A major storm that hits the fleet of an ocean race has been the subject of several books - all of them recording the facts that happened, the path of the storm and the subsequent mayhem and disaster - notably on the 1979 Fastnet and the 1998 Sydney-Hobart races.  But it has taken Hector Macdonald to use a race as the basis for a thriller novel.  And he uses it well in The Storm Prophet, a compelling tale of a young African with seemingly mystic powers.  There is the conflict of big business and its effect on the deliberations of an otherwise committed owner of a super-maxi due to take part in the Sydney-Hobart race - only one of the battles in this complex story whose heroine is a free-spirited Coastguard officer living a pastoral life on Pittwater.  All of iconic Sydney is there - the CYCA and the bustle of the Boxing Day start.  I simply could not put it down, and I challenge anyone to do otherwise.

Macdonald writes with authority and experience.  He has seen the African medicine-men at work and knows the uncanny accuracy of their predictions, and he has also seen how the predictions of meteorologists can turn to a ball of chalk because of a slight change in the formation of a pressure zone.  It is, however, the twist at the end that displays the writer as a master of suspense.

 

20.01.08  Kelvin Hughes at ExCel

My sincere thanks to the wonderful booksellers at Kelvin Hughes, as well as to everyone who bought The Storm Prophet  at the London Boat Show.  We sold nearly 500 copies - something of a record for a Boat Show.  It was great to meet so many interested people, and especially nice to have around fifteen of them come up and say they had already bought, read and enjoyed the book. 

As for the show itself, what a relief after Earls Court to see so many visitors!  A fine marketing effort by the organisers.  And I particularly enjoyed the chance to tour HMS Exeter.  One detail I wish I'd included in Petra's brief time on HMAS Darwin: the thick bundles of black wiring that run about the ship, just above head height.  And you always forget how compressed all the spaces are on board a warship.

14.01.08  Yachting Monthly

A great review from Yachting Monthly:

This cleverly plotted tale of deceit and illusion is set around one of the world's great ocean races - The Boxing Day Sydney-Hobart Race.  It's a stylish thriller which is definitely a cut above the norm.

04.01.08  London Boat Show

Just a few weeks after the Earls Court Boat Show comes the "official" London Boat Show at ExCel (somewhere near Dagenham??).  I shall be there all week as a guest of Kelvin Hughes and bookharbour.com on stand B5.  Come and say hello, 11-20 January.

A lot of Storm Prophets were unwrapped on Christmas Day, it seems, and I've been getting some lovely messages.  Here's one of them:

I read it all over Christmas and boxing day, wow, loved every page of it, thank you. Co-incidental also that my boss set off this year on the Sydney-Hobart race on a Sydney 38 (not quite Sentinel!) and has about 140nm to go as I write this.

Thank you once again for totally engulfing me in 'The Storm Prophet'

Kind Regards,
Robert Hickman
Skipper Yacht Halcyon

Petra, Hector, Tom and Miranda at the Royal Thames Yacht Club

15.12.07

My thanks to Tom Montgomery for his kind invitation to sign copies of The Storm Prophet at the Royal Thames Yacht Club Christmas party last week.  A very entertaining evening!

	Miranda and Petra at Earls Court

13.12.07 Earls Court Boat Show

Last week held a new experience for me: setting out my stall and selling my writing to innocent passers-by.  Luckily I had some help - Miranda, Monica, Petra, Flic and Niki did a brilliant job of manning the stand and using all their charm and wit to persuade boating enthusiasts that this was the perfect book for them to be reading over Christmas.

Given how few people attended the show, we did very well, selling over 400 books in a week.  And I've been getting lovely messages from some of the people who bought and have already read the book.  Here's one of them from yachtmaster/powerboat instructor Tony Brown:

First, let me say how much I enjoyed the novel.  It was a cracking idea and developed interestingly with the different threads meshing well together.  It took a page or two before I really got into it, but once started I found it hard to put down.  I found that the writing in the present tense was very effective, it added an urgency to the story line as the tension increased.  On the sailing/powerboating side, I could not fault it.

A couple of the senior crew from Leopard (record-breaking winner of this year's Fastnet and favourite for the coming Sydney Hobart) stopped by and each bought a copy.  I like to think they'll be picking up tips for the race on their way out to Sydney!

Finally, a review today in the Independent: "an offbeat take on the harbinger of doom formula... take this on your next long-haul flight"

29.11.07  LAUNCH!!

The Storm Prophet is launched in the UK today. 

Watch the video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHU-6Y4b79E 

Come and meet me at the Earls Court Boat Show (stand 1M61) - 1-9 December.

Or just read the reviews that have come in so far and hurry to the bookshop!

22.10.07  Dutch edition

I've just received my first copies of the Dutch edition, and it's a great looking book.  There are two front covers.  The top one is cut away along the edge of the wave.  The lower one, also glossy, shows Moses in silhouette on a beach, looking out over a calm sunset sea... towards a vast wave (as if in his imagination).  A very powerful image.  Overall, an excellent design and production - well done Bruna!

16.10.07  Dutch launch

De Stormprofeet is published today in the Netherlands.  Another great cover!

11.10.07  Australian launch

The Storm Prophet hit the shelves in Australia and New Zealand last week, and received a warm reception from all.  I spent a week in Sydney doing interviews and surreptitiously inspecting the piles in Dymocks and Borders.  Could they be seen clearly from the entrance?  Would the big bold words on the adjacent David Malouf book distract browsers?

Radio is the primary medium in Australia, and The Storm Prophet got 10-20 minute slots on around a dozen stations.  All the interviewers were wonderfully enthusiastic.  James O'Loghlin of ABC Sydney called it "a terrific read" and actually recounted from memory one of the most dramatic scenes; Kieran Weir of ABC South Australia said, "Sometimes a book reaches straight to the heart."  Similar sentiments were expressed on the all-important commercial channels like Sydney's 2UE and Melbourne's 927.  The only tricky interview was the one that began with the question, "So what was it like describing sex from a woman's point of view?"  At least on radio no one can see you blushing.

10.10.07  First Reader's Review of The Storm Prophet

My thanks to Richard van den Berg for this email, received today:

Dear Mr Macdonald

I just finished reading The Storm Prophet, and I just wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. The description of the storm and rescue, what a ride! It's so hard to find intelligent and stimulating thrillers these days. The plot outline was intriguing by itself, but when I realized I had also read The Mind Game a few years ago, I knew it would be something special.

Good luck with promoting the book. They say it takes a few to write a great one, and I seriously think this one is great.

Sincerely,

Richard van den Berg

PS: I think this story would translate excellently to the big screen, but I'm sure I'm not the first one to suggest that.

01.10.07  Humpty Doo

There is a small town some forty kilometres outside Darwin called Humpty Doo, and last night I went there with one of my new Darwin friends, Dino.  Humpty Doo is possibly the greatest place name in the world.  If you called your newborn that, it would be child abuse.  No one's quite sure how the town ended up so-called, but then there are a lot of strange names in Australia.

The reason for visiting Humpty Doo on my last night in Darwin was the pub.  It is famous in the Territory for its wild characters.  I expected to see two or three interesting faces, but in fact just about every man in the pub was a casting director's dream.  Heavy blokes in biker outfits - threaded leather waistcoats, big boots, shaved skulls.  Then another bunch with outstanding ZZ Top beards and impressive moustaches.  Mural-sized tattoos on both men and women.  Crumpled black outback hats with the leather cords and crocodile teeth (real, I suspect, here).  A minstrel figure, quite mad, in ragged clothes and wide-brimmed hat, shaking a bottletop-studded stick in time to the rock music.

Dino and I looked dangerously clean-shaven and respectable.  There's a strong possibility the assembled company thought we were federal law enforcement officers (the local cops wouldn't have looked half as out of place).  Certainly, there were no tourists in these parts.  We drank our first beer inside, fascinated by the sight of eight-year old girls leaning against the bar by the sign saying "No children".  Then we took the second out onto the terrace, where a full-blown bikers' convention seemed to be in progress, and the kids were sharing mommy's cigarette.  Nice.  One heavily-bearded and tattooed fellow lumbered up and stood beside us for a while, exchanged a couple of words about the match on TV with Dino, then lumbered off.  Checking us out?  Probably. 

Actually the atmosphere was remarkably good-natured.  Beards, tatts and big bellies aside,we weren't at all surprised to make it out in one piece.

28.09.07  The Rains

The rains have come to Darwin.  Two months early apparently.  Thunderous downpours, four or five or them, obliterating everything and turning the streets into rivers.  Locals assure me there won't be any more rain until December, but for the moment everyone's enjoying the fresh atmosphere.  Tropical rain is always wonderful - powerful, cleansing, revitalising stuff, generating rich smells of frangipani and humid earth.

Also beginning is the Australian publicity campaign for The Storm Prophet.  First up was a full hour on ABC Darwin radio - an intimidating amount of time to fill, but luckily the format included the selection of five memorable tracks, rather like Desert Island Discs.  Someone later suggested I should have chosen only songs with a nautical theme.  La Mer, Sailing, and The Drunken Sailor perhaps.

Then there was a national radio interview with a wonderfully exuberant interviewer who had sailed the Sydney Hobart and consequently didn't require much input from me at all.  He enthused for ten minutes about the race and the tough conditions encountered, and then commended the book to his listeners "if you want the bejesus scared out of you!".

Last night the Northern Territory state library, whose collection has been invaluable to me here, put on an "in conversation" event, in the course of which I was quizzed on "Why Darwin?" and then invited to a low-tide cricket match on a sand bar in the harbour.  A good result.  My interviewer, local author Andrew McMillan, became my host for the latter part of the evening, and I have to say I have never seen a more perfect writer's den than his home.  Officially, it's a ground floor flat.  But really it's an open space beneath an old, raised house.  The walls are a see-through lattice of thin strips of wood - garden fencing really.  The place is lined with dusty Keneallys, Vonneguts and Hesses.  Old manuscripts hang from hooks on the ceiling.  Pottery shards, ammunition casings and other archeological relics from the Outback decorate every flat surface.  With heavy rain just outside, and rich tropical night scents coming through the porous walls, it couldn't have been more atmospheric.  Andrew admitted a film company had wanted to use it once for a "writer's home", but then decided it looked "too much like a set".

It made me feel very suburban with my anonymous modern desk in my orderly London office.

26.09.07  Mangroves

Yesterday was a research field day.  I've had no luck persuading fishermen or sailors to take me to the deserted stretch of coast I want to use in the book.  "Why the bloody hell would you want to go there?" they ask.  The general reaction has reassured me that I've chosen the right bit of the back-of beyond, but it does make it difficult to do the research.

So I decided to get there myself.  There's a tiny boat rental place on a wild creek near the area I'm interested in, at the end of a 60km dirt track.  I hired a "ute" - a heavy-duty pick-up truck that could take the corrugations and bumps - and set off yesterday at 5.30am.

The whole experience was rather surreal.  Driving in the dark along the Stuart Highway with the road-trains.  Heading off the bitumen into completely empty Crocodile Dundee territory - not a single other vehicle in sight.  Seeing the deep red sun come up through the woolly-butts (I think that's what the trees are called).  And pitching up, around 7am, at a line of mangroves where a trio of friendly characters had an aluminium dinghy waiting for me. 

They cast me off without the slightest concern, after thrusting an indecipherable map of the creek system into my hands and making sure I had my "sunnies".  The first creek was narrow and the sun was nowhere near reaching it.  It felt very primeval.  Me and the boat guys had cracked the requisite jokes about salties.  Not so funny once I was round the first bend and feeling rather close to the water.  In fact I didn't see a single croc all morning, although I have no doubt I passed hundreds.  No matter - I'd seen plenty of "jumping crocs" on the Adelaide River, as well as a few sleepy ones in Kakadu.  I was here for the ambience, and there was plenty of that.

I had the whole area to myself.  Not a single person, boat, shack or anything manmade in sight.  Complete wilderness.  When I switched off the outboard (unnerving to do the first time, in case it didn't start again), the sounds the birds were making were a long way from anything you could call "song".  Occasional splashes spoke of great excitements in the murky olive water.  Mangroves lined every inch of every bank throughout the creek system.

The feel of the place changed as the sun rose, and by the time I got to the sea - Van Diemen's Gulf - it became more welcoming.  The wider creeks were like great rivers, and made good race tracks in which to open the throttle.  Surprisingly, my "tinny" came with an impressive engine, and I was speeding along at a hell of a rate.  Felt a lot like the Live and Let Die chase sequence in the Everglades, though sadly lacking the Harlem gangsters in pursuit.

Afterwards, emboldened, I drove north to explore Gunn Point, one of the landmarks around which Petra will be taking the sea route into Van Diemen's Gulf.  There used to be a prison here - a vast tract of land now abandoned.  After enjoying the ocean views from the west side of Gunn Point I decided to strike north to get a view of the Vernon Islands.  It wasn't entirely clear whether the prison land was off limits.  There were no signs forbidding entry, and a well-established dirt road led into it, through a collapsed fence.  Feeling adventurous, I proceeded, expecting to hit the sea after about five minutes.  15 kilometres later, with no sight of anyone or anything but more skinny woollybutt trees, I started thinking about all those tourists who have disappeared in the Outback.  I was in a vehicle of unknown dependability, with only one bottle of water left, a long way into an area of wilderness where I couldn't reasonably expect anyone friendly to venture for weeks. 

I turned back.  There's in-depth research and then there's suicidal obsessiveness.

21.09.07  Salties

I have a crocodile problem.  Saltwater crocodiles, the biggest reptiles in the world, are everywhere around Darwin.  Plastic replicas, signs, names of bars - salties are mascots here.  The big question is whether to include them in the book. 

I don't want to turn Petra's second story into a Wilbur Smith adventure.  Not that there's anything wrong with Wilbur Smith - I devoured his books when I was growing up in Africa - but his encounters with ferocious wildlife always had a slight air of buccaneer fantasy about them.  Above all else, however extreme her trials, Petra's world must feel real.

The trouble is that writing a novel based on the coast and rivers of the Northern Territory without bringing in crocs would be like leaving the yachts out of The Storm Prophet.  Without giving too much away, Petra is going to find herself in the water, on an inhospitable shore, and it is simply unrealistic to have all the crocs absent that day.  Their numbers have exploded since the hunting ban came in, and now they are everywhere.  Two hundred are removed from Darwin harbour every year.  People walking on the beaches here find themselves being stalked by crocs in the surf.

So it looks like Petra is going to have a close encounter with a saltie.  The challenge will be to make it visceral, gritty, and real.  And no - I'm not going to research this topic too closely...

16.09.07  The New

Darwin is a city in transition.  This place is changing fast.  I referred to a "gentle decay", but that isn't true of large parts of the city, where new shiny buildings are going up and billboards promise lush apartments or luxurious offices.  The Dinar Beach Yacht Club (which will definitely be featuring in the book) is a perfect example of that gentle decay - a fishermen's hang-out that manages to make the Mombasa Yacht Club of my childhood look polished and cosmopolitan.  But just across town is the Cullen Bay marina, with multi-million dollar houses overlooking tycoon's yachts in a spot that was, until recently, just rocky shoreline.

This rapid transition may be a useful theme for the book.  The clash of old Darwin folk, who want nothing more than a cold beer and good barramundi fishing, and the new urban developers with grand plans for this outpost community.  I'm told the large Greek community here has been particularly successful in the real estate boom.  There may be a new character emerging...

I'm coming to understand the main difference between The Storm Prophet and this new book.  In the first, Petra knows everything and everybody.  She's on her own turf, dealing mostly with problems that are familiar, with the full support of friends, colleagues and even the Navy.  In Darwin, she won't know anyone and everything will be different for her.  The trials she'll face will be completely beyond her training.  And the only help she'll have... well, I just had this idea about a mud crab fisherman, a real back-of-beyond kind of guy, who may end up saving her life.

08.09.07  Darwin

I've arrived in Darwin, Australia - setting of the second Petra Woods novel.  First impressions: it's a pleasant town.  Not necessarily a good thing for a fiction writer, but there are enough interesting characters here to sculpt a strong story, I'm sure.  Being tropical, small in size, relaxed and friendly, Darwin reminds me a little of Mombasa, where I grew up.  There's the same natural harbour, the same gentle decay about the place, and the same sense of being on the edge of civilisation. 

One problem I realise I'm going to face, as a British writer presenting Darwin from an Australian's point of view, is working out which alien features would also be alien to someone from Sydney.  For example, drive-thru bottle shops.  Do they have them in Sydney?  I don't remember seeing any.  They're quite impressive set-ups, with an express lane and a "browse" lane.  I love that.  Forget books: in Darwin, you browse for booze.  Sounds catchy.

Books.  Hard to find a bookshop in Darwin.  There is one tucked away in a mall, and a little indy shop by the marina.  But clearly books aren't a large part of life here.  In both shops I asked about books on, or set in, Darwin.  Plenty on WWII and Cyclone Tracy, but nothing since then.  So it looks like the field is clear for me. 

I think Petra's going to have fun here.

02.09.07  First Copies

Penguin have sent me the first two copies of The Storm Prophet, and they look wonderful.  I'd forgotten what a magical feeling it is to hold the book in your hands at last, after years of planning and hard work.  The jacket design is terrific - surely no one will be able to resist it in the shops!

The dedication has ended up somewhat marginalized - a design necessity, apparently - so I'll reproduce it here:

for all those who put to sea in storms to help others

After writing this book for two years, I am in awe of the work of lifeboat crews.  I am a strong swimmer and I love the sea, but I'm not sure I'd have the courage to set out into the extreme conditions lifeboat crews and coastguards routinely face.

17.08.07  The Fastnet Race

This week has seen more extreme conditions for yachtsmen in the Fastnet, the British equivalent of the Sydney Hobart race.  Most of the yachts are now safely back in port, but of the 300 entrants 211 have "retired".  They were wise to be cautious: this is the race that saw fifteen people killed in 1979.

For the first time ever, the race organisers postponed the start by a day, due to the severe weather warnings coming from the Met Office.  One Royal Ocean Racing Club representative said, “It remains the RORC policy to start the race when it is safe to do so and the responsibility for a boat’s decision to participate in the race or to continue racing is hers alone."  This could have come straight out of The Storm Prophet:

CYCA had taken the brave stance that the race would never be cancelled.  Whatever severe weather the boats might face, it was up to the skippers to decide if it was safe to sail.

I can only speculate as to whether the RORC race committee went through the same kind of stressful debate as their fictional Australian counterparts:

RACE DIRECTOR:  'You're asking for what?  Extra precautions?  More lifejackets?  A naval presence in Bass Strait?  Because I know you wouldn't suggest we should cancel on this basis.'

PETRA: 'Just consider it, at least!  A serious storm in Bass Strait could wipe out half the fleet.  There's over a thousand lives at stake.'

CHAIRMAN: 'There's also a multi-million-dollar race at stake.'

Welcome to my new website

This redesign celebrates the imminent publication of The Storm Prophet, which I hope will be the first of several books featuring the Sydney coastguard, Petra Woods.  It is a first in other ways as well: the first time I have created a properly heroic protagonist, and the first time I have written from a woman's point of view.  The result, I hope you'll agree, is emotionally complex and genuinely exciting. 

I'm going to do two things with this page.  First, I'll let you know what's happening with The Storm Prophet: the reviews, signings and other events.  Second, I'll keep an informal diary when I start writing the new Petra Woods novel.  The next book is set in Darwin (northern Australia) and I'm heading out there to research it in September.  So check back here every now and then to find out how I'm getting on with those saltwater crocodiles.

Thank you to everyone who has written to me over the last few years.  Your letters and emails have been tremendously encouraging.  I've tried to reply to them all, so if you didn't hear from me something probably went astray.  Please keep writing.  I'd love to know what you think of the new book and the character of Petra Woods.

In this age of Dan Brown and JK Rowling, it is very difficult for most books to get themselves noticed.  I still receive emails from people who liked The Mind Game asking when my "second book" is coming out.  On the other hand the Internet, with its virtual networks, provides a wonderful new opportunity to tell people about music, films and books that are in some way special.  If you have enjoyed The Mind Game or The Hummingbird Saint, please spread the word about The Storm Prophet to your friends and colleagues.  Personal recommendation makes a huge difference to the success of a new book.

The Storm Prophet is published on 1 October in Australia and New Zealand, and 29 November in the UK.  Signed copies will be available from this site from early October.

Thanks for reading

Hector