Matthew Reilly on Books, Blockbusters and Blowing Stuff Up

Self-publishing success stories don’t come more spectacular than the story of action-thriller writer Matthew Reilly.

In 1996, aged 22, the Sydney-based writer took out a bank loan to self-publish his first novel, Contest, after his manuscript was rejected by all major Australian publishers. A commissioning editor at Pan Macmillan stumbled across a copy of Contest in 1997, and the rest is history: Reilly has since published more than a dozen novels, sold more than 7.5 million books and had his work translated into 20 languages.

A childhood fascination with Hollywood blockbuster films has inspired much of Reilly’s work as a novelist. These days, the author of Seven Ancient Wonders and The Tournament is living the dream in Los Angeles. When he’s not driving his amazing Delorean DMC-12, he’s working on a TV series with Speed producer Mark Gordon based on his Jack West Jr books.

Reilly will be back in Australia in November for the release of his latest book, The Four Legendary Kingdoms. Join us for his only Victorian event, talking career thrills and spills and the transition from page to screen with crime fiction nut, ABC 774 Melbourne’s Rafael Epstein.