Born in Sydney in 1974, Matthew Reilly was not always a big fan of reading. It was only after he read To Kill A Mockingbird and Lord of the Flies in Year 10 that he realised reading could transport you to another world. Following this revelation, Matthew soon began creating stories of his own and set about writing his first novel, Contest, at the age of 19 while still at university studying law. Matthew Reilly is now the internationally bestselling author of the Scarecrow novels, the Jack West Jr novels and a number of standalones.
On the eve of the release of the sixth book in the Jack West Jr series, The Two Lost Mountains, we asked Matthew a few questions about his writing inspiration, his loyal readers and what to expect from the rest of the series. Read on …
Matthew Reilly (Photo by Shawn Barber).
Tell us about your book, The Two Lost Mountains!
MR: The Two Lost Mountains is the sixth – yes, sixth! – book in the series that began with Seven Ancient Wonders. In it we find our hero Jack West Jr desperately chasing after a whole bunch of villains trying to locate several ancient mountain sites, because whoever gets to those sites will soon be able to rule the world.
Where do you find the inspiration for each new instalment in the Jack West Jr series?
MR: I just love big, grand adventure stories, and with this series, I’ve constructed a giant one of my own. It’s inspiring just to play around in it, to find more characters in its corners, more dangerous places and more wicked mazes and booby traps. And yet it’s all somewhere in my mind!
I also have one simple rule: each one has to be better than the one before it. Bigger, faster, more cool historical elements, or maybe it possesses more “big character moments” – in some way, it must take the series and the genre forward. That’s what inspires me.
We’re approaching the end of the series with this book. Do you have an end point for Jack West in mind already or are you still planning it out?
MR: I do have the end in mind for him. I formulated it out a while ago, during the writing of The Four Legendary Kingdoms and the planning of The Three Secret Cities. This series will have an end and it will be big. In many ways, this book sets it all up.
What’s your favourite thing about your hero, Jack West Jr?
MR: You know, I most of all enjoy how he can do all these amazing heroic things, yet also turn up to a parent-teacher day at his daughter’s school. In this book, we see him at a career’s day and it’s one of my favourite scenes in the whole novel. I am very aware that, in my books, the heroes like Jack and Scarecrow do these amazing feats, so I like to see these larger than life characters in regular “normal” situations. (I also loved the way Jack stared down the bully sportsmaster in The Six Sacred Stones and cracked a softball to pieces with his titanium hand!)
What do you love about reading and writing these kinds of adventure thrillers?
MR: I’ve often felt that my biggest asset as an author is this: I am just like my readers. I go to see Marvel movies on their opening weekends. I love Christopher Nolan’s movies. I watch all kinds of action TV shows. And most of all, I love a novel that I cannot put down and which makes me lose track of time.
I said before that I just love this kind of story: a great big grand adventure. My readers do, too, so they “get” my jokes and my obscure references to movies and buy into the rollicking fun of it all.
You must get a lot of feedback from your readers – what’s the nicest or most memorable thing anyone has ever said about your books?
MR: I once got a comment on social media from a young fan who was partially paralysed from the waist down. He said my books allowed him, for a few hours, to escape from his wheelchair and run around ancient booby-trapped places with Jack West and his team. Hard to forget that.
What’s the last book you read and loved?
MR: The last novel I that made a huge impact on me was The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons (and its sequel Endymion). The breadth of the world/galaxy that Simmons created was mind-blowing. I was just massively impressed.
What is the best piece of writing advice you have ever received?
MR: “Writing is rewriting.” I usually spend about seven months writing my first draft of a book and then I spend another five months revising, revising, revising. I’d never show anyone my first draft.
What do you hope readers will get out of The Two Lost Mountains?
MR: I hope they see an escalation in the stakes in this series. Now it gets real and nasty and dangerous. I hope they click on their seatbelts and enjoy a wild ride.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
MR: Finish this series with The One Something Something. I don’t think I can bring readers to this stage in the larger story and go off an write something else! So it’s time to bring on the big finish. That’s next.
Thanks Matthew!
—The Two Lost Mountains by Matthew Reilly (Pan MacMillan Australia) is out on the 13th of October.
This book is part of Booktoberfest 2020, our festival of new books!
The Two Lost Mountains
Jack West Jr: Book 6
AN INCREDIBLE VICTORY BUT AT A TERRIBLE PRICE...
Against all the odds, Jack West Jr found the Three Secret Cities but at a heartbreaking cost. His beloved daughter Lily, it appeared, was slaughtered by Sphinx in a cruel ancient ritual.
TO THE MOUNTAINS AND THE FALL!
With his rivals far ahead of him, Jack must now get to one of the five iron mountains - two of which have never been found - and perform a mysterious feat known only as 'The Fall'...
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