Ahead of the South Coast Readers & Writers Festival, Mitch Jennings shares his favourite reads and writing routine with SCWC's Elizabeth Heffernan.
What is your latest writing project?
My debut novel is A Town Called Treachery, a coming-of-age crime novel to be released by HarperCollins on 31 July.
What do you love about it? Are there any challenges?
I love every bit of it. It’s a dream come true, so I love every part of the process, even the tear-your-hair-out, stare-at-the-wall, scream-in-the-shower, wake-up-in-a-cold-sweat parts. Getting a novel written, let alone published, is equal parts torture and exhilaration, but I’ve loved all aspects the same.
What is your earliest reading memory?
I remember Mum reading Magic Beach and The Magic Faraway Tree to me as a kid. When I started reading ‘chapter books’ to myself, it was piles and piles of Goosebumps books (the very first being The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight).
What book made you want to be a writer?
Tomorrow When the War Began. I was a reader long before I first picked it up, but it was the first book that made me want to pick up a pen. I think Marsden’s Tomorrow series has had a monumental, but still underrated impact on an entire generation of readers and writers.
Name a writer who changed your mind.
Tim Winton, for obliterating any cultural cringe I may have held. That the same bloke who wrote The Bugalugs Bum Thief could also write Dirt Music let me believe I could be a writer with the tools I had. He made it OK to write ‘Austrayan’ and showed that, even at its coarsest and most unrefined, our language can be as beautiful and poetic on a page as any other.
The book you reread?
Dirt Music (see above) and A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz. Fraction is a huge undertaking each time, but it somehow gets funnier, sadder and more heartfelt with each reading, enough for me to want to flip that whole tome over and start again.
And the book you could never read again…
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. It's been polarising enough that I’ve considered going back to test my initial reaction to it, I just haven’t been able to bring myself to.
The book you discovered later in life?
I like to think I'm barely a fraction of the way through my reading life, but in my first lap around the modern classics I missed A Confederacy of Dunces. By chance it ended up in my hands not that long ago and it had me in stitches – and perhaps relating a little too much to Ignatius Reilly.
What are currently reading?
I was introduced to Chris Womersley via Ordinary Gods and Monsters last year and was utterly blown away by the best book I’ve read in years. I have since been working back through his entire (brilliant) catalogue and am currently reading The Low Road.
Your comfort read?
I am one of those weirdos who seems to relax to crime and true crime books and podcasts. In that vein, I always take a great deal of comfort picking up Michael Connelly’s latest, whatever it is, knowing I’m onto a sure-fire winner from start to finish.
Your desk?
Is magic – it moves from my bed, to the couch, to the kitchen table, to the car as it slowly takes over the entire house.
Your writing routine?
Isn’t much of a routine at all – but I’m really kind of a binge writer. I’m more inclined to block out an entire day, or days, and write in large blocks than to have smaller daily targets or steal time here and there. I can say that, in organising this chaos, Scrivener has been a game-changer.
The South Coast Readers and Writers Festival is coming to Thirroul on 13-14 July 2024. With a festival line-up featuring more than 40 stellar award-winning authors, talented new voices, acclaimed poets, broadcasters and thinkers, in over 22 sessions to choose from, the weekend promises to be filled with captivating stories, thought-provoking discussions, and inspiring conversations. Book your tickets now: https://southcoastwriters.org/festival
