Donnybrook writer Bill Swiggs will see his novel hit the shelves next September after he was announced as the winner of the international 2018 Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing Prize for his shortlist manuscript Blood on the Wattle.
Mr Swiggs and his wife Rhonda both flew to the awards ceremony which were held at London’s Stationers’ Hall in the United Kingdom on Thursday, September 20, hosted by the Wilbur and Niso Smith Foundation and sponsored by Bruce Jack Wines.
He said attending the awards night and events which followed made him feel truly starstruck.
It was absolutely fantastic. It really was a fairy-tale and I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. It was just brilliant!
- Bill Swiggs
“It was absolutely fantastic. It really was a fairy-tale and I couldn’t believe it was happening to me. It was just brilliant!” he said.
“It’s still sinking in, there’s a whole lot more happening than just being the winner. I’ve been told that Blood in the Wattle has been picked up by publishers Bonnier and Saffery and it will be published under the title Blood in the Dust.”
He said the title was changed so it doesn’t denote a specific place, where wattle is native to Australia.
Mr Swiggs’ novel is set in 1853, in colonial Australia where 19-year-old Toby O’Rourke’s world is changed forever when his parents are brutally murdered and he and his brother, Patrick, are cast out of the only home they have ever known.
On the goldfields of Ballarat, Toby finds a little peace for his tormented soul in the form of Annie Hocking, a woman to stand by his side through the killing ground of the Eureka Stockade.
Toby is given a chance to return to the life he once knew, but to do so, he must hunt down and kill the man who murdered his parents.
Mr Swiggs said he always had a passion for writing but it wasn’t until he over come his battle with cancer he started getting right into it.
After that I kind of had a think about what was important to me, I had a new lease on life and I decided writing was very important to me. So I got stuck in.
- Bill Swiggs
“After that I kind of had a think about what was important to me, I had a new lease on life and I decided writing was very important to me. So I got stuck in,” he said.
With winning he also gained a £7,500 grant to go towards travel and research for his next book.
“I’m working on another one at the moment that is set at the turn of the 19th – 20th century in Kalgoorlie and it has an abandoned child element to it,” Mr Swiggs said.
