The Never Boys (20 page)

Thanks to Emily and Denise Rice, who not only found the real-life setting for
The Never Boys
, but also shared their yarns about sheep bladder water pistols and frozen eyeballs.

Thanks also to the research centre staff at the Australian War Memorial.

And to historian Sue Rosen for allowing the use of the leech story from her book,
We Never Had a Hotbed of Crime! Life in Twentieth Century South Sydney
(2000).

 

 

 

My high school woodwork teacher had a black and white photograph above his blackboard showing a teenage boy's scalp tangled around a drill bit. It was a full-on nest of hair ripped from the skin. He repeatedly warned us this was what happened to students who mucked around too close to his equipment. Of course, the moment he turned his back, a chunk of wood would undoubtedly hit one of us in the head.

Being mooned in the boys' change room, falling in love with twins from South Africa, getting kicked out of class and staying awake at camps to avoid getting your eyebrows shaved were all part of my school life. Food would be thrown into ceiling fans, kids would be caught making out in the sick room, bags would be hoisted up flag poles, Bunsen burners would be converted into water pistols and teachers' cars would be wrapped in newspapers on muck-up day. Occasionally, we'd learn something.

Each one of these tales adds up to a larger story. Just like writing a novel. The following Q&A is a quick insight into how this one came about.

 

How did you come up with the idea of
The Never Boys?

I've always had this picture in my head of a guy fleeing north on a train through burning canefields at night. There would be flames, silhouettes and a shovel beheading an escaping snake. I thought it would be a good opening because immediately the reader would be asking: ‘Why is this guy on the run? Why is he hiding?' That helps drive the plot. Problem was when I started researching into Queensland's sugar farms, I found out most don't use fire any more. My next step was to find out where else freight trains travel to. I remembered seeing these enormous trains heading west towards the Nullarbor when I was sent out on country assignments as a journalist.

 

Why did you pick the Barossa as Dean's hiding spot?

Two reasons. First, it was between the Nullarbor and Sydney. Second, when I write, the story unfolds like a movie in my head. Like a cinematographer, I needed a great backdrop and the Barossa Valley has all these amazing landscapes, food and history. It helped living in Adelaide at the time, too. I could drive up there and photograph the different locations.

 

One of those locations is a sheep station. Why did you pick that?

Originally, Dean was going to work for a winery. However, when I talked to my friend, she shared her experiences about growing up on a sheep station in the region. She and her mum showed me their farm and a friend's farm. Walking among the barley grass, exploring all these old bluestone buildings and seeing a car speared into a creek because of a wayward driving lesson won me over immediately. Plus it was a good idea to put a guitarist with clean hands into a get-down-and-dirty job picking sheep turds.

 

The ditched car is a real story?

Absolutely. So are the stories about bladder pistols, leeches, the stolen ambulance and eyeballs in the freezer (although they were never put in a bed!) If you go diving at Noarlunga, you'll find the cuttlefish that opens its tentacles when you give it a backrub. And the washing line of dog pelts is a story from a box of newspaper and magazine articles that I keep.

 

How did you find out about these?

Research. Anyone who wants to be a writer should read books on the subject, talk to people, watch documentaries or actually explore the setting of their story. For instance, I learnt about the cuttlefish while asking a diving instructor about the types of fish at Noarlunga. I used the dying wether scene after seeing a National Geographic documentary. I needed to discover what jobs teenagers did during the Depression, so I found a Max Dupain coffee book of photos. I had no idea they existed until I started looking into them. A little snooping around made the story more colourful and realistic.

 

Did you do research for Clive's letters?

Lots. I spent two full days down at the Australian War Memorial. Not only did I research everything I could about the
HMAS Australia
, but I also read several thick bundles of love letters from a sailor to his girl written during WWII to get a feel of the language at the time.

 

Why did you choose the
HMAS Australia?

Because we're taught about the ANZAC soldiers but little about the navy and air force. I was amazed to learn all these stories about the
Aussie
— the Kamikaze bombers, the Japanese soldier
pulling a gun, the milk incident and life on board. I felt ripped off that I'd never heard any of them before.

 

How did you come up with the characters?

Again, Dean came out different to originally planned. He was a going to be a moody rock guitarist but that sounded too familiar. I'd tried learning flamenco guitar myself but found it fairly tough. So Dean picked up where I left off. Not only did it give me a chance to develop his parents' back story, but it's an unusual choice for a teenager. It would make him self-conscious and a target of bullies. However, from the beginning I knew I had to keep people guessing about his motives. Was he good or bad? Is he the thief and arsonist?

Zara was always going to be the rebel tomboy. She and Dean were destined to be a couple, with her finally breaking free of the confines of the farm and the General. That was until I was Christmas shopping for chocolate in Rundle Mall, Adelaide. A pretty counter girl with brown hair offered me a free slice of fudge while her boss wasn't looking. She was scoffing a few herself. I talked to her for ten minutes about her job and walked out of there with a new character called Michelle.

The General stayed the same throughout the novel, although at first she had an ageing cockatoo on her shoulder called the Major. Thankfully, common sense won out.

 

Do you spend much time coming up with their names?

Funnily enough, I pick them either through a baby book of names or from the weirdest sources. Zara was always going to have an uncommon name because she stands out in a crowd. Michelle came about after I was searching for a song title with a girl's name in it. I always try to use one nickname, hence the
General. Occasionally, for minor characters, I'll name them after South Sydney Rabbitohs, such as Mrs Fletcher at the party. And then there's always a real-life friend or two who pops in as a cameo.

 

Do many of your original ideas end up on the cutting room floor so to speak?

Heaps. The first draft never looks anything like the final draft. For instance, chapter one involved a biker picking Dean up on the Nullarbor as a thunderstorm rolled in. He ended up at the Yalata roadhouse piercing his ear as people thumped on the toilet door. That got cut because it was too long and took away some of the mystery of his arrival at the Kaesler property with bleached hair.

 

What's your favourite chapter?

The scuba diving one. I wanted something passionate, original and not boring like giving flowers.

 

How long did it take to write
The Never Boys?

Two years. There were a few false starts.

 

The ending is fairly open. What happens next?

That's up to the reader. Whether the two of them actually do what Dean plans is left to the imagination.

BOYZ ‘R' US

It's a long, mad ride from Summer Bay! Chicks, babes, cars and music; bored kids and shouting mothers; fathers that suck on a bottle to put themselves to sleep; and TV sets blaring mindlessly. Race tensions are hotting up in Marrickville and the media want a gang war so badly that they nearly start one. As Mitch looks back on his time as former leader of the Thunderjets, he tells the searing story of a scene that in some ways, no matter how hard you try, you can never leave.

 

Praise for
Boyz ‘R' Us
, winner of the Royal Blind Society's Talking Book Award:

 

‘difficult moral choices at every turn of the plot … it deals with the issues of power, rebellion and self-image. But there's never a dull moment. For such a young writer, it exhibits an impressive maturity of judgment and consistency of tone'
Canberra Times

 

‘Heaps good novel, eh. First one I've ever finished' David, Age 13

 

 

RAW

Brett Dalton is a tough guy – hardened, angry, uncaring and always ready to use his fists. When the world hates you, you might as well hate it back.

But when Brett is busted by the cops for stealing and sent to The Farm for rehab, there are no fences to keep him in and anger gets in his way – but so does love. Brett's trapped in a grave new world, a world where he's not hardened at all. He's raw.

 

THE CRUSH

Matthew Cassidy is an up-and-coming league star. The talent scouts are circling him, his school team has reached the finals for the first time ever and he's determined to play professional one day. Not bad for a down-to-earth guy who lives with his mum above a fish and chip shop on the poor side of town!

But despite being the team captain, a natural at the game and popular with his mates, Matt really wants one thing in life – a dad. All his friends have one, so why can't he?

Meanwhile, Matt is facing another dilemma – a crush. Blue-eyed Kelly Sinclair has caught his heart and won't let go. Drop-dead gorgeous, but shy, she's everything he has dreamed about. But she already has a boyfriend – a guy who hates Matt's guts and will do anything to destroy his career!

Scott Monk was born in Macksville, New South Wales, in 1974. He grew up in Sydney, Canberra and several country towns before landing his first job as a newspaper journalist in Adelaide. There he covered hundreds of stories including the Nude Olympics (fully clothed), a little piggy that went to council and a stony Outback golf course where the only birdies were crows.

A reluctant reader as a teenager, Scott began writing at the age of 13 after one of his Year 8 English teachers set a “short” story assignment. Little did she expect that he would produce a 220-page manuscript — then ask her to mark it! Aged 19, he wrote
Boyz ‘R' Us
, which was published when he was 21. It was followed by
Raw, The Crush
and now
The Never Boys
.

Scott presently works for a national newspaper in Sydney. On weekends, he can be found at the footy screaming for his team to rid itself of the wooden spoon, or plotting to take over the world's chocolate factories.