Into the future replicating the past...

January, 2026

​Bondi. Gaza. Venezuela. Greenland. Hate speech. Left wing. Right wing. ICE. Murdoch press. Writers Week…
 
The efforts being made in Australia by lobby groups to divide us mirror what is happening worldwide as the purveyors of hate and greed seek to wrestle power from the citizens of democratic nations and ensconce autocrats in leadership roles. That’s not a conspiracy theory, folks. It’s a clear and resounding lesson from history repeated over and over and over, and writers and artists constantly remind and warn us that these forces exist and work hard to achieve their goals. What are their goals? Supreme power and authority to pursue whatever they fancy and to suck the wealth out of everything and everybody for themselves. The rich oligarchs who run this shitshow play to the lowest common denominator in our world – almost always angry, frustrated and sometimes minimally educated men – people who despise the arts and intellectual pursuits and revere toxic masculinity, violence and brutish power in its multiple forms. And the rich and their audience agree on one thing: control through brute force and hatred of anyone other than themselves. The wannabe autocrats offer the angry and frustrated followers opportunities to take their anger out on whoever they choose to hate and so the kingdom or nation or country or state become autocratic fascist or communist dictatorships. In any case, the rich get richer and the poor get the shit kicked out of them. If you want to find true evil, this is where you will find it.
 
The collapse of Writers Week was inevitable in the existing climate. Politically-motivated lobbies filled with hatred and ambition have been and are white-anting our institutions – politicians, boards, sponsors, media outlets – to influence who may be publicly heard and who may not, ultimately to ensure that the only voices being heard are their own and those who echo their beliefs. An event like Writers Week, where writers whose views are not necessarily mainstream, polite or palatable even, is an anathema to the lobbyists because it showcases freedom of speech, debate and disagreement – the very principles on which a democratic society is founded.
 
Attempts to ban writers from Writers Week have been made for years over topics ranging through politics, social views, sexuality, and even genre. Some succeeded quietly, even silently in many cases. Most failed because Writers Week can and should be a forum for open discussion of controversial, thought-provoking and hot current topics just as much as a place where non-controversial writers with their pleasant tales can be heard and appreciated by their readers. The beauty of artistic expression is that it holds a mirror up to life so that we can see ourselves and others and how we interact in ways we might never see if we don’t read and reflect and talk.

​Most of you probably don’t know that I was invited to Writers Week in 2000 on the back of Wakefield Press publishing my teenage novel Joy Ride. There are people who wanted my book not just banned but burned because of its content. The week that Joy Ride was released, The Advertiser ran a review by a well-known and respected local journalist who lamented that there were too many teenage angst stories and she frankly stated that they are “books that should be burned.” The one she received that week to review she threw in the bin out of disgust – Joy Ride.
 
The problem with Joy Ride is that I chose to give voice to a particular kind of teenager in a story based on real events and people in Adelaide. The novel’s narrator explained why he was so angry at adults and he openly blamed them for ruining his life. There is no redemption for the adults either – although the narrator was trying to fix up his life despite them. Joy Ride touched a social nerve.

​The emails and feedback I received after its release created a clear split between the adults who hated the narrator and teenagers who understood or related to the narrator and loved the novel. I poured my experience as a teacher, a counsellor and coach who worked directly with teenagers into my creation of the core characters and their emotions and language and sometimes sufferings when families break up. I wanted to challenge that absurd notion in breakups that ‘the kids will be alright.’ If they’re teenagers caught in that situation, they are rarely alright. They are victims of perceived and sometimes actual adult selfishness. At the point in their lives when they are trying to come to terms with their changing psyches and bodies and the expectations placed on them, the place that should be their stable base shatters and leaves them horribly adrift. It leaves them angry and rebellious and terribly sad and lonely.
 
Despite opposition from specific quarters, I ended up at Writers Week and was able to speak publicly about the issues and themes and messages in Joy Ride. I am proud to have written the novel despite it having limited sales and restricted promotion.
 
As a footnote, when I was appointed to Concordia College in 2000 as Head of English, a parent asked the school to reconsider the appointment on the basis of my being the author of Joy Ride and a copy of the novel with passages highlighted was sent directly to the Chair of the College Board along with the request to have me removed. The Chair contacted me and said that he read the novel and enjoyed it. Matter closed.
 
As writers we put our souls and beliefs and our fears and experiences and our knowledge and suppositions into the public arena because we encourage readers to engage, consider, and accept or reject what we share. We deliberately prick consciences, challenge idioms and institutions and beliefs, condemn injustice and pry open eyes and hearts to what has been, what is and what might be. Ban us and the world becomes Fahrenheit 451 and Nineteen Eighty-Four and The Handmaid’s Tale and We. Ban us and you will only read Murdoch press, watch Fox media, believe whatever social media tells you to believe and never really have to vote again. And then if you’re strong and angry and frustrated enough you’ll be able to kick the shit out of anyone you choose to hate. At least that’s something, eh?

​As for what’s happening right now in my writing world, it is a great start to 2026.
 
Richard Miles’ Mounted, an awesome history/original stories of the South Australia Mounted Cadre Police is published by Millswood Books and available for purchase. It has been a fun project with lots of challenges and learning moments, but Richard has done a commendable job in creating this book. Richard can be found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/banjo.miles.7 if you’d like to purchase a hardback copy directly from him, and ebook and hardback versions are available on Amazon at this stage.

I’m also releasing the fourth book in The Last Wizard series, Harmi. The novel is a continuation of the tale that began with Tamesan (formerly The Last Wizard) with the following blurb:
“Descended from a long line of dragons and wizards and carrying the collected memory of generations, from the moment of hatching Harmi is bonded to the young woman, Tamesan, and their fates are intertwined to the point where one cannot live without the other.
 
But when the Kermakk Empire rulers who have sworn to rid the world of dragons and wizards learn that Tamesan and Harmi exist, they set a trap to catch them both. Tamesan and Jaysin are imprisoned and Chasse is lost, but Harmi escapes and must choose whether to remain faithful to her bond with Tamesan or find another way to survive.
 
In her quest to rescue her human family, Harmi discovers her true dragon identity and the extent of her dragon powers and the real reason why she is being hunted by the Kermakk sorceress, the Karudarteta.”
 
I inadvertently released the ebook version early when I was setting up, but as from this week the paperback and hardback editions will be up and available to order.

​It’s very exciting to complete the four book series and make it available to readers. Copies of the hardback and paperback editions can be ordered directly from me (email [email protected] and books are $25 each plus postage) or from Amazon, including the ebook version.
 
I am also in the process of making my books available to order through Books.by – watch this space 
 
Now onto the next projects for 2026…