John Purcell began writing his first novel at the age of nineteen. Since then he has completed five full length novels, three are now published and numerous short-stories, essays, reviews and articles. Below, in chronological order from bottom to top, John gives a brief overview of his writing life thus far. Click on the links to read some rather rough and mercifully short samples of his work from each period.
2012 to Present Day
In 2012 I finally secured myself an agent who saw the potential in A Gentleman of Sorts. She shopped it around to a few publishers. While waiting to hear back, she asked me if I had anything else - an old manuscript lurking about in a drawer, perhaps? I did. I told her I had this great mess of an erotic novel about a woman named Emma. She took it and read it. Her conclusion, it was great, however, no one would ever publish such filthy writing. A week later a little known book called Fifty Shades of Grey was on the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald. It had been bought for a million. My agent rushed off to the publishers with my novel about Emma. A couple of weeks later I was signing a contract with Random House Australia under a woman's name, Natasha Walker. A month or so after that, The Secret Lives of Emma: Beginnings was in the shops. It rocketed into the top ten fiction charts. That was July, 2012. Random House wanted to publish a sequel in September. The Secret Lives of Emma: Distractions was in store in September, 2012.
With the success of book one and two, Random House now approached me for book three. I didn't have a book three. Book one and two had been rewritten from the very large manuscript I had written all those years ago. I'd used it all up. This was November. They said, can we have book three delivered by January? Hmmm... I had the summer holidays... Sure thing, I answered. Trouble was, that summer my partner's parents were coming out from the UK. They were staying with us the whole summer. And her father has a habit of walking around in budgie smugglers. Not very conducive to erotic writing. Oh, and also, my partner and I decided to get married that summer, too. Why not!?
We got married, my now father-in-law got his tan and The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked was handed in on time and was published in April 2013. I don't know how I did it. It's a bit of a blur. And book three is by far the best of the trilogy.
Now to publish A Gentleman of Sorts...
With the success of book one and two, Random House now approached me for book three. I didn't have a book three. Book one and two had been rewritten from the very large manuscript I had written all those years ago. I'd used it all up. This was November. They said, can we have book three delivered by January? Hmmm... I had the summer holidays... Sure thing, I answered. Trouble was, that summer my partner's parents were coming out from the UK. They were staying with us the whole summer. And her father has a habit of walking around in budgie smugglers. Not very conducive to erotic writing. Oh, and also, my partner and I decided to get married that summer, too. Why not!?
We got married, my now father-in-law got his tan and The Secret Lives of Emma: Unmasked was handed in on time and was published in April 2013. I don't know how I did it. It's a bit of a blur. And book three is by far the best of the trilogy.
Now to publish A Gentleman of Sorts...
2009 to 2012
I must admit that during these years Booktopia took over much of my creative life. I was writing for Booktopia, creating content for the blog, reviewing books for the newsletters, running the Booktopia social media. It was (and is) a very demanding and dynamic place to work. I did revise A Gentleman of Sorts during this period, too, but not too much. I was pleased with the book and was hopeful that one day it would be published.
2006 to 2009
In 2006 I began writing A Gentleman of Sorts, my historical novel set in northern England, 1815, then titled A Franklin’s Tale. I was able to bring all of the lessons learnt from my past experiences with writing novels to AGOS. I had a rough plan. I had sketched the main characters, themes and the plot before setting out. Nothing turned out exactly as I had devised but if you were to hold up the original sketch beside the finished product you’d see a family resemblance. The speed with which I wrote surprised me, as did the inordinate amount of enjoyment I got from writing it. It was exciting to watch something complex come together and see the pieces fit so snugly, too.
2002 to 2006
The years between 2002 and 2006 were the most enjoyable and fruitful of the years spent sitting in my secondhand bookshop, John's Bookshop, Mosman. I took a step back from my dream of becoming a serious writer - which, strangely enough, meant that I ended up writing more often. I read more deeply than I had ever done before. I started copying out passages from the books I was reading, and making notes. I began to write little sketches of incidents in the shop, strange conversations, odd behaviour etc, and I entertained myself coming up with neat little aphorisms which I jotted down and sometimes wrote on the shop's chalk board.
During this time I made a concerted effort to educate myself in history, philosophy and above all literature. And I talked with a vast array of interesting people. A second-hand bookshop is like no other business. It affords opportunities for intellectual intercourse with complete strangers on a level of intimacy some people never attain even with their nearest and dearest.
And these were the years I wrote a set of interlinked erotic stories about a woman named Emma. These stories later formed the basis of rather large mess of a novel. The novel was eventually deemed beyond redemption and scrapped. Little did I know then what would become of Emma!
During this time I made a concerted effort to educate myself in history, philosophy and above all literature. And I talked with a vast array of interesting people. A second-hand bookshop is like no other business. It affords opportunities for intellectual intercourse with complete strangers on a level of intimacy some people never attain even with their nearest and dearest.
And these were the years I wrote a set of interlinked erotic stories about a woman named Emma. These stories later formed the basis of rather large mess of a novel. The novel was eventually deemed beyond redemption and scrapped. Little did I know then what would become of Emma!
1999 to 2002
In 1999 I opened a second-hand bookshop in Mosman. I was attending university but I had reduced my progress to a crawl so that I could concentrate on my business. For some reason living and working in Mosman inspired me to begin a novel about what, as a society, we choose to value most. At first it felt as though the narrator, the hero/villain of the piece, was dictating his story to me. I had never written anything like it before. It came so quickly and easily. But then the book began to explore the question - what does it take to make a person beautiful on the inside? And I lay down my pen. I wanted to give this story all of my attention and as my time was divided between the bookshop and university I postponed the attempt.
1997 to 1999
In 1997 I began writing a series of short interlinked stories based loosely on the life I had experienced while living in Italy in 1991-92. I had fallen in love with an Italian girl who lived with her family in Milan. I lived with them for a short time. These stories contemplate the effect my disruptive presence had on these normally private people.
Work on these stories came to an abrupt halt when I decided to go to university. In the sample below I can see the effect Gertrude Stein's Three Lives had on my writing. Trouble is, Gertrude Stein was a genius and I am an idiot, so the result was writing which was just plain irritating.
Work on these stories came to an abrupt halt when I decided to go to university. In the sample below I can see the effect Gertrude Stein's Three Lives had on my writing. Trouble is, Gertrude Stein was a genius and I am an idiot, so the result was writing which was just plain irritating.
1995 to 1997
In 1996 while working part-time in a second-hand bookshop I was planing and writing a novel with the working title ‘Old Man Story’. This is a story I expect I shall return to. It is an account of a rather odd old man who takes up residence in a small English village. When we meet him he has already wormed his way into some of the villager’s lives, sometimes by dubious means. A few of the villagers have come to rely on him and even love him. But as the novel proceeds the reader comes to realise that he is not there by chance. He has come with a purpose.
My intention was to write the novel in the present tense, I enjoyed the immediacy and the air of suspense it created. But my ambitions far stripped my capacity and I realised I was unequal to the task.
My intention was to write the novel in the present tense, I enjoyed the immediacy and the air of suspense it created. But my ambitions far stripped my capacity and I realised I was unequal to the task.
1990 to 1995
My first attempt at a novel, was completed in 1993 when I was twenty-one years old.
Laid Bare was a full length novel set in London chronicling the birth, life and death of a short but revelatory relationship between young adults, Gabriel and Caroline - a relationship which effectively ends their youth. (Buoyed by my father’s enthusiasm (he hadn't read it) I entered the novel in the Vogel. Needless to say...)
Reading parts of Laid Bare now, after all these years, I can see that it is utter drivel. Self-indulgent, crude and dull. But it was a completed work. And any writer will tell you how important finishing a project is. It would be another ten years until I completed another novel. But through all those intervening years, I knew it was something I could achieve, as I had already done so. And that was something.
Laid Bare was a full length novel set in London chronicling the birth, life and death of a short but revelatory relationship between young adults, Gabriel and Caroline - a relationship which effectively ends their youth. (Buoyed by my father’s enthusiasm (he hadn't read it) I entered the novel in the Vogel. Needless to say...)
Reading parts of Laid Bare now, after all these years, I can see that it is utter drivel. Self-indulgent, crude and dull. But it was a completed work. And any writer will tell you how important finishing a project is. It would be another ten years until I completed another novel. But through all those intervening years, I knew it was something I could achieve, as I had already done so. And that was something.