Jack Heath is the pen-name of an award-winning Australian writer of fiction for children and adults. His thirty-six action-packed novels have been translated into several languages and optioned for film and television.
He is best known for the Danger, Truth App and Hangman series. He has been shortlisted for the ACT Book of the Year Award, CBCA Notable Book Award, Nottinghamshire Brilliant Book Award, the Aurealis Sci-Fi Book of the Year, the National Year of Reading "Our Story" Collection, a Young Australians Best Book Award, a Kids Own Australian Literature Award and the Australian of the Year Award.
The Truth App and The Missing Passenger are set in the fictitious Australian town of Kelton. Age thirty-four, Heath lives in Canberra, Australia with his wife Venetia, whose jewelry-making studio shares a shed with his writing office. They have two children. http://jackheathwriter.com; twitter: jackheathwriter
Q: How did you get started as a writer?
A: I’ve always loved books, so as soon as I discovered that there were people writing them, and getting paid for it, I decided that I wanted to be one of those people. By the time I was thirteen, I was already telling friends that I planned to be a millionaire bestselling author by before my fifteenth birthday. Sometimes those friends ask me how it’s going, and I have to admit that I’m still a bit behind schedule. But I’ve written and sold enough books now that I’ve had the opportunity to visit many amazing places, including Cambodia, Russia and the USA. (That may not sound very exotic to your readers, but all three places are a long way from my quiet little home in Canberra, Australia.)
Q: What draws you to writing for youth in particular?
A: I started writing for young people because I was a young person at the time, and I’m still doing it because it’s what I know how to do. It’s also fun, though. Young readers are willing to suspend their disbelief quite a lot further than adults, and that allows me to explore some fun stuff in middle grade and YA. A kid might know that the magnetic anti-aircraft weapon from The Missing Passenger wouldn’t work in real life, but they’re not going to throw the book across the room in annoyance the way an adult reader might.
Q: Tell us something about your youth. Were you a nerd, a sports buff, a troublemaker?
A: Band geek, I guess—when I wasn’t reading, I spent my teenage years playing the bass guitar. I wasn’t a troublemaker, but I definitely had an attitude problem. I was a bit like Doug, from The Missing Passenger. Looking back, I think I was scared most of the time. And like Yoda says, “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” It took me a long time to realise that I didn’t have to live like that.
I remember when I got my first publishing contract at age 18, I called my then-girlfriend to tell her the good news. She asked me, carefully, “Does this mean you’ll be happy now?” I don’t think I really understood until then how miserable I’d made her, and everyone else around me, by always being on edge.
Q: Were you always a reader? And do you delight in reading to your son?
A: My parents were both former teachers, and I grew up in a house full of books. So reading was the obvious escape for me. My elementary school also had a great teacher librarian who found all sorts of great books to keep me busy. My son’s school unfortunately doesn’t have a teacher librarian, but I’m trying my best to fill that gap. I read with my kids every day—it’s the part of parenting I’m best at.
Q: You’ve named some of your favorite authors as Matthew Reilly, Mary Shelley, Philip K. Dick and Robert Silverberg. Are we missing any, and how have they influenced you?
A: Linda Holmes! I discovered her work only in the last few years, but she’s definitely influenced me since then. Her novel, Evvie Drake Starts Over, is one of my all-time favourites, and her reviews of other people’s work has changed the way I write.
Q: You’ve made a point in the past of supporting female authors. Given that male authors for teens and children are such a minority (fourteen percent), and you’re writing on topics with particular appeal to males (techno-thrillers, crime, sci-fi), do you have a sense of being an important role model for male readers and writers?
A: I don’t give that a lot of thought. This is partly because I think the author should be invisible, even to themselves. If the reader is conscious of the author, the characters won’t seem real, and if I spent all my time thinking about being a role model, or being perceived as one, I wouldn’t have the mental energy left over to come up with good stories. It’s also because I’ve always been sceptical of the idea of male and female genre conventions—as a teenage boy I read heaps of romance and drama, while plenty of the girls I knew were reading military action thrillers, or sport stories. Having said all of that, three moderately successful novelists have each told me that I inspired them to start writing professionally. I broke my own rule about invisibility and let myself feel a little glow when they told me that. But all three are men, so it does seem to be true that I’ve been a role model for at least a few young males.