From “The Journey to Ekka” to Cow Dung and Code: How I Became a Writer

 

I wrote my first “book” in 1983 — a gloriously illustrated, wildly unoriginal adventure called The Journey to Ekka. I was in primary school. The plot? A blatant rip-off of The Wizard of Oz, but Aussie-fied. A boy goes on a quest to find the great “Ez”, accompanied by a clockwork man (who could shoot lasers from his hat and fly via a retractable propeller) and a superstitious bloke named Joc.

It was scrawled into an exercise book, never finished, but it got a surprising amount of attention from classmates for the illustrations. The writing? Let’s just say it was enthusiastic. But the seed was planted.

Fast forward a few years to 1987. I had an Atari 800 and Antic magazine was my bible. One issue had an article that hit me hard — something about using your home computer to write a novel. Not just games or code, but actual books. That was the push I needed. I fired up the keyboard and started writing seriously.

Then came 1988, and with it, one of my most grounding experiences in tech.

I was on work experience with the Department of Primary Industries, and someone handed me a box of punch cards. My job? Deliver them to the other lab. The shortcut? Straight across a paddock filled with cow dung.

Now, if you’ve never done the punch card shuffle through a landmine field of cow crap, I don’t recommend it. I tripped. The cards went flying. They landed out of order in a steaming pile. I arrived at the other lab covered in shame and fragments of the 1970s, only to discover it was all a setup. A prank on the work-experience kid. Good times.

And yet… somehow, through all the missteps (literal and otherwise), I kept writing.

From scribbles in an old school notebook to hammering out chapters on an Atari, from dodging cow dung to dodging plot holes — it’s been one hell of a journey. But looking back, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Even the Ez.

Enjoyed that trip down memory lane?

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