The Quiet Ones
by C.J.Nichols
Independent
The majority of large publishers not only here in Australia do not generally accept unsolicited manuscripts from unpublished authors, which makes the business of getting published that much tougher.
Queensland author C.J. Nichols has utilised the self publishing of his debut supernatural thriller The Quiet Ones not as a vanity project or something to serve his ego, but as a way of garnering attention.
‘I suppose a publisher accepting a novel penned by an unknown author would be a risk,’ Nichols recently told OUTinPerth, ‘especially in a saturated genre such as supernatural; that aside, I feel my story has a fresh take on supernatural and has a certain Australian feel to it.
‘Hopefully, I can catch the eye of a big publishing agency so I can concentrate on completing the rest of the chronicles.’
Chronicles? Yes, The Quiet Ones is part one of The Kildir Chronicles and maps the life of Kellan, a young man growing up gay in Brisbane.
If that weren’t a troublesome enough prospect, Kellan soon discovers another world he belongs to: the supernatural world, a world fraying the edges of reality with its vampires and witches and clairvoyants. A world Kellan can’t escape.
‘The book largely centres on the everyday facets of what it means to be a young gay guy in Australia, focusing on friendships, family and first love and all the happiness and pain that come with these.’
And don’t forget the vampires!
Yes, there’s bloodsucking love blossoming in Brisbane, although Nichols constructs it with a bold delicacy, his initially jaunty use of language hitting its stride and making, at times, for a compelling little read.
‘When I was young I had a recurring nightmare that I was being attacked by vampires. It always left me feeling quite shaken and played on my mind for days afterward,’ Nichols said of the inspiration behind the book.
‘The most peculiar aspect to this nightmare was that I couldn’t recall ever seeing a vampire film before I even had the dream. From then on I was utterly enthralled with vampires and the varied beliefs of what a vampire is; how they act and what they look like.’
The Quiet Ones is available now from www.cjnichols.com.
Scott-Patrick Mitchell
