Journalist and writer, Mike Burge, joined me to discuss his debut novel, ‘Tank Water’.
TRIGGER WARNING: Topics/themes explored include homophobia, gay-bashing, hate-crimes, violence and murder. Please do not listen to this episode if this might trigger/otherwise affect you.
Topics discussed include:
-	The novel’s ten-year journey. Mike allowing for the passage of time before he could write about such a setting, which is fictional (along with the characters) but inspired by his growing up in rural NSW. 
-	Mike’s exhaustive research into Australian hate/gay hate crime - including the NSW Inquiry Into Gay And Transgender Hate Crimes Between 1970 and 2010 – along with his own journalistic-driven findings, how all of this informed and helped shape the story he wanted to tell with ‘Tank Water’. 
-	Writing trauma – writing fictional characters but honouring the untold and unseen real-life people they represent – the importance of this and the need for a balance between earnest storytelling and never verging into gratuitousness, including the writing of ‘ghost chapters’
-	The importance of creating gay characters that were fully realised, and weren’t there to just be a victim of a crime, including featuring realistic and intense lust and desire, burgeoning sexuality and enduring love. 
-	Intergenerational oppression and cyclical hate – how gay-bashing/murder has gone on for generations, exemplified within the different generations of families that orbit the fictional setting of Kippen.
-	How gay stories with outback settings are steadily emerging within contemporary literature, including within the Y.A. sphere. 
-	Mike’s road to ‘Tank Water’ getting picked up by a publisher. The need to find that right publisher, particularly after being told that the genre was on its last legs (which was prior to Outback Noir emerging and becoming so insanely popular).
-	The importance of never giving up, and never truly meaning to anyway!
Thanks heaps to Mike for appearing on the show to talk about ‘Tank Water’, you can pick up your copy from his publisher, MidnightSun Publishing, here:
https://midnightsunpublishing.com/2021/09/tank-water/

Mike Burge Talks 'Tank Water'

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Mike Burge Talks 'Tank Water'

The Write Way Podcast