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Speaker 1: Chris Hammer is joining us now. Chris, good morning.

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Speaker 2: Welcome, Chris, good morning, lovely to be here.

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Speaker 1: Is the author of books like Scrublands and Silver and

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Speaker 1: The Tilt, and your new book is The Valley, which

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Speaker 1: is the fourth book in and if you know, you

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Speaker 1: know the Ivan Lukitchen and Nel Buchanan series. I would

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Speaker 1: say this series is like particularly dark, would you, Oh.

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Speaker 2: There's always occasionally goes to dark places. Usually the end

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Speaker 2: of the book is not so dark. And it's crime fiction,

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Speaker 2: so apart from that.

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Speaker 1: What's your background, Chris? You were a journalist, weren't you

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Speaker 1: before you or when you're also writing books?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I was a journal for like thirty years. I

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Speaker 2: like you, split pretty much between covering federal politics in

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Speaker 2: Canberra in the press gallery. Yeah, and I had two

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Speaker 2: long stints as a kind of roving foreign correspondent for SBS,

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Speaker 2: so I went to some really amazing places and sort

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Speaker 2: of amazing things. Absolutely loved being a journal I loved

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Speaker 2: that career. Yeah, but I love this more. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I bet this would be more fun than Budget Day,

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Speaker 3: wouldn't I can lock away book.

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Speaker 2: And you can who knew? It was so liberating just

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Speaker 2: to make stuff up exactly.

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Speaker 1: I would have thought you would have said a crime

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Speaker 1: reporter rather than but I mean politics very similar. I

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Speaker 1: guess where do you get the inspiration for the plots

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Speaker 1: in your stories?

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Speaker 2: You know, I don't know, you don't know. Sometimes young

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Speaker 2: people ask me and I think back and I can

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Speaker 2: unpack it. So for example, in Scrublands, my first book,

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Speaker 2: the protagonist is a journal to back box and he

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Speaker 2: goes to this really remote town to do a so

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Speaker 2: called anniversary story a year after a terrible event. I

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Speaker 2: realized afterwards, after I've written a book, I had actually

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Speaker 2: done a story like that in a little town in

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Speaker 2: East Texas called Jasper, where some white extremists had killed

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Speaker 2: an African American man, and I'd gone there to do

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Speaker 2: that story on how the town is coping. But there

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Speaker 2: was no mystery there, witnesses, you know, the guys have

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Speaker 2: been caught, tried. But I think that's what set that

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Speaker 2: little idea in my mind. The thing is, as I

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Speaker 2: was writing the book, I didn't realize that it was

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Speaker 2: only in retrospect, and it sounds so obvious. Yeah, yeah,

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Speaker 2: there's the leak.

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Speaker 3: It's amazing, it was just there.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Do you have a particular room, particular death favorite desk particularly,

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Speaker 3: or do you just go to a space when you're

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Speaker 3: when you feel it coming.

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Speaker 2: There is a space at home. I work a lot

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Speaker 2: when I'm traveling, and I think this is a gift

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Speaker 2: I've been given from all those years traveling as a journalist.

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Speaker 2: So on trains, on planes, airports, noisy cafes, I can

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Speaker 2: just kind of switch myself off. I'm not alone. There

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Speaker 2: are I know other authors who deliberately go somewhere noisy

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Speaker 2: to write, and then the others who just have to

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Speaker 2: lock them away completely.

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Speaker 3: There'd be some very a couple of authors in Perth

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Speaker 3: would be very envious of you to switch everything else

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Speaker 3: off when when you're moving around.

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Speaker 1: We asked Leanne Mariati this question recently. Have you ever

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Speaker 1: named a character after someone you don't like and then

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Speaker 1: killed them off? Said no comments.

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Speaker 2: That's really tempting. Yeah, yeah, but probably a few character

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Speaker 2: types for sure from somewhere. Do you have someone in mind,

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Speaker 2: some onne you want to get rid of.

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Speaker 3: We've spoken about this a bit, but we won't go

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Speaker 3: the past. There's not each other.

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Speaker 1: A lot of authors do that thing where they for

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Speaker 1: a donation to a charity of their choice, they will

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Speaker 1: name someone after you. So maybe this could be like

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Speaker 1: a little extension of that.

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Speaker 2: No, I've done that, you have done that. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: a great idea and gets the name someone. Yeah, it's

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Speaker 2: a good sort of fundraiser and the fun. I did

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Speaker 2: an event the other night and it's as part of it.

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Speaker 2: They got people because my books have got these characters

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Speaker 2: with rather kind of outlandish Kenzian names like Harley Snouch

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Speaker 2: and Martin Scars and Mandalay Blonde. Yeah, and so they

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Speaker 2: had to write out suggestions of outlandish names. I've got

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Speaker 2: them in my bag and I think, yeah, some of

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Speaker 2: them are.

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Speaker 3: Pretty Yeah, they're looking for a cut to be dangerous.

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Speaker 3: How different is that you're on this book tour right now?

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Speaker 3: How different is that to you? Normal? Well, when you're

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Speaker 3: working and people want to just keep chatting when you

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Speaker 3: meet them and you're meant to be signing.

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Speaker 2: Quickly, sometimes people can be People are generous, and obviously

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Speaker 2: they turn up to an event, it's because they like

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Speaker 2: your books. Someone reads your books. I don't like them.

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Speaker 2: They're not going to turn up. But you do get

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Speaker 2: some strange You get people who are a lot of

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Speaker 2: people who are aspiring authors. There After advice and that's great,

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Speaker 2: always good to give some advice. But every now and

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Speaker 2: then you're run into someone who's who thinks that people

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Speaker 2: in the books are real and they're really concerned about

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Speaker 2: their welfare, right, Yeah, and you know they're not real.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's funny, gently tell them.

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Speaker 2: And what it makes you realize is that all readers

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Speaker 2: are different. No one reads the same book. It comes

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Speaker 2: alive in the reader's mind as influenced by their own backgrounds,

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Speaker 2: their own experience. I think that's why books are so

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Speaker 2: resilient in this digital age.

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Speaker 3: Which is what songwriters say about people having different perceptions

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Speaker 3: of a song and lyrics.

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Speaker 1: Ye, scrub Lands, we were just talking about. Scrub Lands

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Speaker 1: has was turned into a TV series and was on stand.

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Speaker 1: Season two is currently being filmed based on Silver, which

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Speaker 1: is another in the Martins Garsten group of books. Have

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Speaker 1: you you haven't had a chance to visit the set. No,

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Speaker 1: I'm in Augusta.

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Speaker 2: In Augusta. They're finished now, but I am hoping at

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Speaker 2: some point to get down to Augusta because the photos

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Speaker 2: of shots they sent through from the set meeting looks

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Speaker 2: absolutely beautiful. So that's something to look forward to. I

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Speaker 2: think it'll be out understand early in the new year.

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Speaker 2: I don't have a precise date, but it must be

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Speaker 2: coming fairly Soon's.

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Speaker 1: I'm trying to think of his name as that Tim

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Speaker 1: Arnold Louke Hannold Luke Carnold plays Martin. He actually he

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Speaker 1: played Michael Hutchins. Yes, recently, was in Last King of

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Speaker 1: the Cross. Do you get to have much input into

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Speaker 1: the series because I would be, I imagine, particularly protective of

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Speaker 1: the casting because I would think that they're my character, you.

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Speaker 2: Know, I thought I would be, Yeah, but I guess

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Speaker 2: because it's you know, we're now looking about six or

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Speaker 2: seven books ago.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: One thing. Great production company, Easy to Tiger. That's a

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Speaker 2: company behind shows like you know, the Jack Irish Rake

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Speaker 2: Colin from Account the twelve. So I knew it was

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Speaker 2: in good hands. But on top of that, the chief

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Speaker 2: scriptwriter and producer, Felicity Packard is actually a friend of mine. Okay,

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Speaker 2: but you didn't ask for any input from me. Maybe

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Speaker 2: she knows me too well. I saw I saw an

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Speaker 2: advanced copy of the first episode of scrub Lands, and

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Speaker 2: I was overseas because of my wife's work. I was

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Speaker 2: in Iston Boulevard place and they sent through this this

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Speaker 2: first episode of Ants Copy. I started watching it thinking, oh,

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Speaker 2: you know, I take notes, I'd be critical anyway. The

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Speaker 2: opening scene is exactly as it is in the book,

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Speaker 2: and it just it just sucked me in, and by

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Speaker 2: the end I was going, well, come on, send me

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Speaker 2: the next episode. I want to find out what happens.

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Speaker 3: That's right, Just wondering what it's like to say that,

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Speaker 3: Greg to life. Would you prefer to watch it by yourself?

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Speaker 3: There's personal screening of your own baby.

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Speaker 2: When I got back, I watched the rest with a

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Speaker 2: family and it was kind of fun. Yea yeah, And

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Speaker 2: there's that sort of magic moment when the screen comes

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Speaker 2: up and says, based on the novel by Chris hamis Yeah.

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Speaker 2: My mum in particular love that she wanted to stop

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Speaker 2: it there.

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Speaker 1: T shirt telling everyone friends Chris. The Valley is the

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Speaker 1: fourth book in the Luks series. I've often wondered, when

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Speaker 1: you're reading books, if I find something that i've you know,

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Speaker 1: there's like three or four books already in a series,

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Speaker 1: but it's new to me, and I get worried about

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Speaker 1: reading them out of order. Are you absolutely going to

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Speaker 1: stuff yourself up if you read things out of order?

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Speaker 2: No? And it's not just my books. It's most crime series.

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Speaker 2: And if you think about it, in every book there's

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Speaker 2: going to be a mystery. Yeah, but by the end

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Speaker 2: of the book, the reader will have to be field

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Speaker 2: all the what. The answer to the mystery is why

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Speaker 2: I did it? How they did it, all the rest

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Speaker 2: of it. Okay, So there's a bit of a character

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Speaker 2: development between Ivan and Nell over the series. It continues.

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Speaker 2: But when I speak to people who have read it

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Speaker 2: read the books out of order, they say it really

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Speaker 2: doesn't matter.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well on their own, because you know, there's

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Speaker 1: nothing worse than accidentally reading the most recent book and

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Speaker 1: then you discover there's like four others. I've got to

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Speaker 1: go back to treasure and it starts at the beginning,

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Speaker 1: but it's okay, oh yeah, it made me feel so

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Speaker 1: much better about about reading in general with that. Well

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Speaker 1: it is out now the Valley. Chris, thanks for coming

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Speaker 1: in this morning.

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Speaker 3: I really appreciate me.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks so madiful.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, much better than just a phone call.

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Speaker 2: It's so lovely you are to be back in person.