Nick Earls
Nick Earls is an award-winning author of eleven books, including a number of bestsellers that the have gone on to be published internationally; Zigzag Street, Bachelor Kisses and Perfect Skin. His previous novels featuring teenage characters include After January, 48 Shades of Brown and Making Laws for Clouds.
48 Shades of Brown won the 2000 CBCA Book of the Year and received critical acclaim upon publication in the US and UK. It also stars as the first of Nick's books to make it to the big screen. Released by Buena Vista International in August 2006, the feature film 48 Shades is shot entirely on location in Brisbane with a talented young cast of fresh faces including Richard Wilson (The Proposition, Deck Dogz) as Dan, recent NIDA graduate Robin McLeavy as Jacq and Emma Lung (Peaches) as Naomi. Not to mention a cameo appearance by the author himself . . .
Nick has also contributed to the four best-selling anthologies in the Girls Night In series as well as Kids' Night In and Kids' Night In 2 as editor. Proceeds from this series are used by the international aid agency War Child to help children in war torn areas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Montenegro.
Nick's most recent novel is Monica Bloom. It is a poignant story about the power of first love and memory, expectation and change. Reading Steinbeck, learning to shave and appreciating the fact that sometimes, your days at school will not be the best days of your life. Think The Castle and Flirting - this is a brilliant portrait of Brisbane in the 1980s and of the unrequited longing for your first high-school crush.
Nick migrated from Northern Ireland as an eight-year-old, with his parents, and younger sister. He wanted to be a rocket scientist, then a sports star, or a rock star. Upon realising that his mediocre off-spin and three artless guitar chords wouldn't cut it as a chik magnet he turned to writing. Fortunately he had three English teachers who encouraged his literary pursuits. When he was twelve, Nick read Jaws and thought it was cool because it (i) was an adult book, (ii) had moments when it was kind of scary and (iii) had two (rather chaste) references to nipples. He then read his parents' Alastair Maclean novels and tried unsuccessfully to write one when he was fourteen.
He snuck into Apocalypse Now, and never missed an episode of Countdown. During the holidays Nick hung out with his neighbours, put on plays on the Nobles' tennis court, and played Marco Polo in the Finneys' pool. He played Fleetwood Mac's Rumours and the Eagles Hotel California until they wore out. Then he discovered Plastique Bertrand's Ca Plan Pour Moi and Soft Cell's Tainted Love, the Knack's My Sharona and Good Girls Don't.
In his last year of high school during the prefect's induction ceremony twenty-one prefects walked off one side of the stage, one (Nick) walked off the other. 1500 students laughed. This was not how he wanted to begin the year. According to Nick's year 12 formal partner, in the intervening years several people have claimed to have been his formal partner - a claim that in most circumstances would amount to little and pass unchallenged, but not in front of her.
At a high school reunion Nick would be most likely seen talking to the fire-setters, the fraudsters, and Michael Muggeridge who left as a scandalous hero after 'an incident' down by the lockers at a school dance.
Nick's advice to his teenage self? Stick it out - it gets better. Play to your strengths. Go easy on yourself. Learn to love those ears, or at least live with them. And find some way of telling that girl about that crush, before it's too late. Take the risk.
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