Tell us something about yourself that not many people know.
I have been a psychotherapist for decades helping men and couples, and an executive coach for CEOs around the world. I started writing when I was asked to write a book for boys and their parents on the journey to healthy manhood. Yes, about body changes, but equally important is the psychological journey. Puberty Boy became a bestseller selling 80,000 copies, it’s still in print and in 8 languages. Boys take it to their room and don’t emerge. Girls love it too. My book Licking Honey From the Razors Edge, is a field guide helping men get unstuck, grow and live a bigger, richer life by developing self-awareness, self-mastery and genuine relating. My podcast Stories from the Razors Edge is long form interviews with extraordinary men about the turning points in their lives

Why did you choose the themes in your book and were you aware of them from the start?
Yes, very aware of the theme, I really wanted to write about the human situation – our hardest problem … one no-one is talking about … yet our unconscious really drives 80% of our behaviour out of our awareness. Behaviour in relationships, the boardroom and the White House. I wanted to honour the memory of a client murdered by the husband who said he loved her. I wanted a story of everyday people, driven unawares by their shadow, to crises that had a long unconscious history. Yet captive they moved towards crisis step by step, unaware of the dangers accumulating. Originally I started to write a memoir. Well, it turned out pretty quickly that what I really wanted was to tell a captivating story that entertained by uncovering the secrets hidden in the story, and perhaps the reader.

How difficult was it for you to write this book? Did you face any obstacles?
I found fiction both exciting and difficult because the more I wrote, the more the characters had needs, their own ideas, and wanted the story to keep evolving into something I could never have imagined at the first. I changed the narrator. I changed from 1st person to 3rd. I learnt about fiction. I stopped telling and allowed the characters to show. There were about thirty rewrites over 4 years. When I found a true story in the Australian Museum in 1870, they called it the ‘Gorilla Wars’, I knew I’d found the structure to write an imaginary family history down to the present day, write it just like therapy, necessary, surprising and incredible.

Do you always write in this genre or do you like to break out of the box?
What surprised me most as the story unfolded was the appearance of the amazing Isaac, a literate, lovable, captive Western Lowland gorilla, with a pencil behind his ear. It was the breakout of magical realism. Then Isaac became the heart of a love story, the character I shed most tears over, and the enabler of the surprise ending.

What are your writing habits or idiosyncrasies?
I’m dedicated, I wrote every day when my other life allowed, I became totally absorbed. It’s a type thing! A routine developed, I would wake up before the dawn full of ideas. Unable to sleep, to capture them I’d get up and by a thin light scribble them for the day.

What would you do differently next time?
There is a word ‘dadirri’. I was given usage permission by The Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr’s Foundation, up Roper River way. It means ‘to listen deeply to the deep inner spring inside us’. I would do more of that.

With hindsight, what would you say to yourself as a fledgling writer?
Write without concern for what critics might say. Care about the story, but be unattached to its fate upon publication. Remember, the situation always comes first, then characters, then theme.

If you worked with a professional editor, what was the experience like?
My editor was the screenwriter Ranald Allan. Much more than an brilliant editor, a deep friend. We have much in common in our men’s business journeys, involvement with Indigenous people, men’s groups and leadership gatherings, and worked together running Rites of Passage camps for decades. He travelled with me the whole writing journey, encouraging always. Without Ranald the rewrites would have been impossible.

What’s next for your writing?
I’m enjoying crafting essays on aspects of the masculine journey requested by digital publishers after the publication of True Wild Light.