‘Pantser’ Releases First Novel

Creating a whole new world for “characters that write themselves” is local author Nigel Gleeson, who has just released his first novel ‘Awakening’.

Following the tale of a young girl called Ariana, the book is in the high fantasy genre and follows her journey as she is kidnapped by a group of priestesses who have been exposed to magic so potent that it has possessed them.

Ariana escapes when she is nine years old, and her journey continues.

A self-proclaimed ‘Pantser’, Nigel chooses to let his words flow and his characters create themselves and dictate the storyline.

Writers are traditionally either ‘plotters’ or ‘pantsers’ which is short for flying by the seat of your pants!

In Nigel’s case, he thoroughly plans and depicts a firm vision of the reality he is creating, then allows the story to wander within that world without pre-planning where it will lead.

“A lot of the work that goes into writing these sorts of books is not seen by the readers,” explains Nigel.

“You have to create a whole culture, a history, even the weather!”

Originally from the gorge country of Northern New South Wales, Nigel is a generational farmer whose culture is founded in Irish convict ancestry.

He uses the remote wilderness of his childhood to inspire his fictional world.

A move to Tasmania with his seven children saw new doors open for him when he wandered into a Gothic Medieval giftshop.

There he met a man who invited him to join The Order of the Dragan’s Realm, a medieval club where he learnt to fight full metal combat with swords.

Again, this inspires the theme of his novel today.

It took Nigel 12 years to write his first novel, much of this has been achieved in the past few years since he moved to the Whitsundays with his daughter.

The first book is part of a trilogy and Nigel is already working on the second book entitled, ‘Scar’, with ‘Other World’ completing the series.

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Author Nigel Gleeson introduces his first book, Awakening. Photo credit: Rachael Smith