In "The Sydney Morning Herald", Ray Cassin interviews Matthew Reilly, one of Australia's best-selling novelists, as his new novel Six Sacred Stone, is published for the Christmas market.
"What I do is write books for an audience that thinks in a movie language," Reilly says. "That's the way I think and I also believe that not enough authors keep up with the audience."Since Seven Wonders came out [in 2005] we've had shows such as 'House' on TV and before that 'CSI'. "Those two shows, and especially 'CSI', are of movie-quality every week. 'CSI' has close-ups, long shots, dissolves. It's got a movie language.
"I think the audience is watching 'CSI' and 'House' closely and they assimilate information quickly. If I had Jack West, for example, jumping onto the wing of a plane and maybe his grip is slipping and his hand is sweaty and you can see the fingernails scraping. I can describe that in either a close-up or a long shot.
"I am writing for what I believe is the way this ever more-sophisticated audience is thinking. So I reject the notion that I'm writing the books so they can be turned into films. I'm writing them for an audience that thinks in terms of films." Reilly consciously distinguishes himself from other thriller writers because he writes in this way.
