Holden Sheppard

There is a whole lot behind my current release, THE BLACK FLOWER, but probably the most important catalyst was during the winter of 2015. I was home sick with a head cold and had to go to the local pharmacy, and while I was in line, I noticed the guy in front of me. He was swaying pretty violently and was clearly drunk or high or both; he was really quite wildly out of it and I just had that sixth sense that he was about to turn around and talk to me. Sure enough, the bloke turns around and says, out of nowhere, "I drink ..."

Now, my own prejudices kicked in and I chose not to engage. I say "prejudices" to be generous: I'm pretty sure most people would do the same, based on their past experiences with drunkards who looked pretty rough and fairly likely to kick off. Plus, even if I felt like chatting to a random drongo about his addiction, I really wasn't up for it with the head cold clouding my mind. So, I pretended to be on my phone, and moved away until he was out of the way.

While I'd probably do the same again, I immediately wished I had heard what he had to say. The tone he started speaking with seemed to be explaining why he drank to me, like he needed me to know the backstory. It made me think of a short story draft I had sitting on my laptop, and that encounter prompted me to tidy it up and send it off to journals. Page Seventeen in Melbourne published it later that year; and in 2017, I revisited it to flesh it out into a longer story, which is the published e-book.

THE BLACK FLOWER is a tale of alcoholism, violence and broken relationships. Mostly, however, what I wanted to do with this story was show the human side of the addict. Nick, the protagonist, is probably not someone you would want to be mates with in real life (or say g'day to at the pharmacy) - but he is a product of his environment and his trauma and I wanted to get that across here. I hope I succeeded.

I've just completed my second novel, so I'll be working on some edits of that over the next few months. I'm also putting together some paperback versions of both THE SCROLL OF ISIDOR and THE BLACK FLOWER, which I hope to release in late September.

In terms of new titles, I'm aiming to release a new fantasy short story from the world of THE SCROLL OF ISIDOR in late October. It centres around a different character than Levin Ruck, so I am excited to get this story out there to broaden that universe. Stay tuned!