Matt Reilly Stories (31 page)

Matthew
John Reilly
was born on 2 July 1974 in Sydney, Australia.

He
is an action thriller writer whose novels are noted for their fast pace,
twisting plots and intense action.

After
graduating from Sydney's St Aloysius' College in 1992, Reilly studied Law at
the University of New South Wales, where he was also a contributor to the
student law society publication "Poetic Justice".

Reilly
wrote his first book
Contest
while just 19 and self-published it in
1996. It was rejected by every major publishing company in Sydney, leading
Reilly to self-publish 1,000 copies using money borrowed from his family.

His
dedication paid off, and was discovered by Pan Macmillan's then commissioning
editor Cate Paterson. His first industry-produced novel, Ice Station, proved so
monumentally popular, that it had to be reprinted six times in its first two
years.

The
continued success of his novels has been attributed to not only the accessible,
'storyteller' style of writing, but also the highly charged and kinetic action
sequences that take place throughout his works, deliberately making use of his
'unlimited budget' of imagination to create scenes 'too big for Hollywood'.

Reilly's
second book,
Ice Station
was also written whilst a student at the
University of NSW.

Matthew's
novels have also - unexpectedly - become a major tool in the fight to get
teenagers into reading. While written for a mature readership, Matthew's novels
have become very popular with reluctant male readers. This may stem from
Matthew's own childhood experience, citing his dislike for set reading projects
in high-school as his main inspiration to 'do it better'.

Reilly
owns several movie prop reproductions including a life-size statue of Han Solo
frozen in carbonite (Star Wars), a golden idol (Raiders of the Lost Ark) and a
working DeLorean DMC-12 (Back to the Future). A big fan of Hollywood
blockbusters, Reilly hopes to direct one of his own books as movies someday.

Outside
of the entertainment industry, Matthew has also partaken in several charity,
celebrity and publicity based events.  As part of a charity dinner for the NSW
Cancer Council in 2002, he offered to name a character in Scarecrow after the
highest bidder. The winner was Alec Christie. Look for his name in Scarecrow!
Matthew has played in several celebrity cricket matches and golf days alongside
members of INXS, rugby union legend Matthew Burke and a host of other Australian
celebrities.

He
regularly attends writer's festivals around Australia as a speaker or panelist.

In
2000, Matthew was a delegate at the What Makes a Champion conference in Sydney.
Nelson Mandela gave the opening address at the conference, and it featured such
luminaries as Edmund Hillary, Richard Butler and Shane Gould.

On
January 1st, 2001, Matthew walked in the Australian Centenary of Federation
Parade as a representative of Australian Literature.as appeared on the Big
Breakfast television show in Britain.

In
2001 and 2002, Matthew was a special ambassador for National Youth Week, an
initiative designed to get young people to chase their dreams.

In
2003, he is one of the faces of the Australian government's National Literacy
and Numeracy Week.

In
August, 2003, his book, Ice Station, will be one of six books sold at less than
half price as part of a special literacy-driven project called Books Alive.

Matthew
Reilly has trekked to the base of Mount Everest.

________________

I
created this eBook from a collection of short stories converted from .pdf, HTML
and .txt files I had archived from a few years ago; or in the case of Hell
Island, that I downloaded from the internet. I have taken these files,
converted, re-formatted them and adjusted them to better suit an eBook reader. 

I
“test” my final epubs on a Nook Color and an iPad2 to ensure the best possible
reading experience; however, not all eReaders are the same and don’t always
display epubs in the same way as others.  This is especially true when it comes
to the Table of Contents (ToC), images within the epub and the display of the
book cover. 

If
you find errors, or run into any difficulty with this (or any other of my
epubs), please feel free to contact me through Bolt.

Finally,
it is my sincerest wish that you have the best possible reading experience with
this or any epub I have created.

Flyboy707

October,
2011