Media Scrum

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Fancy a scrum?

From May 12-28, I’ll be back in Australia, feeding it in the second row, and doing the rounds of Marooned promotion. For those interested in tuning in to my gasbagging, here are the broadcast interviews currently on the docket. As more gigs are confirmed, I’ll add them to the list:

Authorised Podcast with Kevin Hillier
Thursday 14th May 11:00am (Episode release TBC)

612 ABC Brisbane Evenings with Kelly Higgins-Devine
Live-to-air in-studio
Monday 18th May 7:30pm

4BC Afternoons with Carla Bignasca
Live-to-air in-studio
Tuesday 19th May 2:30pm

SENQ 693AM Breakfast – Corey & Heals
Live-to-air in-studio
Wednesday 20th May 8:30am

ABC Far North Saturday Breakfast with Amanda Cranston
Pre-record (Release TBC)
Wednesday 20th May 10.30am

RNZ Nine to Noon with Kathryn Ryan (New Zealand)
Live-to-air
Friday 21st May 10:00am NZ TIME | 8:00am QLD TIME

As well as the talking-head stuff, keep an eye out for exciting print and digital media news in the coming weeks!

And don’t forget: there are a few tickets still available for the official in-person Brisbane launch of Marooned. Visit the Riverbend Books ‘Events’ page to grab your spot:

Darren Groth in conversation with Michael Gerard Bauer 
Riverbend Books
Wednesday 20 May 6:30pm

Pre-Order Your Copy of ‘Marooned’!

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Just in time for the next chapter of Queensland rugby league triumph, Marooned is officially hitting Australia’s shelves May 20, 2026.

But you can get ahead of the queue with a pre-order now via the publisher, Hawkeye Books.

For folks outside of Australia, price and shipping are quite reasonable through Hawkeye. However, if you prefer a cheaper option, stay tuned for details on overseas purchase and upcoming e-editions.

Thank you for supporting Marooned and I look forward to connecting with you in-person during this wonderful journey!

Cover Tackled

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Like a Johnathan Thurston ‘show and go’, the cover for Marooned is a thing of beauty.

I love its simplicity and clarity. As a friend of mine remarked, you don’t need to wonder what’s going on — it tells you pretty clearly what the story is about. Many thanks to Skye Martin and the Hawkeye team for their fine creative work.

Marooned is set for release May 20, 2026.

A Measure of ‘Marooned’

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Here’s one of my favourite essays from the upcoming Marooned memoir, set for release with Hawkeye Books, May 20, 2026.

Enjoy!

May 23, 1994

Origin Game #1, SFS, Sydney

Score: Qld 16 – NSW 12

Heaven Sent

Dear Reader, if you’ve managed to reach this point in the book without tossing it aside, and you’re Maroon to the core, and you’ve been keeping tabs on my timeline, and you perused the title of this instalment with a knowing grin, you’ll be keenly aware that it’s time to unpack a miracle:

How my beautiful wife came into my life.

(Okay, you were expecting THE miracle, THE try, immortalised by Ray Warren’s call and a must in every Origin highlight package that ever was and ever will be? Don’t worry – I’ll get to it in due course.)

Continue reading “A Measure of ‘Marooned’” →

Reliable Narrator

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Who tells the story?

This question looms large when setting out to circumnavigate a novel. Indeed, it might be the most important question of all. The narrator is everything to a story. The lens for the reader’s view. The grasp of the reader’s hand. The whisper in the reader’s ear. Get the narrator right and a lot of bumps on the road may be smoothed out. Get the narrator wrong and you’ll end up in a ditch, calling for a tow truck.

In my previous work, the question of who tells the story tended to have ready answers. Kindling was always going to be the alternating voices of father and son. The fabulist fable of Infinite Blue would only ever be served by a Brothers Grimm-esque third person. In Most Valuable Potential and Munro vs the Coyote / Exchange of Heart, the narrator needed to be a guide for the reader as they engaged with experiences outside of the mainstream for many: those of the the immigrant and the disabled. Are You Seeing Me? wasn’t quite as straightforward — the original draft had much of the third act delivered from mother Leonie’s perspective; during it’s two and a half year struggle to find a home, that approach was abandoned in favour of focusing solely on the twins (a decision that played an enormous role in the work finally securing a deal).

Overall, choice of voice? Relatively painless.

Then along comes Boy in the Blue Hammock.

Continue reading “Reliable Narrator” →

The Gift of Tao

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Bestest Boy

Tao: In Confucianism, the way, or the path to be followed.

For anyone who knows me and has read the teaser for Boy in the Blue Hammock, it will be no surprise to you that my son was the inspiration for the character of Kasper. What might be a surprise is that failed service dog, Tao, is also grounded in real-life. For over a decade, a goofy, gold-coated Labrador was part of our family due to ‘incomplete training’ with the BC Guide Dogs.

And, yes, his name was Tao.

I don’t have to put up with this shit…
Okay, I guess I do…
Continue reading “The Gift of Tao” →

That’s My Boy

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Us

Readers familiar with my background know that I have an intellectually disabled, neurodiverse son, and readers familiar with my work know that intellectual disability and neurodiversity feature in the novels Kindling, Are You Seeing Me? and Munro vs. the Coyote / Exchange of Heart.

Inevitably, the question has arisen:

“Is that your boy on the page?”

The long answer is I used aspects of his manner, language, attitude and interests as a jumping-off point to create characters that assumed their own living, breathing, authentic fictional lives. The short answer is no.

My new novel Boy in the Blue Hammock will be out next spring and, surprise surprise, it centres an intellectually disabled, neurodiverse protagonist. And already I can hear the question again, distant but persistent, making its way towards me like I’m a destination on Google Maps:

“Is that your boy on the page?”

My answer this time around?

Yes.

Absolutely, yes.

Continue reading “That’s My Boy” →

Square Peg…No Hole?

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Sans round hole?

“Not a great fit for us…”

“Doesn’t really fit our list…”

“You’ll find a better fit elsewhere…”

Any author who’s ever had work rejected is familiar with these statements. Over 20 years and eight novels, I’ve had my fair share of ‘fitness’ fails and I’ve come to understand it’s sometimes literal, more often publisher shorthand for ‘We don’t think it will sell’ or ‘We don’t love it’ or ‘We don’t love it enough’. Typically, I would shake it off and saddle up for the next response, hope springing eternal from decisions not yet made.

The eighteen months of contractual futility that haunted my upcoming 2022 novel, Boy in the Blue Hammock, though? It was different. The parade of passes based on fit seemed to be communicating a new shorthand, not so much a situation of square peg / round hole.

It felt like square peg…no hole?

Continue reading “Square Peg…No Hole?” →

Wear It With Pride

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An imaginary jacket worn by failed guide dog protagonist, Tao, plays a key role in Boy in the Blue Hammock. It gives him courage and strength in moments when he might falter. It brings with it the voice of Trainer. It permits him to do things beyond the limits of his lesser self.

He is proud of the jacket.

As I am of this one:

Many thanks to the Nightwood Editions team and their designers for this beautiful cover. And to my CAN/US agents, Olga Filina and Ali McDonald for their expert input during the process.

Boy in the Blue Hammock will be published April 30, 2022.

It is available for pre-order here.

‘Boy in the Blue Hammock’ – The Teaser

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Spring 2022, to be specific.

In a time of isolation and scarcity, a regressive regime rules with absolute power, turning neighbour against neighbour, and crushing dissidence with deadly force. A microcosm of this monstrous time: the tiny Pacific Northwest town of Gilder.

In a house on the fringes of the decimated hamlet, Tao – a failed service dog turned pet – wakes to find his leash tied to the stair, his hind leg broken and his family killed. With the world he knows shattered, there is one course of action: lay with his slain masters and wait for the enemy – the “hounds” – to return and end his life.

But it is not the hounds that find him – it is Kasper, fifteen years old, disabled, limited ability to speak, sole survivor of the family. With the discovery of Boy, Tao understands he now has a duty: guide the last living member of his pack through the ravaged streets of Gilder to safety. The destination? The only refuge he can conceive of in a world gone mad?

The site of his training five years before.

Boy in the Blue Hammock is an epic tale of loss and loyalty, of dissent and destruction, of assumption and ableism. With a powerful narrative and evocative prose, the novel poses one of the important questions of our time: when evil silences the people, who will protect those without a voice?

COMING SPRING 2022