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Hookers and hawkers.
Mosques and mosquitos.
Paul has had enough of Southeast Asia.
He's only here ‘cos it's cheap.
He's on the run from police after leaving Australia.
No, that place wasn't much better either.
Well, it was when he was young.
When his life was full of promise. An up-and-coming boxer. And he had friends. And fun.
Then a bit of bad luck later and he found himself on the run in outback Australia. Paranoid. Hiding from shadows. The heat. The dust. The sweat.
Next stop, Southeast Asia.
Read an Excerpt
He wondered again if they would come for him tonight. The hotel porter and counter staff were looking at him suspiciously when he last went out for food. Or was he just looking at them weird? If they came for him tonight, for which crime would they come? Would it be Interpol? What he did to the man in Bali might warrant that. He didn’t feel too bad about that one because he was only some fag who came onto him after seeing him in Kuta one night when Paul was hungry and standing alone in the darkness. The man asked if he was ok and invited him back to his house and made dinner. Paul knew his old coach would be ashamed that he had beaten the man, not to mention taken his money. He saw his coach in his mind again - this time holding pads for him in the ring. If only Paul had made more money from boxing, then he would never have had to come to Asia. He never would have been standing hungry and lost and standing with street dogs and feeling like a failure. That was the worst moment in Paul’s life and he didn’t want to remember it again.
About the Author: Gregory Pakis is an Australian author, film-maker, actor and wacky vlogger. He has written the short story, The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night; the soon to be released horror- suspense novellas, The Regressor and He., and Memoir of a Suburban Hoe-Bo, which is partly an account of when he lived out of a van for ten years in Melbourne.
Gregory Pakis is also the writer / director of the feature films, The Garth Method (2005) and The Joe Manifesto (2013), which have won national and international awards and been distributed through Accent Entertainment, Label, Vanguard Cinema.
Gregory's more informal video projects are the feature documentaries, Garth Goes Hitch-Hiking (2007) and Garth Lives in a Van (2011) which have screened at film festivals in Australia.
More recently, he has created the comedy series, suBURPieS and his Wacky Vlog which can found on his socials.
Gregory has been featured in articles in newspapers, The Age, The Herald Sun, Beat Magazine, Inpress, FILMINK, and the Neos Kosmos. He has been interviewed on radio by the ABC, 3RRR, SYN FM, 3CR.
AUTHOR CHAT TO CAMERA VIDEO
Thanks for featuring the story :). The excerpt above is based in paranoia and guilt, which if someone already is, becomes threefold when in a foreign land with little money. The scene in Indonesia is based in an anecdote my friend told me when he was penniless and desperate and the interaction with the older man was something he considered. The anecdote always stuck in my head for some reason.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for featuring this book today.
ReplyDeleteThanks for featuring the story :). The excerpt above is based in paranoia and guilt, which if someone already is, becomes threefold when in a foreign land with little money. The scene in Indonesia is based in an anecdote my friend told me when he was penniless and desperate and the interaction with the older man was something he considered. The anecdote always stuck in my head for some reason.
ReplyDelete