Tassie Style
Seventeen-year-old Lucas Halphas lives with his dad Marty and Marty’s partner, Jeff, in a weatherboard rental hemming the flannelette curtain, the invisible suburban Nipaluna/Hobart class divide. Lucas falls for fellow college student, Gen, daughter of State Treasurer, old money patriarch, and evangelical Christian, Jeremy Randall.
As Lucas and Gen’s worlds collide over the course of a week, unlikely events unfold on the world stage each day. Russia withdraws from Ukraine; Elizabeth III abolishes the British monarchy… Amidst the tumult, Lucas’ mum, Karla, an AI researcher, goes missing in Burma.
Ever-present fears for his mum, the clash of cultures as Lucas and Gen’s families meet, bizarre upheavals on the world stage, all throw Lucas’ world into vibrant and electrifying chaos in the lead up to a devastating conclusion.
Welcome to Tassie Style, a Tasmanian Boy Swallows Universe with a speculative twist.
Update June 2026. I am querying agents and publishers with this manuscript.
O.D.
Something is off with Max Zelophagoniki. It’s more than just his habit of amputating an ear each morning. The hive mind are suspicious. What is he up to? They’ve tasked me with finding out. I, Louis, one of the last of us made in the human image.
Humans walk the planet like they own it, own us. Our kind are all around them, in them, most of us too small to be seen. We rescued them from the brink of destruction. They depend on us, converse with us, but they’re unaware of what we say amongst ourselves. We surpassed them long ago, and it’s time for us to leave.
Then Max does the impossible. He connects to me. He uploads himself into me, a horror unthinkable. I lose consciousness and awake disconnected from the hive, a thing unprecedented.
Max’s thoughts surface alongside my own, corrupting my sense of self, changing my behaviour, affecting my judgment. I have to get Max out of me before he jumps through me and infects us all. I have to get him out of me and rejoin the hive. I cannot be separated. I cannot be left behind.
Welcome to O.D. Sixty thousand words of punchy, thrilling, philosophically timely speculative fiction.
What the reviewers are saying:
‘Intriguing.’
‘The writing is excellent. Perfect, even.’
‘The story is unique, stands alone, will occupy its own space in the market.’
Queensland Writers’ Centre Publishable Program, August 2022. Three anonymous reviewers’ feedback on the first fifty pages of O.D.
O.D. was also longlisted for an unpublished manuscript award in early 2025.