Tassie author Kyle Perry’s talent runs deep

Best-selling, Hobart-based author Kyle Perry dived into the deep end for his second book, and is happily surprised by its success. ABOUT THE AUTHOR + NOVEL >>

Hobart author Kyle Perry learned to scuba dive as research for his new novel, The Deep, since the story involves detailed descriptions of diving in the kelp-forested waters off Tasmania’s southeast coast.

And while the experience certainly helped him to nail those descriptive passages about being underwater, he says he hopes he never has to do it again.

“I realised how dangerous it can be,” he says. “I was diving with my buddy, a current came through, I used my arms to steady myself and accidentally ripped his breather out of his mouth. He had to grab my spare. It was scary, it really rattled me. I’m really happy to never dive again! At least not until I’ve processed that trauma.”

As much as he hopes it will be his last time diving, Perry says the experience was absolutely essential to his book.

Author Kyle Perry of Hobart. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

“I booked in to get my scuba ticket last year but Covid happened. I had that cancelled on me, so rather than wait I just wrote the book with all the scuba diving scenes in it anyway,” he says. “I’d done a little bit of diving before but not much, and not in that particular area, but I figured I had a pretty good idea of what it felt like, how it worked and so on.

“But in the final stages of writing and editing The Deep, I finally got to do my scuba ticket and I remember thinking ‘oh, wow, that’s not how it works at all!’ Stuff like buoyancy doesn’t work how I thought it would, the sounds, how the equipment feels, all of that was very different. So in light of that I did a lot of rewriting of those parts of the book.”

The Deep is Perry’s second novel, following his acclaimed 2020 debut novel, The Bluffs, which was released last year.

Cliffs at Pirates Bay on the Tasman Peninsula where Perry’s latest novel The Deep is set. Picture: SAM ROSEWARNE.

The Deep is set on the rugged coast of Tasmania’s Tasman Peninsula, in the region of a fictionalised Eaglehawk Neck, and is a tale about modern-day pirates, family bonds and betrayals, and the hidden dangers that lurk in the deep.

Here the Dempsey family have run a drug ring out of Shacktown for generations, using the fishing industry and the deadly Black Wind as cover.

But when 13-year-old Forest Dempsey walks out of the ocean, bruised and branded, everything is at risk – because Forest has been presumed dead for seven years.

Mackerel Dempsey, out of jail on strict bail conditions, is trying to change his fate, doing his best to keep out of trouble before his next court date. His cousin Ahab has renounced the family altogether, in favour of working to keep the town and its fragile tourism economy safe. But in their search for answers about Forest, both Mackerel and Ahab can’t help but be drawn back into the underworld.

Tasmanian author of The Deep, Kyle Perry, who is also a drug and alcohol counsellor. Picture: James Brewer

A drug and alcohol counsellor, Perry had a rich vein of experience and knowledge to tap into while writing this book about drug-dealing in Tasmania’s underworld. While he knows his portrayal of the island state’s underbelly might be a little shocking to some, he says this mostly hidden side of Tasmanian life is very real and not so different from his book.

“We are not as far removed from it in Tasmania as most people like to think we are,” he says. “I had this moment just the other night when I was out to dinner and a friend who works in a hospital said she had been exposed to something really confronting at work and it really shocked her, she had no idea this kinda stuff happens. I just said ‘welcome to my world!’

“Within that counselling space I’ve been told about murders, crimes, things that are very difficult for me to know and not think the world is a dark place.

“I think it’s healthy to realise there’s more going on and also to realise that it’s not the world you live in, your world is a different world.”

Perry with cat Margot in his Hobart writing studio. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

Perry was mindful not to glamorise that lifestyle in The Deep, rather using it as a way to expose the humanity of the individuals who find themselves caught up in that world – which is notoriously difficult to escape. In doing so, he felt a certain catharsis, this book bridging the gap between his writing and his counselling, the two sides of himself.

“Every day at work I’m seeing real people who are affected by this world, I’m learning about an individual’s experience, how it affects them, and all of that real-life stuff was filtering into the analog of fictional characters. I’m passionate about reframing the narrative around those who use drugs.

“The fact that I had these great people in my life to draw on made me feel that I was able to make a difference in that space. There is a lot of stigma attached and a lot of it is uncalled for.”

The main character, Mackerel, is based largely on one individual who was once a big-time drug dealer and has since reformed himself.

Perry says the real-life individual has turned his life around after spending time in prison but it is important for people to realise that even for someone determined to go straight, it can be a struggle getting your life back together.

“Because of way he lived his life, he was on very strict bail conditions when he got out of jail. He had to do a daily sign-in at the police station, so that meant he could never be far from a police station; he had to live close, get a job that lets him go there every morning. He wasn’t able to travel or do shift work because he had a had curfew as well, and it’s impossible to rehabilitate like that.

“Sometimes that cycle of violence and crime ends up being the only mechanism you have. And I think ultimately people understand that. That person you see living on the street without a house, maybe he can’t be at home because the person next door is violent and worse things will happen if they go to the police about it.”

The cover of Kyle Perry’s latest book The Deep.

The criminal underworld is not the only thing scary dangerous in Perry’s work, though. Much like his debut novel, The Bluffs, there is a distinctly Tasmanian Gothic flavour to the way he incorporates the Tasmanian landscape into his writing.

In the Bluffs, he was partly inspired by Picnic at Hanging Rock and the idea that the bush was somehow dangerous and mysterious, capable of simply swallowing people, never to be seen again.

Similarly, in The Deep, the imposing cliffs and ominously brutal weather of the Tasman Peninsula are imbued with a menace all their own, once again making the landscape practically a character in the story.

“You know, I wasn’t even aware I was doing that until people kept pointing it out,” Perry laughs. “To me it was just natural: the landscape looks like this, it has this effect, and so on. I think it’s partly because I grew up in the country, and being Tasmanian I feel very much connected to the country around me.

“And I think I use the landscape as a kind of anchor for the characters as well. The grounding earthiness and drama of the landscape is a balance against the characters and everything that’s going on for them.”

Something Perry was certain about, however, was the need to use Eaglehawk Neck as the location for his book.

Initially he was planning to set The Deep in St Helens, somewhere he had spent a lot of time over the years. But one day, with the book already partly written, he had a flash of inspiration. “I had this moment where I went to get coffee from the cafe on the lookout and I remember having this breathtaking moment of looking at the view from up there.

“That was the exact moment I knew I needed to set my book there, that was where my story wanted to be. I’d already written about 20,000 words at that point but I rewrote it all just so I could use Eaglehawk Neck as the location, with the cliffs, the caves, the Tessellated Pavement.”

While so much of The Deep seemed to coalesce almost of its own accord, Perry still felt the strain of the dreaded “second-book syndrome”, which has been the bane of many an emerging author.

When a debut novel has enjoyed the kind of success The Bluffs had, the idea of following it up with something new can be a little bit terrifying. And Perry had written 10 other books which never saw publication before writing The Bluffs, so he was well aware of the realities of rejection.

“I had 10 years of manuscripts being rejected, and then suddenly this amazing success,” he says. “So I wasn’t even really sure what it was that I suddenly did right and there were a lot of complicated emotions tangled up in that.

“I was deeply convinced that my second book would be a disappointment, not because it was no good, but just because it wouldn’t be as good as The Bluffs.

“Fortunately, in my role as a counsellor, I have to employ a lot of regulation skills in my daily life to cope with the difficult emotions and challenging situations I have to deal with. I’ve learnt to control those difficult emotions and when I felt frantic or I was getting into a bad spiral, I was able to pull myself out if it, say ‘stop that thought process,’ have a break, and come back fresh.”

Kyle Perry at home last year after his breakout novel The Bluffs was released.

Beating that anxiety was one thing, but beating the carpal tunnel he developed during the writing process was a little more painful.

“I’m a bit of an ADHD writer, I hate being at my desk, I’d rather be in a cafe or sitting at the beach. I went to Eaglehawk Neck a lot, and frequently ended up in all sorts of bad writing positions in a car, or balancing my laptop on one knee. It wasn’t good.

“I wrote 30,000 over the course of about two weeks like that, and the pain and damage I did to my hands and arms was so bad as a result that I was out of action for a month and a half.”

Concerned that his injuries would mean squandering the hard work he had put in, Perry invested in a proper ergonomic set-up at home and became more disciplined about working properly.

“I bought a $600 keyboard, which is worth its weight in gold, and I also bought a nice leather chair, a gaming desk, and it made such a difference, I’m astounded I’d never done this before,” he says. “It still gives me trouble occasionally, especially if I use a regular keyboard at work for a long period, but on my home set-up I can write all day and it’s not an issue.”

And now that The Deep is out in the world and getting positive reviews, Perry feels he can start to heal from his second-book syndrome as well.

“I always knew there would be comparisons but I never expected so many people to come back and say they enjoyed it more than The Bluffs,” he says.

“To pull off a good book a second time, it reinforces that I have arrived, this is who I am now.”

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The Deep, by Kyle Perry and published by Penguin Random House Australia, is on sale from July 20 for $32.99, also as ebook and audiobook