Finishing high school with average grades in English and no experience in creative writing hasn’t stopped Bundaberg’s Dom D Scheers from becoming an author.
For a decade Scheers has loved living in the Bundaberg Region and tomorrow, 23 May 2019, he will launch his first novel Playing the Odds.
His dream of writing only started three years ago when he woke suddenly in the early morning.
“I woke really early, before 4am; it was a Sunday,” Scheers said.
“I had this scene for a book, running through my head, I got up and grabbed the laptop.
“A couple hours later my wife, Nat, got out of bed – I made her coffee.
“She read the first chapter and said it was ‘pretty good’ – so I kept writing.”
Seven months later a novel was written
“I’ve never done any creative writing before,” he said.
“I had never done a writing course, and I got a C+ in high school English, but the book is good.”
Working full-time at Bundaberg Hospital, Scheers said he “crammed” writing in around his work.
“I work at the local mental health service at the hospital,” he said.
“It is such a great place to work and is full of great people.
“The whole mental health service from the top to the bottom is focused delivering the best care – it’s great to be a part of something like that.”
Scheers’ novel is a detective fiction piece.
He said it it was different from other detective novels as it was written as a book within a book.
The main character, Ben Wieserkowski, ends up writing a book during the story.
Scheers really enjoys reading detective novels and said he found his own style also suited the detective action theme.
“I never knew I had a great detective novel inside my head,” Scheers said.
“Writing allowed me to put my own spin on it.
“It’s a familiar formula – there’s just so much to play with. I got to play around with the stereotypes.”
Meet Dom Scheers at Bundaberg Regional Library
Last week, Scheers appeared at the Bundaberg Regional Library for a meet the author session.
He said it was a small crowd, but everyone had a great time.
“No one fell asleep,” he joked.
“Several people chimed in with questions.”
The Bundaberg author said Playing the Odds was his take on the good old-fashioned detective novel, and hoped the community would enjoy it as much as he did.
“The stuff that was popular in the 1950s,” he said.
“But I update it for 2019.”
The book by Dom Scheers will launch at The Brewhouse on Thursday at 6pm.
- Today, alpacas joined Bundaberg Regional Library fun for National Storytime, read the story here.