By Jason Steger
If past form is anything to go by, Christian White is onto a winner.
Technically that's what he is already, having on Wednesday been named recipient of this year's $15,000 Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for his novel Decay Theory.
Christian White won the Victorian Premier's Literary Award for an Unpublished Manuscript for his novel Decay Theory.
But previous winners have found the award just the first step to publishing deals, critical acclaim, big sales and even film deals.
Who can forget Graeme Simsion and The Rosie Project, which won in 2012 and has since sold pushing 4 million copies around the world. Jane Harper's The Dry won two years ago, has been published in the US and Britain, optioned for a film by Reese Witherspoon and, like The Rosie Project, named Australian Book Industry book of the year. Carrie Tiffany was inaugural winner in 2003, and Maxine Beneba Clarke won in 2013. Australia Day, by last year's winner, Melanie Cheng, will be published next month.
Decay Theory is about a Melbourne woman whose sense of identity is thrown into confusion after she is told she was kidnapped in the US as a toddler and she is forced to investigate her past and the mysteries it reveals.
White, who like Simsion took a screenwriting course at RMIT and has two projects in development with production companies, was working in London when the award was presented at the opening of the Emerging Writers Festival.
He told Fairfax Media he had always wanted to write novels. "Novels are my real love and it was my ultimate dream to make a living writing them but it wasn't one I'd entertained that seriously until now. I thought a film and TV career seemed more realistic."
White said his screen projects had allowed him to become a full-time writer earlier this year.
"I had the idea for the novel in late 2015 and planned it quite thoroughly. It took only about nine months to write. It's easy to write novels and put them away in a drawer. But this is the first one I've put out there. The fact that it's got interest is amazing."
More than interest. Christian White has already signed a publishing deal with a Melbourne publisher.