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Set on Australia’s southern Great Barrier Reef The Old Man and the Sea meets Jaws when a boy’s solo fishing trip goes terribly, terrifyingly wrong. For his birthday present Christos is allowed to take his father’s mackerel dory out to fish and camp overnight on a local island. Instead he manages to run the dory aground on the reef and attract a four metre tiger shark as company for the most harrowing night of his life, a night during which he decides what he would be willing, To Die For.

Due out from Woolshed Press (an imprint of Random House Australia) in early 2011, To Die For is in part based on my experiences as a teenager fishing solo on the Great Barrier Reef off Emu Park in Central Queensland. Like everyone else in the 70s I watched the movie Jaws in complete terror. That film has since spawned a whole genre of blood, guts, and fear, shark films. (A couple of my favourites which you may have missed are: Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus and The Reef. Check the trailers out on YouTube! Along with hundreds of wannabes.) Anyway, when you go over the side of the boat with the gaff only to see the gaping maw of a shark taking your fish literally centimetres away you don't need Jaws or any other story to get your heart started. I dropped the gaff over the side, ensuring a blast from my old man when I got home for losing it. Hey Dad! If you want it, you go get it! This little black duck isn't going back for it. 

Place your advance order for To Die For with a reputable bookshop or online bookseller now. Then have a look at what humans irrational fear is doing to sharks at Sharkwater and Shark Angels. Makes you wonder what attributes make an 'honourable' species doesn't it?