Pig Boy (31 page)

J.C. Burke was born in Sydney in 1965, the fourth of five daughters. With writers for parents, she grew up in a world full of noise, drama and books, and the many colourful characters who came to visit provided her with an endless supply of stories and impersonations.

Burke decided to become a nurse after her mother lost a long battle with cancer. She specialised in the field of Oncology, working in Haematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Units in Australia and the UK.

A creative writing course at Sydney University led to an ASA mentorship with Gary Crew and the publication of Children's Book Council Notable of Australia Book
White Lies
(Lothian) in 2002. Burke has since written
The Red Cardigan
, also a CBCA Notable Book, and its sequel
Nine Letters Long
.
The Story of Tom Brennan
won the 2006 Children's Book Council of Australia Book of the Year: Older Readers award and also the Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature 2006. J.C. Burke's latest books are
Faking Sweet, Starfish Sisters
and
Ocean Pearl.

J.C. Burke lives in Sydney. For more information about her and her books, visit
www.jcburke.com.au
or go to her page on Facebook.

The author would like to thank: Shakti Burke, Kim O'Neil, Trangie, NSW; The McKinnon Family, Dandeloo Station, Trangie, NSW; Mitch and Ally Newbury, St Mary's Indoor Shooting Centre, NSW; Vince Danilo, translator; Miles Wright; Michael Shehadie; Laraine, Greg and Leigh Smith, Bowen, QLD; Alex Shehadie; Meredith Phelps; Sophie Toomey; Kelly Hargreaves; Philip O'Keefe; Hamish Sutherland; Manning Begg; Stuart Lewis, Finley, NSW; Eric and Ray Boittier; Glen Thomas and Cathy Charnley; Craig and James, EB Games, Warriewood, NSW; Col's Meats, Avalon, NSW; Tony Cleaver, Brisbane, QLD; Kellie Nash, Mary Doolan and all at Coonabarabran High; Tara Wynne, Curtis Brown Australia; Zoe Walton, publisher, Random House Australia; Kimberley Bennett, editor, Random House Australia.

And a final thanks to my family, who tolerated me reading
Bacon Busters
magazines and speaking endlessly about the Bosnian War, a war that I watched whilst breastfeeding my children, which is perhaps why it resonates so deeply for me.

THE STORY OF
TOM
BRENNAN

Read on for an extract from
J.C. Burke's award winning novel

PROLOGUE
At 4.30 am on Friday the 23rd of January, my father, Joseph Brennan, closed the front door of our home for the last time. Then gently, as we now had to be, he led my mother step by step to the car and helped her into the back seat. My sister Kylie and I followed, carrying the left-over bags and suitcases. No one spoke. Only the sounds of our feet shuffling along the concrete and my groan as I dumped the last of our belongings into the boot broke the near-dawn's silence.

I waited by the bonnet for Dad to slip the handbrake off and give me the signal. I pushed our Ford Falcon station wagon out of the garage, past the ugly words that told us we were no longer wanted, and along the street.

When we reached the crest of ‘Daniel's Whine' – named after my brother, who hated climbing hills – I jumped in the front seat and Dad lifted his foot off the brake. Down, down we glided in silence.

The silhouettes of houses slipped past before I could catch them and remember the people we were leaving behind. In a couple of hours they would wake and find us gone, far away, so as not to remind them of their pain and what our family now meant to this town. My name is Tom Brennan and this is my story.