My name is Kyle Perry.
I'm 29 years old and I'm from Ridgley in the northwest of
Tasmania.
And I'm an author, and I am a drug and alcohol counsellor.
When I'm writing, I'm happiest.
When I'm writing, I lose sense of myself.
There's no real disconnect between what's going on here and
what's going on here.
And that's, that's addictive to me, it's healthy for me, it
lights me up.
Writing is my favorite thing in the whole world.
And that's what draws me there every day.
In grade six, I sent an email to an author that I really admired,
and said, 'I want to be a writer one day, that's all I want to
do'.
And she replied, and she said, 'I think you can do it'.
And I never forgot that.
I never forgot that.
And so I held on to that.
After that I've just been going after it hard, hard, hard.
Finally, after book 11, the 11th manuscripts I got published.
I got an offer from Penguin Random House.
And that email, I'll never forget it, it started off with
'just a quick note before the week ends to let you know that I
have devoured the utterly brilliant and insanely
compelling novel of Kyle Perry's.
It had me up until two AM.
I am completely addicted. What a story. What a talent'.
That was the start of the email.
And the emotion that rushed through me I can't describe.
The Bluffs is centered on the disappearance of a group of
teenage girls from a school excursion up in the Great
Western Tiers.
Landscape is a character itself.
The Great Western Tiers, as a location has incredible majesty,
lawlessness, mystery.
And that comes through the page just because that's inside of
me.
That's inside of me already because I grew up in the
country.
I'm a Tasmanian, bush is in my bones, it's in my blood.
The Bluffs would not have existed without my clients.
Don't tell him this.
Because nearly everything in The Bluffs is based on something
that's really happened.
Not to myself, but stuff that's happened to my clients.
I've had to tone stuff down because truth is stranger than
fiction.
My qualification is in counseling and coaching.
And so at the moment, I'm working in a drug and alcohol
program, in a rehab.
I see the triumphs, I see the torture, I see the struggles,
and I just get this amazing chance to help them through it
and there's nothing, there's nothing better.
We're catching up with a guy today, Ryan, I call him a little
brother.
He's an absolute menace.
He causes me sleepless nights still, but he's killing it.
And he is someone who fell through the cracks.
I met Kyle for a rehabilitation program.
You know, at that time, I was quite lost and I was in a cycle
of drug addiction.
And when I met him, he had this presence about him and helped me
through a lot of struggles in my life.
He was just very invested in me and really wanted to help me to
find freedom, which I really thought wasn't possible.
I've been clean nowout for three years and definitely Kyle has
been a big impact to that.
I'm a counselor to my bones.
Like, I'm a writer to my bones, I'm a counselor to my bones.
My life has changed forever, for the best.
I am the happiest person in Tasmania.
I'm the happiest person in Tasmania and I can't wait for
the future.