Writer, teacher and surfer Mark Rafidi in one of his happy places, the NSW South Coast. Photo: Supplied.
Reading Mark Rafidi’s latest novel, Salt Runs Through, you’d swear the author was a teenage boy, who lived for his mates and surfing, but was not without a dark side.
You’d be about half right.
Mark hasn’t been a teenage boy for a while, but he seems to know how they think, act and speak. Teaching them at an Ulladulla school on the NSW South Coast probably helps, as does his passion for surfing.
The dark side? Well, not so different from what most young men try as teenagers although for some, the darkest of sides is the fact he never (voluntarily) opened a book before he was 15. But once he did, he made up for it.
These days, Mark reckons he has his priorities straight. Wife and family first, although he does admit experiencing the novelty of being empty-nesters with his wife is growing on him – “we do love our kids but …”, followed by writing, teaching and surfing – not always in that order.
For this writer, they all play a part in what he does and perhaps the success he has achieved.
Mark’s new novel, his fourth, tells the story of Miles and how this boy, 15, navigates the summer of 2019.
The novel, he said, had been floating about in his head for a couple of years. He knew it was going to be something important, but he said, “I was procrastinating”. It was not until he was told by a friend to stop talking about it and start writing, coupled with an interview he heard with writer Trent Dalton, that he started working on it seriously.
“I started out writing Miles as a fictional character,” Mark said. “But then I realised I had started including some of myself in him. It came from an interview I heard with Trent Dalton on the radio one day. He was talking about how, in Boy Swallows Universe, it was semi-autobiographical.
“For some reason,” he said, “I’d never thought about using my childhood experiences in a novel, but in one way, listening to Trent, it felt like I had permission to do so.
It was, he said, like an epiphany.
For Mark, capturing the voice of the market he was predominantly writing for, also had its problems. “The editing process for this book was interesting,” he said. “There were a lot of stakeholders involved.
“In my initial draft, there was a lot of heavy swearing involved. Apprently I had used the f-word 186 times in the original draft. Everyone told me if I wanted it to be in a library, I’d have to tone it down.” So he did.
A disciplined writer – because he believes it’s crucial to give equal time to all passions – Mark writes at least 500 words a day during school term time or 1000 if he’s on a break.
“That to me is very achievable,” he said. “Then I can give the time I need to teaching – and surfing.”
Mark’s Croatian mother and Palestinian father met when they both left their homelands for a better life in Australia, settling in south-western Sydney.
With his wife and kids, Mark then “moved to Bega for about six years and then here to Ulladulla where we’ve been for over 20 years. This is home for us, we love it”.
His latest novel, he said, was an “unintentional love letter” to the South Coast community, with story threads extending out to the region’s First Nations people.
“It’s funny but I had no intention to bring the Currowan bushfires into this story,” he said, “but they crept in almost unconsciously. It was such a harrowing exerience for so many people. I guess it was somewhat cathartic to do so, to try to purge some of those emotions we all felt at the time.
“For me and many others, the bushfire changed us. That sort of natural disaster has to be life-altering. We were lucky and didn’t lose our property but so many kids and staff at our school did.
“Including it in the book was not intentional, but it felt right being there.”
Salt Runs Through by Mark Rafidi is available for pre-order sale through Hawkeye Publishing.
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