WHO AM I … I am an open book … My name is Matt Towner and I am incredibly lucky. I recently launched my first book at the Byron Writers Festival, my home town and beachside alternative arts centre of Australia. One of the main speakers, an award winning author explained that it took him 7 years to even have a publisher call him back. I was lucky enough to have a 3 book deal internationally within 7 weeks.
I have now had a few of my fellow writers published in their own right their own full books and I am currently negotiating for several more. But my international publishers really want my full story now, which is really why I am here. I have until the 1st of July to provide 100,000 words as my memoir … GEM DEALING GYPSY …
I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Writing in 1989. I did not even wait for the hats in the air as I was off to see the world. I was contracted to play rugby for San Diego, which was the start of my world travels and the end of my rugby career as San Diego was one big party and we were handed the keys to the city. I then travelled America and Europe and met a crazy Portuguese guy in Athens who had travelled the world for 20 years buying and selling gemstones. We got on famously and two days later I sobered up and was on a plane to Thailand smuggling gemstones back and forth to Europe and America for 10 years. Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, Pearls, you name it, jewellers in America and Europe needed gem dealing gypsies like us to bring them stones from all over the world as their was no google then and customs was an open door. The world was very different then …
On the 31st of March 2009, I had a motorcycle accident in Phuket Thailand. I fractured my skull, my spine, my ankle, my knee, my shoulder, my elbow, broke three ribs, perforated my lungs and had a brain hermmorage all in the middle of no where. Some villagers picked me up from the bottom of a hill on the side of the road literally in pieces and got me to a hospital in the back of a truck with everything broken from head to toe. I am very lucky to be alive and since that day I live my dreams each and every day.
My dream since I was a child has been to travel the world as a writer. I just never sat still long enough and life kept getting in the way. I still fight these challenges today. But to have a 3 book deal and more to come and having published some of my fellow authors and more to come, I have to write more and more. My next dream is to convert some of my stories to film and television.
My stories are a celebration of alternative culture, following in the footsteps of Jack Keroac and Hunter S Thompson & Terrence McKenna as I am passionate about fighting the gentrification of my home town of Byron Bay and I visit Burning Man every year and loved canoeing the Amazon.
But the best is yet to come !!!
Matt has published …
'Travellers Tales"
“The Pocket Book Guide to Byron Bay”
“The Gemstone Book of Runes”
“Crystal Carvings”
“Opal Magic”
“Rasta Roo”
“Bris Vegas”
"ABROAD BROKE & BUSTED"
"CRAZY SHIT IN ASIA"
LATEST BOOKS 2017, 2018...
With Matt Towner's latest book "CRAZY SHIT IN ASIA" now out in bookstores, along with his succesful travel book "ABROAD BROKE & BUSTED" getting rave reviews, Matt is now working on his own autobiography "Gem Dealing Gypsy."
I have now had a few of my fellow writers published in their own right their own full books and I am currently negotiating for several more. But my international publishers really want my full story now, which is really why I am here. I have until the 1st of July to provide 100,000 words as my memoir … GEM DEALING GYPSY …
I graduated from University with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Writing in 1989. I did not even wait for the hats in the air as I was off to see the world. I was contracted to play rugby for San Diego, which was the start of my world travels and the end of my rugby career as San Diego was one big party and we were handed the keys to the city. I then travelled America and Europe and met a crazy Portuguese guy in Athens who had travelled the world for 20 years buying and selling gemstones. We got on famously and two days later I sobered up and was on a plane to Thailand smuggling gemstones back and forth to Europe and America for 10 years. Diamonds, Sapphires, Rubies, Pearls, you name it, jewellers in America and Europe needed gem dealing gypsies like us to bring them stones from all over the world as their was no google then and customs was an open door. The world was very different then …
On the 31st of March 2009, I had a motorcycle accident in Phuket Thailand. I fractured my skull, my spine, my ankle, my knee, my shoulder, my elbow, broke three ribs, perforated my lungs and had a brain hermmorage all in the middle of no where. Some villagers picked me up from the bottom of a hill on the side of the road literally in pieces and got me to a hospital in the back of a truck with everything broken from head to toe. I am very lucky to be alive and since that day I live my dreams each and every day.
My dream since I was a child has been to travel the world as a writer. I just never sat still long enough and life kept getting in the way. I still fight these challenges today. But to have a 3 book deal and more to come and having published some of my fellow authors and more to come, I have to write more and more. My next dream is to convert some of my stories to film and television.
My stories are a celebration of alternative culture, following in the footsteps of Jack Keroac and Hunter S Thompson & Terrence McKenna as I am passionate about fighting the gentrification of my home town of Byron Bay and I visit Burning Man every year and loved canoeing the Amazon.
But the best is yet to come !!!
Matt has published …
'Travellers Tales"
“The Pocket Book Guide to Byron Bay”
“The Gemstone Book of Runes”
“Crystal Carvings”
“Opal Magic”
“Rasta Roo”
“Bris Vegas”
"ABROAD BROKE & BUSTED"
"CRAZY SHIT IN ASIA"
LATEST BOOKS 2017, 2018...
With Matt Towner's latest book "CRAZY SHIT IN ASIA" now out in bookstores, along with his succesful travel book "ABROAD BROKE & BUSTED" getting rave reviews, Matt is now working on his own autobiography "Gem Dealing Gypsy."
