More about me ...

I was born to Italian parents in Newcastle, New South Wales and grew up in Whyalla, South Australia. As a kid in the 70’s, I loved reading novels that transported me to another world: Colin Thiele, Ian Fleming, Isaac Asimov, EE Doc Smith, Michael Crichton, Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Wilbur Smith and especially Goscinny and Underzo (the Asterix creators).

In fact, I devoured anything that entertained the reader with a “movie for the mind”. And inspired by these stories, in a Year 9 English assignment, I wrote a short novella Ten miles to Cedar Hill featuring an Australian Secret Service agent.

This love of storytelling transitioned into watching movies—swashbuckling adventures like The Crimson Pirate and The Three Musketeers, and every Bond movie. There were no computer games in those days, so my brother and I would replicate action scenes and joust with wooden stakes! Not recommended without gloves for I still have the scars on my knuckles!!

On leaving school, I trained as an Electrical Engineer but a thirst for new horizons propelled me to leave my career and travel (blame Wilbur Smith!!). I began writing my first full length novel during an around Australia trip between 1987 and 1992. This was 165,000 word spy thriller that demonstrated more of a passion for writing rather than ability. Later I learned that it was a rookie mistake for a new writer to embark on such an ambitious project. However, there was another benefit to writing this first book. Research took me on my first round world trip - South Africa, Namibia, Tunisia, Rome, Zurich and New York.

On my return in 1992, I settled in Adelaide and decided to improve my skills by completing a full time two year Creative Writing course. To to my delight, I earned payments for two short stories published in Woman’s Day. As a direct result of this course, I experimented with other genres: a juvenile book about soccer, and a first person private detective novel. The soccer story had no interest but I did have Rose Creswell (then agent for Peter Corris) ask to read my MS. However this too was rejected and consequently, I gave up on the idea and took on a new sales role for Zeiss Medical in late 1994.

A desire to keep writing led me to dabble with a virtual reality adventure story that had the working title of Battle for the Virtual Dome.  This was inspired by the movie The Lawnmower Man but when The Matrix came out, I felt deflated as their "jacked into VR" scenario was executed far better than my story. But I persisted anyway and completed the 40,000 word novel Cybercycle , and began submitting to readers and agents. That journey included positive reviews, identification of some flaws in the story and an MS request from a NY literary agent. But unfortunately this resulted in another rejection. Then after some changes in my work and personal life, I quit my job and went on another round world trip for a year. On my return in 2003, I put writing behind me and embarked on a Business degree.

However, niggling in the background was the thought that maybe I had been close to finalizing my "product". This emboldened me to rewrite the MS and submit the title as Net Wars. But another round of submissions and an MS request from another NY literary agent, ultimately all ended with rejections. Clearly the verdict was unanimous—my novel wasn’t good enough or not appropriate for their lists. So I put the manuscript away and got happily distracted with pursuing other activities such as house renovations, motorcycling, reading and the biggest adventure of all—marriage and children!

Then in 2011 while on a new baby hiatus, I dusted off my manuscript and read it again. It wasn’t that bad. I liked the main theme of “courage to overcome fear”, plot was reasonably fresh with a good mix of narrative and action, and I liked the characters. I read that Wilbur Smith had stated that he writes for himself. So, I decided that instead of writing for the agents I would write a novel for "me" ...  an exciting “movie” for my mind. At this time, self publishing was taking off, and for personal satisfaction of achieving my passion project, in 2013, I printed my physical book now renamed Net Riders and uploaded an ebook on the Kindle platform.

In 2014, I moved house and got busy with reno projects that pretty much exhausted all my creative energy so there was no new writing. However, I had never been entirely happy with Net Riders so I began playing with various scenarios  to create a more compelling back story for the characters that would drive the action. But every time I looked at the story, the rapid changes in technology meant that I had to reinvent my near future scenario. And as more movies and books  incorporating virtual reality were released, each time they diminished the impact of my story. (Movies like Avatar and Virtuosity and books like Warcross, Insignia and Brainjack by terrific creators can undermine a person's confidence ... why would anybody bother to compete??)

But the voices in my head wouldn't shut up and when Covid hit in 2020, they got the opportunity to be heard.

Surprisingly, the dragon island chapters that had been cut from the original Net Riders began calling for attention. The idea of a computer game in a Jurassic Park/ Skull Island scenario inspired me to expand my story into seven levels. This resulted in my 2023 book Terra Dracona - an expansion of the game introduced in Net Riders. Then the question of what happened to Haxta nagged at me too. He was like that kid in the back of the class with his hand in the air trying to get my attention. So in 2026, this third book completed a trilogy I am proud of. They're not perfect by any means but I do believe they are entertaining. 

I hope they resonate with you readers who like me enjoy being immersed in Adrenaliterary books that are movies for the mind!

Happy reading.

Giorgio Marino

September, 2026