David Wildsmith
Writer and Art Slave
…I’m that thing that went bump in the night.
Around age six, I saw a family member’s name on a book in the local library. Brian Wildsmith had many titles, and I read through the lot. With my rare surname, I decided writing must be in my blood. Since then, I’ve written stories.
Of course, life happened for the next thirty years. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy in 1999. I illustrated two post-graduate texts on Neurology and The Upper Limb during this degree. These are my first publications, but they’re far from fictional.
Throughout university, I continued to write short stories, novels, and quirky blurbs for newsletters, websites, and bands to whom I may have had a loose attachment.
In 2010, I decided that I seemed reasonably intelligent, I had a degree, and I’d written forever. The time to take writing seriously had arrived. There may have been a trumpet fanfare in the murky recesses of my mind. Surely, published works would soon flow from my pen.
After four years of concentrated work, writing courses, consultation, and manuscript assessments, I had my first official manuscript, A Plague of Ladybirds. This mock cover is designed to make me feel like the manuscript could be a book one day. I love this novel, and it received highly complimentary rejections. Unfortunately, however, it didn’t quite make it to publication…yet.
For the next three years, I submitted the manuscript to everyone I thought matched the book. Using the 2015 Writers’ and Artists’ Yearbook as a guide (US and UK editions). I wrote with care to every agent on this list and continued to hone my synopsis.
It took until 2018 to realise that it might be time to move on. No trumpet fanfares this time. So, with a mind full of too many ideas, scribbled notes in terrible handwriting, and a panic that it may never happen, I started novel two.
By 2022, COVID happened, and I finished my second manuscript. Finished, I say. Ridiculous. As a working title, it was named, Tusk. With the greatest album of all time (Silverchair’s Diorama) on endless repeat, I sat at my PC and tried to coerce 75,000 words into something the literary world may enjoy.
These days I write full-time. Book two is being submitted to agents and publishers. I’m editing book three, a story given to me by a dream. To catch up to Brian, however, I better get cracking.
2023 My story ‘Does the Wind Blow Colder at Home’ appeared as a shortlisted entry for Aesthetica’s 2024 Creative Writing Award
This story means a great deal to me. I dedicated the story to my late Uncle Noel, whom I did not get to meet very often. He died in my early twenties, but when we did cross paths, he always offered a supportive word for my creativity.
An incredible artist in his own right, he lived in London (away from our northern existence – read the story), and he knew the city’s creative community. He cemented his place as a legend with me when I took his film recommendations. This was the early eighties – how else did a kid learn about movies? He’d say, ‘Go and see this film E.T.,’ or it would be ‘Star Wars,’ ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ or ‘Back to the Future.’
2024 In March, I attended a week-long residency with Lighthouse Arts in Newcastle NSW to work on my third full-length manuscript. In August I successfully applied for a mentorship with the Australasian Horror Writers’ Association. I worked with the amazing and supportive Deborah Sheldon – with each week, I could feel my understanding of writing increase. A fantastic experience. On August 31st, the KSP Spooky Story Anthology published my story ‘A Ticket to Carpet’s Matinee’ in their Duet collection.