Tony Shillitoe

Tony Shillitoe
Born	Anthony Bruce Shillitoe March 28, 1955 Tailem Bend, South Australia
Occupation	Educator
Nationality	Australian
Genres	Fantasy and Young Adult
Notable work(s)	The Last Wizard (1995), Blood (2002), Caught in the Headlights (2003)
Notable award(s)	shortlisted inaugural Aurealis Award (Best Fantasy Novel 1995) - The Last Wizard: shortlisted Aurealis Award (Best Fantasy Novel 2002) - Blood: the First Ashuak Chronicle: notable read CBC Children's Book of the Year for Older Readers (2003) - Caught in the Headlights
Spouse(s)	Francesca Megan Stropin
Children	Jaimee Shillitoe, Kim Shillitoe, Leah Stropin

Tony Shillitoe entered the professional writing arena in 1992 when Pan Macmillan published the novel Guardians, the first of the successful Andrakis fantasy series. After Martin Middleton, Tony Shillitoe was the second Australian author to be given a contract for an adult fantasy series in Australia. Guardians was soon followed by Kingmaker and Dragonlords in 1993. The Andrakis fantasy series follows the interwoven fates of the central characters, Andra - a warrior with a prophetic future, and A Ahmud Ki - a sorcerer determined to become a dragonlord. The Andrakis world and many of the characters originated from a host of Dungeons and Dragons style games that Shillitoe created and ran for several playing groups throughout the 1980s. The series enjoyed a run of success, although the third book struggled to make sales because its unique cover design made it seem not to belong to the first two books. It has since become a book collectors' item online.

In 1995 Shillitoe published a teenage fantasy, The Last Wizard, which was shortlisted in the inaugural Aurealis Awards for Best Fantasy Novel. Essentially a 'coming of age' teenage novel, The Last Wizard follows the efforts of Tam, daughter of the village Head, to establish her own place in the world while unravelling the dark secrets of her village culture. The central character was created as a homage by Shillitoe to his daughters to remind them that socio-gender stereotyping is worth challenging. The Last Wizard, despite being long out of print, is still used as a text in schools.

Several short stories and a play monologue were published in various anthologies between 1996–1998. In this period, Shillitoe changed jobs, spent a short stint in Jerudong International School, and separated from his first wife.

In 1999, Shillitoe published his first young adult novel, Joy Ride with Wakefield Press. Set in Adelaide in the mid 1990s, and inspired by a real news story in which two boys stole a bus and drove it up the Adelaide to Melbourne freeway, Shillitoe created a first-person present tense narrative following the struggle of a teenage boy whose life is destroyed by the separation of his parents. Unsympathetic to the adult view of morality and how kids ought to behave in times of family stress, the narrator, Scott, tells it like it is without repentance. The novel was popularly received by teenagers and young adults, but despised by most older readers, and did not receive positive publicity. It has been used in schools, carefully according to sources, and also in correctional institutions as a text for rehabilitating young males.

Shillitoe returned to the fantasy genre in 2002 when HarperCollins released Blood, the first book in the Ashuak Chronicles. Blood was also short-listed for Best Fantasy Novel in the Aurealis Awards in 2002. Passion and Freedom completed the Ashuak Chronicle trilogy in 2003. The central character of the series, Alwyn, is loosely based on Gandhi and Christ because the character tries to resolve the conflicts of his world through reason and passive resistance. Alwyn is not a traditional fantasy world hero.

2003 also saw the release of Shillitoe's second young adult novel, Caught in the Headlights, which was listed as a "Notable Book for Older Readers" by the Children's Book Council, and it has subsequently appeared on Premier's Reading Lists in South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales. In response to the negative adult criticism of his first novel, Joy Ride, as a personal experiment, Shillitoe deliberately wrote the second novel to satisfy the moral requirements and world views of teachers and librarians. However, whatever the motivations, Caught in the Headlights has been successful. Shillitoe was inspired by another news event at the time - the discovery of a cannabis crop near the farming district in which he grew up - and drew on his personal life experiences to construct the story of Adam Schilling's own 'coming of age' in a farming district threatened by drugs. Shillitoe has zero tolerance for drugs, having been close to several victims of the drug culture in his own life, and Caught in the Headlights reflects the author's strong views on the subject.

In 2006, Shillitoe revisited the original Andrakis trilogy and rewrote the novels to resolve some annoying anomalies as well as link the series to his other projects. He changed the language content to better suit an American audience, but, to the consternation of some of his fans, he also returned the published central character's name - Andra - to the original name in his earliest drafts - Dylan. Altair Australia made the revised series available as Print on Demand (POD) copies. The original series had been out of print since the late 1990s. In the same year, Shillitoe also collated all of his stories into a single short story anthology, Tales of the Dragon and this was also made available as POD by Altair Australia.

2006 proved a seminal year for Shillitoe as the first novel in a new fantasy series, the Dreaming in Amber quartet, was released by HarperCollins. Book one, The Amber Legacy, focuses on the fate of Meg farmer, a 16yo girl who discovers that she has inherited magical skill for her line of ancestors and is the only person who can intervene in the impending doom facing her people. The second book, A Solitary Journey, was also released in 2006. Prisoner of Fate followed in June 2007 and the final book, The Demon Horsemen, was published in July 2008. The story follows Meg's life journey from age sixteen to her seventies as she is caught up in world-changing events despite her efforts to stay out of them. The series also brings back to life a key character from the original Andrakis series - A Ahmud Ki - who has a chance to redeem himself. All ten of Shillitoe's fantasy novels - the Andrakis trilogy, the Ashuak Chronicles trilogy, and the Dreaming in Amber quartet - are drawn together into a single saga by the Dreaming in Amber series.

Despite moderate publishing success and peer recognition within Australia, Shillitoe's works are yet to find an outlet overseas.

Tony Shillitoe works full time as an educator, and is currently employed as the ICT Manager at Concordia College in Adelaide, South Australia. He was previously employed as the Middle School Curriculum Coordinator at the same school and conducted teacher-training workshops for the International Baccalaureate Organisation in South-East Asia. On casual occasions he has been a course writer, lecturer and marker for the Adelaide Institute of TAFE Professional Writing Unit, and a lecturer and tutor in Education at Flinders University.

Body of Works

Andrakis Trilogy

• Guardians (The Waking Dragon) (1992/2006)
• Kingmaker (The Maker of Kings) (1993/2006)
• Dragon Lords (The Dragonlord War) (1993/2006)

The Ashuak Chronicles

• Blood (2002)
• Passion (2003)
• Freedom (2003)

Dreaming in Amber

• The Amber Legacy (2006)
• A Solitary Journey (2006)
• Prisoner Of Fate (2007)
• The Demon Horsemen (2008)

Other Works

• The Last Wizard (1995)
• Joy Ride (1999)
• Caught in the Headlights (2003)
• Tales of the Dragon (2006)

Short stories

• "The Innkeeper" (1996) in Dream Weavers (ed. Paul Collins)
• "The Book of Lore" (1998) in Fantastic Worlds (ed. Paul Collins)
• "Virtual God" (2000) in Altair #5 (ed. Robert N. Stephenson, Jim Deed & Andrew Collings)
• "The Mother Anger" (2000) in Altair #6 & 7 (ed. Robert N. Stephenson, Jim Deed & Andrew Collings)
• "The Sculptor" (2000) in Altair #6 & 7 (ed. Robert N. Stephenson, Jim Deed & Andrew Collings)

Awards and nominations

Aurealis Awards

Fantasy division

• Finalist: The Last Wizard (1995)
• Finalist: Blood (2002)

External links

• Altair Books Pty Ltd - Publisher of the Andrakis Trilogy & Tales of the Dragon
• HarperCollins Publishers Australia - Author Details
• Tony Shillitoe at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database