Thommy Waite is a writer and podcaster with a tantalising new tale that pulls the curtain on unscrupulous digital nomads living out their playboy fantasies in Medellín, Colombia.
Any Day You Can Die: The Medellín Story is a tell-all gringo adventure that makes you want to delete Facebook, drink mojitos, and hope your small crypto fortune someday turns to platinum gold.
Thommy Waite, this is our second interview together on Frothtown which I think now makes you our artist in residence. You write, but do you draw?
Never been too good with crayons, texta pens or paint brushes, I'm afraid. There was this one time at uni where I managed to draw a perfect caricature of a nebbish English lecturer to impress the pretty girl sitting next to me. But since then all of my drawings have been duds. So I stick to words.
Not to compare you to Donald Trump, but you’re a fun and explosive writer. How did you find your voice, and can you pass on any tips?
Not giving a fuck helps. Write about what you actually want to write about, as opposed to what you think people want to read. Your voice will inevitably become more unique.
Also, I think every writer needs to ask themselves the following question: are my words propping up my plot and characters, or are my plot and characters propping up my words? Nothing against flowery scribes, but I'm more of a plot and character guy. The words are secondary.
All this being said, although I appreciate the compliment, I certainly haven't 'found' my voice. I'm just fumbling around like Stevie Wonder on a midnight hike. Having a ton of fun though, which is half the battle.
You’ve described your new book Any Day You Can Die as Alex Garland’s The Beach meets Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street. What was the inspiration, a lads weekend away?
I lived in Medellín from late 2017 to early 2020, and I became mates with a bunch of like-minded gringos. We had a tight little circle, but on the whole, there were a lot of lost and lonely expats in the city. People who don't fit in elsewhere go to Medellín to reinvent themselves.
Shortly after moving to Medellín, I started hearing wild stories about gringos getting up to mischief in a variety of different ways. I read somewhere that Jonah Hill's character in The Wolf of Wall Street was a composite of several people who worked with Jordan Belfort. I realized that if I smooshed together all of the most salacious tales and characters, I could probably craft a half decent yarn.
Tell us a war story from writing this book.
In 2019 I went to Santa Marta, a city on the coast in Colombia, for a week-long solo writing retreat. I picked Santa Marta because it's a pretty boring place, which is exactly what I wanted, no distractions. It was a really fruitful exercise – I was able to map out the whole novel in great detail.
When I got home to Medellín, I was struck by a paralyzing crisis of confidence. The problem was that I was still coming to grips with my life in Latin America. My Spanish wasn't great (still isn't), I didn't know much about the local history, nor did I have many close Colombiano friends. To write a satisfying neo-colonial adventure story, I thought that I needed to spend more time 'figuring out' Colombian culture.
I was seriously blocked for a couple of weeks. Then one Saturday I went out drinking with my mates Ben and Charlie. In a cab on the way to the bar, the three of us were laughing at the antics of Jordan Peterson fanboys in Medellín. In a moment, I was back on track with my book. I didn't need to 'figure out' Colombian culture – I could focus purely on the ennui and existential angst that exists within the Medellín expat community. My own feelings of inadequacy would enhance the 'fish out of water' nature of the narrative.
Medellín, Colombia
How did the narration record go for the audiobook? Most people don't like the sound of their own voice.
I'm not a huge fan of my own voice. But legit voiceover artists are expensive, and I'm cheap, so the decision about who should narrate my book was ultimately an easy one!
Narrating a 91,000 word novel is exhausting – it took me about 18 hours in total over four days. Even though it was a major pain in the dick, the process was hugely beneficial because it helped me fix a bunch of tiny errors that had slipped through the cracks during the editing process.
Covid brought you back to sunny Perth, how’s the beach life been treating you?
Life is peachy. Perth summers are the best, and that's about to kick off, so I'm a very happy chappy.
And Medellín, what’s going on there now?
Covid numbers in Colombia have been pretty high but Medellín seems to be doing okay. A bunch of cool places have closed down, there's ongoing restrictions, but as far as I can gather, everyone is getting on with life as best they can. I follow things closely online – I can't wait to go back and visit whenever that's possible.
Tim Ferriss gets a bit of a roasting in Any Day You Can Die, what’s your beef?
The John Lennon quote springs to mind: "Jesus was alright, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."
The narrator and protagonist of Any Day You Can Die sees himself as a bit of a Bill Hicks-esque truthsayer. He doesn't dig the 'lifehacker' worldview that Tim Ferriss promotes because it's devoid of any soul. He's also a bit of a narcissist, so at a base level, he's probably just jealous that Tim Ferriss has a huge audience.
Personally, I don't have any gripe with Ferriss or his legion of fanboys. Seems like old mate Timmy is mad into psychedelics these days, so he's probably a fun hang.
Excuse the pun, but is it hard to write a sex scene?
Even at it's most tender and romantic, sex itself is pretty funny. In the literary format, it becomes downright hilarious.
I often wonder what the judging standards are for that 'Bad Sex in Fiction' award that Nick Cave won one time. Maybe I'm just incredibly immature, but I find nearly every sex scene comical. Even in really beige, 'serious' novels, the language can be tepid and restrained and then all of a sudden someone eats an arse. Sex is such a wild departure from how we spend most of our waking lives, so it's always gonna stand out like a sore thumb no matter how it's depicted in a novel.
Any Day You Can Die is a book is about young guys getting after it, finding a way to make their wildest fantasies come true, so of course there's a lot of fucking in the novel. And no, it wasn't difficult to write the sex scenes – I didn't find them to be more loaded than any other part of the book.
Speaking of love, do you have a man-crush on Joe Rogan? It's probably not PC to say ‘man-crush’ in 2020.
I would like to hang out with Joe, shoot the shit, but I wouldn't say I have a man-crush. I'm more of a Sam Harris man. I would conceal my heterosexual wiring and get into an entanglement with Harris if it meant I could be in the room for every one of his 'housekeeping' podcast intros.
I need to get cracking with Christmas shopping, should my Mum read this book?
Get the book for your dodgy cousin who lives in a semi rural area. And your weird uncle with the shifty eyes. But not Mum. The latest Tim Winton ditty is a much safer bet.
Ok, tell us how we get Any Day You Can Die in our hands and ears?
Appreciate you having me back on Frothtown!
Any Day You Can Die is dropping on Amazon on December 7, 2020. Ebook, paperback and audiobook. Click on your region below to buy the book. Also, consider listening to my podcast Thommy Waite's Square Record and following me on Insta (@thommywaite).