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After graduating from Mt. Austin High School in 1988 and Sydney\'s St. Aloysius\' College in 1992, Reilly wrote his first book Contest in 1994 whilst studying law at the University of New South Wales, where he was also a contributor to the student law society publication \"Poetic Justice\". It was rejected by every major publishing company in Sydney on the basis that his story concept was unoriginal and full of clichés and tired synonyms. This caused Reilly to self-publish 1,000 copies using money borrowed from his family. Unfortunately, some books were stolen from the back of his car and the original Contest books have become such a rarity that they have been known to fetch up to $300.
Reilly went to a bookstore in Sydney and asked if he could place the copies on one of their book shelves. They accepted the offer and placed them up. Very shortly after, the books had sold out and the owner of the bookstore called Reilly to order more books.
One copy was read by Cate Patterson, Commissioning Editor for Pan Macmillan, who immediately signed Reilly up to write Ice Station, which became an international best-seller.
In the years to come, he wrote Temple, Area 7, and Scarecrow, which have since been published in over fifteen countries, including Norway, Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, The Netherlands, South Africa, Japan and China.
Reilly\'s main influences include Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and possibly Art Bell. His latest work is a novel called The Six Sacred Stones, the sequel to Seven Ancient Wonders.
Matthew Reilly has completed an eleven minute trailer that depicts the beginning sequences of his book Contest. This trailer will form the basis of promotions in Hollywood to help secure funding/distribution for a full length film of Contest directed by himself.
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