The Winner

by Dave Warner

Short Story. Max is determined to change his life around from Loser to Winner. Fat-boy Max has never been out of Australia. In fact, in his twenty-something years Max has never even been out of his home state but he is determined to change this. He wants to be visible, not just an invisible “fat guy” and he has found the perfect way to achieve his lose weight AND get that trip overseas that he can’t quite afford. If he puts all his savings into a Camp Invigorate weekend and emerges with the greatest percentage weight-loss of the twenty-four contenders, the new slim Max will be on his way to Fiji for an all-expenses-paid holiday. He just has to make sure he wins, and Max has more than a few tricks up his over-size sleeve to get his cake and eat it too.

15 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 1, 2021

About the author

Dave Warner is the author of fourteen crime novels, including the winner of the 1996 WA Premier’s Award for Fiction (City of Light) and the 2016 Ned Kelly winner of Best Australian Crime Fiction (Before it Breaks). He has also written a children's book series and seven non-fiction titles, and screenwritten for film and TV.

Dave Warner originally gained national recognition as a musician-songwriter in the late 1970s with Bob Dylan referring to Dave and Richard Clapton as his “favourite Australian artists”.
As early as 1973 Dave had formed Australia’s first punk band, Pus, playing early versions of tracks such as Suburban Boy and Hot Crotch which he was later to record with Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs. In 1975, Dave went to London and wrote many new songs which expressed a clearly-defined vision of Australia, including tracks such as Convict Streak and Oklahoma. Suburban Boy became the cornerstone of this new style of music, which Dave labelled suburban rock. Warner’s music is probably best described as Lou Reed meets Tomas Pynchon.

Dave's feature films include the cult-horror CUT (starring Kylie Minogue and Molly Ringwald) and GARAGE DAYS (co-written with director Alex Proyas). His many TV credits include scripts for MCLEOD’S DAUGHTERS and PACKED TO THE RAFTERS.

Dave was educated at Aquinas College and the University of Western Australia, graduating with a B.A. (Hons.), majoring in Psychology. Growing up an ardent supporter of the East Fremantle Football Club, his passion of Australian football remains.