“It’s insane, it’s an incredible feeling,” said Leith, who sent his manuscript to HarperCollins publisher Linda Funnell before entering Australian Idol last year. “I wrote before I ever did music; I wrote plays, I tried to write loads and loads of different books. I did that for years. It’s just weird that all these years later the music has taken off and now suddenly this comes along as well. I’ve got to pinch myself,” he said. The book, a Nepal-set psychological thriller with the working title of THE TREK, is slated for release in October.

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