Novelist proposes to girlfriend in print

It's one way to ensure your debut novel starts life with a bang: 28-year-old author Christopher Currie included a marriage proposal in the acknowledgements of his upcoming new mystery The Ottoman Motel.

After variously thanking his publisher, his friends, his bosses and his local coffee shop "for letting me occupy a table and nurse one of your brilliant coffees for almost the entire rewriting process", Currie finally moved onto his girlfriend, Leesa Wockner. "If it's possible to fall more in love with someone every day, then that's what I do," the Brisbane-based author wrote.

"To my favourite, to the reason I live my life, Leesa Wockner, who, if she reads this, I hope will agree to marry me, despite the number of commas in this sentence."

Happily for Currie, Wockner was able to overlook the commas and her answer was yes. He told Australian news site Crikey that he presented Wockner with the book while the pair were drinking champagne on a rooftop bar, and she saw the word "marry" straight away. "She said 'yes, of course I will', even before I got a chance to show her the ring (here's another thing: jewellers need to provide you with boxes with apparent hinges: I spent a good minute trying to get the box open under the table) and get down on one knee. I said, 'Are you sure?' which is another thing not to say when someone has agreed to marry you, but nonetheless it all worked out for the best," said the author.

He'd had to wait over a month, keeping the book well hidden from his girlfriend, before showing it to her, and admitted that he had been pretty nervous about what she might say. "A ring is one thing to hide, a book is quite another. And, I suppose, the really brave (or stupid) thing was knowing that my proposal would be in print forever, and I would look like a real idiot if it didn't come off. [But] now the most sublime moment in my life is preserved in the best way possible. Let's see you do that, ebooks!"

Currie, 28, has previously published the novella Dearly Departed but The Ottoman Motel is his first novel. Due out on 2 May from Text Publishing, it tells the story of Simon, whose parents disappear from their hotel in the small town of Reception while he's sleeping. As a half-hearted police investigation begins, Simon realises he isn't sure whom in the town he can trust: as friendly as the inhabitants seem, no one really appears to be trying to find his parents. Text called it "not just an intriguing character-based mystery, but a moving study of fear and loss", and said Currie was "one of the brightest young novelists in Australia".

He's not the first writer to take the opportunity publication offers to propose, however. Two years ago, economist Peter Leeson asked his girlfriend to marry him on the dedication page of his new book The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates. "I hope she says 'yes.' If she doesn't, I might have to turn to sea banditry, which would be tough since I don't know how to sail," Leeson wrote in his foreword. Fortunately for him, she did.