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A Much Bigger Story

interview with Simon Brown

Simon Brown has been publishing fiction for 25 years. He has had two collections published, Cannibals of the fine light (1998) and this year saw the long awaited publication of his Iliad-themed stories, Troy, both by Ticonderoga Publications. He has also written a number of novels, including the Chronicles of Kydan, published by Pan Macmillan in Australia; and for all the seriousness in his writing is a very witty person. He took time out from a busy schedule of family and writing commitments to participate in this interview.

Intro question, pretend I've asked something witty about what inspired you to start writing and reading sf, including your colourful namesake Simon Black...

What follows is the true story of how I came to read, and later write, science fiction. It is all to do with two seemingly unrelated facts, that my mother was a dancing instructor and my father worked in naval intelligence.

In late 1954, my mother Patricia Chamberlain worked at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Sydney and instructed famous author Ivan Southall, at that time best known for reporting on the adventures of aircraft designer and test pilot Simon Black. They became friends, and at the annual Arthur Murray Christmas Ball and Graduation Ceremony, Ivan introduced my mother to Simon Black himself, visiting Sydney to brief a certain Richard Brown of naval intelligence on his adventurous flight to Mars and the dangers of cosmic radiation. Richard also came to the ball. My mother danced with all three men, and took a particular shine to Richard, who looked quite dashing in his lieutenant's uniform. In the following weeks, Patricia and Richard saw each other frequently, but then Richard volunteered as crew for Simon Black's flight to Venus in 1955 on the Firefly 3A.

Not many of us need to be reminded of that gruelling adventure, of how for many weeks the world thought Simon Black and his crew were lost to the dark coldness of space. When they miraculously reappeared above Earth's skies seventy six days after first leaving for Venus, no one was more overjoyed than Patricia. Needless to say, Patricia and Richard married, and a few months later I was born, and they named me after their heroic friend. As I grew up I spent many hours listening to Simon Black tell in his own modest and quiet way his stories about spaceships and aliens and adventures among the planets. Then, when I was nine years old, Simon Black disappeared on his expedition to Titan in 1965. I swore to honour his memory by writing about those very things he personified so dramatically during his life.

And still, secretly, I look up into the night sky, hoping to see the telltale orange flames of Firefly 7's rocket engines heralding the return of Simon Black.

I thought I was the one who was supposed to be being witty. I understand you wrote your first SF as a pre-teen and your youth spent reading Ivan Southall, Heinlein, Norton and others. What was it about those writers that first captured your imagination?

It was television and the movies that first captured by SFnal imagination; books, however, probably helped hardwire it in. I loved the old 50s b&w movies, with finned spaceships and rubbery monsters and space helmets as big as front-loaded washing machines. And then there was Dr Who and Star Trek, and Fireball XL-5 and Stingray, to only mention the first four that pop into my head. But books were special. Reading a good book was like watching a ten-hour episode of Fireball, straight. The books available to me in the school library were by Southall and Johns, Heinlein and Norton, Nourse and Garner, so they're the ones I read.

Congratulations on the recent, long awaited publication of Troy. How does it feel?

I feel relieved, most of all. I have waited ten years for Troy to come out, for reasons beyond anyone's control, and it's nice finally to pass this particular milestone. I'm also proud of the stories, and glad to see them in print once more. And, of course, I got to work with Russell Farr again, which is cool.

I also have to say I love the look of the book. I've been thinking of its appearance for almost as long as the collection was put together, and the final design was exactly what I wanted to see, only better.

With Troy now published, do you feel that you still have some stories to tell in that theme, or will it be laid to rest?

Possibly one or two more ... stories that I couldn't make work in time for publication. Realistically, there are other projects I want to move onto now, so the ideas or themes for those stories might end up being cannibalised.

Do you prefer to write short stories or longer works?

Short stories (and novelettes), but they don't make money, and some of my short stories take years to finish. I don't want anyone to get the idea I don't like writing novels, and I don't know that I would ever give them up, but given my druthers I'd be spending most of my time on shorter work.

Since your last un-themed collection, Cannibals of the fine light, was published in 1998, your stories seem to grow stronger with each publication. Is there a secret to this? Is it something you consciously strive to achieve?

I don't know a writer who doesn't strive to get better with every new work. The plan is to live until I'm about 300 years old, so every story I write is a masterpiece.

How do you approach writing longer works?

With at least two strong ideas, six or more important characters and a plot broken up into short chapter descriptions. In the end the novel does not necessarily follow the chapter breakdown exactly - things happen during the writing that often change a story's direction or emphasis - but it's handy to have a road map so even if you go off-road, at least you've got some idea what direction you're heading.

What is it about fantasy that inspires you?

It's history that inspires me, I think. At least, it fires my enthusiasm for writing. Fantasy is a good way to write about history without simply reproducing it.

Which of your own stories are your favourites?

Short stories, you mean? From the early days, "The garden", which appeared in Omega around 1982 or thereabouts. From later on, "The mark of Thetis", "All the fires of Lebanon", "Waiting at Golgotha", "With clouds at our feet". Most recently, probably "Leviathan" and "And down came a spider". And all my co-written stories were a hoot to do and pretty successful.

To some extent you have to like every story you write or you wouldn't send them out in the first place. What I do find fascinating is that readers often like stories that are not my particular favourites, and ignore those that are. I'm not complaining, mind; I'm happy readers like anything I do.

What is it about those stories that make them stand out?

They worked. I knew they were working when I was writing them (no matter how long it took me to write them, years in some cases), and I knew they still worked when I finished them. With the exception of "And down came a spider", which I felt was really good, but every time I read it I got a different reading on it ... never a negative one, just different each time.

Do you think that moving into a more rural setting has given you different inspirations for your writing?

No. Certainly made the rest of my life considerably more pleasant, however.

Truthfully, it can make writing harder. Who wants to sit in front of a computer banging his head against a narrative quagmire when you can just go down to Mollymook Beach with the kids and bodysurf for an hour or two?

Some years ago we discussed the state of Australian writing and publishing in the context of there being a Golden Age. With the value of hindsight, do you think that the period of roughly 1998-2002 was a Golden Age?

Hell, I don't know. It was certainly pretty cool, and gave a leg up to a lot of writers who are making a good go of it now. For all we know, we could be in the middle of one right now, with so many Australians successfully publishing across the broad genre of speculative fiction here and overseas. We've certainly never had it better. The thing is, you never realise it's a golden age until it's long gone; keeping that in mind, maybe we should always be suggesting a golden age is still in the future.

What opportunities do you see for a new writer in Australia nowadays? Do you feel that they are better off trying to get published in Australia or overseas?

Both. Don't make a distinction. Always submit your work to the highest paying and most read magazines first, if we're talking about short stories, unless you've written something for a particular niche, or on consignment. And as for novels, national boundaries don't count for much. As Garth Nix always says, a good story will get published anywhere in the world.

This year marks 25 years of publication for Simon Brown. How different is the 2006 Simon Brown from the 1981 iteration?

Besides the extra 30 kg of lard, you mean? Well, I float a lot better than I used to.

I've got a family now, which changes the way you do everything and the way you view the world. I'm probably a lot less optimistic now than when I was young, but a lot more determined, having seen what hard work and focus can do. I think we live in increasingly interesting times, which can be hazardous but is heaven for a writer. The future still promises a brighter life than the present, but it's not the future I expected, and I'm not sure it's a future I will be part of in any active sense. Still, it certainly won't be boring.

Do you see the same themes occurring and reoccurring in your work over this period?

Not that I can tell. Someone once told me that in my first few stories the common theme was the struggle against authority, or a technological future, but I dunno. If there are any themes, they're not consciously chosen and mulled over. The Troy stories were linked more by an idea, a maguffin, than a theme.

How important do you think the small press industry is in Australia?

Vital for developing writers, and important for older writers who want to put out collections! A flourishing small press is a good sign of a flourishing SF scene in any country, and in a country as small as Australia, which cannot itself support more than one or two professionally-paying outlets for short stories (and at present there is only one: Cosmos), it's the only way for many new writers to learn their craft.

Which writers provide the greatest inspiration for you?

So many ... so many ... and more all the time.

So what is it in a writer's work that you find inspirational?

The sheer ability to write sentences or paragraphs or a whole story that knock me flat, and that make me want to take out a contract on them because no one needs that kind of competition. Problem is, I'd have to be as rich as Croesus, or Bill Gates, to take out all the writers I admire.

What's next for Simon Brown?

The next question ... oh, there ain't one.

I'm currently working on some chapters of a new book, a singleton, which is closer to alternative history than fantasy. After that, a new trilogy, I hope, but we'll see.

And, of course, there's always the surf.

SIMON BROWN has written nine novels: Privateer, Winter, the three books of the Keys of Power trilogy — Inheritance, Fire and Sword and Sovereign — and three books of Chronicles of Kydan — Born of Empire, Rival’s Son and Daughter of Independence. The third book in the chronicles, Daughter of Independence, was published by Pan Macmillan this year. The first collection of his short stories, Cannibals of the fine light, was published by Ticonderoga Publications in 1998 and the second, Troy, was published in April 2006. Simon lives with his wife Alison and two children, Edlyn and Fynn, in Mollymook, New South Wales.
http://eidolon.net/homesite.html?author=simon_brown