So, in May 1986 – on the 5th of May 1986 to be precise – I started what was just my second full-time job after finishing university. I’d put about six months into managing a record store, while also re-stocking shelves in a grocery store chain at night, but that came to a sudden unexpected end in late April. During my last year at university a friend had persuaded me to go along to a public service recruiting thing, and I signed up and did some kind of test (I guess, I don’t really remember). I then was called in for an interview in mid-March. I didn’t think much of it. A day or two after being layed off by the record store, I got a call from someone in the public service saying, ‘We’d like you to start Monday. You’ll be working for the Department of Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare’. Huh? Ok, I thought. It’s a three month contract. It’ll do till a real job comes along.

Twenty years later, today, I’m still waiting.

Simon Brown’s first published story “The Return of Idomenus” was the start of an ambitious project to re-tell the Iliad in a cycle of science fiction and fantasy stories. Twenty five years later that project was completed with the publication of Troy by Ticonderoga Publications.

The book is one of the highlights of the Australian publishing year, an essential addition to any library of good science fiction and fantasy. At the moment, you can either buy it from somewhere like the Australian Online Bookshop or from the publisher.

In the meantime, if you’re not familiar with Simon’s Troy, you can sample some of the stories here:

• “A New Song For Odysseus”,
• “Why My Wife Left Me, And Other Stories, By Diomedes”,
• The Dreaming Seas Beneath Cassandra and
• The Mark of Thetis

Be sure to buy a copy. It’s a fine small press title, and won’t last long. And yes, he really does look a bit like Clark Kent. Oh, and if you’re feeling inspired, you can go read the original too.

…thing ever! I thought Robert Sabuda’s Dinosaur pop-book from last year was cool. I was even getting into the whole idea that the new book on Prehistoric Sharks that he has coming out was cool. But then I went to his website, and found this! A Maurice Sendak pop-up book tribute to ’30s Movie Monsters. That is almost too cool to imagine. Don’t know when it’s coming out or anything, but click on the link above and check out some of the draft work that’s been done. Awesome!

According to amazon.com, the word yumeko appears 240 times and the word zofia 105 times in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s The Faery Reel. It’s a terrific anthology, but weird info to publish!