Adventures of a Bookonaut: Adam Browne

Showing posts with label Adam Browne. Show all posts

Jul 28, 2014

Snapshot 2014: Adam Browne

1. Your latest major work to come out was "Other Stories’ and Other Stories through Satalyte publishing. What's currently in the works for you or what's engaged your interest(distracting you from writing)?

Yes, it was nice to release a collection; partly because I've long wanted to use that title; also because I got to write an original story with my daughter, Harriet - some say it's the best story in the book. My father was urging me to rerelease my short stories, and I dedicated the book to him for the sometimes anxious support he's given me over the years. One of the stories is now up on an audio magazine - might be there no longer by the time this is published - the one I wrote with Harriet will be there in August too: here's the link: http://farfetchedfables.com/ - also, we recorded some readings by Francis Greenslade - such an amazing actor.

2. Pyrotechnicon was you first novel (and deliciously baroque) and you've released a collection of shorts. Where to in the future, more adventures with Cyrano?

Currently, I'm working on a book about the mid-19th Century christian mystic Jakob Lorber, illustrations and commentary on the animals and plants that he was given to know about by God, especially those that live on the planet Saturn. It's a chimeric book. The head is the introduction, some sort of dry arthropod, the body gets wobbly and ornate - a mollusc like one of those lurid nudibranchs - dunno about the hinder parts yet: I think there'll be hooves, but they're of the fabulous sort - belonging to a unicorn, maybe. (BTW, I learned the word for the unicorn's horn the other day - alicorn - salutary in ointment form against leprosy...) Thomas Edison features in the book too. I've wanted to write an Edisonade for a while. I stole quite a bit from Thomas Edison Conquers Mars, an unauthorised sequel to War of the Worlds.

Also working on a novel. Slowly. Sort of in the same universe as Pyrotechnicon, but set in the far future. On an otherworld Venice, the galaxy suffering a carnival plague. About 30000 words after more than 2 years.

3. What Australian works have you loved recently?

A few Australian novelists have stood out even so. I value intelligence and novelty above all in my fiction, for which reason Andrew Macrae's novel Truck Dreaming is a must. I always read whatever Lee Battersby publishes for the same reason - Jack Dann too - I'm looking forward to his latest; I reckon the output from the small publishers Satalyte and Couer de Leon is worth a look as well.

But always and above all it's Anna Tambour. She has an exquisite intelligence, a raw sensorium, a febrile imagination, a naturalist's eye and a Renaissance breadth of knowledge. One of her short stories once gave me the feeling that a new sulcus, if that's the word, was opening in my frontal lobes. A gaping not entirely pleasant vertiginous sense that an entirely new Category had been added to the world. Which sounds figurative and hyperbolic I know, but it's true. It was literally the case. Over my career as a reader of sf, there have been times when I've almost given up on it. PK Dick rescued me once. Gibson on another occasion. Tambour is my current saviour.

4. Have recent changes in the publishing industry influenced the way you work? What do you think you will be publishing/writing/reading in five years from now?

The Internet and Facebook have changed my reading patterns. I still read a lot but it's online stuff: the Web is a wunderkammer.

Adam Browne was born in 1963 and lives in Melbourne, Australia with his daughter, Harriet. His stories have been published widely. He received the Aurealis Award for best Australian short story in 2002, and the Chronos Award for best Victorian short story in 2009. His story ‘Space Operetta’ was adapted as an animated film, Adjustable Cosmos, in 2010.

His illustrations have been exhibited in Australian galleries. Pyrotechnicon (Being a True Account of Cyrano De Bergarac’s Further Adventures Among the States and Empires of the Stars) is his first novel and published through Coeur De Lion.

He has recently released ‘Other Stories’ and Other Stories. through Satalyte Publishing.

You can find Adam at his Blog.

You can find other interviews in this series at the links below:

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Apr 5, 2013

Ditmars 2013 Best Artwork

We see the work, but I wonder how many of us actually consciously notice it, before diving into the words between the covers. Do we appreciate the way in which a cover can alter the way that we enjoy a book? How black and white interior illustrations can alter our imaginings.

Below are the nominated artworks - bar the Adam Browne black and white interior artwork of which only one is shown.

You’ll notice the category is all small press, again reflecting the support given to Australian artists by that end of the industry.

Best Artwork
————————————————————————
* Cover art, Nick Stathopoulos, for Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56 (ASIM Collective)
* Cover art, Kathleen Jennings, for Midnight and Moonshine (Ticonderoga Publications)
* Illustrations, Adam Browne, for Pyrotechnicon (Coeur de Lion Publishing)
* Cover art and illustrations, Kathleen Jennings, for To Spin a Darker Stair (FableCroft Publishing)
* Cover art, Les Petersen, for Light Touch Paper Stand Clear (Peggy Bright Books)

In terms of “could have beens” I am surprised to not see any of the covers Amanda Rainey did for Fablecroft or Twelfth Planet Press. She creates simple and striking covers that are almost instantly recognizable.

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Oct 7, 2012

eBook Review–Pyrotechnicon by Adam Browne

Pyrotechnicon is the debut novel of Adam Browne, Aurealis Award winning short fiction author.

As the extended subtitle informs the reader, it’s the further adventurers of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Why does that name sound familiar? Perhaps you have stumbled upon the the performance of Gérard Depardieu in the 1990 film version of the play based on Cyrano’s life, or indeed the 2008 stage play featuring Kevin Kline. These dear readers are about the historical figure.

Browne’s work harks back to the writings of the man himself. A freethinker, and rationalist most relevant to speculative fiction readers for his works, The Other World: or the States and Empires of the Moon and The States and Empires of the Sun published toward the end of the seventeenth century. They were forerunners of what came to be science fiction and formed part of the literature that fed writers such as Swift and Poe.

The style, true to the works of Cyrano, therefore, is one that is a little more verbose than many readers would be accustomed to. To give you an inkling:

Chapter the Zeroth: Dawn

Le 28 juillet de l’an 1655
Dear Reader:
My nose surfaced first, rising from slow waves of sleep, from darkness into darkness.
The hour was early. My feet were cold.
I heard a baker’s horse clopping through the Toulouse streets, and a costermonger’s soft singing as he prepared his stall. Then a ragged clatter of footsteps, and the laughter and drunken shouts of revellers leaving a tavern after a long night. I heard one of them spewing into the gutter, and by the grunts forced out of him as he heaved — the shapes of them, as it were, the grunted consonants, the bowely vowels — I knew the fellow for a Gascon.

It is not then a book which one runs through at breakneck pace. No. One must stroll through the language, appreciate the artistry, the wit and the absurdity. It is a book in which the tale matters less than the manner of its telling. One might even venture to call it art, if one does not care about being considered pretentious.

For those who must know, who cling to plot like a drowning rat; it is the story of the rescue of Cyrano’s love Roxanne from the sinister billiard table attired Master of Secrets. Do you need to know more?

My ePub version was illustrated, featuring works inked by Brown himself, which only add to its verisimilitude as a text from a bygone era.

Lovers of Baron Munchausen, Terry Gilliam movies in general and French wine will enjoy this book. It is also one that I think demands rereading, that may improve with further tasting.

The novel was provided by the publisher at no cost to myself

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Sep 11, 2012

Pyrotechnicon Giveaway

Pyrotechnicon, written by Adam Browne and published by Coeur De Lion is being offered as a giveaway on Goodreads click here to enter.

It costs nothing to enter and it looks like a hoot.

I have a copy for review so somewhere in the next couple of weeks I hope to bring you some insight.

Cyrano de Bergerac: lover, poet, inventor, swordsman — man of ferocious blade and pretty talent. Now it can be told: his final, most daring adventure — a fight to the death against the dread Master of Secrets, with the life of his beloved Roxane in the balance.

Browne has already received praise from some quality peeps in Sci-fi circles:

‘A rich dessert of a novel, filled with finely crafted wit and adventure — Adam Browne has resurrected Cyrano in fine form. Delightful!’

Greg Bear — Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author

‘The title does not mislead. PYROTECHNICON is a literary cabinet of curiosities filled with lush imagery and exotic notions. A delicious concoction of swashbucklery and delight. Highly recommended.’

Jeff Vandermeer — World Fantasy award-winning author of Finch

The book can be purchased in both Hardcover and ebook from the publisher.