LQ Magazine meets up with Simon Briggs

 

Ever since I was young – in my teens I loved writing. When I was at school I was always quite imaginative, but life gets in the way so it wasn’t until 10 years ago that I got the ideas for the story.” Prophecies of a King - a trilogy - is the very first book release for the aspiring author. “I didn’t start getting my teeth into it until a year and half ago. It’s now getting published on Amazon with Kindle.”

 

A passion for science fiction & movies, as well as a keen eye for detail and a great imagination led Simon to pen his first novel. “We’ve all got our ideas about life, and fiction can be moulded to the way you want it to be. With a book you can control it - unlike life. It’s sad when you come to the end of writing your book because you become attached with the characters. It’s like losing your right arm.”

 

Interestingly, Simon isn’t a big fan of reading. "I’m a movie fan. The first book I read as a child was Return of the Jedi. As I’m ex-military I liked Bravo Two Zero written by ex-SAS Sergeant Andy McNab.” Simon spent 9 years in the military, but was medically discharged. 

 

Simon loved every minute penning his first book.  “Every day I felt drawn to writing. I wanted to write every day. It’s born of your desire to imagine whatever you want to imagine.”

 

What is Prophecies of a King all about? “It’s set on a distant planet,” Simon explains. “It’s about a world that was once in turmoil from ancient grievances and it’s on the brink of bring brought into warfare.  The infant king is going to bring peace back into the land, but how can an infant king bring peace to a kingdom at only weeks old? It involves time travel.”

 

Prophecies of a King definitely has the potential to make it to the big screen. “I hope it can become a movie. It’s a trilogy so at the moment it’s all about the safe passage of the infant king across time and space.”

 

“It’s got a lot of feeling from films you might have seen before when you was younger. There’s a lot of action in it. It builds up slowly and from Chapter Two it really builds up. It has myth and magic in it as well, and it also touches on the religious sect within it. The religion is based on fate and destiny. Every decision we make is a crossroad in our life and this plays a part in the story.” 

 

Simon received great support from his family whilst writing the book. His partner Julie and their young son gave him the inspiration  and encouragement to finish the novel. Amazingly, he wrote it during his lunch hours at BB’s cafe. “I found I immersed myself more when there was background noise going on. Silence is hard to break. I allow my surroundings to help inspire me. Silence is deafening.” 

 

The second part of the trilogy will be ready by Christmas, and the third installment will be finished in Spring 2014. Once the trilogy is complete, Simon has plans to pen more novels, starting with the Vampire genre which is thriving at the moment. “I’m hoping to bring out a series of vampire books. The ideas just come to me. You watch a movie or hear a conversation and an idea will just come. I’m always thinking of the next novel. I have a synopsis for at least 12 novels.”

 

So what advice would Simon give to budding authors? Let your imagination run wild – that’s most enjoyable - and plan your route. If you’re going somewhere you’ve never been before, you make sure you plan your journey.”

 

Prophecies of a King is available on Amazon with Kindle. Visit http://tinyurl.com/pkfapn2.