Author Interview with BG Hilton
I welcome BG Hilto to my blog today who contributed the imaginative short story “A Flight of Mermaids” to the Merciless Mermaids: Tails from the Deep.
He’s an Australian author of spec fic, often humorous. He works in the education sector and lives in Sydney, so he spends a lot of time in traffic, muttering to himself.
Tell me something unique about yourself.
I once slept through a riot. It was a small riot, but I still think that’s impressive.
What are your previous writing accomplishmernts and/or what are you working on now?
I have a few short story credits before this one, and my third novel is coming out this year. Probably the work I’m most proud of is my debut novel, ‘Champagne Charlie and the Amazing Gladys,’ a Steampunk adventure story about an Australian music hall singer and an English aristocrat.
What inspired your piece in Merciless Maidens?
I was playing with opening lines and I hit on ‘Mermaids can only fly in the rain.’ I wasn’t quite sure where to go with that, and I had a couple of false starts before I remembered something I’d read about Soviet women fighter pilots in WWII, and then it all clicked.
Please share a short spoiler free snippet to whet our readers appetite.
“The mermaids—their caps pinned neatly to their flowing hair; their olive flight jackets hanging wet about their shoulders—tended not to answer. In the early days of the war they had waved back at the trenches, but once it became clear that it was unlucky to do so, they stopped. The soldiers did not mind, so long as the mermaids did their duty.”
Where can people find out more about you and your work?
Check out my website.