I was born the year Steven Spielberg made moviegoers everywhere terrified of sharks. I lived the first twenty or so years of my life in Oxford, and am pleased to have spent so much time in the place where some of my favourite writers wrote their greatest works (including JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, and Philip Pullman). I like to think I can write a diverting tale, and as a result I have penned a few novels and short stories. I currently live in Plymouth in the UK, and am married with two children. I am presently brainwashing them with the same books that I loved growing up.
To contact Simon Dillon, please email: uncleflynn@gmail.com
Simon Dillon Books 
Nice “hearing” from you brother.
You’re my default for balanced faith based point of view on films I am doubtful about. 😉
It’s Hayim Otsarya, Benny Redman is my penname lol 😁
Hayim – Great to hear from you! Hope you’re doing well.
Thank you, Simon, for your insightful, synthetic Star Wars essay. I feel closer to the idea of a community created through comprehension of such disparate characters and places. You have placed the storytellers over the millenia in the context of current, daunting complexities. Thank you.
You’re most welcome. Thank you.
Hi Simon- I have one of these pages now (https://wordpress.com/view/davidperlmutterdotblog.ca). Any advice you could give about building an audience here would be welcome.
Hi David – I’ll take a look at your blog. It’s difficult to discuss building an audience here, because a lot of my traffic initially came from an email list of people I sent my reviews to. My earlier blog (prior to this one) was originally just a place for film reviews, then it evolved into a place to discuss my books too. Then I got a new blog (this one) and last year made the decision to stop publishing film reviews here and only discuss my fiction writing. I’ll be honest: In all that time, I’ve barely glanced at audience figures. They spike inexplicably from time to time (a piece I wrote about Star Wars some years ago, for instance), but on the whole I don’t think my audience here is huge. My Medium readership is far bigger.
In truth, I don’t really have a strategy for building an audience. I do what I can to shout about myself, but as for the focus of my writing, I simply take an “if you build it, they will come” approach. Probably not the best, and I’m sure marketers and business types would shoot all kinds of holes in my approach. But I do what I can.
I wish you all the very best with your writing in 2024. 🙂