Brown Stanley

Article by Cheryl Brink
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July 5th, 2012

A local author has branched out from his usual fare of children's tales to tackle a
futuristic world by drawing on his past. Stanley Brown has recently released Ciara, part love story, part adventure novel that does not quite fit into a genre. "I'm going forward in history to perhaps the year 3050,'' he said Brown."We've got to imagine the world, without any explanation, has been rather decimated.''

The Cornwall resident set his latest story - which follows a four- book series for children
called the Adventures of Maya and Kit - in a remote area of northern Ireland, where a few
families have survived an Armageddon-style disaster. "It's very primitive conditions," Brown said - and he should know.

He explained that as a young boy growing up in the United Kingdom during the war, he
would spend his summer holidays with a family maid. "I was shipped off with them
to where they lived in Ireland,'' he said. "They lived in an adobe cottage in the middle of the country. The nearest town was a couple of miles away.''

He said he became used to dirt floors, donkey cart rides into the village, and living off
the farm. Brown said many of those memories formed the foundation for his fictional story. "You're very comfortable when you're writing about a personal experience,'' he said."When you're trying to invent something, you don't really, know about, it's not very comfortable.''

Though the futuristic elements are straight from his imagination, Brown said much
of the story is about his own life. "I had personal experiences with everything in this book.'' he said. It's from my early youth during the war.''

But it's not a memoir, and Brown said it's difficult to put it into a specific category of fiction. "It's a love story, in a way,'' he explained."And there's murder, a bit of adventure and that sort of thing. I don't know what to put it into - it's not sci-fi, though, it is in the future. But it's all about practical things.''

He said it could almost be classified as fantasy thanks to the leprechaun that makes an appearance. "But in Ireland, leprechauns are everywhere,'' he said.

Whatever the genre, Brown's latest work is a different fare than his children's stories,
though the process of putting the plot together wasn't so different. "It's just the same,'' he said."I just thought I'll start writing a bit of fantasy; but at the same time, try to weave in some personal experience so it has credibility.''

Once again, Brown is going the independent publishing route to put his book into people's hands. "It's very hard to get a book published these days,'' he said, noting he opted for local author Dean Swift's publishing company to help him out.

He's printed a few copies of Ciara, and is ready to pull some more from the press if orders
come in. In the meantime, he's already formulating ideas for his next project. He isn't aiming for fame with his work - it's just one of the many creative outlets he enjoys. "It's just to keep writing.'' he said."It's a lot of work but it keeps you occupied.''