Australian SF writer Robert Marchbank joins JJLA (news).
The latest client of the John Jarrold Literary Agency is Australian SF writer Robert Marchbank.
Jarrold is working editorially on Robert’s debut novel PERCIPIO, which will be submitted to genre publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. The novel, first in a series, would sit well with readers of Richard Morgan’s work, or Christopher Nolan’s scripts; those who like smart, sometimes philosophical, science fiction with a noir edge.
It is the story of two lives in parallel, across time and space. In present day Boston, Anya, a student computer programmer, works to digitise her consciousness. In the far future, in a galaxy colonised by corporations, James, a cadet pilot, begins his training on a special interface linking his mind to that of his spaceship.
John Jarrold said: “The opening pages made me sit up, and the gradually intertwining stories drew me in with their immediacy and wit, as well as great intelligence. Rob has created totally absorbing characters, and he has an outstanding voice and imagination…”
Having been born in a small and relatively isolated farming community in rural Australia, his family moved to Sydney where he attended high school.
He worked briefly as an intern at SBS TV – the Australian Special Broadcasting Service, on the evening news team – and later at 2SM – a radio station in Sydney, mostly as on-air producer. When he graduated from his broadcast journalism degree, he was offered a place at AFTRS – the Australian Film Television and Radio School – to do a course in scriptwriting, based on some film scripts he had submitted while at university. However, being uncertain what he wanted to do with his life he didn’t attend. He has been writing fiction and poetry in some form for most of his adult life.
As he says, “My working life after leaving mainstream media has been pretty varied – post office clerk, real estate agent, wine salesman, storeman, factory hand, field labourer…all the people I’ve met along the way, are very much grist for the mill, as far as character development for my fiction goes. I’ve also been a pretty keen world traveller. I’ve drunk sake with sumo in Tokyo, danced with shamans on mountaintops in Peru, ridden a scooter through the jungles of Cambodia, and hiked elk trails in Colorado. All of these experiences inform my writing.
“I’m currently undertaking a Master’s degree through the University of New England (Armidale) – majoring in philosophy. I also have an Instagram account, showcasing my poetry. Presently, I live in New South Wales at the foot of the Snowy Mountains – one of the coldest parts of a very hot continent – and one of Australia’s few ski-resort towns.”
