Busy Saint John doctor quietly builds resume as published sci-fi author
CBC
For Saint John's Mike Simon, finding some spare time isn't an easy thing to do.
The family doctor spends most days doing office hours at his busy practice in the city's north end.
He also does rounds at the local hospital and at a nearby nursing home, and weekend on-call shifts.
"I worked last weekend. I started on call at four o'clock [p.m.] on Friday to Monday at eight o'clock in the morning," he said in an interview from his office.
On top of that, he fills in at the Saint John Regional Hospital's ER from time to time, makes a regular weekly radio appearance on CBC News, works as a physician at local junior hockey games and has even found time to volunteer to give COVID-19 vaccinations.
All that makes it hard to squeeze in Simon's other passion — writing science fiction.
"My biggest heartache is trying to squirrel away an hour or 20 minutes [to write]," he said.
"It's been my biggest struggle over the past years."
As if to put an exclamation point on the comment, our phone call is interrupted.
"Speak of the devil. Can you hold on for one sec? I just got a call from the hospital."
Simon's affection for science fiction and fantasy began when he was young. He said he read everything he could lay his hands on.
But it was only as an adult, and well into his medical career, that he decided to try his hand at serious writing.
"Probably about 20 years ago I started writing short stories, and I started entering contests."
Simon won a few of those contests early on, and that gave him the confidence to continue.
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