Simon Haynes was born in the United Kingdom and moved to Spain with his family just after his eighth birthday. He emigrated to Australia in 1983 and has lived in Perth ever since. Graduating from Curtin University in 1988 with a degree in film and creative writing, he went to work in the computing industry. Ten years later he was writing fiction, and so returned to Curtin to study computing. An early version of Hal Spacejock was written during the lectures.

A regular visitor to science fiction and fantasy conventions, Simon is a founding member of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. His fiction has appeared in several Australian genre magazines and his humorous SF story 'Sleight of Hand' won the 2001 Aurealis Award for horror. Simon is also a keen archer and tortures himself with the occasional game of golf.