Dan (standing) and his younger brother Wayne
(in cockpit) at the Warner Springs sailplane center in California. Some readers know that Wayne is the model for Lawrence (Don't-Call-Me-Larry) Stewart in several books, especially in 1992's SUMMER OF NIGHT and the 2001 DARWIN'S BLADE.
Wayne and his wife Trudy run Simmons Accident Investigations, a claims adjusting and accident investigation company near San Diego, and it was their expertise in accident reconstruction techniques that provided much of the research for DARWIN'S BLADE.

Dan Simmons sits at home and writes books. Wayne Simmons, a licensed, gun-toting private investigator, skydives out of airplanes, races cars on weekends, and drives across country on his touring motorcycle. In preparation for the sailplane scenes in DARWIN'S BLADE, Dan took a lesson in a high-performance glider. Wayne has his pilot's license for sailplanes. Dan wears an old A-2 bomber jacket from time to time. Wayne also owns an old A-2 jacket, but it has been aged and creased by parachute and racecar 5-point harness straps.
As Sesame Street likes to say -- "One of these things is not like the other."