Biography
I grew up on a Queensland cattle property and have worked as a newspaper journalist for more than 20 years. When at Brisbane’s Courier-Mail I wrote about and reviewed books, music and live entertainment. I now live in Melbourne, Australia, with my wife, and fellow writer, Kirstyn McDermott.
I’m the editor for Queensland Writers Centre’s magazine Writing Queensland and also do freelance editing and manuscript appraisal.
My writing has won the William Atheling Jnr award for Criticism or Review, been highly commended in the Aurealis Awards and been shortlisted in the Ditmars and the Australian Shadows.
My debut novel, The Darkness Within (Hachette Australia), is based on a novella written with my then girlfriend Mil Clayton by email when we were living two states apart. It has also sold to Germany.
In 2008, I finished a Master of Arts (research) in creative writing with a focus on Australian vampire Gothic. I was director of the Aurealis Awards in 2004 and have served on various judging panels since.
My fiction, detailed in the bibliography, is invariably darkly themed, as one might expect from someone with the interests outlined below.
Interests
- Travel: fave destinations include New Orleans, Egypt, Canada, Europe, Mexico
- Reading: fave writers include Poppy Z Brite, Kim Wilkins, Stephen King, William Gibson…
- Movies: faves include Near Dark, Dracula, Nosferatu, Alien, Blade Runner, The Crow, The Matrix, 24 Hour Party People…
- Music and live entertainment: fave bands include Concrete Blonde, The Tea Party, Joy Division, Pink Floyd, NIN, The Cult, Sisters of Mercy, Alice Cooper, Siouxsie, Bowie, Duran Duran…
- Others: photography, paganism and religion, mythology and culture, tattoos and body art
