The calendar of Australian literary events for 2019 is now online! As always, updates, notifications and corrections are appreciated.
books
Double the adventure
The And Then… double-volume set of dynamic-duo adventure yarns has been unleashed.
A packed room at the Rising Sun Hotel in Melbourne was treated to a thoroughly entertaining launch by Jane Clifton (‘make it annual, Lindy?’), who highlighted the genre diversity and high level of thrills offered by the yarns packed into the handsome volumes.
Sadly, I had to slink off to work before the drinks were flowing, but it was great to see the project come to its fruition.*
Still, it was great to squeeze in quick hellos with fellow contributors Alison Goodman, Lucy Sussex, Amanda Pillar, Emilie Collyer and Amanda Wrangles, and to put a couple of new faces to names too: Evelyn Tsitas, Fin J Ross and James Hopwood.
Lindy Cameron , with Michele in the background, doing the not-so-hard sell
It’s been a long road for publisher Lindy Cameron**, but finally the quest has been achieved!
The blurb:
… page-turning stories by 32 award-winning, established and emerging Australian writers of science fiction, crime, speculative fiction, horror and fantasy.
The settings are futuristic, contemporary and historical; the heroes are human, animal, alien and mythical; and their adventures are real-world, far-out, speculative, scary, mysterious, speculative and fantastical.
Head over to the Clan Destine Press website to check out the double anthology: in paperback and ebook.
* One day, I should really return to my broken Brisbane mythos. It really is a lot of fun.
** Vol.1 came out in 2016, if any of this sounds familiar!
Heading to Continuum for a climate disaster or two
Speculative fiction convention Continuum runs at Melbourne’s Jasper Hotel June 8-11 (gosh, that’s starting tomorrow!), and I’ll be heading along to talk about climate change (as well as many other things, no doubt, but officially: climate change).
The guests of honour are Alison Evans and my fellow climate fiction writer and researcher Cat Sparks, so that’s excitement enough right there.
This year the convention has added a Deep Dive stream, in which folks give (mostly) 20-minute talks on topics of interest. I’m presenting some research from my PhD-in-progress outlining the mosaic approaches of three Australian SF climate fictions (Sue Isle’s Nightsiders, James Bradley’s Clade, and Steven Amsterdam’s Things We Didn’t See Coming). Other dives include body horror, convict women in Tasmania (Van Diemen’s Land), the metaphorical use of monsters, and Cat’s talk on ecocatastrophe and Anthropocene fiction, to name a few.
I’m also on a panel on the Friday night talking about climate science and climate fiction, and the state we’re in.
Day tickets are available for the convention, which celebrates pop culture, geekdom, fandom and speculative fictions in all their forms. Visit the Continuum website to find out more.
‘Slither’ finally sees the light
My contributor copy of Cthulhu Deep Down Under Vol 2 has arrived. It contains 10 stories*, as the title suggests, drawing inspiration from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, all set in the southern hemisphere.
Peter Rawlik, in his generous and knowledgeable introduction, describes the yarns as “unique and vibrant interpretations of the weird, the cosmic, the Lovecraftian Cthulhu, even in his absence”.
So there are two stories to my story in this anthology.
The first, is that this three-volume set being published by IFWG arose out of a crowd-funded megavolume called Cthulhu Deep Down Under (it’s great to see a couple of the illustrations from that delicious volume reproduced here) that came out in 2015. My story in that original was a reprint, in which I proposed an occult cause for the disappearance of skindiving prime minister Harold Holt off a Victorian beach. But a reprint wasn’t cutting the mustard for this revamped three-book set. A new story, please.
Which leads me to the second story, the story of the second story. Okay? Cool.
CDDU Vol 2 is now available for pre-order, and goes on sale on August 1. Vol 1 is in the wild!
The earliest version of ‘Slither’ on my hard drive harks back to 2003. I remember it being critiqued at a Vision critique group meeting in Brisbane … sometime. But it never sang. I’d revisit it on and off over the years, trying to work out what was wrong with it. Brought in a second character, changed the focus … I ended up with a second version that’s quite different, might even have legs of its own. But this version, this intense single POV and intensely personal version, just wouldn’t behave.
Until CDDU2 hit me up for a new story.
Maybe a little pressure was all it needed. I straightened out the narrative, finally framed the ending in a way I was happy with … I think it works. The editors certainly think so (whew!). Your mileage may vary. But I’m grateful that story is finally at some kind of rest, after all these years of haunting the periphery, its little black tentacles reaching out, refusing to be forgotten, begging to be set free.
So now I’m wondering, what else is lurking in folders of unfinished work? No doubt some will be, rightfully, left to lie dormant, but what others are just awaiting the right spark to bring them to life?
* It’s worth noting among this splendid company is one Kirstyn McDermott, an uncommon occasion in which we share a table of contents of original fiction.
Dark Imaginings: Gothic Tales of Wonder
What a wonderful title for an exhibition — how can you resist? For the University of Melbourne has prepared just such a show, running 1 March to 31 July.
It features artists, body snatchers, and some of the renowned writers and poets, and trick photography and magic lantern slides to get a little ghosty.
As well as wonderful art, there will also be some events, such as a curator’s talk, a workshop on writing horror/Gothic with Dmetri Kakmi (he knows his stuff, people!), lectures by Mary Luckhurst and Ken Gelder (on vampires!), and an “in conversation”.
This last item includes Kirstyn McDermott, Michelle Goldsmith, Narrelle Harris and yours truly, hosted by Louise Swinn (of Sleepers Publishing and Stella Prize fame, amongst other things).
We’ll be yarning about speculative fiction noon-1pm on 14 June at the uni’s Parkville campus: details and bookings here.
All events are free but bookings are required. More here on Dark Imaginings.
We have launch: Shadows on the Wall by Steven Paulsen
Steve and Kirstyn
Kirstyn and I were stoked to be asked to launch Steve Paulsen‘s Shadows on the Wall, a collection of 14 spooky, at times extremely poignant, occasionally funny short stories penned over the past 30 years.
The launch was held yesterday at the Printers Room, the new home of Words Out Loud in Ballarat, and what a splendid venue it is. It was an excellent launch, with an eager and appreciative audience helping to celebrate the milestone. (Steve had a Melbourne launch earlier in the week, shared with IFWG stablemate and fellow good guy Jason Franks.)
The picture above is of Kirstyn and Steve chatting about the book and his career to date: very gratifying to hear he has more tales on the drawing board, and one might just be set in Ballarat!
Find out more about the book, and where to snaffle a copy, at Steve’s website.
Ecopunk! The end of the world as we know it
Ticonderoga Publications brought this rather splendid volume out this year — 19 tales of how we might adapt to climate change. It’s an important topic, and given I’ve spent the best of three years studying it for my (ongoing) PhD, one that’s close to my heart. So I’m doubly chuffed to have a story in this, one written as part of my PhD project. I talk about it over at the Ticonderoga site — please do check out the book should you visit (it’s colourful, would look grand under the Xmas tree, eh!). There are some damn good writers there, collected by editors Liz Grzyb and Cat Sparks.
2018 Calendar of Australian Literary Events
Oh my, it’s almost December! That means it’s time to cram in the last literary events of the year, take a breather (and maybe do some reading) over the festive month, and then get back into it for the new year. Yep, it’s time to cast ahead to 2018 and get those highlighters out — it’s looking like a big one. So here is the 2018 calendar of Australian literary events!
And if you’re still at a loose end for what remains of this year, you can still check out this year’s calendar. There are events in Wollongong, Brissie and the Clare Valley to finish off the year.
As always, updates, notifications and corrections are appreciated!
Late SF additions to the calendar
Sean Williams, a guest at WestWordsFest
Both running September 15 to 17, they are: WestWordsFest in Dubbo, and Sorcery to Spaceships in Armidale. Both look fab!
Mythomorphosis: tales of paranormal Brisbane
Back in 2015, SQ Mag published my story “Night Blooming”. It featured Shane Hall, a homicide detective, and Manasa Chalmers, a corporate security operative from India, united by happenstance and searching for a lost teenager.
There were a couple of points of difference to the typical buddy cop story, firstly in that Brisbane, as with the rest of the world, is experiencing “mythomorphosis”, in which people are transforming into mythical creatures, and secondly, in that this strange and little-understood phenomenon was affecting our heroines quite personally.
I was chuffed and pleasantly surprised for “Night Blooming” to be selected for Ticonderoga Publications’ latest anthology of Australian fantasy and horror, their Year’s Best 2015 — see the table of contents below*, salivate, then order it, my friends!
But wait, there’s more! Because hitting the digital shelves at the end of 2016, ahead of a paperback release this month, is And Then … Vol.1 from Clan Destine Press. This tome features 15 longer tales starring dynamic partnerships, a varied and exotic selection of Antipodean adventure stories (here be dragons, and so much more!).
Among the first offering (TOC below) is my “The Mermaid Club”, another outing for Shane and Manasa. I’ve written a little about the story over at Sophie Masson’s website, but proof’s in the pudding. Not to give too much away, the pair suspect their’s something fishy about a kidnapping at a rich man’s club … Ebook here, paperback to come, with Vol.2 close on its heels!
* you will notice a certain Kirstyn McDermott in the list! doubly chuffed!
Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2015 TOC
Joanne Anderton — 2B
Alan Baxter — The Chart of the Vagrant Mariner
Deborah Biancotti — Look How Cold My Hands Are
Stephen Dedman — Oh, Have You Seen The Devil
Erol Engin — The Events at Callan Park
Jason Fischer — The Dog Pit
Dirk Flinthart — In the Blood
Kimberley Gaal — In Sheep’s Clothing
Stephanie Gunn — The Flowers That Bloom Where Blood Touches Earth
Lisa Hannett — Consorting With Filth
Robert Hood — Double Speak
Kathleen Jennings — A Hedge of Yellow Roses
Maree Kimberley — Ninehearts
Jay Kristoff — Sleepless
Martin Livings — El Caballo Muerte
Danny Lovecraft — Reminiscences of Herbert West
Kirstyn McDermott — Self, Contained
Sally McLennan — Mr Schmidt’s Dead Pet Emporium
DK Mok — Almost Days
Faith Mudge — Blueblood
Samantha Murray — Half Past
Jason Nahrung — Night Blooming
Garth Nix — The Company of Women
Anthony Panegyres — Lady Killer
Rivqa Rafael — Beyond the Factory Wall
Deborah Sheldon — Perfect Little Stitches
Angela Slatter Bluebeard’s Daughter
Cat Sparks — Dragon Girl
Lucy Sussex — Angelito
Anna Tambour — Tap
Kaaron Warren — Mine Intercom
And Then Vol.1 TOC
Introduction by Janeen Webb
Sulari Gentil — Catch a Fallen Star
Jason Nahrung — The Mermaid Club
Alan Baxter — Golden Fortune, Dragon Jade
Jason Franks — Exli and the Dragon
Lucy Sussex — Batgirl in Borneo
Amanda Wrangles — Come Now, Traveller
Evelyn Tsitas — Stealing Back the Relics
Peter M Ball — Deadbeats
Narrelle M Harris — Moran & Cato: Virgin Soil
Dan Rabarts — Tipuna Tapu
Kat Clay — In the Company of Rogues
Sophie Masson — The Romanov Opal
Tor Roxburgh — The Boudicca Society
Emilie Collyer — The Panther’s Paw
Tansy Rayner Roberts — Death at the Dragon Circus