horror

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Pre-order Epilogue – tales of hope after the apocalypse

epilogue - tales of hope after the apocalypseFableCroft has opened pre-orders on Epilogue, an anthology of stories about finding hope in the aftermath of the apocalypse. It’s exciting to read that the anthology is to be launched at Continuum in June, where Twelfth Planet Press should also be letting my Australian Gothic Salvage loose on the public as well.

Another title being launched at Continuum is Bread and Circuses (also available for pre-order), an anthology by the inimitable Felicity Dowker. Nom nom nom!

There are some old hands and new chums in the table of contents of Epilogue, which should make for some interesting and perhaps atypical reading for stories in this setting. Epilogue costs $20 including postage.

Also worth pointing out is that FableCroft has put After the Rain on special for $15 inc postage; it includes my cyberpunk yarn ‘Wet Work’.

And here’s a clue to one of the themes of my ‘Epilogue’ story, ‘Mornington Ride’:


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Deb Biancotti on Shirley Jackson Award shortlist

ishtar stories by kaaron warren, cat sparks and deborah biancotti

Wonderful to see Aussie Deborah Biancotti on the shortlist of the Shirley Jackson Awards for her novella ‘And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living’ from the Ishtar anthology. The awards recognise excellence in horror and dark fantasy. It’s also pleasing to see Aussie co-production Ghosts by Gaslight on the shortlist for anthologies; it’s edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers. Winners are to be announced on July 15.

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Submissions open for Queensland Literary Awards, and other writerly news

queensland literary awards logoBehind the 8-ball on this news: submissions are open for the Queensland Literary Awards — these are the community-based awards put together in quick time after newly elected premier Campbell Newman scrapped the government-supported awards in short order after this ascension. Subs close May 6, and winners are due to be announced on September 5.

Awards on offer are:
Fiction Book Award
Emerging Queensland Author – Manuscript Award (UQP will be offered publishing rights for the winning MS)
Unpublished Indigenous Writer – David Unaipon Award (UQP will be offered publishing rights for the winning MS)
Non-Fiction Book Award History Book Award
Children’s Book Award
Young Adult Book Award
Science Writer Award
Poetry Collection – Judith Wright Calanthe Award
Australian Short Story Collection – Steele Rudd Award
Literary or Media Work Advancing Public Debate – The Harry Williams Award
Film Script Award
Drama Script (Stage) Award
Television Script Award


This piece in The Age by Jane Sullivan helps to explain why what the Australian newspaper brands the ‘vocal minority’ — a new collective noun for writers, apparently — got so vocal about Newman’s ill’conceived and poorly executed move.

  • Amazon sniffing around in Australia? That’ll save some postage. But it might cause a fresh cold sweat for bricks and mortar shops …
  • Speaking of Amazon, here’s an article about how Amazon is a happy hunting ground for knock-off merchants, as opposed to simple plagiarists.
  • Affirm Press seeks writers for its Slow Guides to Brisbane and Melbourne.
  • Check out the Ellen Datlow news, as reported at 13 O’Clock: a bunch of Aussies made her honourable mentions list, and a couple even made the print-book shortlist — Margo Lanagan flies the Southern Cross in the actual TOC of selected yarns — and the venerable US editor is on the prowl for this year’s best horror yarns. Send ’em in!
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    GenreCon for Sydney in November

    From the Queensland Writers Centre bulletin, a great event for genre writers:

    The Australian Writer’s Marketplace is proud to announce GenreCon!

    Rydges Paramatta, November 2-4th 2012

    GenreCon is a three-day convention for Australian fans and professionals working within the fields of romance, mystery, science fiction, crime, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and more. One part party, one part celebration, one part professional development: GenreCon is the place to be if you’re an aspiring or established writer with a penchant for the types of fiction that get relegated to their own corner of the bookstore. Featuring international guests Joe Abercrombie (Writer, The First Law Trilogy, Best Served Cold, The Heroes), Sarah Wendell (co-founder, Smart Bitches, Trashy Books), and Ginger Clark (Literary Agent, Curtis Brown).

    For more information, visit GenreCon.com.au. Early bird rates available to the first 50 registrations.

    The event looks to have a strong industry and networking focus, and the ticketing system includes mention of pitching opportunities.

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    Rocky Wood wins a Stoker

    Aussie writer Rocky Wood has won a Bram Stoker Award for best non-fiction book of 2011, a case of third time lucky. Rocky, flying the Aussie flag as the Horror Writers Association president, won for the most recent of his five titles about Stephen King’s works, Stephen King: A Literary Companion. An updated version of Rocky’s Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished was recently made available as a pre-order only as a fundraiser for the writer’s ALS fund, to help him cope with the effects of motor neurone disease.

    King also featured on the winners’ list, for best short story, in the awards run by the US-based HWA. Other finalists from Australia were Kaaron Warren for short story and Jack Dann, who co-edited the Ghosts by Gaslight anthology.

    The full list of Bram Stoker Award winners.

    The HWA also announced Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend as the vampire novel of the century. (Note that the century was actually a hundred-year period, not an actual calendar century.) The scenario of a last man on earth surrounded by zombie-like vampire hordes is striking. It’s been filmed three times: once with pathos starring Vincent Price, once with a sense of impending doom starring Charlton Heston, and once with ridiculous special effects and titular corruption starring Will Smith. Wikipedia says there’s a fourth, straight-to-video version with even less relevance to the text.

    For my money, it’d be hard to go past Interview with the Vampire for the most influential vampire novel of the 20th century. Stoker’s Dracula (1897) misses out by four years.

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    Aurealis Awards finalists announced

    The Aurealis Awards are the premiere award for Aussie speculative fiction. They will be awarded in Sydney on May 12 — tickets for the glam ceremony are on sale. Last year’s ceremony absolutely rocked, a wonderful coming together of all spectra of the spec fic community. Here are the finalists, announced tonight — congratulations all*:

    FANTASY NOVEL
    The Undivided by Jennifer Fallon (HarperVoyager)
    Ember and Ash by Pamela Freeman (Hachette)
    Stormlord’s Exile by Glenda Larke (HarperVoyager)
    Debris by Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
    The Shattered City by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperVoyager)

    FANTASY SHORT STORY
    ‘Fruit of the Pipal Tree’ by Thoraiya Dyer (After the Rain, FableCroft Publishing)
    ‘The Proving of Smollett Standforth’ by Margo Lanagan (Ghosts by Gaslight, HarperVoyager)
    ‘Into the Clouds on High’ by Margo Lanagan (Yellowcake, Allen & Unwin)
    ‘Reading Coffee’ by Anthony Panegyres (Overland #204)
    ‘The Dark Night of Anton Weiss’ by DC White (More Scary Kisses, Ticonderoga Publications)

    SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL
    Machine Man by Max Barry (Scribe Publications)
    Children of Scarabaeus by Sara Creasy (HarperVoyager)
    The Waterboys by Peter Docker (Fremantle Press)
    Black Glass by Meg Mundell (Scribe Publications)
    The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood (HarperVoyager)

    SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY
    ‘Flowers in the Shadow of the Garden’ by Joanne Anderton (Hope, Kayelle Press)
    ‘Desert Madonna’ by Robert Hood (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)
    ‘SIBO’ by Penelope Love (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)
    ‘Dead Low’ by Cat Sparks (Midnight Echo #6)
    ‘Rains of la Strange’ by Robert N Stephenson (Anywhere but Earth, Couer de Lion)

    HORROR NOVEL
    NO SHORTLIST OR WINNING NOVEL – TWO HONOURABLE MENTIONS AWARDED TO:
    The Broken Ones by Stephen M Irwin (Hachette)
    The Business of Death by Trent Jamieson (Hachette)

    HORROR SHORT STORY
    ‘And the Dead Shall Outnumber the Living’ by Deborah Biancotti (Ishtar, Gilgamesh Press)
    ‘The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt’ by Paul Haines (The Last Days of Kali Yuga, Brimstone Press)
    ‘The Short Go: a Future in Eight Seconds’ by Lisa L Hannett (Bluegrass Symphony, Ticonderoga Publications)
    ‘Mulberry Boys’ by Margo Lanagan (Blood and Other Cravings, Tor)
    ‘The Coffin Maker’s Daughter’ by Angela Slatter (A Book of Horrors, Quercus)

    YOUNG ADULT NOVEL
    Shift by Em Bailey (Hardie Grant Egmont)
    Secrets of Carrick: Tantony by Ananda Braxton-Smith (black dog books)
    The Shattering by Karen Healey (Allen & Unwin)
    Black Glass by Meg Mundell (Scribe Publications)
    Only Ever Always by Penni Russon (Allen & Unwin)

    YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY
    ‘Nation of the Night’ by Sue Isle (Nightsiders, Twelfth Planet Press)
    ‘Finishing School’ by Kathleen Jennings (Steampunk! An anthology of fantastically rich and strange stories, Candlewick Press)
    ‘Seventy-Two Derwents’ by Cate Kennedy (The Wicked Wood – Tales from the Tower Volume 2, Allen and Unwin)
    ‘One Window’ by Martine Murray (The Wilful Eye: Tales from the Tower Volume 1, Allen and Unwin)
    ‘The Patrician’ by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Love and Romanpunk, Twelfth Planet Press)

    CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through words)
    The Outcasts by John Flanagan (Random House Australia)
    The Paradise Trap by Catherine Jinks (Allen & Unwin)
    ‘It Began with a Tingle’ by Thalia Kalkapsakis (Headspinners, Allen & Unwin)
    The Coming of the Whirlpool by Andrew McGahan (Allen & Unwin)
    City of Lies by Lian Tanner (Allen & Unwin)

    CHILDREN’S FICTION (told primarily through pictures)
    The Ghost of Annabel Spoon by Aaron Blabey (author and illustrator) (Penguin/ Viking Books)
    Sounds Spooky by Christopher Cheng (author) and Sarah Davis (illustrator) (Random House Australia)
    The Last Viking by Norman Jorgensen (author) and James Foley (illustrator) (Fremantle Press)
    The Deep: Here be Dragons by Tom Taylor (author) and James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestault Publishing)
    Vampyre by Margaret Wild (author) and Andrew Yeo (illustrator) (Walker Books)

    ILLUSTRATED BOOK/GRAPHIC NOVEL
    Hidden by Mirranda Burton (author and illustrator ) (Black Pepper)
    Torn by Andrew Constant (author) and Joh James (illustrator ), additional illustrators Nicola Scott, Emily Smith (Gestalt Publishing)
    Salsa Invertebraxa by Mozchops (author and illustrator) (Pecksniff Press)
    The Eldritch Kid: Whiskey and Hate by Christian Read (author) and Michael Maier (illustrator) (Gestalt Publishing)
    The Deep: Here be Dragons by Tom Taylor (author) and James Brouwer (illustrator) (Gestault Publishing)

    ANTHOLOGY
    Ghosts by Gaslight edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers (HarperVoyager)
    Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010 edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)
    Ishtar edited by Amanda Pillar and KV Taylor (Gilgamesh Press)
    The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 5 edited by Jonathan Strahan (Night Shade Books)
    Life on Mars edited by Jonathan Strahan (Viking)

    COLLECTION
    Bad Power by Deborah Biancotti (Twelfth Planet Press)
    Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines (Brimstone Press)
    Bluegrass Symphony by Lisa L Hannett (Ticonderoga Publications)
    Nightsiders by Sue Isle (Twelfth Planet Press)
    Love and Romanpunk by Tansy Rayner Roberts (Twelfth Planet Press)

    * I was a judge in this year’s awards so no commentary from me, and nothing here should be seen as anything other than my personal opinion.

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    Notions Unlimited opens, and other writerly news

    Yay for Chuck McKenzie who, after four years running a Dymocks shop, has gone it alone with Notions Unlimited spec fic book store at Melbourne’s bayside Chelsea. Ensconced between a coffee shop and a liquour outlet and with a sushi store right outside the door, he must be occupying some prime real estate. Add in an amazingly wide range of genre reading — a dedicated small press section, graphic novels, and all the F, SF and H you can point a stick at, whether big guns or more oscure or up-and-coming writers — and a seriously luxurious looking set of sofas, and he might be needed a bouncer to kick the customers out at closing time. It’s a tough time for bricks and mortar enterprises, but a niche store with a knowledgeable and welcoming owner is in with a chance. There’s nothing quite like that human element when it comes to, ‘if you bought this, you might also like…’

  • In what at times feels like a stampede to be published — by someone, anyone, even ourselves — it’s worth taking a breath and deciding just how much we value our written words and the time and effort (yes, it takes effort!) taken to tell that particular story. Check out these posts at Writer Beware, giving pause for thought about writing contests and dodgy publisher deals.
  • Ellen Datlow, much awarded and respected editor of all things grim and ghoulish, has a new Best Horror on the way — Aussie Margo Lanagan flies the flag in the TOC. Ellen’s listed her honourable mentions, and Antipodeans Alan Baxter, John Harwood, Terry Dowling and Kaaron Warren are included. Nice.
  • Ian Irvine is giving away an iPad3 as part of a Facebook promotion.
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    Salvage: words in the seawrack

    salvage by jason nahrung

    As part of the Wednesday Writers guest post series over at Ebon Shores, I’ve offered some background to the inspiration and development of the novella Salvage that Twelfth Planet Press is publishing this year. The story took four years to appear on the page — that’s about 10,000 words a year — and arrived in response to three years of rather bruising disappointment. Bottom line: keep swimming.

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    Ditmar Award nominations open

    The Aussie spec fic fan-voted Ditmar Awards are now open for nominations, using a handy online form, post or email — see the rules page for details about who and how. There’s also a massive list of eligible works that is admittedly not totally comprehensive but is a fine place to start for memory jogging! The awards will be presented at Continuum in Melbourne in June. Electronic nominations close on April 15.

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    Tales from the Bell Club opens it electronic doors

    tales from the bell club anthology

    Tales from the Bell Club, an anthology of ghastly and gloomy fiction set around the turn of the 20th century and edited by Paul Mannering, is now available as an Amazon download. A print version is to follow. I’ve mentioned the table of contents and the process behind my story ‘The Kiss’ previously. If you’re curious, the yarn is actually readable in its entirety as part of the Amazon book sample. Please enjoy.

    UPDATE: Print edition is now available right here right now, and will be available from Amazon (US$14.99).