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Australian Women Writers of Outstanding Horror and Dark Fantasy: A Not Quite Top Ten

the-year-of-ancient-ghostsIn this month’s column for This Is Horror, I showcase nine of Australia’s best women writers of horror and dark fiction. So much amazing writing happening in Australian speculative fiction, in short stories and longer works alike. I could’ve gone on for ages, but I think the post would’ve buckled under the weight of all those awards…

Anyhoo, here’s a snippet from the beginning of the article:

Last year, the infamous Snowtown bank – in which eight bodies were found decomposing in six plastic barrels – went up for auction. It was affordable, as I recall; on the market for less than $200,000. It came attached to a little, comfortable house. It wasn’t too far a drive from the city of Adelaide. One night, a group of us fantasised about pooling our money and buying the place and using it as a getaway. That’s it, we said. It would make a great writers’ retreat.

Macabre? Maybe a bit. What kind of people would think of such a thing? More to the point, who would be inspired by such a thing? And can you imagine sleeping there? Even if they wouldn’t actually do so, the writers mentioned below could, no doubt, imagine all this and more.

Head on over here to read more about the not-quite top ten, and to suggest who else you think should be included!

An Unquestionable and Enthusiastic Recommendation for SHADOWS EDGE

Back from Conflux, and I seriously need to do a recap post about all the fun, panels, dinners, drinks, and books books books — but that will have to wait for a bit. For now, a quick huzzah: the first review — that I’ve seen, anyway — of Shadows Edge (edited by Simon Strantzas) has appeared on the interwebs, and it’s SO excellent! Over on The Cosmicomicon (and on Amazon) T.E. Grau offers a lengthy and detailed review of the anthology, and it’s peppered with excellent passages like these:

The standout tales (in ToC order) among the uniformly strong field are many, and include Joel Lane’s “Echoland,” Richard Gavin’s “Tinder Row,” “The Falling Dark” by Daniel Mills, Gary McMahon’s “The Old Church,” “Morning Passages” by Lisa Hannett, “Stabilimentum” by Livia Llewellyn, Peter Bell’s “The True Edge of the World,” and “Bor Urus” by John Langan.

Among these, I found “Echoland” (a story about questing after a doorway to that glimpsed land just behind the veil), “Morning Passages” (a truly original natal piece that reads like something out of a more brutal version of the Twilight Zone),  “Stabilimentum” (a woman must deal with an infestation of spiders in her new dream apartment that becomes the very least of her startling discoveries about where she now lives), “The True Edge of the World” (for my cash, the highlight of the book, due as much to Bell’s writing style and description of the Scottish setting as the folklorish supernaturalism), and “Bor Urus” (a dissection of a man obsessed by violent storms, and what can happen during them, to the detriment of everything he holds dear) to be the crema fresca of a rather creamy crop, and some of the best contemporary short stories I’ve ever read.  Lane, Hannett, Llewellyn, Bell, and Langan are now on my “must ALWAYS read” list, joining several other contributors to Shadows Edge who made the list many moons ago.

How cool!! If you’re keen, you can read the rest here.

If you’re even keener, you can buy the book on the Grey Friar’s Press website, or BookDep, or Amazon, or whatever online purveyor of fine fiction tickles your fancy.

Conflux 9 / Natcon 2013

FA90CTBGRTHT0JP.LARGEConflux 9 / Natcon 2013 is kicking off in Canberra on Thursday — so before I start packing for my flight tomorrow, I thought I’d tell you where I’ll be over the next few days! Basically, when I’m not at the hotel bar, you’ll find me here:

Thursday: Fairy Tales, Old and New 9.00 – 9.55pm

Friday: Politics of Steampunk 12.30 – 1.25pm

Saturday: Reading! (Apparently at 11am)

Ditmar Awards on Saturday night

Sunday: Defining Essentials of the Short Story, 12.30-1.25

In addition to panels, I’ll be raising a glass of bubbly at the launches of many great books this weekend, including One Small Step (with a new story by Angela and I!) and collections by Cat Sparks, Joanne Anderton and Kirstyn McDermott. Can’t wait!

Hope to see many of you there.

Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2012

years-best-fantasy-and-horror-v3-slide (2)

Finally, I can announce that I’ve got TWO stories in the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2012, edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene. HOORAY!! It’s wonderful to see so many great authors in the ToC, which has just been released today:

  • Joanne Anderton, “Tied To The Waste”, Tales Of Talisman
  • R.J.Astruc, “The Cook of Pearl House, A Malay Sailor by the Name of Maurice”, Dark Edifice 2
  • Lee Battersby, “Comfort Ghost”, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56
  • Alan Baxter, “Tiny Lives”, Daily Science Fiction
  • Jenny Blackford, “A Moveable Feast”, Bloodstones
  • Eddy Burger, “The Witch’s Wardrobe”, Dark Edifice 3
  • Isobelle Carmody, “The Stone Witch”, Under My Hat
  • Jay Caselberg, “Beautiful”, The Washington Pastime
  • Stephen Dedman, “The Fall”, Exotic Gothic 4, Postscripts
  • Felicity Dowker, “To Wish On A Clockwork Heart”, Bread And Circuses
  • Terry Dowling, “Nightside Eye”, Cemetary Dance
  • Tom Dullemond, “Population Management”, Danse Macabre
  • Thoraiya Dyer, “Sleeping Beauty”, Epilogue
  • Will Elliot, “Hungry Man”, The Apex Book Of World SF
  • Jason Fischer, “Pigroot Flat”, Midnight Echo 8
  • Dirk Flinthart, “The Bull In Winter”, Bloodstones
  • Lisa L. Hannett, “Sweet Subtleties”, Clarkesworld
  • Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter, “Bella Beaufort Goes To War”, Midnight And Moonshine
  • Narrelle Harris, “Stalemate”, Showtime
  • Kathleen Jennings, “Kindling”, Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear
  • Gary Kemble, “Saturday Night at the Milkbar”, Midnight Echo 7
  • Margo Lanagan, “Crow And Caper, Caper And Crow”, Under My Hat
  • Martin Livings, “You Ain’t Heard Nothing Yet”, Living With The Dead
  • Penelope Love, “A Small Bad Thing”, Bloodstones
  • Andrew J. McKiernan, “Torch Song”, From Stage Door Shadows
  • Karen Maric, “Anvil Of The Sun”, Aurealis
  • Faith Mudge, “Oracle’s Tower”, To Spin A Darker Stair
  • Nicole Murphy, “The Black Star Killer”, Damnation And Dames
  • Jason Nahrung, “The Last Boat To Eden”, Surviving The End
  • Tansy Rayner Roberts, “What Books Survive”, Epilogue
  • Angela Slatter, “Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, This Is Horror Webzine
  • Anna Tambour, “The Dog Who Wished He’d Never Heard Of Lovecraft”, Lovecraft Zine
  • Kyla Ward, “The Loquacious Cadaver”, The Lion And The Aardvark: Aesop’s Modern Fables
  • Kaaron Warren, “River Of Memory”, Zombies Vs. Robots

In addition to the above incredible tales, the volume will include a review of 2012 and a list of highly recommended stories.
The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2012 is scheduled for publication in July 2013 and can be pre-ordered at indiebooksonline.com. The anthology will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions.
For further information please contact Russell B. Farr, Ticonderoga Publications, editor@ticonderogapublications.com

The “I” in Horror

200px-Lunar_parkMy April column for This Is Horror is now live! This month, I talk about authors of horror fiction who write themselves into their narratives. And because there is limited space in these columns, I’ve focused on two brilliant examples: Lunar Park by Bret Easton Ellis and the short stories of Paul Haines. Here’s a snippet to whet your appetites:

Writers of great horror don’t hold back when it comes to subject matter: nothing is off limits. Their stories go places that make readers shudder, sweat, squirm. Settings may be familiar, but somehow they are also warped. ‘Natural’ elements are inevitably of the ‘un’ or ‘super’ variety. Plots are designed to unnerve. In horror, the depths of the human psyche are dredged; dark secrets, dark fears, dark realities are unearthed, then strewn in black ink across paper. And when the tale is told, the last page turned, the best authors will leave us hoping never to meet anyone, in real life, as disturbed as the characters they’ve created. We like to pretend that such people live out there, somewhere else – that they’ll always be anonymous strangers.

You can read the rest here.

I should point out, the last few lines of this column aren’t a personal cry for help: they’re lines taken from Paul Haines’s brilliant story, ‘The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt.’ Also, as I’ve mentioned at the very very bottom of the column — and certainly worth repeating here — many thanks to Dr Ben Kooyman for sharing his insights on Wes Craven’s New Nightmare and Hooper’s Midnight Movie.

Shadows Edge

Look what just arrived in the post!

IMAG2237My contributor copy of Shadows Edge, which includes a ToC of most excellent writers of weird and/or horrific tales:

Prologue: The Nineteenth Step

Echoland by Joel Lane

The Penury by Michael Cisco

Tinder Row by Richard Gavin

The Falling Dark by Daniel Mills

The Old Church by Gary McMahon

… he was water before he was fire… by D. P. Watt

False North by Ian Rogers

Morning Passages by Lisa L. Hannett

At the End of the World by R. B. Russell

Within One Ruined Realm by W. H. Pugmire

Stabilimentum by Livia Llewellyn

Some Other You by Michael Kelly

Lost in the Garden of Earthly Delights by Steve Rasnic Tem

The True Edge of the World by Peter Bell

Bor Urus by John Langan

I can’t wait to read them all!! If this anthology catches your eye, you can get a copy on the Grey Friar Press website, or any good online distributor (Book Depository, Amazon, etc).

On Angst and Fear and Envy…

20100830193250!The_ScreamFor the past week, Alan Baxter has been posting an excellent bunch of interviews on his website, in a series he’s calling “The Ongoing Angst of Successful Writers”. So far he’s interviewed Kaaron Warren, Angela Slatter, Joanne Anderton and Trudi Canavan (and there’s still Margo Lanagan to come!) Yesterday it was my turn to answer Alan’s three questions:

1. What do you still fear as a writer, when it comes to putting your work out there? What fills you with doubt and angst?

2. What career markers do you still strive for? What heights are you determined to scale?

3. Whose career do you envy? Why?

Head on over here to see how I’ve tackled these simple-but-tricky questions.

How did I miss this?

tumblr_m2ybcvrJDl1qizpqvo1_500In December last year, my story ‘Sweet Subtleties’ was published in Clarkesworld — but for some unknown reason, I’ve only just discovered that it was also read by the most excellent Kate Baker as an audio story!

It’s wonderful to hear your stories read by someone else — what a treat.

Head on over to Clarkesworld to listen now, or download it for later.

Ditmars!

VotePleaseWow, awards season is certainly upon us — the Ditmar award ballot has been announced, and I’m so chuffed to see Midnight and Moonshine on the list with so many great books and stories! Doubly-stoked to see Kirstyn McDermott on the lists for Perfections and for The Writer and the Critic (if you haven’t listened to TW&TC podcast yet, hop to it!) Also, triply-stoked to see Kathleen Jennings nominated three times for her artwork, including a nod for her M&M cover illustration! To be honest, there are too many hoorays to list here: I want so many of these works to win, even if it means two- or three-way ties in many categories.

Voters have their work cut out for them this year — so hard to choose the winners, when there are so many great things to read.

Congratulations, everyone!

The 2013 Ditmar ballot is as follows:

Best Novel
————————————————————————
* Sea Hearts, Margo Lanagan (Allen & Unwin)
* Bitter Greens, Kate Forsyth (Random House Australia)
* Suited (The Veiled Worlds 2), Jo Anderton (Angry Robot)
* Salvage, Jason Nahrung (Twelfth Planet Press)
* Perfections, Kirstyn McDermott (Xoum)
* The Corpse-Rat King, Lee Battersby (Angry Robot)

Best Novella or Novelette
————————————————————————
* “Flight 404”, Simon Petrie, in Flight 404/The Hunt for Red Leicester
(Peggy Bright Books)
* “Significant Dust”, Margo Lanagan, in Cracklescape (Twelfth Planet
Press)
* “Sky”, Kaaron Warren, in Through Splintered Walls (Twelfth Planet Press)

Best Short Story
————————————————————————
* “Sanaa’s Army”, Joanne Anderton, in Bloodstones (Ticonderoga
Publications)
* “The Wisdom of Ants”, Thoraiya Dyer, in Clarkesworld 75
* “The Bone Chime Song”, Joanne Anderton, in Light Touch Paper Stand
Clear (Peggy Bright Books)
* “Oracle’s Tower”, Faith Mudge, in To Spin a Darker Stair (FableCroft
Publishing)

Best Collected Work
————————————————————————
* Cracklescape by Margo Lanagan, edited by Alisa Krasnostein (Twelfth
Planet Press)
* Epilogue, edited by Tehani Wessely (FableCroft Publishing)
* Through Splintered Walls by Kaaron Warren, edited by Alisa Krasnostein
(Twelfth Planet Press)
* Light Touch Paper Stand Clear, edited by Edwina Harvey and Simon
Petrie (Peggy Bright Books)
* Midnight and Moonshine by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter, edited
by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Publications)
* The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011, edited by Liz
Grzyb and Talie Helene (Ticonderoga Publications)

Read the rest of this page »

Aurealis Awards Shortlists!

fireworksI think I should go to bed early more often. Last time I had an early night, thus ignoring text messages and FB beeps on my phone, I found out Bluegrass Symphony was nominated for a World Fantasy Award. And last night, I fell asleep at nanna-hour… and woke this morning to find out that the Aurealis Awards shortlists are out — and Midnight and Moonshine is up for Best Collection!

Huzzah!

Aurealis Awards - Finalist - for WebThe full list of nominees in all categories can be found here — there are so many great works shortlisted!

The winners of the 2012 Aurealis Awards and the Peter McNamara Convenors Award will be revealed at a gala ceremony on the evening of Saturday 18 May 2013 at The Independent Theatre in North Sydney. Tickets for the ceremony are now on sale for $30 up to March 31. After that date the ticket price is $35. Book here

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