Tuesday Therapy: Being the Best Magpie
Jason Fischer is a fellow Adelaidean, harmonica-player, sometimes singer of undead camel songs, zombie aficionado, writer of rollicking stories, and all ’round hell of a nice guy. For this week’s Tuesday Therapy, Jason shares some advice that, really, I just adore. Writers as magpies: what a fantastic (and incredibly accurate) image…
Be the Best Magpie You Can Be. Collect shiny things wherever you go, and let them soak into your hindbrain. Read widely, woolgather often, and give yourself permission to fall down the rabbit hole of research. Look at cool maps and old books, watch odd docos, chat to interesting strangers. Having said this, keep only the shiniest of things, and discard everything else. Even the weirdest scrap of stuff can be an absolute game-changer. And above all, know when to climb *out* of the rabbit-hole and actually do some writing.
Jason attended the Clarion South writers workshop in 2007, and has been shortlisted in the Aurealis Awards, the Ditmar Awards, and the Australian Shadows Awards. He won the 2009 AHWA Short Story and the 2010 AHWA Flash Fiction Competitions, and is a winner of the Writers of the Future contest. Jason has stories in Dreaming Again, Apex, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and Aurealis Magazine. His “After The World” series of zombie-apocalypse novellas are available from Black House Comics, and his fantasy novel “Tusk” is soon to be serialised in Terra Magazine. You can visit him online here.
An Introduction to Australian Horror
In honour of Australia Day, I was asked to write an article about Australian horror for This Is Horror in the UK — and it’s now up! The article surveys some of the standout horror published in the past two years by Australian independent presses: so much to talk about, so much incredible talent!
Australia is a land of extremes. One minute the country is ravaged by drought and bushfires, the next it’s drowning in devastating floods. The continent is a combination of enormous red deserts meeting sprawling metropolises meeting ancient tropical rainforests meeting endless coastlines. Some of the largest — and tiniest — deadly predators on the planet are hidden out in the wilds, but are also unearthed in suburban backyards. Over it all, the harsh Australian sun beats down. Casting the longest, darkest shadows.
And right there — right where the glaring light gives way to shade — a population of Australian horror writers thrives. It’s a great position to be in. Looking at stories published by independent presses in the past two years, we find that Australian horror can plunge wholly into the black, even more tragic and disturbing by contrast to the brightness left behind; it can be light-hearted but nuanced, love and joy limned in darkness; or it can tread both worlds, supernatural and terrifying and endearing all at once…
Read the rest here — and enjoy!
