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!
Speaking of Swancon…
In between floating around in clouds of joy over the completion of my thesis and bunkering down in the hotel to work on Midnight and Moonshine stories with Brain, I will also be part of this panel:
Steampunk Style and Substance
Monday, 25 April
11:30 AM
Plaza 1
I’ll also be celebrating great stories at the Ditmar Awards — don’t forget to vote for your favourites! (And I’m not just saying this because up for three awards this year) – as well as partying it up at the launch of the fattest book of vampire fiction ever published You can pre-order Dead Red Heart along with a host of other incredible Ticonderoga titles (including Bluegrass Symphony) for a discounted RRP here.
Come along to Ticonderogapalooza (which I believe is scheduled on the Sunday) to join in the festivities!
Hope to see you all there 
Publishers Weekly reviews Dead Red Heart and More Scary Kisses…
…and has very flattering things to say about both! More Scary Kisses (ed. by Liz Grzyb) gets a fine review here with specific nods for Fraser Sherman, Liz Coley, Felicity Dowker, Kirstyn McDermott, and co-authors Martin Livings and Talie Helene! Awesome stuff! Dead Red Heart (ed. by Russell B. Farr) also gets a really positive review: standouts mentioned are by Shona Husk, Angela Slatter (yay!) and the multiauthored adventure that is ‘The Tide’.
Congrats, all!
To give you an idea of what Dead Red Heart has in story for you, visit Angela’s Slatter’s website for a passage from her awesome story, ‘Sun Falls’. And here’s a snippet from the opening of my story, ‘White and Red in the Black’:
The shit-stench of fear stings DJ’s nostrils, pungent in the midsummer heat. Scattered across the pen, a dozen sheep lie heavy on their sides, heads twisted at unnatural angles. Dust-grey fleece clumps around their necks with a red so dark it looks black in the moonlight. Deep gashes shear their flanks, faces, legs: finger-wide and bloody, evidence the animals managed to break their attackers’ grip at least once.
Dingoes, thinks Daniel Shenk Jr, a sour taste in his mouth. Three, maybe four.
High-pitched bleats still yodel into the night, no less frantic now than when they’d called the farmer’s son from his tea. Eager to put as much distance between themselves and their mangled mates, the surviving sheep press against DJ’s legs, tripping him up as he walks across the enclosure. His knees crack as he crouches beside one body. Death clouds the ram’s eyes. Wet irises roll far back in the sockets; its sightless stare almost completely white.
DJ’s voice breaks as he bellows for his father.
He scans the pen, looks for any sign of how the culprits got in. Panicked hooves have churned the packed ground into a mess of pits and furrows; there are no tracks inside or around the perimeter, no ochre tufts of canine hair caught on the fence. But for weeks he’s heard those wild dogs howling as the distant crackle of bushfire smoulders up the peninsula from Wangary all the way to Poochera. Shaking his head, he swats flies away from his ears and brushes them off the carcass. He traces a finger along its velvet muzzle, rests a hand on its flank. The wool is greasy and still warm beneath his touch. His palm comes away wet.
The dead sheep convulses. Tremors run from rump to shoulder and its body jerks as though possessed. Scrambling to stand, DJ trips on a rut and falls on his arse. The corpse inches towards him, moving across the dirt in erratic bumps and jolts…
Both anthologies will be launched at Swancon in April — hope to see you all there for the celebrations!
Awesome Spec-fic, super-cheap!
Indiebooks Online is having a sale!
Now’s your chance to order Ticonderoga Publications titles you might’ve missed out on in paperback — such as Angela Slatter’s The Girl With No Hands & Other Stories, Kaaron Warren’s Dead Sea Fruit, Sean Williams’ Magic Dirt and a heap of other great titles — for a bargain price. (Please note: this sale is for the paperback editions only.)
Even more exciting: you can now pre-order the trade paperback edition of Bluegrass Symphony at a discounted price!! You can also pre-order Ticonderoga’s massive Vampire anthology, Dead Red Heart; as well as Justina Robson’s Heliotrope; and the next installment in the publishing house’s paranormal romance anthology series, More Scary Kisses.
Don’t let me dissuade you from pre-ordering the limited edition hardcovers for these new books. They are gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous signed collectors’ items — only 100 copies of each, so get in quick!
More on Dead Red Heart
Dead Red Heart is a whopping anthology at 400+ pages — so you’re bound to get more than your money’s worth of vampirey goodness (or evilness?) when you get your hands on a copy. Which you now can: trade paperback and limited edition hardcover copies of Dead Red Heart are available for pre-order on Ticonderoga Press’s online bookshop, http://www.indiebooksonline.com/. Order now and the books will be shipped in late April/early May. Huzzah! (Those of you in Canada or the States: this antho will be available on Amazon and Book Depository, but not until late April.)
And, for those of you who haven’t already seen it, here’s the dead-red-cover:
I’m so stoked to be one of the lucky few listed on the front cover! Woo hoo! 
Dead Red Heart: Australian Vampire Tales
Ticonderoga Publications has announced the ToC for their massive book of Australian vampire stories, Dead Red Heart:
“The Tide”, Martin Livings and friends
“Mutiny on the Scarborough”, Shona Husk
“Sun Falls”, Angela Slatter
“Such is Life”, Jeremy Sadler
“Apolotoi”, Chris Lawson
“Punishment of the Sun”, Alan Baxter
“Red Delicious”, Felicity Dowker
“Just a Matter of Economics”, Yvonne Eve Walus
“Quarantine”, Patty Jansen
“Out of the Grave”, Amanda Pillar
“Desert Blood”, Marty Young
“Thin Air”, Simon Brown
“Kissed by the Sun”, Jodi Cleghorn
“Black Heart”, Joanna Fay
“Renfield’s Wife”, Damon Cavalcini
“Listening to Tracy”, Jen White
“Breaking the Drought”, Jay Caselberg
“Children of the Cane”, Jason Nahrung
“The Sea at Night”, Joanne Anderton
“Sky in the Morning”, Sonia Marcon
“Taking it for the Team”, Tracie McBride
“All that Glisters”, Pete Kempshall
“The Rider”, Martin Livings
“Vitality”, George Ivanoff
“Coming Home”, Kathryn Hore
“The Little Red Man”, Ray Gates
“Deathborn Light”, Helen Stubbs
“The Life Stealer”, Donna Maree Hanson
“Behind the Black Mask”, Jacob Edwards
“Interview with the Jiangshi”, Anne Mok
“White and Red in the Black”, Lisa L Hannett
“Lady Yang’s Lament”, Penelope Love
Australian settings/themes; vampires and blood; a veritable HEAP of Aussie authors — it’s so much fun being a part of this project!
The book is being released in April 2011, so we won’t have to wait long to get our hands on a copy! (I resisted the obvious pun there. Couldn’t bring myself to do it…)
