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!
Damnation & Dames ToC announced!
Lindsy Anderson – The Third Circle
Chris Bauer – Three Questions and One Troll
Alan Baxter & Felicity Dowker – Burning, Always Burning
Jay Caselberg – Blind Pig
M.L.D. Curelas – Silver Comes the Night
Karen Dent – A Case to Die For
Dirk Flinthart – Outlines
Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter – Prohibition Blues
Donna Maree Hanson – Sangue Sella Notte
Rob Hood – Walking the Dead Beat
Joseph L Kellogg – The Awakened Adventure of Rick Candle
Pete Kempshall – Sound and Fury
Chris Large – One Night at the Cherry
Penelope Love – Be Good Sweet Maid
Nicole Murphy – The Black Star Killer
Brian Grant Ross – Hard Boiled
Ticonderoga Publications is pleased to announce the line-up for the upcoming paranormal noir anthology Damnation & Dames, edited by Liz Grzyb and Amanda Pillar. The anthology brings you sixteen stories of murder and mayhem, monsters and mysterious femme fatales.
Damnation & Dames will be launched at Swancon 37, at Easter 2012 and will be available in trade paperback for $30, and as an ebook in Kindle format after this. The anthology will be available from Ticonderoga’s online shop at indiebooksonline.com, and internet bookstores such as bookdepository.com and amazon.com.
Clickety click!
Today has been a hodgepodge of crazy busy-ness, so it somehow seems fitting to post a hodgepodge of links in the hope that, in your own crazy busy days, you might find a moment to clickety click:
- Support ChiZine: “ChiZine.com has been free to readers since its inception in 1997. We want to keep paying our writers pro rates, and we want to keep ChiZine free and accessible to everyone who wants to read it. No donation too small! (Or too big.)” The uber-mega-huge-all-proceeds-go-to-ChiZine Volume 47 includes my story ‘Tiny Drops’, which was first published in Midnight Echo 4. Read, enjoy, donate!
- Shimmer‘s Issue 13 Reader’s Choice Poll is online! Whichever story gets the most votes will be published online so that everyone can read it. As the folks at Shimmer have put it: “Help your favorite author get his or her story the readership it deserves!” *Ahem* my Issue 13 story is called ‘Gutted’ *cough, cough* Shimmer will also randomly select one responder to get a free copy of the issue of their choice — just give them your email address in the last question so they can get in touch with you if you’re the lucky winner. Votes accepted until June 30. (So, that’s ‘Gutted’, by L.L. Hannett…)
- Electric Velocipede has a new website and it rocks! Check it out for yourselves.
- She Never Slept.com has posted a lovely review of Scary Kisses, in which Heather Royston waxes poetic about ‘The February Dragon’ (and also has some excellent things to say about Felicity Dowker’s ‘Bread and Circuses’ and Kyla Ward’s ‘Cursebreaker’). Huzzah!
- And last, but certainly not least, dear Brain (known ’round the traps as Angela Slatter) has some excellent news involving a monumental ToC in a monumental book of horror published by a monumental editor. Congratulations! Can’t wait to read this book!
Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2010
Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, editors of the inaugural Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror anthology, have just announced the table of contents — and, I’ve got to say, I’m squeeeeeeeeeeeeing over how many awesome stories are in this book! And squeeing over how lucky I feel! (And how gorgeous is this cover?!?!)
RJ Astruc: “Johnny and Babushka”
Peter M Ball: “L’esprit de L’escalier”
Alan Baxter: “The King’s Accord”
Jenny Blackford: “Mirror”
Gitte Christensen: “A Sweet Story”
Matthew Chrulew: “Schubert By Candlelight”
Bill Congreve: “Ghia Likes Food”
Rjurik Davidson: “Lovers In Caeli-Amur”
Felicity Dowker: “After the Jump”
Dale Elvy: “Night Shift”
Jason Fischer: “The School Bus”
Dirk Flinthart: “Walker”
Bob Franklin: “Children’s Story”
Christopher Green: “Where We Go To Be Made Lighter”
Paul Haines: “High Tide At Hot Water Beach”
L.L. Hannett: “Soil From My Fingers”
Stephen Irwin: “Hive”
Gary Kemble: “Feast Or Famine”
Pete Kempshall: “Brave Face”
Tessa Kum: “Acception”
Martin Livings: “Home”
Maxine McArthur: “A Pearling Tale”
Kirstyn McDermott: “She Said”
Andrew McKiernan: “The Memory Of Water”
Ben Peek: “White Crocodile Jazz”
Simon Petrie: “Dark Rendezvous”
Lezli Robyn: “Anne-droid of Green Gables”
Angela Rega: “Slow Cookin’ “
Angela Slatter: “The Bone Mother”
Angela Slatter & LL Hannett: “The February Dragon”
Grant Stone: “Wood”
Kaaron Warren: “That Girl”
Janeen Webb: “Manifest Destiny”
The editors will soon begin reading for the second volume of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror — visit the Ticonderoga Publications website for more details. The anthology is scheduled for publication in June 2011 and will be available in hardcover, ebook and trade editions. You can pre-order this book at http://indiebooksonline.com.
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!
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…)
