Tyranny of the Blank Page

Oh there you are...

2012-01-26T18:09:00.000+08:00

So it's about time I got back on this particular horse, I think.

Through a combination of factors, I took a bit of a break from the whole writing affair, and it's hard to see that as anything but a good thing. Now I've returned to the fold and already I'm enjoying it a lot more than I was when I decided on the time off.

So what's been going on? I started writing again in November, having got the kick up the arse I needed to get moving. Blame Richard Salter, the editor who commissioned my first ever piece of fiction, and who got in contact with me to ask if I was interested in pitching for his new anthology, World's Collider. It's a shared-universe collection that revolves around a disaster with the Large Hadron Collider, published by Open Casket Press and featuring a slew of top scribes. Full Table of Contents is available from Richard's website. However, for all the news about the anthology (including announcements of interviews with all the authors) your best port of call is the official Facebook page. Go on, Like it.

That was back in July, but by the time I had my idea ready - and felt ready to write it - it was the end of the year. Mercifully, Richard's reaction to the story has been positive, so it's on to edits in the next few weeks.

At about the same time as I was writing for World's Collider, I had two more stories hit the shelves. The Rule of Three is a sci-fi horror piece I sent to Black House Comics on spec, and which was picked up for issue three of the company's After the World anthology.

Meanwhile Morrigan Books released the international edition of its Scenes From the Second Storey collection. If the name rings a bell, that's because I edited the Australian edition with Amanda Pillar a year or so back, a book of which I'm very proud and which bagged a few awards and nominations in the last twelve months.

The international edition puts me on the other side of the fence - writer instead of editor - and includes the story Temptation, about a woman who ... oh that'll be giving it away. The book's currently available as an ebook only (I believe) and you can order a copy from the publisher's website.

And most recently, I've received confirmation that my story Sound and Fury has been picked up for inclusion in Damnation and Dames, a paranormal noir collection from Ticonderoga Publications. Edited by Liz Grzyb and Amanda Pillar, it promises to be packed with hard-boiled supernatural loveliness, judging from the Table of Contents.

If that seems like a fair amount to have happened since my last post here, I have to balance that with the knowledge that very little new writing has been done in that time. I'm pleased to say that's changed now, with some new projects taking off in the last month or so. One has the potential to be very big, either as an achievement or the proverbial car crash... but I'll get into that next time.

Swancon wrap

2011-04-26T16:13:00.000+08:00

Today's the last day of what's amounted to five days of public holidays, and I've spent the majority of the time at Swancon, the Perth sci-fi and fantasy convention. This year, Swancon was also the national convention, so a good number of writers from over east made the trip to attend, allowing me to catch up with many of the people I met for the first time in Melbourne last September.

Inevitably, that meant that my highlights for the convention involved meeting people rather than attending panels, although I did manage to get along to the odd one or two. My Scenes From the Second Storey co-editor Amanda Pillar (and ever-cool partner Tom) were among those to make the journey over - aside from the time spent in my usual inane blathering, that also gave us a chance to talk about some upcoming projects. More news on that later, but if you were one of the writers to buttonhole her for news about it (and you know who you are!) expect something in the next month.

Alan Baxter was great value for the whole con, and his two-hour workshop on writing realistic fight scenes was an eye-opener (hint: they're nothing like the fights you see in movies). For anyone who didn't make it along, I'd recommend Al's e-book Write the Fight Right, which covers all the material in the workshop. Top knowledge.

It was also good to catch up with Paul Haines, whose latest collection, The Last Days of Kali Yuga, launched on Sunday and is packed with writing goodness (including the superb novella Wives and his entry in Scenes From the Second Storey, I've Seen the Man). You can order it now from Brimstone Press and I strongly suggest you do.

I spent a lot of time nattering with Russell Farr and Liz Grzyb from Ticonderoga Publications, and attended the 15th anniversary party for the imprint, which included the launch of More Scary Kisses (which uses a review quote by me on the cover, so you know it's quality!) and the vampire anthology Dead Red Heart. Signed a few copies of the latter and got to meet the unfeasibly talented duo of Angela Slatter and Lisa Hannett along the way. If they're not already on your radar, they should be...

A big thanks to Robert Hood, too, who gave me the benefit of his expertise in a field about which I'm writing something soon. My questions and concerns were answered, and we got to swap comics recommendations too, so wins all round!

Time for a quick shout-out to Daniel Russell and his partner Sherie, in town from the more rural parts of WA - great to see you, and I'm sure we'll be catching up sooner rather than later.

And I think that's it, except for the awards - a huge cheer for Kirstyn McDermott, who took out a Ditmar for her Scenes short story She Said (that's two big gongs for that tale, after her Australian Shadows win). And a smaller one for me - I landed the best WA Short Written Work, which was nice. Thanks to everyone who voted, and I promise never to use the term "award-winning author".

After that time, obviously.

Heart Starting

2011-04-11T13:52:00.002+08:00

Pre-order details are up now for Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga's anthology of bloodsuckers Down Under.

At more than 500 pages, it's a monster tome, and the contributors' list reads like a who's who of Australian horror, so it's going to be well worth picking up. And if that doesn't convince you, pre-orders from the website are 20% off, so get cracking before May 5. It'll also be available through Amazon, The Book Depository and Barnes and Noble in early May.

Of course, you can always grab a copy at Swancon - the book's having it's official launch at the convention, and there's bound to be the odd author there willing to scribble in it for you...

A Load of Ballots

2011-03-27T13:40:00.000+08:00

I keep feeling like someone who's turned up for a party just as everyone else is leaving... another late blog means most of you will already know that the final ballot papers have been revealed for both the Ditmar Awards and the Tin Ducks. Some of you will already know that I've scored a couple of nominations on them. First up, a huge thank you to everyone who read this blog and voted for me in the initial round. Without your support, I wouldn't be writing this now. Next, a look at the Ditmars. I've been nominated personally in the Best New Talent category and with Amanda Pillar as editors in Best Collected Work for Scenes from the Second Storey. As with all the awards doing the rounds right now, both are tough fields, with very deserving nominees. My blog has decided not to allow me to cut and paste today, so I can't list everyone here without spending an hour retyping the names. Suffice it to say a large number of those I suggested for nominations in my previous posts did indeed make the final lists - the complete ballots for online voting and physical votes have all the details. As I understand it, members of this year's Swancon and last year's Worldcon are eligible to vote, as are Supporting Members (those who can't make it to Perth for the convention are able to pay $20 to cast their votes in absentia). I'll make sure and get back to you. Meanwhile Swancon will also see the voting for the WA-only Tin Duck awards, and this year I have two nominations, both for Best WA Professional Short Written Work. You probably remember I suggested Signature Walk for this category, as a story of which I'm very proud that's set in WA and published by a WA company - what surprised me was that another story I didn't suggest, Brave Face from ASIM issue 46, has also made the final list. It's a little piece of flash fiction I wrote last year that I didn't think would get much attention, so thanks to those who voted for it - it was a pleasant shock. There are nearly 20 stories in this category, which is going to make it a tight-run thing, if only because the votes are likely to be diluted, so if anyone's a full or supporting member of Swancon and would like to vote, it could be the odd nod that makes the difference. Take a look at the ballot form and see what I mean! And now, back to my boxes. Moving house next week, and the sheer volume of clutter I've accumulated since the last move is terrifying.

Aurealis Awards

2011-03-22T15:56:00.000+08:00

Being in WA and a few hours behind everyone else means I'm posting a while after the rest of the writing community... but if, by some remote chance you haven't heard, the Aurealis Award finalists were announced today and Scenes From the Second Storey made the last five for Best Anthology.

Obviously it's a huge honour and I'm chuffed to bits not just for myself and Amanda but for all the writers who put in such sterling efforts. As with other awards, the competition is very very strong - a big congratulations to everyone who made the respective short lists, which you can find at the Aurealis website. The winners are announced at a ceremony in Sydney on May 21.

The 'e' in Book

2011-03-15T20:01:00.000+08:00

Things are a little quieter at the moment, although an impending house move means they won't stay that way for long. I've used the time to finish off the first-round edits on a novella I've been asked to look at, but now that I've sent the comments off to the writer, my time's my own (until he gets back to me with his comments on my comments, at any rate).

I've got a novella of my own that needs rewrites for publication later in the year - more on that a bit closer to the time - but aside from that all there is to report is that two books with which I've had some involvement have got the 'e' treatment.

Voices - an anthology about nastiness in hotel rooms - contains my story Just Us, described as a 'brutal police procedural' by one reviewer. You can now buy it on Smashwords or as a Kindle book from Amazon.

Meanwhile, Scenes from the Second Storey is also available now in electronic format. There's been a lot of positive buzz about this one - see for yourself in the Smashwords and Kindle versions.

And since I'm talking about it, let's not forget the award-winning apocalyptic anthology Grants Pass has been out in e-format for a while and can still be bought on, you guessed it, Smashwords and Kindle.

Here ends the sales pitch.

Honour Amongst Writers

2011-03-12T10:37:00.000+08:00

Very pleased to wake up this morning to find that Signature Walk has made the (very) long list of stories on Ellen Datlow's Honourable Mentions for Best Horror of the Year. It's weird to be mentioned on the same list as Christopher Fowler, Stephen King, Rob Shearman, Neil Gaiman and Lawrence Block... at least without the words "not nearly as good as" being used.

Anyway, better yet the list also includes three tales from Scenes from the Second Storey: The Blind Man by Felicity Dowker, Ego by Robert Hood and The Desert Song by Andrew J McKiernan. Big congrats to them, as ever I'm immensely proud. Of course, I'm duty-bound to suggest this as further reason to vote for all of these stories in the upcoming awards. Check out my previous post for details on how to show your support, now you've got further proof that they're deserving.

If that's not good news enough, the list is further populated by talented individuals from Down Under: Kirstyn McDermott, Kaaron Warren and Paul Haines all make the list, as do Chris Green, Mark Farrugia and Amanda Spedding from the AHWA critique group - as good an advertisment for the fine work that the group does as you're likely to see. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there's no way you can overestimate the quality of the service these guys provide. My writing would be a lot poorer without them.

Voting Thoughts 3

2011-03-08T17:38:00.000+08:00

There are two more categories I’d like to cover before voting for both the Ditmars and the Tin Ducks close this weekend. First up is the Ditmar for Best Collected Work.

This is one of the two categories for which I’m pushing my own product. Scenes From the Second Storey (edited by Amanda Pillar and myself, Morrigan Books) came out at WorldCon last year and has garnered uniformly positive and enthusiastic reviews in the months since. An anthology that features a stellar line up of writers all at the top of their respective games, I’m very proud of it and everyone who was involved. So if you wanted to throw it a vote or two…

But the competition is stiff this year, with some equally worthy contenders out there. The biggest – in page count and stature! – is Macabre (ed. Angela Challis and Marty Young, Brimstone Press). A history of Australian horror writing, it’s jammed with gems and recently made the final ballot for the Stoker Awards, no mean feat for an Aussie book in a stateside award.

I’ve already mentioned Cthulhu’s Dark Cults (ed. David Conyers, Chaosium) in relation to one of my tips for Best Novella, and the same reasons for voting in that category apply here – I loved the Call of Cthulhu game back in the old days, and the stories in this anthology are a lovely blast of nostalgia.

I’d also like to mention Scary Kisses (ed. Liz Grzyb, Ticonderoga) for showing you can do paranormal romance without selling out, and Sprawl (ed. Alisa Krasnostein, Twelfth Planet Press) for a fine collection of stories that distils the more disturbing side of life in the Australian burbs. Both are great reads and worth considering.

Things get more complex, when it comes to the Best Short Story noms, if only because my short list… well, isn’t. I’m not putting any of my own shorts into this category, preferring to concentrate on the Tin Ducks for that particular area. I am, however, going to nominate everyone who contributed to Scenes From the Second Storey. They are:

Dream Machine by David Conyers
She Said by Kirstyn McDermott
The Blind Man by Felicity Dowker
I’ve Seen The Man by Paul Haines
The Desert Song by Andrew J. McKiernan
Home by Martin Livings (also eligible for the Tin Ducks)
It’s All Over by L.J. Hayward
Temptation by Trent Jamieson
Out by Stephen Dedman
Ego by Robert Hood
Seven by Stephanie Campisi
Purity by Kaaron Warren
The Piano Song by Cat Sparks

I’m quite, quite serious when I say there’s not a single dud in the entire book. Anyone on that list who gets a nomination will truly have deserved it.

Aside from the above, however, there’s a wide field to choose from. Stories I’ve particularly enjoyed are:

Bread and Circuses by Felicity Dowker: a love story that transcends the grave, managing to be romantic and disturbing simultaneously.

The King’s Accord by Alan Baxter: a tale of political intrigue that asks how far is too far where the greater good is concerned. Wonderful ending.

The School Bus by Jason Fischer: not many stories have lingered in my mind after reading as long as this one did. Chilling.

Lollo by Martin Livings: What’s scarier than aliens, clowns or creepy dolls? A creepy alien clown doll. Easily the best story in the Close Encounters of the Urban Kind anthology. Also eligible for the Tin Ducks in the Best Professional Short Written Work category.

A Bagful of Arrows by Mark Farrugia: A story I got to see evolve through the AHWA critique group, growing into a tight, clever yarn.

Darwin’s Daughter by Christopher Green: it’s difficult to pick any one of Chris’s stories as a favourite – he’s that good. Darwin’s Daughter melds an intelligent concept with emotional punch.

And that’s it for my recommendations – for what they’re worth. If you’re thinking of voting, get in before Sunday. Details and voting forms are here for the Ditmars, and here for the Tin Ducks.

Voting Thoughts 2

2011-03-05T16:30:00.000+08:00

I'm only putting my work out there for two categories in this year's Ditmars - Best New Talent, as I mention previously, and Best Collected Work - but there are a whole range of other awards I'll be voting in, many with a list of eligibles as long as the Indian Pacific railway. I've tried to narrow the options down as best I can - here are a few works that I think are worth a vote or two.

Best Novel
My first pick for this is Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott. Kirstyn wrote a damn fine short for Scenes From the Second Storey, and her first novel demonstrates beyond any argument that she's a top-notch writer. A listing on the final ballot for this year's Stoker Awards (albeit not for this novel) just proves my point.

I'm cheating a little when I suggest Death Most Definite by Trent Jamieson, in that I have my copy on order but it's yet to arrive... I'd been hoping to read it before needing to post, but these things happen. Working on the basis that so many people whose opinions I respect can't be wrong, however, I'm taking it on faith that Trent's urban fantasy is as good as it's rep.

The last novel I'd suggest is Samhane by Daniel I Russell. This one targets a very different niche in the market from the first two suggestions, splatter-filled and aimed more at fans of films like Hostel. That said, Daniel knows his market and caters for it well, which makes it worth a nod.

Best Novella
Again, there are three works that'll be getting my votes in this category. All the Clowns in Clowntown (from Macabre, Brimstone Press) takes one of horror's traditional scares (clowns = evil) and turns it on its head. I've a lot of time for stories by its writer, Andrew J McKiernan, and this one's really rather good.

Requiem for the Burning God by Shane Jiraiya Cummings is taken from David Conyer's anthology Cthulhu's Dark Cults. Those that knew me back in my teens (an eternity ago...) will remember my love of the Call of Cthulhu game and Shane's tale of evil in the mountains of Peru did a fine job of evoking the tone and atmosphere I associated with the game.

Last up, A Tale of the Interferers: A Hunger for Forbidden Flesh by Paul Haines (ASIM issue 46). Paul is ludicrously talented, and I've dipped into several stories in his back catalogue since finally meeting him at WorldCon. His characters the Interferers (a pair of less than legendary sword-and-sorcery) adventurers meld laugh-out-loud humour with the nastiness in such a seamless way that I'm seething with envy just thinking about it.

As before, voting can be done online. Otherwise, that's it for this post... I'm building up to a Best Short Story post, but with so many possible candidates, it may take a little while to get that one composed. Back soon(ish).

Voting Thoughts 1

2011-03-02T20:26:00.000+08:00

I promised a week or so back that I'd post my list of recommendations for the upcoming awards season, but life being what it is I've been stuck for the opportunity to do so. Part of the problem is that I've been thinking about who I'd vote for at both the Ditmars and the WA-oriented Tin Ducks, and the list seems to expand by the second. One by-product of attending WorldCon last September was that I got to meet a wider circle of Australian writers, thus becoming wider read myself as I caught up with their work. That in turn means this post has the potential to make The Lord of the Rings look like a pamphlet...

So I'll be splitting it up. Today I'll cover one award I'm up for and one category in which I'll be nominating.

By one of those strange quirks of the voting process, I'm eligible for the Best New Talent Award at the Ditmars this year. Strange, because I was eligible for it last year, too. It seems that newbies get two bites of the cherry here - but only two, so it's my last chance in this category. That said, my output for this year has been stronger and more varied than last, including not just short stories but an editing role alongside Amanda Pillar on Scenes From the Second Storey. That Scenes has been so well received and that my short stories for the last year so well reviewed is a big step forward on the previous Ditmars. With a bit of luck, versatility can count for something.

There are, however, a couple of other people whose work I'd point you towards for the same award. Jason Crowe is one of the members of the Australian Horror Writers Association Critique Group, an invaluable collection of writers who have been there to point out the inadequacies of my fiction (and ways to fix them) for the last couple of years. Because I've returned the favour and worked on a number of Jason's manuscripts, I can say with conviction that he's a fine storyteller in his own right, and well worth considering in this category.

The other name on my list is another AHWA Critter who's just starting to make a name for herself. Amanda J Spedding's hit a rich vein of form in the last couple of months, with her stories in the Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine gaining some deserved attention. This week, her steampunk story Shovel-Man Joe won first place in a competition run by website Shades of Sentience. Again, I've read quite a number of her stories, and she's got what it takes.

So that's Best New Talent covered. If you're a Ditmar voter (ie you can prove you're 'active in fandom') you can see the full list of eligibles here. Online voting closes on March 14, but I'll be back before that with my thoughts on another category. Until then...

It's Ditmar Time Again

2011-02-14T20:22:00.001+08:00

If you've been on Facebook today (and you have the same kind of friends I do) you'll have been inundated by posts about the Ditmar Awards. Yup, it seems like five minutes since the last awards at WorldCon, but it's nomination time again.

The big differences between this year and last, as far as I'm concerned, are that the quality of my output has broadened and improved, and that I met a crowd of new writers at WorldCon whose work I've since sampled and who also deserve your votes.

So in the next day or so I'll be posting not only the awards I'm eligible for, but also my recommendations of other writers, artists and editors who should be in with a shout. I just need a bit of time to get my list together... In the meantime, if you're curious, you can check out the (ever-growing) list of eligibles here.

Reviews and recommendations

2011-02-08T20:02:00.000+08:00

I'm a little behind with the posting for this first bit of news, so apologies for those who already know. Last week Locus magazine released its recommended reading list for books released last year, and it was great to see that Twelfth Planet Press made the original anthologies category with Sprawl. Congrats too to Peter M Ball, Angela Slatter and Cat Sparks, whose stories from the collection got on the list for best short stories.

A little more up to date, and another review's been released for the antho Beauty Has Her Way. The critic goes in reasonably hard on a couple of the stories, but judges that Someone Else to Play With "has some surprising twists that proved delightful" and "was very much my favorite" from the middle of the book's three sections. Good to see, too, that KV Taylor (who's become something of a ToC buddy in Stateside releases) got the thumbs up for her tale.

I'm having a couple of days off from writing after the customary dash-to-the-line for my last story - with a bit of luck it'll allow me to catch up on some reading, including a potential editing project I really should have got stuck into earlier. Actually, maybe I'll get stuck into it now...

The Stoker Awards

2011-02-01T19:41:00.000+08:00

The preliminary ballot for the 2010 Bram Stoker Awards has been released by the US Horror Writers Association, and I'm very proud to say that Scenes From the Second Storey (edited by Amanda Pillar and myself) has made it onto the list for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

The book's up against some tough competition, including Cthulhu's Dark Cults, an anthology edited by David Conyers (who also happens to have a story in Scenes). There are ten books in total, and the next round of voting by Active Members of the HWA (that's to say those members who've attained professional-level membership) will whittle it down still further before a final ballot later this year.

It's a huge honour to make it even this far, an honour that's shared by a number of other Australians besides Amanda, David and myself. Two excellent writers in Kirstyn McDermott and Shane Jiraiya Cummings have also been listed, for Superior Achievement in a First Novel (Madigan Mine), and Superior Achievement in Long Fiction (Requiem For the Burning God) respectively. I'm not sure how this ballot stacks up against previous years for Australian entries, but it seems like a pretty strong showing to me.

Congrats to everyone who made the list and a big, big thanks to all the writers who contributed to Scenes - as fine a bunch as anyone could hope to work with!

Duck!

2011-01-31T13:46:00.000+08:00

Nominations are now open for the 2011 Tin Duck Awards, the annual gongs for achievements by WA writers and artists as provided by the Western Australian Science Fiction Foundation.

I have a few stories that are eligible for this year's awards, but rather than list them all, I'm taking a leaf out of Felicity Dowker's book and suggesting only one. (Incidentally, if you've read Bread and Circuses - the rather fine story she has asked be nominated for Victoria's Chronos Awards - you really should sling it a vote...)

The story I'd like to put forward is Signature Walk, which appeared in the anthology Sprawl by Twelfth Planet Press. Why that story? Aside from the fact that it's one I'm rather proud of, it's also the most West Australian story I've ever written. I've set stories everywhere from civil war America to 40s Berlin to archaelogical digs on far-future worlds - Signature Walk is the only one I've based right here in Perth.

At this stage in the voting process it's all about getting on the short list, so the more nominations for the story I can get, the better. Once the list is set, there'll be a second round of votes to determine the winner (to be announced at this year's Swancon over Easter).

So if you've read Signature Walk and liked it, do please get along to the Tin Ducks site and vote. The category you're after is Best WA Professional Short Written Work, and the details are:

Nominee: Pete Kempshall
Work: Signature Walk, from Sprawl, Twelfth Planet Press

The first round of voting runs until midnight 13 March.

Here ends the filthy self promotion!

You Beauty

2011-01-19T18:09:00.000+08:00

Beauty Has Her Way (edited by Jennifer Brozek and featuring one of my stories, Someone Else to Play With) is out now, and has already garnered its first online analysis. Reviewer Gayle Grazen gives the book four out of five, and also has some kind words regarding SEtPW:

"A few stories are highly recommended. Pete Kempshall’s Someone Else to Play With is a disturbing dark fantasy featuring an arrogant, conceited protagonist. Its mix of suspense and dark magic are common tropes but the fine characterization makes this particular story stand out. "

The full review can be found here, and you can buy Beauty Has Her Way at the Dark Quest Books website.

Dead On

2011-01-18T18:33:00.000+08:00

The table of contents for the acceptance I received at the start of the year has now gone public. The collection is Dead Red Heart, a massive book of Australian vampire stories from Ticonderoga Publications, and I'm pleased to be included alongside some very talented individuals indeed.

The full ToC is:

“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

Dead Red Heart's out in April, in time for Swancon and you can get more information about it at the Ticonderoga site.

In an effort to balance the karmic books, meanwhile, a story I wrote at the end of last year for another anthology just got the "thanks but no thanks". Honours even for 2011 so far then.

Book Ends

2010-12-31T13:52:00.000+08:00

So it's been a mad year, what with the new day job chewing up the time I'd usually put into things like, um, this blog. At the start of 2010 I was aiming to write a short story per month and managed a shade over half that - not ideal, but I'm pretty happy with the way those stories turned out, so I'm going to call it a win, regardless.

It's also been a good year for exposure, with the Ditmar nomination and Worldcon getting me out into the community a little more. Which means, I suppose, that the key for 2011 is keeping up the momentum.

It doesn't hurt, then, that I'm rounding off 2010 with a commission. As ever, I can't say what the deal is until the ToC is announced, but I've had a story accepted by a publisher I've not submitted to before, one I have been quite keen to work with. Some of you may remember that I kicked off the year with a commission for a new (to me, at least) publisher, so I'm enjoying the symmetry. A great way to book-end the year. And with three stories in my head and ready to go, my goal has to be ensuring I find time to write. Like I said, momentum.

In other news, my editing on Scenes from the Second Storey has led to another offer of work, this time on a novella. As with the short story, I can't do details until the job's firmed up, but it should be an interesting gig.

So that's it for this year - all the best to you, see you in 2011.

Brain Drain

2010-11-27T16:54:00.000+08:00

Work's gone insane in the last couple of months, with massive workloads, stupidly compressed deadlines and the need to turn in 13, 14 or 15 hour days to get the job done. It's settled a little in the last week, but I've come to the conclusion that my brain is now broken.

Today's the first day I've been able to do anything approaching decent writing. Last month I was forced to abandon one story because I just couldn't get my head around it, and it looked for a long time like the same would happen to the story I have due at the start of December. Thankfully today's output - while hardly high art - showed I'm starting to get some of my feeling back. We'll see how it pans out.

So what else has been going on? Well, there have been a couple of good reviews on the old Interweb for publications I've been involved with. Horrorscope recently reviewed ASIM issue 46, and had some nice things to say about my flash story Brave Face:

"In just a few short words, Pete Kempshall’s Brave Face about a prisoner awaiting execution by a terrorist faction will have you cowering under the sheets"

The review also praises Crit Group alumni Amanda Spedding, Chris Green and Marty Young, as well as writerly mate of mine Felicity Dowker, so it's a big win for everyone there. Felicity, Chris and I are also mentioned in a review of the same release at Albedo1 here.

On the editing side, Scenes from the Second Storey has also had another sparkling review, this time at Scary Minds, whose reviewer gives it 8/10, and calls it "a collection that goes to the soul of Australian dark genre dreaming". Pressed to name a top three, the reviewer chooses the stories by Kirstyn McDermott, Martin Livings and Cat Sparks as his faves, but calls the book as a whole "a superb collection that surprises with its outstanding content".

Both Brave Face and Scenes are still available for anyone looking for, say, stocking fillers - check out the links over on the right there.

Write on Course

2010-10-03T18:44:00.000+08:00

Quite apart from anything else, spending time at Worldcon and meeting with so many excellent writers gave me a much-needed kick up the arse as far as my own writing goes. I've spent the last three weeks at work on a new story (1920s horror, for those keeping track) and have plans for one more each month between now and Christmas... including a redraft of a novella for an online project I'll tell you more about later.

Meanwhile some more pics have emerged of the convention - these taken by the rather splendid Tom Bicknell:

Grants Pass writer Martin Livings, editors Jennifer Brozek and Amanda Pillar, and myself.

Signing at the Scenes From the Second Storey launch.

And talking of Scenes, the first review of the book has been posted over at The Specusphere, and it's a positive one:

"Readers who enjoy speculative fiction - and short stories in particular - will revel in this collection that gives glimpses into the human psyche in all its variety."

The full review - including commentary on each and every one of the stories in the anthology - can be found on the Specusphere site.

Late-running Worldcon Update

2010-09-11T15:55:00.000+08:00

Thanks to the need to dive straight back into work, I'm about a week behind everyone else on the Worldcon round-ups. The Melbourne get-together for the sci-fi, fantasy and horror community was my first big convention, but more importantly my first chance to meet in the flesh a whole swathe of people I've worked with for months or even years over the Internet.

As a result, I didn't get to go to too many of the panels that were on offer - far too busy chatting - but highlights included the Australian Horror Writers' Association Nightmare Ball and the erotic fiction panel, which threw up enough smut and catchphrases to last a whole bunch of gutter-minded writers for days.

There's a danger with postings like these that they turn into huge lists... but since I can't think of a way to avoid that particular pitfall, I'm just going to jump straight in.

Top names I met for the first time included my co-editor Amanda Pillar (and fellow magazine writer Tom!), Doctor Who scribe Dave Hoskin, AHWA critique group members Marty Young, Mark Farrugia, Jason Crowe, Jules Bathory and Dom Davidson, US editor Jennifer Brozek, Ticonderoga Publications' Russell B Farr and writer Alan Baxter. That's not to mention the large number of writers from Scenes From the Second Storey, which had its launch on the Saturday morning - a big cheer for Paul Haines, Kirstyn McDermott, Andrew J McKiernan, Martin Livings, Trent Jamieson, Stephen Dedman, Robert Hood, Kaaron Warren, Cat Sparks and Felicity Dowker (whose command of innuendo is at least as broad and comprehensive as my own).

With Amanda Pillar at the Nightmare Ball

Felicity Dowker and Alan Baxter

My alter-ego for the evening...

Jason Crowe, sans chaps

Marty Young, outgoing (as in departing. And not shy) President of the AHWA

Jennifer Brozek

Dave Hoskin: writer, raconteur, shell lover

The launch of Scenes from the Second Storey: (from left) Paul Haines,
Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott, Robert Hood, Cat Sparks

Scenes launch: Paul Haines, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott

Scenes launch: Kirstyn McDermott, Robert Hood

Scenes launch: Andrew J McKiernan, Stephen Dedman, Martin Livings

The con was also an opportunity to see Ian Mond (who I've not seen in at least a year) and Robert Shearman, who I've not seen in even longer - fine fellows both and whom I really should catch up with more often than I do. Perth spec-ficcers Alisa Krasnostein and Shane Jiraiya Cummings were also in attendance, neither of whom I've seen since... oh Swancon 2009, probably.

As well as the launch of Scenes (buy it here!), the con also saw a couple of my stories get into print elsewhere. Sprawl is now available to buy from here, and ASIM issue 46 can be purchased here. It's always nice to have something to spruik...

Which leads us nicely to the Ditmars. While I didn't win the award for which I was nominated (congrats to Peter M Ball for taking that one out), it was great to see Scenes alumni Cat, Robert and Kaaron score one each, and Paul land two gongs to himself. Big congrats to all four of them. For me, the nomination alone ought to open some doors, so I'm pleased with that. Thanks to everyone who turned out to vote!

Meanwhile, one of my goals for the con was to sort out some kind of representation, but either I was looking in the wrong places or all the agents attending were hiding out in secret locations. A little disappointing, but on the flipside I've widened my circle of writerly pals no end, and the mere act of spending time with them has given my creativity a much-needed kick up the arse. I've set myself a number of deadlines for various upcoming publications, kicking off with a story due at the end of the month.

So I should probably get my finger out and start on that.

Voting, Forthcomings and Pre-orders

2010-08-14T09:22:00.002+08:00

Busy busy at work, so I've not been able to look into the Ditmar voting properly until now.

Seems that it's not enough to have shelled out a huge wedge of cash to attend Worldcon - if you want to vote for these awards, you have to pay for a secondary convention membership too. Compared to the hundreds of dollars Worldcon were asking, Dudcon membership is reasonably cheap (AUS$10), but I can't see that you're paying for much more than the right to exercise your preferences, which seems a little boorish - not least because there's the whiff of "buying votes" about it. All the same, anyone interested can check out membership here. and e-voting here.

Meanwhile, the table of contents has been announced for an upcoming issue of the Andromeda Spaceways In-flight Magazine, which just so happens to have one of my stories in it. It's issue 46, on sale in time for Worldcon, and the line-up is:

The Laughing Girl from Bora Fanong: A Tale of Colonial Venus by John Dixon & Adam Browne

Linger by Christopher Green

The School Bus by Jason Fischer

Nightmare’s Cradle by Amanda J Spedding

The Clockwork Kid by K S Conlon

Metal Dragon by Patty Jansen

Must’ve Been While You Were Kissing Me by Simon Petrie

Charlie by Felicity Dowker

Dead Air by Grant Stone

How Galligaskins Sloughed the Scourge by Anna Tambour

Brave Face by Pete Kempshall

A Tale of The Interferers: A Hunger For Forbidden Flesh by Paul Haines

That's a top-notch gathering if ever I saw one, but special mentions to Chris Green and Amanda Spedding (both members of my AHWA Crit group, both great), Felicity Dowker and Paul Haines (both in Scenes From the Second Storey, both fabulous writers) and Simon Petrie, who's also up for the Best New Talent Ditmar, so 'nuff said! Ordering details will be up shortly at the ASIM website.

There are also a number of pre-ordering sites that have gone live in the last couple of weeks. You can order Scenes From the Second Storey from the Morrigan site and Sprawl (containing my story Signature Walk) from Twelfth Planet right now. Or if you're the type who likes to meet the contributors, you can buy both at Worldcon. No details on specific launch events yet, but I'll let you know when things are firmed up.

Nom nom nom

2010-08-03T20:03:00.000+08:00

Found out this morning that I've been nominated for a Ditmar Award. Which is a bit of a shock.

My name's on the final ballot in the Best New Talent category, and the winner will be announced in September at WorldCon in Melbourne. Fortunately I've already booked my tickets to the convention (on other business) so I'll be able to toddle along and see how it turns out.

I've got to say that while I did pimp myself for votes last month, I didn't really expect to make the final cut - not when I only had two stories out in the eligible-for-entry period. And now that I've seen the list of other nominees, I'm even more surprised to be on it. The full list for the category is:

Pete Kempshall
Kathleen Jennings
Thoraiya Dyer
Jason Fischer
Simon Petrie
Christopher Green
Peter M. Ball

Which puts my chances firmly in the "slim-to-none" bracket, but like the Kiwis in the World Cup, I'm just happy to be there. Meanwhile I'm particularly pleased that fellow AHWA Crit Grouper Chris Green made it - the man's got talent to burn. Marty Young has also made it onto the form for Best Short Story (another Critter), as did Kaaron Warren for the excellent Slights. A big hooray too for Ian Mond, who got a nomination in the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review. By all means have a gander at the complete ballot form for more details.

I'll be looking into the cans and can'ts of voting, and I'll post here once I've deciphered it. Apparently you need to be a member of Dudcon to be eligible ... whatever that is.

Things of Beauty

2010-07-10T20:54:00.000+08:00

The table of contents has just been announced for Dark Quest Books' forthcoming anthology Beauty Has Her Way, edited by Jennifer Brozek. The theme of the collection is women using all the means at their disposal to get what they want, and the rundown of stories is:

Yesterday
Sacrifices to the Moon by Paul D. Batteiger
Dunkle Froline by Ramsey Lundock
Tears of Blood by Joshua Palmatier
I, Theodora by Maurice Broaddus
Vengeance is Mine by Kenneth Mark Hoover

Today
The Moko-Jumbie Girl by Chuck Wendig
Someone Else to Play With by Pete Kempshall
Daggers in Her Garters by Ed Greenwood
Men Do Nothing by Philomena Hill
Witch Fire by Erik Scott de Bie
Becoming by David A. Hill Jr.

Tomorrow
Ride the Rebel Wind by Amanda Gannon
A Well-Embroidered Heart by Keffy R. M. Kehril
The Runner by KV Taylor
Trapped Star by Ann Wilkes
Her Eyes On by Kay T. Holt and Bart R. Leib

Personally I'm very pleased to be in another book with KV Taylor - if you count an upcoming, as-yet-unannounced volume this is the fourth time we've shared page space, and I've got to say she's a bit good.

More details as and when!

Ditmar Voting

2010-07-05T19:19:00.000+08:00

So I've been looking into this Ditmar Award business and it seems that if you're "active in fandom" you're eligible to vote. If that sounds a little non-specific, anyone who's a paid-up member of the Australian Horror Writers Association is able to vote, so I assume that therefore means anyone who's a member of any similar organisations is also OK. Those who have attended conventions are also good to go. If anyone's in any doubt, there's a spot on the voting form where you can explain your eligibility, and then it's up to the board.

As you may remember, Shane Jiraiya Cummings - and latterly my co-editor Amanda Pillar - suggested me for Best New Talent, but apparently I can also be entered into Best Short Story (for Rights of Passage in Grants Pass and Just Us in Voices). The Grants Pass anthology is also good for Best Collected Work.

If you think you're eligible to vote and you'd like to check out the stories, shoot me your email address - the lovely people at Morrigan Books have OK'd free electronic copies of Grants Pass to Ditmar voters prior to the close of voting on July 23.

This concludes today's self-promotion activity (hey if I don't do it, who will?).

Late Nights, Last Looks and Long Shots

2010-06-26T20:09:00.000+08:00

Insane deadline pressure has pretty much wiped out June for me. A collection of what would normally be minor problems cascaded into three weeks of 14-hour days at the office, leaving the majority of people stressed and burned out. It hasn't helped, of course, that I've been rolling home at ten or so and getting caught up watching World Cup games ... My eyes, they are bleary.

It's hit home, meanwhile, that I've been devoting far too little time to fiction as a result of all this, so I've just invested in a little laptop I can run off and hide with on my lunch breaks. An hour of peace and quiet each day should help to get my writing back on track. That's not to say I've not been working on things in my own little way. I'm now halfway through the final readthrough of Scenes From the Second Storey, prior to its being sent back to the authors for their last looks. All being well we'll be on schedule for a launch at WorldCon in September. At this stage I'm hoping to be there in Melbourne for at least a couple of days of the convention, funding permitting, and it'll be the first time I'll have met many of the authors, not to mention my co-editor Amanda. Fingers crossed for a financial result then.

All the same my writing's been a little limited, mostly bits and pieces at the office. I've also been banging my head against a wall trying to think of a title for a piece that's already been accepted, but the name of which failed to impress the editor. I can't seem to think of anything that doesn't give away the ending ...

Elsewhere on the Interweb, the first review is up for Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. The reviewer is Josh Palmatier, one of the other writers in the anthology, and he gives his thoughts on all the stories, including his own. I'm quite pleased to say he liked Dead Letter Drop, saying it was "Very well written and I loved how it wasn’t what you were expecting in the end". Hurrah! The full review is here - watch out for them thar spoilers.

But the biggest warm-glow moment came today, when I found out that respected Australian scribe Shane Jiraiya Cummings has named me as one of his recommendations for Best New Talent at this year's Ditmar Awards. That was out of nowhere. No idea how the nominations for the awards are actually made, or whether anything will come of Shane's generous inclusion, but it's great to be on the list all the same. If I hear anything else I'll let you know.

Quick Check-in

2010-05-30T12:01:00.001+08:00

This is turning into less of a blog and more of a monthly report, isn't it? Hmmm.

Since I was last here, things have moved on considerably, work-wise. I've been offered a full-time contract with the magazine company at which I've been freelancing. Obviously this is a good thing (or will be, once the papers are all signed) but the long hours have meant a slowing down in my other writing activities. Grand total for this month, in fact, is a 900 word flash piece for the Australian Horror Writers' Association, written in less than an hour. Going to have to get more disciplined about writing at night, instead of, well, vegging over the finale of Lost ...

There has been other news, in the meantime, but I can't name names until official Tables of Contents have been announced. The flash piece I wrote for The Campaign For Real Fear has indeed been accepted for publication elsewhere, while the short story I was working on in March and April has also been commissioned. I'm quite pleased about that one - it's not my usual style of story at all, and it'll take some careful work when the edits come back to make sure I get the tone exactly right.

Other than that, it's as you were. I'll obviously try to pop back soon, but you know by now how it goes ...

April's Full Days

2010-05-01T13:58:00.000+08:00

Day off today. I vaguely remember those ...

Since last I was here, it's been nose to the grindstone, almost without pause. As I mentioned last time, I had that yarn to finish for Apex, and made the deadline with a couple of days to spare. Editor Jennifer Brozek is, I understand, wading through all the submissions right now, and I should hear one way or another in a couple of weeks. While I'm waiting, I'll be reading my contributor copy of Close Encounters of the Urban Kind, which arrived a couple of days ago. So far I've only read the one story, but it's a goodie - Martin Livings' tale of a suspicious-looking clown doll, Lollo. Remember those creepy '80s video-nasties with homicidal living toys? Yeah, you got it ...

No sooner was the Apex submission sent, it was on to the next thing ... my first ever attempt at Flash Fiction. Now, my average short story length runs to about 5000 words - Flash puts an upper limit on it of around 1000. Except for my first go that wasn't enough of a challenge, so I got it in under 500.

All right, the truth is that the story was for Christopher Fowler and Maura McHugh's Campaign for Real Fear, an initiative to wrest horror writing away from sparkly vampires and Bronte pastiches. Their idea was that people could submit genuinely scary stories and show publishers how it should be done - best ten get published. It was they who set the 500 word cap, and boy, was it tight.

The mind-set was completely alien to me: I'm used to spending a long time plotting, gradually introducing characters and set-ups to pay off later. It normally takes me 500 words just to hit my stride! Eventually the correct switch was thrown in my head and I realised what needed to be done, but crafting something along those lines, where every single word had to count for ten, was an education, and no mistake.

Unfortunately I didn't make the final cut (upped to 20 entries in the face of such a massive response), but I'm very pleased to say that Kaaron Warren (with whom I worked on the upcoming Scenes From the Second Storey) did. Huge congrats to her - you can see the full list of winners on Christopher Fowler's blog.

(Incidentally, taking part wasn't a wasted effort ... I think I've already found a buyer for my rejected piece).

April's also seen some more movement with Twelfth Planet's anthology Sprawl. The rewrite of my story Signature Walk has met with approval from editor Alisa Krasnostein, and has now been fired back to me for a few more little tweaks. Should get on to that this weekend, if all stays quiet. In the meantime, a first look at the cover has been posted elsewhere on the Net - I'm a bit behind posting it here, but the book (front and back cover) is going to look like this:

So that's the writing news. The other pressing thing is work. Proper work. Towards the start of the month I spent a few days on a course re-learning software used in magazine editing (it's been a little while!). No sooner had I finished the course, I was asked to help out at a local publishers who needed an experienced sub-editor at no notice.

And I've been there ever since. It's strange, working in an office again. I'm used to sitting at a computer with no one around, but now there's a constant bustle ... It's not unpleasant, actually, and the job has already given me some ideas for more stories (one line in particular, from a story about architecture that I was editing, has spawned three-quarters of a horror piece. More about that when I've let it gestate ...).

So that's why I've been quiet, and why I'll likely be so for a while longer. I'll try to pop in a bit more often though - promise. Meantime, behave yourselves while I'm out, kay?

Grants for the Win

2010-04-06T14:51:00.000+08:00

Got back from spending the Easter weekend down south (my son caught an octopus. We had to eat it ...) to learn that Grants Pass had won Best Edited Publication in this year's Australian Shadows Awards. That's a reasonably deal in Australian horror circles, so huge congrats to Amanda and Jennifer who obviously did a sterling job putting the book together. You can, of course, snag a copy for yourself either from Amazon* or from Drive Thru Horror if you prefer ebooks to paper.

(Incidentally, one of my older stories, Just Us, is also available now in e-format. You can pick up a copy of the Voices anthology in which it first appeared here.)

Meanwhile I've almost finished a submission for another Apex books project ... I'm just waiting on someone to authenticate my Sarf Lahndahn hoody-speak. It's been a while since I've lived in the UK, and there's a very real danger of my dialogue sounding woefully dated. Can't have that.

And lastly, big thumbs up for the new Doctor Who. Spent a good couple of hours after watching it grinning like a complete idiot. Hurrah!

*I've just spotted that someone on Amazon is selling a used copy of Grants Pass for nearly 30 quid! Plus postage!

Used!

Cheap Encounters

2010-03-31T10:54:00.000+08:00

Just a quick reminder that Close Encounters of the Urban Kind is officially released on April 4 (I know - Easter Sunday. Strange) and that if you're planning to grab a copy there's a discount on pre-orders available now. Get in early, fork over less cash!

No Work and All Play Makes Pete a Dull Boy ...

2010-03-26T14:21:00.000+08:00

... which largely explains why I've not posted on here for a while.

A couple of days after my last blogging appearance I got a short email informing me that I was no longer required to do the job I've held down for around 13 years. Of course, I've been freelance for a while, but this was something I had carried over from my staff position before going out on my own, something that had been a constant on which I had come to rely. Freelancers tend to be the first against the wall when things go wrong, never more so than in the Global Financial Crisis. But while each and every other freelance gig I had secured over the last few years got cancelled in the wake of that disaster, this one had clung on.

And now, for the first time ever, I'm completely, properly unemployed.

Perth being the farthest point possible from the beating heart of the publishing world, it didn't take long to decide that I'll have to move back to Sydney. That's the city where I've been applying for work, that's where I'll go ahead of the rest of the family when I land something. And when I've earned enough money to pay for them, I'll bring everyone else with me.

That sounds more dire than it is. I'll actually be quite pleased to get back out east where I know I'll be able to earn a living. What's been strange, though, is what's happened to my other writing.

You'd think that with a day job out of the way I'd be getting more of that other writing done - short stories, editing, blogs, all the things I'd normally prioritise a little lower than the "proper" work.

Nope.

For around three weeks I've done sod all but drink tea and play computer games. My desire and drive to write was completely and utterly gone. Maybe I just needed some time to veg.

At the end of last week, however, the dam burst. Suddenly I was off and running again, turning out a short story in a couple of days and mentally plotting two more. I've done critiques for three fellow scribblers, and got back into an overview of a friend's novel. I'm interested again.

So that's where I've been - doing precisely nothing worth writing about on here. But now I'm back in the saddle. With a bit of luck I'll be doing something new and exciting soon and telling you all about it on here.

Fingers crossed.

E News

2010-02-19T14:43:00.000+08:00

Hot on the heels of the book finally being available to buy from Amazon, you can now grab a copy of Grants Pass in e-book form as a Kindle edition. Me, I prefer good old-fashioned paper, but if you've been having trouble laying hands on a copy, or if you just want it right now, you know what to do.

Meanwhile, Amanda Pillar has been interviewed as part of the 2010 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction. Amongst other things she talks about Grants Pass and Scenes From the Second Storey, and you can read the whole interview here.

Scenes From The Second Storey: Contributors and Cover Revealed

2010-02-16T20:45:00.000+08:00

The book I've been working on with Amanda Pillar since last August has just been properly announced by Morrigan Books. Here's the cover and the official blurb that goes with it:

Inspired Stories by Aussie Authors

Each story in the Scenes from the Second Storey anthology was inspired by a track from The God Machine’s album. Quirky, dark, insightful and sometimes downright disturbing, these tales reflect the emotions and images our authors experienced when they heard ‘their’ song from Scenes from the Second Storey.

In Scenes, you will meet a girl struggling to find cleanliness in a world full of corruption with Kaaron Warren; follow the twisted mental pathways of the egocentric with Robert Hood; watch two men search for enlightenment down a dark path with Paul Haines; and dance with a girl struggling to find her role within society with Cat Sparks.

These snippets are a mere taste of what you will discover between the covers of this anthology. If you love The God Machine or are looking for a collection that boasts a stable of talented Australian writers, you must grab a copy of Scenes.

PUBLICATION DATE: September 2010

Scenes from the Second Storey

Stories:

Dream Machine - David Conyers

She Said - Kirstyn McDermott

The Blind Man - Felicity Dowker

I’ve Seen The Man - Paul Haines

The Desert Song - Andrew McKiernan

Home - Martin Livings

It’s All Over - L.J. Hayward

Temptation - Trent Jamieson

Out - Stephen Dedman

Ego - Robert Hood

Seven - Stephanie Campisi

Purity - Kaaron Warren

The Piano Song - Cat Sparks

After so many months of working with such a great group of writers, it's good to be able to credit them at last. They all worked their socks off to contribute to what I believe is a very fine book indeed. As you can find out for yourself in September ...

Grants on Amazon

2010-02-09T11:36:00.001+08:00

If you're based outside the US and you've been having trouble getting hold of Grants Pass in all its Stoker nominated goodness, help is at hand. The book's now available to buy on Amazon, which should put paid to some of those distribution issues. Hurrah!

(Forgot to add that Amazon UK has it here.)

Brief Encounters News

2010-02-06T08:33:00.000+08:00

Just a quick heads-up - Close Encounters of the Urban Kind is now available for pre-order, at a get-in-early discount price of US$15.95.

The book's out on April 4.

Stoked

2010-02-03T21:57:00.000+08:00

Just a quickie, because this has already been posted all over Facebook and suchlike ...

For thems that don't know, the Bram Stoker Awards (Stokers) are presented annually by the Horror Writers Association in the US for "superior achievement" in horror writing. They're a reasonably big deal in horror circles, which makes it pretty bloody impressive that Grants Pass has been shortlisted in the Preliminary Ballot for Superior Achievement in an Anthology.

Big congrats to Amanda and Jennifer (our editors), publisher Mark and everyone who contributed - it's certainly something to be proud of. Kudos too to Kaaron Warren and Shane Jiraiya Cummings (and by extension Andrew McKiernan!) for their individual nominations. Talented bunch!

I'm not sure when the final votes are cast, but in the meantime you can check out the full list of candidates right here.

Coming Soon ...

2010-01-27T15:13:00.000+08:00

I don't know what I was thinking, believing that I could get anything done this month. Between the heat and the distractions inherent in the school holidays it's been impossible to concentrate - I've pecked at a short story or two, but my mind's not been in it.

People who are better organised and more motivated than me have been moving other things along, however, so here's some news of forthcoming attractions.

As you can see, Close Encounters of the Urban Kind from Apex Publications now has a cover. The book itself is out in a few months, and pre-order information will be available soon.

Meanwhile Alisa at Twelfth Planet Press has just released a table of contents for her upcoming anthology Sprawl (the commission I landed earlier this month). It's not a final list, apparently, but so far the details are:

Liz Argall - Seed Dreams (comic)
Peter Ball - One Saturday Night, With Angel
Deborah Biancotti - Never Going Home
Simon Brown - Sweep
Stephanie Campisi - How to Select a Durian at Footscray Market
Thoraiya Dyer - Yowie
Dirk Flinthart - Walker
Lisa Hannett - Weightless
Pete Kempshall - Signature Walk
Ben Peek - White Crocodile Jazz
Tansy Rayner Roberts - Relentless Adaptations
Barbara Robson - Neighbourhood Watch
Angela Slatter - Brisneyland by Night
Cat Sparks - All For Love
Anna Tambour - Gnawer of the Moon Seeks Summit of Paradise
Kaaron Warren - Loss
Sean Williams - Parched (poem)

Looks like it'll be a good one ...

Closing Scenes

2010-01-12T17:56:00.000+08:00

So today saw the final sign-off on the final tale in Scenes From The Second Storey. Amanda Pillar and I have been working on the edits since August, on and off, and it feels great to get the last story in the bag.

Now that all thirteen tales have been edited it's time to farm the complete manuscript out to the proof readers, in case we've missed anything. Of course, I think it's a very strong collection now, as it stands ... but then I would say that, wouldn't I?

While we're waiting for the fresh eyes to do their work, it's on to the next job. For me, that's a couple of stories I've had on a low simmer since just before New Year. Think one of them's about ready to go ...

January 2 Commissions 1

2010-01-02T17:25:00.000+08:00

It's fast out of the traps for 2010, with my first acceptance for the year landing in my inbox this afternoon. As usual no details until there's an official announcement, but it's nice to get off to a flyer.

Not Another Noughties Review Post

2009-12-31T15:38:00.002+08:00

No really, it isn't. The past decade has been - on balance - a bit of a shit, so I'm not going to dissect the whole thing year by year. Undeniable highlights of 2000-2008 include getting married, having not one but two great kids and getting my stories published for the first time. Aside from that ... well, let's move on, shall we?

While I'm not going to inflict ten years of analysis on you, however, I'm happy to examine 2009 in isolation. I took a big kicking from the global financial crisis, what with freelancers being the first against the wall when the money runs out, but if I ignore the money side of things I've actually achieved a reasonable amount in terms of my writing this year. Maybe that's because of the proper paying work drying up ... hmmm.

Anyway as 2009 wraps I've had just the one story published (Rights of Passage in the Grants Pass anthology), but have nailed four more stories for release in the next twelve months, with one more still waiting for a yay or nay and another on the boil for a project that should be given the go-ahead in early January. Meanwhile my story Just Us made the cut for next year's Best-Of anthology Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume 4, and let's not forget I finished the first draft of my NaNoWriMo novel. It's rough as guts, but with rewrites, who knows ...

That doesn't sound like a whole hell of a lot, but there's been another side to the work that's crept in this year: editing. One or two proof-reading favours for the bods at Morrigan Books grew into my being asked to co-edit next year's Scenes From The Second Storey with Amanda Pillar. We've been on the case since August, coralling stories and working closely with the writers to get them ready for publication, and we're now within a whisker of a complete manuscript to farm out to readers. Add to that my decision to join the Australian Horror Writers Association critique group and I've spent a lot of time in the last twelve months pulling stories apart, seeing how they work and putting them back together again. Not only good fun (and hugely satisfying if it leads to better stories), but also very instructive when it comes to my own writing ... (Must. Avoid. Adverbs.)

Unfortunately I've not a great deal to report from the last couple of weeks. Like a car, I stop working if I overheat and that inevitably means sporadic writing at best during December and January. Instead I've caught up on my reading (six months' backlog of 2000AD, The Amazing Spider-man and the Fables comics, along with a decent-sized pile of books) and reacquainted myself with the concept of the siesta.

I've been idly tinkering with the idea of resolutions ... last year's (get fit, blog more often) were partial successes. I got fit in the summer, piled it on in the winter, and as for posting on here ... well it's been sporadic, hasn't it?

So for 2010, something achievable, perhaps ... how about 12 short stories or equivalent by the end of the year? Sound do-able?

Just have to wait and see ...

Little Black Book

2009-12-09T16:29:00.000+08:00

Took a couple of days off after NaNoWriMo, at which point my back seized up - unused to not sitting at a keyboard, see? But it wasn't long before I was back into it, and over the last week I've been ripping through projects like a good 'un.

With the kids chucking out of school in about a week, it's been all about shoring up for the month and a half where my work rate will slow to almost nothing. I've binge-viewed movies, finishing all but one of the films I have to review between now and the second week of January. I've rewritten and submitted a short story for an anthology with an imminent deadline. I've proofed a book of short stories and critiqued a number of tales for friends and colleagues. And I've edited a sizeable wodge of the outstanding pieces for Scenes From the Second Storey. But the best thing to happen in the last week has been for my Little Black Book to prove itself.

Like a lot of writers I have a notebook, in which I scribble random ideas, details of interesting things I've read or seen in the news. You know ... raw material. And last week the book finally came good. Asked by a publisher to pitch a short story in double-quick time, and with not a single idea to work with, I dusted off the notes and started reading.

Straight away, there they were - two words I'd written down well over eighteen months ago that fit the brief perfectly. Within 12 hours I'd researched and written a loose synopsis that was tentatively accepted 12 hours after that. Fastest story I've ever plotted. And reason enough to keep scribbling in that notebook ...

Crossing the Line

2009-11-27T18:04:00.000+08:00

So there you have it. Three days to go and I have passed the 50,000 word mark, officially completing NaNoWriMo 2009. I even managed to squeeze an extra 600 words out before the plot collapsed, gasping, under the strain.

As far as the story itself goes ... well, it's workable. Yes, there are dodgy bits (like the character who fulfils a function for the first half of the book, then mysteriously disappears ...) and there'll be a fair old rewrite required, but you never know. At least it's proven the story has the legs to sustain a longer-than-usual length. By the time it's tidied up, I can even see it cracking 70,000 words.

The big thing I've picked up is that my writing speed is now far faster than before, and ultimately that should make me more productive. But whether I can make the jump from microscopically fiddling with plots before writing anything to just plunging in without a safety net ... the jury's out on that one.

Wordhammer: 40K

2009-11-22T14:22:00.000+08:00

I've got a job on next week that will essentially pay for everyone's Christmas presents, so wanting a clear run at that I've been beating away at the NaNo word count over the weekend. And today, with much celebration (well, I stopped for a coffee) I cracked the 40,000 mark:

That puts me two and a half days in front, with a shade under 10,000 words to go. Doesn't sound like a lot, but I'm starting to wonder if the story still has enough plot left to get it over the line. Quite apart from anything else, having a couple of days off to do proper, paying work will give me a chance to nail down the ending in my head ...

31,999

2009-11-19T17:00:00.000+08:00

Hit a personal milestone today as my NaNo novel overtook the word count for my novella in the Bernice Summerfield book Old Friends. When it reached one word shy of 32,000 it officially became the longest single story I've ever written.

Now, if I can get it published one day ...

Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror: Volume Four

2009-11-18T19:43:00.001+08:00

The good people at Brimstone Press have just announced the line-up for their forthcoming best-of-the-year anthology Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume Four ... which just happens to include a story by yours truly. The full roster of stories is:

The Last Great House of Isla Tortuga by Peter M. Ball
The Claws of Native Ghosts by Lee Battersby
Pale Dark Soldier by Deborah Biancotti
Heere Be Monsters by John Birmingham
Teeth by Stephen Dedman
Her Collection of Intimacy by Paul Haines
A Guided Tour in the Kingdom of the Dead by Richard Harland
Moments of Dying by Robert Hood
Just Us by Pete Kempshall
Painlessness by Kirstyn McDermott
Smoking, Waiting For the Dawn by Jason Nahrung
The Casting Out by Miranda Siemienowicz

Obviously that's a pretty impressive list of names from the Australian spec fic scene, so I'm pretty excited and flattered to be included. (And on a side note, I'm also pleased to say that four of the eleven other writers on the list - Stephen Dedman, Paul Haines, Robert Hood and Kirstyn McDermott - will be featuring in Scenes From the Second Storey next year. Hurrah!)

ADFH Volume Four book will also include a comprehensive summary of the dark fiction scene Down Under over the past year. It's not out for a couple of months yet, but you can get along to the Brimstone website right now and order a copy ahead of time.

Great Minds ...?

2009-11-14T16:27:00.000+08:00

I imagine everyone who's done any writing for any length of time will have experienced this ...

I've had a short story on my mind for well over a year - I had intended to pitch it for Voices, but it fell foul of the fact that all stories for that particular book had to be confined to a single hotel room. This idea needed the characters to spend some time outside of it, so the story was shelved and forgotten.

A couple of months ago I find it again, dust it off and decide to write the thing. It's a bit limp in places, but generally holds together reasonably well, so I shoot it off to my trusty beta-readers. It divides opinion. Some think it's in need of major surgery, others that a minor tweak will do it. And with the readers' votes exactly even, I decided to set it aside again, come at it with a fresh outlook and see what happens.

Fast forward to a conversation with a friend last week. He's talking about a Famous Writer he likes, one I myself am not that keen on, regardless of his stature in the industry. Suddenly my friend is telling me all about this story Famous Writer wrote ... and I sit there, slack-jawed, as I listen to him recount what could, but for some minor changes, be the very story I wrote some weeks earlier. Had I pressed on with my tale and submitted it to anyone ... well the word 'plagiarism' springs to mind.

Of course, this kind of thing does happen - as someone once said, there are no original stories. But to find that mine bore such close resemblance to something written many moons ago by Famous Writer ... I don't know whether to be irritated at the wasted effort or pleased that I'm obviously thinking along the same lines as a successful scribe.

Actually, the fact that I don't much like Famous Writer swings it for me ...

Anyway, NaNoWriMo continues apace.

Fourteen days into the 30 and I'm a shade over the minimum word count. The plot's creaky and the characterisation's wobbling like a trampolining jellyfish but that's rather the point, isn't it - to weed out these problems along the way?

Tomorrow then it's foot to the floor for 25,000 words.

The halfway mark ...

One Step Ahead

2009-11-07T13:23:00.000+08:00

So I eventually decided that I'd give that big project a go. Yes, I've got plenty of other claims on my attention at the moment, but for various reasons this is something I thought I'd take a shot at.

Over the last week I've been stealthily working at a story for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo for short). For those unfamiliar with the scheme, the rules are that you start writing any time after midnight on November 1 and you finish before the stroke of midnight on November 30/December 1. In that 30-day period, you write a book of no fewer than 50,000 words.

And that's it.

There are no prizes for this. The point of the exercise is to put a rocket up the bum of people who sit around wanting to write a book but never quite finding the time. By the end of the month, the ideal situation is that you've broken the back of your chosen project, that you have a sizeable manuscript that may not be JK Rowling but that gives you the raw material you need to turn into (hopefully) a viable novel.

My big concern with this - beyond "Do I have the time?" - was the way I write stories in general. I plan. I plot and I fiddle with a tale until I know exactly where it's going and how it's going to get there. Then I start to write. That's not to say I don't deviate from my route map as I go, but I have to have the route map to begin with.

For this project, however, I started with a vague idea for a villain and a single idea for a scene: just enough to get me going. At the end of each day, when I've made my word count, I've been thinking up enough plot to fill the next day's writing. And, somewhat surprisingly, I'm rather enjoying it. Of course, there's the very real possibility I'll get to the middle of the month (or earlier) and find the whole thing is absolute pants, an irredeemable mess that's wasted countless hours of my time. But so far being just one day ahead of the story is working for me.

(I have to admit that I thought of an ending the other night. I'm keeping it tucked away somewhere safe ...)

So here's a little widgety thing that the project organisers provide for procrastinating bloggers like myself.

I'll pop in and update it every couple of days, so you can see how I'm travelling and if I'm falling behind at all. Feel free to drop me a line and have a go if it looks like I'm slacking off.

Apart from that, let's see how it goes ...

More Grants Goodness

2009-10-26T16:29:00.000+08:00

Yes, I'm quiet again. I'm struggling to decide whether or not to attempt a reasonably large project ... I think I've already decided that I will, but I've got to clear the decks for it first and my decks, they are cluttered.

Meantime, here's another review of Grants Pass, courtesy of Ann Wilkes at sfreader.com. It's another good one, too. Yay!

Encounter Group

2009-10-16T21:56:00.000+08:00

School holidays are over, which means I'm back to busy, editing for the Second Storey collection and proofing for another upcoming anthology (not my project, just helping out ...).

Toughest gig of the week, however, was coming up with an Afterword and Biography for my story in Close Encounters of the Urban Kind. I've mentioned before my tendency to get horribly blocked with this kind of thing. I can understand why people like the Afterwords - they're like mini director's commentaries for each story - but I do struggle to find something interesting to say ... If I 'um' and 'ah' over the Biography, however, I could simply recycle it from an old book, so I've only myself to blame, right?

Meanwhile the full table of contents for the anthology is now up at Apex Books' website. I say "full", but there are still two winners to be selected for the book from the writers competition. I know someone who's entered, so fingers crossed for him ...

As it stands, the line-up is:

Alma Alexander - I Am Sorry for Talking So Rarely to Strangers
Erik Scott de Bie - Racing Lights
Richard Lee Byers - End of Life
Nate Crowder - Frames of Reference
Ivan Ewert - Waterheads
Robert Farnsworth - A Late Night Snack
Pete Kempshall - Dead Letter Drop
Carole Johnstone - The Invitation
Rosemary Jones - Two Out, Wendigo
Martin Livings - Lollo
Eric Lowther - It Came from the Backseat
Ramsey Lundock - Tea Cups & Saucers
Shannon Page - The Hippie Monster of Eel River
Joshua Palmatier - Mastihooba
Jennifer Pelland - Headlights
Rick Silva - Roadkill
Jeff Soesbe - Green Tears on Black Velvet
Eddy Webb - Gloomy Sunday

A few Grants Pass alumni on there you'll notice ... but judging solely from the information here, I really want to read Two Out, Wendigo. With a title like that, it's got to be worth a look.

The Secret's Out

2009-10-05T10:40:00.000+08:00

All right, so I alluded to a nice piece of news in my last post, and I've now been given the all-clear to talk about it ... My short story Just Us (from the Morrigan Books collection Voices) has been selected for inclusion in Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume Four! Hurrah!

ADFH is an annual compilation of the year's best creepy writing from Down Under, so it's obviously very flattering to be included amongst the authors. You can take a gander at some of the writers who made it into previous volumes at the Brimstone Press website.

My thanks then to Angela Challis for choosing the story - as soon as I hear about the full line-up and ordering details I'll post them here.

"A Gorgeous Collection"

2009-10-02T22:39:00.000+08:00

Got a surprising but altogether tingly piece of news about something I've written today ... but since I don't think I'm allowed to actually say what it is yet, I'll distract you with something else.

Copies of Grants Pass should be available in the UK and Australia soon (I think - but don't forget you can always order one directly from here). The book's already freely available Stateside, however, so I assume the US is where this latest review of the book comes from.

It's a long and reasonably detailed analysis (although not so much as to be loaded with spoilers), the bottom line being that it gives the book a lovely big thumbs up. Better yet, it names my story as one of several stand-outs in a book that by all accounts appears to be packed with them.

Go see what the reviewer has to say, and then make the only sane decision you can ... buy a copy.

Here endeth the pimpage.

Drop's In

2009-10-01T13:23:00.000+08:00

I've just had word back that Dead Letter Drop - one of the stories I was racing to finish a couple of months ago - has been accepted into Apex Publishing's upcoming anthology Close Encounters of the Urban Kind.

The book's due out in the first quarter of 2010, and features stories that fuse classic urban legends with tales of alien encouters. A full table of contents is still to come, but I'll be posting it and order details as soon as they're released.

Elf Visitors

2009-09-28T10:59:00.000+08:00

The emails have been zipping back and forth over the last week, resulting in some pleasing progress with All-Australian Scenes From The Second Storey. Amanda and I have been editing our respective socks off and we now have six of the thirteen stories wrapped up, with a couple more teetering on the brink of completion. Hurrah!

One of the things we've been asking our writers to do (on top of the usual author's biography) is to pen a short paragraph about how their stories took shape. What inspired them in the particular songs they were given? Did their ideas leap fully formed into their heads after a single listen, or did they have to percolate over several weeks? And while I was reading through a couple of these afterwords, the penny suddenly dropped: I'll have to write one of my own for the story I have in the Scenes International Edition.

Now I'm not very good at things like remembering where I get my ideas from. One thing I'm certain of, it wasn't from the song lyrics (the tune I was allocated, as you may recall, was an instrumental). So I've sat and I've thought about it, and so far I've come up entirely blank. If I could find the notebook I was using at the time, that might help, but I really can't recall very much about writing the story itself ...

So I've decided I'm going for "I left an iPod, a pen and some pieces of paper on the desk when I went to bed, and when I woke up some elves had done it all for me". It's worked for other people.

Meanwhile, the Australian Horror Writers' Association Critique Group (of which I am a member) is fast approaching its first birthday and Horrorscope has reported briefly on its successes so far. As an experiment, the group appears to have worked very well indeed, so much so that plans are afoot to form a second writers' cabal to run alongside this one. Check out the article for details on how to apply if you're a member of the AHWA and you want like-minded people to pull your stories to pieces (and then put them back together better than they were to begin with). Because we don't all have elves to do our heavy lifting ...

'The Famous Man Looked at the Red Cup'

2009-09-16T14:56:00.000+08:00

I was fortunate enough to see an interview with writer Dan Brown on TV this morning and as a result any tiny flame of desire I had to read his new book has now been utterly extinguished.

Phew.

Coincidentally, the UK's Telegraph newspaper has gone so far as to publish a Top 20 list of excruciating sentences from Brown's works. You'll be crying with laughter by the end of the countdown. That or it's your eyes bleeding.

It's nice to know that I and dozens of my friends are better writers than Dan Brown. If only we had his profile and his sales ...

(Thanks to the fabulous Martin Livings for flagging the article - love your work!)

Making Changes

2009-09-10T12:44:00.000+08:00

Morrigan Books has now officially announced the thing that's been chewing up my time recently: I'm co-editing the anthology Scenes From the Second Storey with the company's in-house editor Amanda Pillar.

(Got to say the use of the word "countless" in the announcement is rather generous. Think they're mixing me up with Ian Mond!)

Some of you may recall that I'm writing a story for a collection of the same name - fear not, I haven't been commissioning myself. There will be two versions of the book, one featuring international authors (the one I'm writing for) and one comprised entirely of Australian contributors (the one I'm editing). There'll be an offical announcement of the writers in the Australian edition in due course following some recent, unavoidable changes to the line-up, but it's safe to say there are some highly accomplished scribes involved ...

So now the job's out in the open I'd better get back to it - rewrites and corrections don't email themselves!

Green Across The Board

2009-09-05T11:31:00.000+08:00

I'm not being very good at keeping up to date with this, am I?

In my defence it's been another mad month. With my wife falling prey to pneumonia I've had my hands full keeping things together in the household, something not made any easier by both kids also falling ill and leaving me literally the last man standing.

That aside, I've somehow managed to get some writing done too. After July's abysmal fumbling of many and varied projects, I set my sights a little lower for August, aiming to finish and submit just two short stories on deadline. And I'm happy to say I managed both - they're away being pulled apart and mulled over by editors right now, and I should find out in the next couple of weeks if either, both or none of them have been commissioned.

(This is also a good time for a quick shout out to the Australian Horror Writers Association Critique Group, whose members were kind enough to act as beta readers on both stories. Indeed when I shot them across one story in particular - mildly panicked at the swiftly approaching deadline - they dropped everything to get me five pithy and detailed crits in under twelve hours, allowing me plenty of time for rewrites. Thanks, chaps!)

Things are also looking good on that other project that shall remain nameless (although not for much longer, I hope!). After some last-minute scrabbling to replace a couple of authors with scheduling difficulties, my co-editor and I are now in possession of all thirteen stories for the anthology. Of those, we've gone through around half which are now back with their writers. All being well the remainder will be cleared in a week or so. There are some great yarns in there, by some writers I'm very pleased to be able to work with ... as ever, more news when I'm allowed to reveal it!

And finally Grants Pass has now been released in the US and should be available in the UK and Australia in the next few weeks. Already the Horror Writers Association in the States have requested a copy as a possible nominee in the next Stoker Awards, and what press I've read concerning the book seems overwhelmingly positive. Hurrah!

Meanwhile editor Jennifer Brozek and a handful of the book's writers have been interviewed for Seattle Geekly - you can get the podcast here.

That's it for now then. Next project: more timely updates to this blog ...

Friday Fright Project

2009-08-07T09:54:00.000+08:00

I'm still mired in edits and first drafts, so not a lot of time for bloggery. In the meantime, here's a grotesque little story to keep you entertained.

Take away their PlayStations and they make their own entertainment ...

Putting It Out Of My Misery

2009-07-30T15:19:00.000+08:00

July 31 is deadline day for four projects I've had my eye on, and I've been scribbling away for some time now to get as many done as possible.

A couple of weeks ago it became obvious that I'd not have time to write stories for all four. Two of them had ideas ready to go, so those were the two I decided to stick with, ditching the others. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, right?

Of the two remaining, one was partially formed, the other pretty much written in my head - that's the one I started with, reasoning that I'd be done with it sooner and then able to concentrate on the other.

Except that the longer I worked on the story, the worse it got. The plot seemed to hold water, but after finishing a 7000 word first draft it was just ... wrong.

So I pulled it apart, put it back together and started writing again. And if anything it ended up even worse.

I put it aside and puttered around with the second story for a day or two, but my mind was stuck in a rut. Why didn't Story One work? Maybe if I did this to it ...

More tinkering under the hood, another draft and the story had gone from a reasonably straightforward yarn with a risque comedy bent to a deadly serious tale of infidelity, murder and vengeance, stuffed to the brim with sub-plots and reverses.

And in its own way it made sense. It's just that it wasn't the story I wanted to write, and I'm pretty damn sure it's not the story the editors are looking for either. So with one day to go and two stories to write I have 8000 unuseable words of one and 2500 incomplete words of the other.

Which is how I've come to this moment of clarity.

Maybe the story can't be fixed. Maybe the problem is so ingrained and deeply rooted that juggling characters and tweaking the plot is just polishing a turd?

So I'm taking it out behind the shed and shooting it. If I know it's dead I might be able to concentrate on Story Two, which appears to have none of the problems plus the added bonus of having a tentative approval based on the synopsis I ran past the editor.

Now all I have to do is get an extension on that deadline ...

Just the Job

2009-07-05T16:27:00.000+08:00

It's been a strange old month, both filled with work and plagued by the loss of it ...

The global financial crisis appears to have been just the excuse many companies were looking for to get rid of workers. Anyone with the word 'freelance' in their job description (ie has no contractual obligations owed to them) has been fair game. Four weeks ago, it cost me yet another long-term writing gig, meaning that in the last year I've lost about 80 per cent of my annual income. And with Perth hardly a hot bed of publishing, the chances of my clawing it back are slim. Naturally, the latest cut conicided with my wife finishing her work at university for the term - eight weeks in which she doesn't get paid either.

Needing to bridge that two month gap, we turned to the government, only to receive a letter from Centrelink (that's the Aussie DSS, for you northerners) informing us that our income is too high to qualify for any financial assistance. I'm framing the letter, which declares a family of four can survive on a total of $300 a week (about 120 quid), because I'm still upbeat enough to find it funny.

Anyway, despite all that I've still been flat out working - the problem being that the work's either low or non-paying, at least at this stage. I'm a couple of short stories to the good but because they're on spec, no income yet. Meanwhile I've also been getting stuck into a couple of as yet unannounced editorial projects ... but again it's too early in the game for them to warrant any cash, unfortunately.

The good news is that I've identified a gap in the job market - if the employment section of the paper's to be believed, there's a shortage of people in Perth who can make decent coffee. So I'll be signing up for a barista course as soon as possible.

After all, what good's a writer without caffeine?

More from Horrorscope

2009-06-03T17:07:00.000+08:00

There's another early review of Grants Pass up at Horrorscope, again very positive about the collection.

http://ozhorrorscope.blogspot.com/2009/06/another-book-review-of-grants-pass.html

Don't know about you, but with all the attention it's getting I really want a copy now.

Pointers Mean Prizes

2009-05-31T09:32:00.000+08:00

Just a quickie ... There's a competition now open to promote pre-orders for Grants Pass, and entering is simplicity itself.

All you have to do is post details of the GP pre-order link on your own blog or LJ account and link your post to the original contest entry (http://jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com/50584.html)

The magic address you'll need to big-up is http://www.morriganbooks.com/?page_id=172 and if you want to paste on the trailer or any of the early reviews (you'll find them all at the LJ address above), so much the better.

The randomly selected winner will receive a Grants Pass prize pack, including a letter from the book's catalyst, Kayley Allard, and memorabilia from the actual Grants Pass.

Can't say fairer than that!

Grants Pass Trailer Online

2009-05-29T10:42:00.000+08:00

I've been Internet-challenged for the last couple of days. With my wireless connection turning up its toes, it's been a question of hunching down in a cold corridor with a laptop plugged into the wall if I've wanted to go online ... not greatly appealing.

After 48 hours of being given the run-around by tech-support, my wife bumped into the modem while carrying a basket of washing. The aerial fell off. Turns out it was loose, which is why the wireless wasn't connecting. Tighten it up and everything's back to normal. What a colossal waste of two days.

Anyway, while I've been faffing around with that, the chaps at Morrigan have continued to busily promote Grants Pass. Here's the newly released trailer for the anthology:

If they keep this up you should be foaming at the mouth for a copy by the time August rolls around.

Initial Pass

2009-05-26T22:25:00.001+08:00

It's a couple of months until Grants Pass comes out, but already there's a review of the anthology online. Horrorscope has the distinction of being the first cab off the rank, and I'm pleased to say that the reviewer loved it. Go and have a look!

Info Dumping

2009-05-16T12:46:00.000+08:00

As you might have guessed, I've been a bit busy.

Unfortunately not all of the things that have drained away my time over the last month have been particularly exciting. Topping the "Bleeding from the Eyeballs" charts is my tax return, involving the usual agonising trawl through receipts and bills that would undoubtedly be easier if I actually organised them as I went along instead of relying on my haphazard piling system ... harumph.

But let's stick with the interesting stuff. As I might have mentioned, I'm now a member of a story critiquing consortium for the Australian Horror Writers Association, offering my (sometimes shonky) advice to fellow writers in return for their feedback on mine. It beats working in a vacuum, which is an ever-present peril for writers, and has had the additional benefit of imposing deadlines on my unsolicited work. Knowing I can only submit to the group once a fortnight has spurred me to have something ready for the start of each submission period, and that's done wonders for my productivity. Hooray!

(I say that, but of course this last fortnight has been so filled with Other Concerns I missed my own deadline ... )

A belated thanks is also due to AHWA member Amanda Spedding, who provided me with exactly the information I needed about decomposition in human corpses within moments of my mentioning it. It's a worry that she had it to hand like that, but in recognition of her help I've not alerted the authorities ...

Meanwhile I've been chipping away at a couple of pitches for publishers, one that's involved hitting the books for research and another that's involved ... well, sitting about and waiting for the right idea to bubble to the surface. Reckon I've cracked both now, so it's all about finding the time to sit down and actually write the things.

The promotional machine has now ground into action for August's release of the Grants Pass anthology. Morrigan Books' electronic arm, Three Crow Press, has released a couple of teaser tales to give you all a taste of what to expect from the post-apocalyptic anthology. Just click on the links to read Snake Oil by David Priebe and Warlord of Rhode Island by Rick Silva.

(Incidentally, Amanda Pillar has been nominated for a Ditmar Award for her work as co-editor on Grants and Voices - congrats to her, and don't forget to sling her a vote if you're one of the few people eligible to do so!)

And lastly Big Finish's Short Trips range is now on sale pending the wrapping up and deletion of the series. You can now grab my stories in The History of Christmas and Transmissions for around AU$19 - cracking value for hardback books when you consider what a paperback costs these days. Again, click on the links and then spend freely.

Trips Over

2009-04-19T13:35:00.000+08:00

The writing's been on the wall for some time, but now the official word's come down that Big Finish will no longer be publishing their Doctor Who: Short Trips range.

This is obviously a great shame, and not just because it closes off another avenue of submissions for me (although that's all the more disappointing since the company's Bernice Summerfield range has also reduced its print output. Bah). For with Short Trips gone any number of new writers will be losing a valuable opportunity to blood themselves. Recent anthologies have given a host of fresh talents their big breaks, notably How The Doctor Changed My Life, a book peopled entirely by previously unpublished writers. What's more, positive reviews for the last three or four volumes suggested that the series was undergoing something of a renaissance.

But ultimately it's out of BF's hands - their licence to publish the books is expiring, it's the end of the line. Simple as that.

If there's a bright side, it's that all the books in the range will be on sale at vastly reduced prices, starting May 1. It's a chance to pick up some great stories on the cheap and you'd be a fool to miss out. Plus, of course, it'll be your last chance to catch my tales in The History of Christmas and Transmissions, if you've not done so already. I'll certainly be grabbing another HoC after a postal stuff-up a couple of years back meant I only received one contributor copy - got to rectify that before they go out of print forever!

Itis

2009-04-17T14:08:00.000+08:00

That's what I've been suffering from for the last few days - when you get tonsilitis and you don't have any tonsils, you've got to call it something, I suppose. Anyway, it smuggled itself in under the guise of the flu, and has only just been seen off by some very strong anti-biotics. Fun times.

For all that, there've been a few things bubbling under, workwise. The unnamed project I mentioned a month or two back has moved on slightly in that I now have a co-conspirator to talk to. The job's something I've never done before, so it's nice to have someone along who knows the ropes. I imagine an announcement will be forthcoming. Soon. Maybe.

I've also been asked to work on a couple of other things, one of which is a short story for a collection with a very left-field theme. Well, I've not seen a brief like it before. Should be interesting.

And I've given a polish to an olde storie for resubmission to a well-regarded Australian publication. I've just shot it off to some wise heads for a critique, so we'll see how that goes.

Good Friday (Crap Saturday, Worse Sunday)

2009-04-13T11:27:00.000+08:00

Ah, conventions. So much fun at the time ... But like aeroplanes, where you're stuck in a confined space while everyone's breath is recycled around you, you never know what you'll come away with.

In my case, flu.

Started to spiral into illness on Saturday, and Sunday was a complete write-off. Today I'm achy but functioning - the burning throat's a bonus.

Anyway, Swancon. That was quite enjoyable actually. Turned up nice and early to watch my fellow Voices scribes Shane Jiraiya Cummings and Martin Livings taking part in a panel on horror writing, then settled down for some lunch, beers and a chat. Almost everyone there'd been at this writing lark for longer than I have, and gave me some very good advice about available markets to pitch to now that I've got a bit of time on my hands. I'll be looking into all that once I'm not-sick.

The signing itself was, at least, more of a success than Spinal Tap's ill-fated public appearance. The organisers contrived to sit the four Voices authors on different tables, and even after a reshuffle we only managed to get three of us grouped together - Martin, Sonia Marcon and myself.

But for all that we sold a couple of books, had a laugh and no one threw fruit at us. So I'd call that a win.

Next up - a rewrite and polish on a story I was talked into resubmitting for an upcoming anthology ... even though it's been knocked back twice. Third time's the charm, right?

Swancon Signing - Tomorrow!

2009-04-09T19:02:00.000+08:00

Yup, it's rolled around already. I'll be at Swancon tomorrow signing copies of Voices (and indeed any of my Big Finish books should either of my readers think to turn up with copies of those as well).

Kick off at 3pm and I'm sure we'll be doing drinking or something afterwards ... hurrah!

Signs and Co-signs

2009-03-29T17:31:00.000+08:00

It's been announced on Facebook, so it must be official ... I'll be at Swancon on Friday 10th April between 3pm and 4pm to sign copies of the horror anthology Voices.

It won't just be me manning the desk - I'll be joined by three of my co-authors, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Sonia Marcon and Martin Livings, so if you're in Perth and you fancy a natter there'll be plenty of us to talk to.

I'm sure I'll be allowed to sign other things too, so if you know someone who's got one of my Doctor Who or Bernice Summerfield stories they want scribbled on, feel free to point them in the right direction. I'll be happy, so long as things don't end up like this:

Heh.

Out for a Duck

2009-03-27T17:19:00.000+09:00

Didn't even make it onto the short list for the Tin Ducks. Ho hum.

Thanks all the same to those of you who nominated me - I appreciate the effort!

There and Back Again

2009-03-26T17:30:00.000+09:00

It's a ten-hour round trip from here to Albany on WA's south coast - hundreds of miles of road populated by maniac drivers who think the speed limit doesn't apply, spiced up by the possibility that a suicidal kangaroo could leap out in front of the car at any moment.

Not a lot of fun then.

It's less amusing still when you have to do the trip in one day, with a funeral at the other end. Yet somehow I contrived to make it even more disastrous.

08:30 - drop the kids at school, having instructed a friend to pick them up at 3pm (we'd still be hours away when school finished).

08:31 - run back to the car, causing the entire sole on one of my shoes to fall off. These are the only shoes I have suitable for a funeral.

08:36 - home. Pick up industial strength glue. Return to car and try to fix the shoe on route.

08:37 - glue so strong the lid won't come off.

08:38 - change into inappropriate boots. It's that or nothing.

09:50 - car hits a bump in the road. At the exact instant I'm drinking a cup of coffee ... Coffee decants down the front of my white shirt. White shirt no longer white. No available options regarding change of shirt.

12:15 - hit road works. Funeral starts in 45 minutes ...

13:00 - funeral starts. We're still in the car ...

13:47 - arrive at cemetery. Funeral finished 15 minutes ago.

14:00-16:00 - the wake. Somehow managed to get through that without stuffing anything up, despite looking and smelling like I'd jumped in the bins behind Starbucks.

16:00 - leave for Perth. At this time of day there are very few cars on the road. It's just a question of setting the cruise control and pointing the car in the right direction.

20:25 - arrive Perth, wondering how the return trip can be so damn fast. Collect one of my children. The other decides she's quite happy staying where she is, thanks. Somehow I can't blame her ...

21:00 - shoulders seize up from three hours behind the wheel. Ouchies.

Hardly the most fitting way to see off one of my wife's relatives, but the concensus seems to be that at least we made the effort. No matter that it was more 'UK sitcom' than 'dignified tribute' ...

Wheels Off

2009-03-22T14:42:00.000+09:00

Always the way, isn't it?

I had a grand plan, see? Spend a week clearing the decks of Paying Work so as to free up the following week completely. Then I'd be clear to dedicate a whole five working days to something unsolicited I've been aching to finish for some time now.

Naturally it all went horribly wrong. Raring to go at the start of the second week, I immediately lost three days to my daughter falling ill, then not even a day later one of my wife's relatives passed on suddenly. And that's the week gone, right there.

Nothing to be done about any of that, of course, but it means that until everything blows over there's not much to report here I'm afraid. I do have some writing news to pass on, but it's not set in stone yet so it'll have to wait. Only thing I can say is that it's scary ...

I'll just finish for now with something that had me rolling my eyes in exasperation/ despair/ amusement. I'd popped down to the doctor's to pay for my son's speech therapy (he has a bit of a lisp that we're working on) and was greeted by a smiling receptionist.

"I've come to pay a bill for the Stuttering Clinic," I said.

A look of puzzlement crosses the face of Smiling Receptionist.

"Is that part of the eye treatment centre?"

*Sigh*.

Lessons

2009-03-09T15:35:00.000+09:00

Some things I've learned in the last week:

I Really, Really Need An Overseer
... but until I get one I'm going to have to crack my own whip. Setting myself a deadline to work to made all the difference - by last Friday I had a servicable synopsis for something I've been sitting on like an old hen for almost exactly a year. There's quite a bit of work to do on it still, but I'm off the mark at least.

Nit-Picking - Once Learned, Never Forgotten
The proofs came back for my story in the upcoming Grants Pass, and after a couple of reads-through I shot them back to Amanda with my notes. A couple of days later she emailed me to let me know that the changes had all been made ... and that I managed to find more things to fiddle with than the proof-readers had. Unfortunately that says more about me than it does about them.

I Really Want To Watch This Is Spinal Tap Again
The film came up in conversation about something that might or might not happen soon, and I realised how long it's been since I saw it. Must find the time.

When I Grow Up I Want To Be An Acrobat
I got a late birthday treat in the shape of a trip to the circus - not the run-of-the-mill lion tamers and elephants variety, but the more sophisticated Cirque Du Soleil. I've got to say that it's not something I'd have chosen to go to on my own initiative, but having seen it I was impressed. The contortionists, trapeze artists and various leap-aroundy people (stop me if I'm getting too technical) all pushed the limits of what you can do with your body, but my absolute favourite was the gravity-defying trampolinists. I want that job. As it stands the act I'm probably most qualified for, like most writers, is jumping through hoops ...

Not All Editors Are As Good As Mine
A friend of mine out east interviewed me for something recently, sending a sheet of questions onto which I had to type up my responses before emailing it back. It took about an hour all up, by the time I'd thought about the questions. A couple of days later, she sent me draft of the article. My contribution had been scythed down to a single sentence ... a sentence I hadn't actually written. Seems my pal's editor wanted less interview, more facts and figures, necessitating a large amount of reworking. The time to tell your writer these things, I would think, is before actually they start work on the story ... sheesh.

Cakes, Snakes and Good Nintentions

2009-02-27T10:30:00.000+09:00

I don't know about you, but I've long since stopped being excited about birthdays. After my 21st, they soon lost their lustre - even my 30th came and went relatively unheralded. (In fairness, I was a very new parent at the time and had far more important things to worry about!)

This year's been a bit different, however, largely thanks to the uncontainable enthusiasm of my daughter.

Her Countdown to Dad's Birthday started about two weeks ago, when first the penny dropped that I'd be getting a bit older. From that point it was all about 'how many sleeps' to the big day, liberally garnished with secretive whisperings and sneakings about. Soon her little brother was in on the act and then my wife ... then a couple of days before the big day came the moment when my girl snuggled up against me and asked if I was excited about my birthday.

And I found myself saying 'Yes'.

It was impossible to stay cynical in the face of such exuberance, and come the day itself she did a great job - breakfast in bed while I tore into the presents, for example. She even made me a cake:

You can work out my age from the candle arrangement ... The jelly snakes were a 'surprise' - last week she'd told me she'd be making the cake itself, but that I'd have to have 'just icing. We don't have any lollies. No lollies at all. Sorry.' Fast forward 20 years and she'll have her own party planning company ... because she'll make a godawful secret agent.

Meanwhile work's become a casualty of the open deadline. Everything I have a time limit on has now been completed, leaving hours of free time to work on unsolicited projects I've had back-burning so long the bottom of the pan's melted. Unfortunately I've been ... well, lacking in discipline, shall we say? It's not helped that I'm getting very good at Wii Sports Golf, nor that my son's got a new Star Wars video game that he needs lots of help with. Where do the hours go?

So from next week, and in the absence of an editor to do it for me, I'm setting myself strict project deadlines. Come next Friday, I want to see results!

Right then, I'm off to build my boy a virtual lightsabre. Good Dad.

Quack Deal

2009-02-20T22:28:00.000+09:00

A couple of people have drawn my attention to the upcoming Swancon sci-fi convention here in Perth this coming April, not only as something I might like to pop along to but also for something called the Tin Ducks.

The Tin Ducks are the awards handed out each year by the West Australian Science Fiction Foundation for achivement by WA writers and artists, and it seems that I have a couple of stories that are eligible for nomination.

The obvious candidate I suppose is Link, my story in the Doctor Who collection Short Trips: Transmissions. But it's a bit of a surprise to find that Just Us, from the horror anthology Voices, is also a possibility.

Now I'd have thought that particular story wouldn't qualify (not being sci-fi and all) but WA dark fiction stalwart Shane Jiraiya Cummings would beg to differ. He has listed it as one of a handful of short stories worth a nom, and I'd be mad to argue with the vice president of the Australian Horror Writers Association, wouldn't I?

There's stiff competition for these gongs in the shape of several multiple-award-winning scribes, so my chances of getting anywhere are slim. But if you've read either or both of those stories and you liked what you read, do please pop along to the Tin Ducks nomination page and fling a vote their way.

It can't hurt, can it?

I Worry Sometimes ...

2009-02-18T19:52:00.000+09:00

My daughter's just walked up to me, all smiles, and asked, "You know how some things are so cute you just want to bite their heads off?"

Just so you know not to bring any puppies, kittens or small children round to our house.

The Nail

2009-02-17T13:55:00.000+09:00

I had a chat with editor Amanda Pillar last week, during which she asked me how closely I plot something before I write it. My one-word answer ("meticulously") came back to bite me in the arse not a day later when the story I was working on fell to bits around my ears.

There's a lot to be said for the thrill of writing something that you've taken great care in mapping out, only to find it veering off in its own new and exciting direction. I've worked on a couple of yarns in which characters and story have taken on lives of their own and the resulting draft has been very different from - and very much better than - the synopsis. I suppose it was inevitable that sooner or later that the reverse should happen.

I'd finished my first draft and was returning to polish it before sending it off, when I noticed a problem. It was a small enough job to fix it, except that in doing so I created another, larger fault. And in fixing that, the issue became bigger and nastier still. It was like one of those sit-com moments where someone attempts a simple, well-intentioned job like hanging a picture only to end up covered in plaster dust and standing in a pile of bricks.

I'm pleased to say that my initial reaction (run screaming for the hills, scattering bits of ripped manuscript in my wake) lasted only a day or so. Everything's fine now, the story's away with the readers , and I'm only a week off where I should be.

Something different next - research for a pitch I've been asked to make and also asked not to talk about.

So shhh.

Why We Have Editors

2009-02-08T16:07:00.000+09:00

(Apologies in advance for taking the long way round here - it's Sunday and I'm waffling. If you're pressed for time, skip to the end ...)

Back in the 90s, when I spent some time working in the comics industry, I met no end of people who were ... confused by what it was I actually did. It was a common enough problem that dogged not just myself but many of those who worked at the company on the editorial side. Here's a sample situation:

You'd be at a party, and in response to the 'So, what do you do?' question you'd say that you edited comics. Sometimes there'd be polite interest in this answer, sometimes you'd be able to see the attention draining away from the questioner's face right before your eyes. But altogether too many times there'd be someone who'd respond with the deathless line, 'Oh, you write the words in the little bubbles then?'

Too often people just don't get what editors do. Another misconception I see a lot is that it's all about picking up on spelling mistakes and knowing the difference between "its" and "it's". Obviously it's a plus if you can do that, but all the editors I've ever worked with have been required to do so much more.

For the purposes of this post, let's focus on names.

I was once pulled up by an editor for unwittingly giving a character almost exactly the same name as one of my co-authors. While I failed to pick up on it, his point was that the name would be jarring for the reader. They'd see it on the cover and again in my story, and it would break the spell. He was right, of course, and the name was duly altered.

In TV and film, as I understand it (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), the duty of care goes much further. A script editor is required to check all personal and corporate names in a script, to ensure that they don't exist in the real world. It's a necessary task to avoid thorny issues like the evil organisation in the next Bond film being called Woolworths, or people like I.M. Davros of Bletchley writing in to complain that your show has denigrated their character.

But a really good editor will also be on the ball enough to prevent the unintentional use of words or names that may have very different connotations in other countries. Who can forget, for example, the episode of Mork and Mindy that featured a character by the name of Arnold Wanker?

Which brings me to the thing that got me thinking about all this in the first place (stay with me).

My son's just got hold of a copy of Star Wars: The Complete Visual Dictionary. It's a cracking book, stuffed with all kinds of facts and figures to enhance his genetic predisposition towards the geeky. Every teeny tiny detail is covered, including many from beyond the six movies themselves. The section I particularly enjoyed, however, was about the Jedi High Council as seen in The Phantom Menace. Did you know that in amongst the Yodas and the Mace Windus, there was this guy, too:

So that's how I ended up struggling to explain to the lad why the page was so funny - all the time avoiding the actual word so he doesn't head to school tomorrow and and spend all day shouting it in the playground.

And that's at least part of the reason why we have editors. They don't get nearly enough recognition for the jobs they do.

Lots To Write, Not Too White

2009-02-03T15:42:00.000+09:00

Oh, I'm loving this 'all day me day' business. Tapped out 1000 words of a short story before midday, then got to grips with a synopsis after lunch for a bit of variety. In fact, I'd be genuinely happy if only I had some snow.

(You can't see, but I'm pouting like a small child. Hot. Want snow. Now).

While I'm busy pushing out my bottom lip, you can always zip across to Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews for one of the first assessments of the Voices collection. But beware, if you haven't read the book yet - the article is stuffed with all-singing, all-dancing, neon-lit spoilers.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

All Write Now

2009-02-02T14:54:00.000+09:00

Today's the day ... school's back in. And with both my kids in full-time education for the first time ever, I have six clear hours to write, each and every day, Monday to Friday.

Woo-hoo!

I've not actually written anything since the school holidays started in the last week of December (barring rewrites for an already commissioned piece that simply couldn't wait). It was a conscious decision, one that's let me rattle ideas around in my head without the pressure of having to get anything down on paper. It's a technique that's becoming known as Graham Linehan's Poo and it's worked brilliantly. Come 9am this morning I was good and ready for a story dump.

First off the blocks has been a short piece for entry into a competition. I'll spare you the details. One reason is that I've used it more as a warm-up for the rest of the week than anything else (my chances of winning are on a par with the proverbial infernal moggy). Another is that - barring vague details - I've got out of the habit of talking about what I'm writing.

Fellow writer and top mate Mondy has also picked up his writing again this week, and talks about how enthusing over his work to members of the public inevitably kills that enthusiasm - your man-in-the-street simply doesn't care. And Mondy's absolutely right. The number of glazed responses I've had over the years when I've mentioned a story, I might as well have been talking to doughnuts.

There are exceptions, of course. I rattle on here about projects simply because you choose to be here and must therefore have some interest. (Right? Right?) But even then the details tend to stay under wraps until the job's done and the publishers announce the story. I'll rarely, if ever, bang on about plot details ... because then it'd be doughnut time.

So if anything comes of the competition I'll spill the beans. If not, well it was an interesting exercise. Tomorrow, on to something that's actually been commissioned.

The Wonder Year

2009-01-28T11:18:00.000+09:00

Thanks to something I've been reading and the music I've been listening to lately, I got to thinking about a small hypothetical. If you could go back to live in any one year from your lifetime, which one would you choose?

It was an easy pick for me - 1996.

I was in London at a time when the whole 'Cool Britannia' thing was exploding. It was the place to live. Britpop was huge, the country was getting behind its football team for Euro 96 (arguably England's last decent tournament performance) and - at least from where I was standing - the city was a vibrant, optimistic place to be. On a personal level I was doing a job that I was not only pretty good at but also enjoyed immensely, I was still young enough for most of my pay to be going on entertainment rather than 'responsible' expenditure and I'd just met the woman I'd eventually marry.

Certainly time will have given it a rosier hue, but even taking that into account it takes some beating for a single 12 month period.

So yes, 1996 for me please. How about you?

Judge For Yourselves

2009-01-22T12:33:00.000+09:00

As you may have noticed, I've not got my finger on the pulse of popular culture just at the moment. So while it may be old news to most of you, I was very excited to find out yesterday that a new Judge Dredd movie is on the cards.

Considering the Batman franchise was rescuable even after Joel Schumacher turned it into a campsite, there's no reason why a second attempt at Dredd can't rectify all the mistakes made in the Stallone version from the 90s. So yes, as far as I'm concerned, bring it on. I'll certainly be buying a ticket.

New Story Comes to Pass

2009-01-21T11:02:00.000+09:00

The good folks over at Morrigan Books have just announced their latest anthology, a collection of near-future stories called Grants Pass.

"The world has ended.
It was an act of bio-terrorism gone horribly wrong. A drug resistant version of the Black Death, an airborne mutation of the Ebola virus and the 'Super Flu' were let loose on the world. Barely anyone survived.
A year before the collapse, Grants Pass, Oregon, USA, was labelled as a place of meeting and sanctuary in a whimsical online, 'what if' post. Now, it has become one of the last known refuges, and the hope of mankind.
Would you go to Grants Pass based on the words of someone you’ve never met?"

Obviously the reason I'm bringing this to your attention is that I have a story in there. It's called Rights of Passage, it's set on the south coast of England and is either a love story or a thriller, depending on which way you look at it.

The book's due for release in July and I'll post order details here as soon as they become available. In the meantime, you can always pop along to the Morrigan site to see who's involved.

Shelf-ish Opinions

2009-01-20T13:00:00.001+09:00

There are two responses I tend to get from people when they find out I write. Most of them assume that, as jobs go, it's far more glamorous and better paid than it actually is. The second response, meanwhile, is usually a double query: 'What have you written?' and 'Is it in the shops?'.

That latter question has become something of a bane to me. To date the stories I've had published are mostly for Big Finish in the UK and Morrigan Books. While BF tend to be reasonably well represented in UK bookshops, your chances of finding, say, my last Short Trips story in a bookshop over this way are slim to non-existent. And with Morrigan still a growing company (and therefore still working on their distribution) the best way to get any of the stories I've written is to order them online.

Now I like to trawl bookshops for my purchases where possible, but if online's the way to go I have no problems with that. For most people who ask me, however, this seems to be something of a problem: I can see their eyes glaze over as soon as I mention buying from websites. For them, bookshops convey legitimacy: if it's not on the shelf in a shop, it doesn't exist.

Which is why I'm dead chuffed that Morrigan have completed the next step in their distribution plans and sold Voices into Perth's Fantastic Planet bookshop. I'll be able to direct people to a real-life shop, into which they will be able to wander and physically touch the book. Yes, it's real: pick it up, read the back. Riffle the pages. Sniff it.

Then buy it. It's really rather good, you know.

42

2009-01-16T17:18:00.000+09:00

Not the answer to the ultimate question, rather today's temperature in Perth. The ground outside is hot enough to take a layer of skin of your feet, the wind scorches your eyeballs and the parkland five minutes up the road is on fire for the second time in a month.

But I got some tea, so all's well.

As to that, Addster has challenged me to find an acceptable tea-bag by the end of 2009. While the mere thought flies in the face of all I hold sacred what the hell, I'll give it a go. That's a lot of possible tea bags to get through, though, so any Strayan readers who have recommendations, drop me a line. When I have a decent-sized list I'll try some out.

Miss Da Tea

2009-01-15T17:14:00.000+09:00

(I don't expect any sympathy for this post. On the contrary, I'm braced for gales of derisive laughter and mockery ...)

I've been living in Australia for nearly 12 years now, but I still retain much of my stiff-upper-lipped Britishness. I'm incapable of throwing a cricket ball in a straight line, I won't countenance beetroot on a burger and I call creamy dairy products 'yog-hurt', not 'yo-gurt'.

Also I cannot function properly without tea. So when I ran out this afternoon, it was a complete disaster.

'Just go out and buy more!' I hear you cry. Would that it were so easy. You see, January is always the worst month of the year for me financially. The pay offices of the various magazines I work for close up completely from mid-December to mid-January, so I can't invoice for any new work for a month. Meanwhile I have to invoice in advance for all the regular contract work I'll do in that four-week period. That's fine, if you're a decent financial planner, but for anyone else ... well, you can see the problem, can't you? A sudden fattening of the bank account, just days before Christmas ...

It's been especially tough this year, with my wife's teaching work at the university summer school falling through. Today our combined financial resources clocked in at about 45 cents, so popping out for tea: not an option.

Fortunately tomorrow marks the end of the cash drought and my account will be (for a very short time) in the black. Until then, I have to cope with the box of emergency tea bags I found lurking in the back of the cupboard.

Oh, did I not mention I have tea bags? The thing is, I'm not just cash-strapped, I'm also a tea snob. Tea-bag tea does not taste the same as real tea. It just doesn't. So I won't drink it. For me it's got to be leaves brewed in a proper pot to the correct strength (mahogany-coloured ... builders' tea).

Which is how my wife came to stroll into the kitchen and find me frantically hacking the tops off the bags with a knife and tipping the contents into our tea pot.

Yes she laughed, as I'm sure you are. But do you know what? I had a cup of tea. Made with leaves. Brewed correctly. Mahogany-brown colouring.

And it tasted like shit.

I bring it on myself, don't I?

For my frozen UK readers ...

2009-01-13T21:34:00.000+09:00

Like sun? Beaches? Swimming? Write a blog? Then this could be for you.

God, ten years ago I'd have been off like a shot ...

(Thanks to girliejones for her original post - it was too good not to share!)

Resolution Road

2009-01-11T13:49:00.000+09:00

I'm not very good at keeping New Year's Resolutions, but things seem to be working out rather well at the moment. As far as getting fit goes, the arrival in the house of a Wii Fit board has had a huge impact, and I've turned into something of an exercise junkie. That is, of course, extremely out of character, but the thing's just too damn convenient. I can do 45 minutes of physical jerks every day without having to leave the house, which means I can still keep an eye on the kids while I hurt myself. I just don't have a sufficiently good excuse not to do it any more. Anyway, I've lost 1.1kg in six days so far. Which is nice.

As to my decision to take on at least one larger fiction project than usual, I wasn't expecting to make much headway with that until the kids went back to school. But a long e-chat with someone a couple of nights back included an offer of work that, while it wasn't something I've ever really considered doing before, could fit the bill. More about that when it's confirmed. In the meantime I'm still scribbling madly in notebooks, getting ideas in order for a spec piece I've been nursing for a few months. I want to be ready to start as soon as classes restart in three weeks, and it's looking promising.

A good beginning then - just got to maintain the pace.

'Who the ...?'

2009-01-04T11:35:00.000+09:00

I'm very pleased to say that wasn't my response to the announcement of Matt Smith as the eleventh Doctor Who. From what I read, the vast majority of people scratched their heads and gaped when Smith was unveiled, but thanks to a large dollop of synchronicity I'm slap in the middle of watching a review DVD of Party Animals, which features the Doctor Elect in a lead role.

Based on that and his turn alongside Billie Piper in the recent Sally Lockhart adaptations, I think he might be rather good. Ignore the fact that for the first time ever the actor cast as the Doctor is younger than me (considerably so) - that says more about how I've aged than anything else. Incoming producer Steven Moffat is patently no idiot, he must have seen something there worth signing up regardless of Smith's youth.

So yes, I'm pleased with that. Looking forward to seeing how he shapes up.

Meanwhile I'm also looking forward to a morning of dipping into the frothing, foam-flecked madness of the Doctor Who message boards. Already alongside the congratulatory posts and the more even-handed responses there are a couple of promising looking threads, like: 'Not another pretty boy!'; 'Is it time to stop watching?' and 'Has Matt Smith's casting started the Moffat backlash?'.

Fandom. Always good for a laugh.

The One With The Maggots ...

2009-01-03T15:26:00.000+09:00

It may seem churlish to keep grumbling about the heat - not to mention perpetuating the image of the 'whingeing pom' - but even with things a tad cooler today the climate's still able to throw up a lovely surprise or two.

Take this morning, as I trudged blearily into the kitchen ... and felt something squish underfoot. Looking down it became apparent that a large portion of the tiled floor was actually moving. Come on, you've read this post's title, you can guess what's coming:

They might not have been as big as the Pertwee variety, but to witness so very, very many of them migrating from the bin to the other side of the room made them just as memorable.

We can only have emptied the bin a couple of days ago, but it seems the flies that abound in this weather have been extremely busy in the interim. Maybe the heat is making their eggs hatch faster, I don't know. But even with the legion slithering across the floor, the inside of the bin itself was still teeming, alive with squirmy little buggers. I barely had time to get rid of them them all before my wife and kids appeared to see what was going on.

I'm just counting myself lucky they weren't spiders ...

Better news from the Interweb - I found out last night that Just Us, my story for last year's Voices collection, made it onto HorrorScope's recommended reading list for 2008. I'm not entirely sure who of the people mentioned on the website actually compiled the list, but it's flattering to be mentioned, so thank you, whoever you are.

Now to settle back and wait for the day's big announcement. Exciting, huh?

Hot and Can't Be Bothered

2009-01-02T13:21:00.000+09:00

Spoke to my grandmother on the phone last night and she informed me that she's now due a harsh weather payment from the government to help with the heating bills. The payment kicks in after three days of sub-zero temperatures apparently, and her part of England has just passed that mark. I've got to admit to being a bit jealous, not of the payment - although a bit of extra cash wouldn't hurt right now - but of the cold.

We're now into our third (or is it fourth?) day of high-30s heat here in Perth. Compared to previous Januaries, that's not so bad - the last couple of years the temperature's consistently topped 40 degrees. Not only that, we were living in a poorly ventilated weather-board house that effectively slapped on an extra five degrees. But despite the weather being slightly cooler and our having moved in a house with a breeze, I've still slipped into an apathetic lassitude that's thwarting any activity more taxing than laying under a fan with a book or a DVD.

Obviously that's not the most conducive state of mind for concocting New Year's Resolutions, so I'm running a bit behind all those bloggers who've already posted their promises of self-improvement. I do have a couple ... not the most original or exciting, but I'm stuck in first gear here.

1) Post here more regularly. I've been a bit slack about it recently. Must do better.

2) Exercise more. This is my wife's resolution, actually, but I inevitably get caught in her slipstream so why not? Contingent on the heat abating enough for me not to keel over from sunstroke and on my left knee not giving up on me again. That'll probably mean a trip to buy new trainers - the last time I jarred the aforementioned joint I was wearing joggers so old I might as well have been running in flip-flops.

3) Something Bigger. This year both the kids are in school full-time, which will free up a full five days of peace and quiet each and every week in which to write. At the moment I'm getting a couple of short stories done each year, which is fair enough with the time available, but from the end of this month ... well, I'd like to take on a larger project or two. I have a small idea that's growing steadily, but if any editors are looking to commission out audios, novellas, hell, novels even, I've got nothing but a keyboard and time on my hands ...

That'll do for now then. Back to the fan.

Oh, and Happy New Year. (See? Brain melt ...)

Ow-Wiis

2008-12-29T13:36:00.000+09:00

So that's Christmas done with then. For us it meant the usual consumption of food and drink, with the added bonus of aches and muscle spasms. Because this year, we got a Wii.

Don't get me wrong, it's great. We got a selection of games that everyone could play and a fun time was had by the entire crowd of family and friends with whom we spent Christmas Day. The problem is that after a few hours of boxing, bowling and lightsaber duelling, my shoulders and arms started to feel like they'd been beaten with a sockful of loose change. The damn thing really ought to come with a health warning (Do Not Operate to Excess. Do Not Operate Under the Influence of Alcohol).

Apart from that, it's been reasonably quiet and enjoyable, as Christmases go. Not everyone was so lucky, however, with a fatal shark attack just 15 minutes up the coast from where we went to the beach on Boxing Day. Puts that post I made a few days back about Australia's dangerous wildlife into perspective.

Apart from that it's back to work today - there's still a bit to do yet before New Year kicks in. More later.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T19:44:00.004+09:00

Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas - stay well and I'll be back with (I hope) more regular posts soon.

Cheers!

Ho Ho D'oh!

2008-12-19T22:00:00.000+09:00

Yesterday was the last day of the school term, and with the Christmas holiday also being the long summer holiday in this country I'm staring down the barrel of seven weeks of child wrangling. That's nearly two months of getting very little work done ... The last couple of weeks have been a rush to get everything finished before the teachers flung back my offspring and scampered into the sunset, giggling.

The mad activity has, however, been tempered by the fact that when school goes back in February both my kids will be attending full time. Yes ... I'll be getting five whole days each week to work on the projects of my choice. It'll have been a long time since I've been that productive, and I'm really looking forward to it.

Anyway, digressing ... first day of the holidays, first activity: taking the kids to see Santa down the local department store. Because I'm woefully disorganised, I would also be doing a lot of last-minute present hunting, so the plan was my wife would queue with the kids while I ran about buying surprises.

I estimated I had about half an hour, by the time they'd stood in line and done the whole sitting-on-knees part. So I charged around, fighting my way through hordes on a par with the sacking of Rome, and in 30 minutes I'd done, oh less than half of what I needed to do.

Flinging a pile of purchases through a checkout, I rushed to the department store ... where my family still hadn't even reached the front of the queue.

Part and parcel of the Santa experience in this country is getting your photo taken with the fat man himself. Unfortunately it's not a case of someone firing off a Polaroid and hustling you out the door. No, no, these shots are digital. You get a choice.

It seems one precious parent was having difficulty selecting which of the snaps her little darling looked best in ... to the tune of 20 minutes of umm-ing and ahh-ing. Meanwhile, out in the queue, where impatient children were starting to grumble, whinge or just plain scream, crowds of parents scowled darkly. We couldn't tell which picture the child should get, but the mother ... oh, we all knew exactly the kind of shot she wanted.

In the end we did get to see the Rotund One ... and were in and out in five minutes. I then had to spend a further half hour rushing around like a maniac while my wife and children grabbed lunch. Still, by the afternoon I could forget about the needlessly expended energy and the ground teeth and feel happy with a job well done.

The kids are asleep now and I've just sat down to start wrapping presents. I have several rolls of gold wrapping paper and a throbbing vein in my forehead.

Because all of the rolls of paper say 'Congratulations on your Wedding'.

National Anthem

2008-12-14T10:51:00.000+09:00

Hello!

Yes, I'm still here, just a bit under the cosh (thanks for asking!).

To tide you over, here's a contender for the new Australian National Anthem ... it gets my vote.

Hear that?

2008-11-21T21:29:00.000+09:00

No?

That's silence, that is. I'd almost forgotten what that's like these last couple of weeks - I've barely had time to blink, let alone write anything here.

So, what's been going on?

Leaving aside the various illnesses that've ravaged the household (Vomiting! Sneezing! Man-flu!) it's been all about the magazine work lately. True to my prediction that things would kick off in the run-up to Christmas, I've been busy knocking out rewrites and arranging interviews for the Sydney mags.

This week's project has seen me banished to Perth's suburbs. I was out there to conclude a story dropped in my lap by another journo who hadn't the time to tie up the loose ends herself before leaving the mag for another posting. No, not the two-headed pussy - I was talking to a family who've had a pretty rough time over the last few years, but who are finally pulling out of it. Nice lot, polite and welcoming, but I wish they didn't live so far from the city. Perth's 'burbs freak me out at the best of times, but when I'm driving somewhere I've never been before in a car that's making worrying overheating hissy noises I get even more twitchy.

Squeezed in and around this I've been doing the usual reviews (Wanted has been my recent favourite, a film that gives hope to anyone who wants to be a Hollywood screenwriter. Seems if you can hold a crayon, you got the job) and catching up on some TV I've let slide past (The Wire - hurrah! Spooks - double hurrah! Dexter - woo-hoo!).

As to other writing ... hmmm. Not a lot of physical progress there, although I have been kicking around a couple of ideas for something I'm not nearly ready to get into properly yet. The story I had picked up at the start of the month still needs rewrites, meanwhile, but is on hold while Amanda-Editor moves house. Best of luck with that, I feel your pain.

After my catch-up with Mondy earlier this month, I've also joined the Australian Horror Writers' Association. It's more in response to the whole sitting-at-a-keyboard-in-isolation element of writing than anything else, as the consensus seems to be I need to get out more. Except that now I'll be staying in more to skim the website, obviously. Still, it's a good time to join - now I've actually got a couple of horror stories in print, I don't feel like a complete charlatan signing up.

I've also just heard from Mark over at Morrigan, who's been suspiciously silent for some time now (something about a new baby, no sleep, busy. Congrats, sir!) He's just got round to telling me that Just Us, my story from the Voices anthology, was performed at a reading at FantasyCon back in September ... by none other than the good Mr Simon Guerrier. Apparently fruit-pelting was at a minimum, which probably says more for his performance than my writing.

To finish off, a couple of other quick congratulations. First to old mate David Bishop, who after years of sterling work on Big Finish's Doctor Who spin-offs has just had his first commission for their main Doctor Who range - Enemy of the Daleks is out next May.

Meanwhile Who legend and complete gent Marc Platt has landed a twelve-part (count 'em: twelve) story for the same line. The Three Companions will be serialised throughout next year as part of the Doctor Who main range and features not only classic series companion Anneke Wills but also the delightfully barmy Katy Manning. How can you resist?

And that's me. Off now for some more reviewing. Keeping Up With the Kardashians Season One, anybody?

Ah, now that's silence.

Mags, Books, Writers, Awards

2008-11-04T11:47:00.000+09:00

Christmas is coming, and with it a bit of extra work for some Sydney magazines who need the additional manpower over the festive season (to make their deadlines early and so get a little bit of time off for turkey and presents).

The extra hours mean my creative writing will obvously slow down a little, but in the meantime there's a spot of good news on that front too. I got word over the weekend from the editors of an upcoming anthology that the story I submitted at the end of last month has been accepted. Much as I'd like to rattle on about the book, I'll wait until there's been an official announcement about the contents. When that comes I can do all the exciting things like posting a list of authors and pictures of the cover. Until then, I'm just waiting on an email from the eds about tweaks, polishes and rewrites.

In other news, my writer mate Mondy has been in town for a wedding, and I popped out to meet him down the pub last night. A few familiar faces from Swancon also turned up to the catch up, and continued to initiate me into the names and antics of several players on the West Australian sci-fi writing scene. I absorbed as much as I could, but often there was just too much information - which again suggests I need to spend less time at the keyboard and more time getting out and meeting people.

Lastly huge congratulations to Rob Shearman for taking out a World Fantasy Award for his short story collection Tiny Deaths. There aren't superlatives enough to describe how good it is, so if you haven't read it yet, read it now. No excuses.

Tank's For Nothing

2008-10-20T16:13:00.000+08:00

We've had a semi-formed plan for a few weeks now to get the kids a little aquarium for Christmas. Back in Sydney they had a couple of goldfish (who had to be donated to their daycare centre when we left) and the question of replacing them has been raised again, so why not?

As with most things, timing's everything. If we hadn't been discussing it, my wife wouldn't have mentioned the plan to a couple of her friends. They, in turn, wouldn't have immediately revealed that they were moving house and no longer wanted their warm-water set-up ...

So we're now the proud owners of some very swish fish in a proper tank with sunken ships and everything. Woo-hoo! Thanks then to Jane and Andrew for being early Santas.

Meanwhile I've finished that story for the Morrigan crew and fired it off for judgment. Won't hear anything more about that until next month, but there's plenty to be getting on with in the meantime. I should probably start on that other yarn they asked me to think about some months back, shouldn't I?

And even though it's the most abject and disastrous display of football I've ever had the misfortune to witness, I'm trying to maintain a sense of humour about those lads in north London. So this one's for Steve Nash, who has so far resisted rubbing it in too hard (but give him time):

What's the difference between Spurs and a triangle?

A triangle has three points.

Here's Voices

2008-10-14T16:15:00.000+08:00

My contributor copy for Voices just arrived (hurrah!). It's on general release at the end of the month, although I understand convention-goers in the UK and those lucky enough to make it to Conflux in Canberra earlier this month have had sneaky previews. I'll be reading it as soon as I'm done with a book about Beijing.

Parallel to that, I completed the first draft of another submission for Morrigan today. It still needs a good scrub-up (the dialogue could have been written by my five-year-old son), but considering I was looking at not finishing it at all when the housing crisis was at its height I'm pretty damn pleased to have got this far.

And further to the housing issues, yesterday saw - for the second time in two houses - our sewage system backing up and volcanoing excrement all over the garden. The plumber, who proved the strength of his stomach while clearing the blockage, told me it's not an uncommon problem in houses around here.

'Really?' I responded. It didn't seem right to say 'No shit'.

Use It or Lose It

2008-10-09T16:31:00.000+08:00

Got a good solid block of writing in today, polishing off a couple of thousand words for a short story I've had on hold since before the move. It's the first time in weeks that I've been able to sit in one place and work undisturbed for a few hours.

Unfortunately it seems my body's got out of the writing habit: my back's just started to seize up from sitting and typing on the laptop. Which confirms (albeit for different reasons) that the best thing you can do if you want to be a writer is to keep on writing.

I'm off now. Going to lay flat on the floor for a bit.

Not-So-Grand Theft Auto

2008-10-05T11:39:00.000+08:00

It's nice to see that even though we've only moved a couple streets across from our old house the tone of the neighbourhood has dropped dramatically. At any rate it didn't take long for our car to get broken into.

Satisfyingly the potential thieves - who had a choice of plundering sweet wrappers, some cassettes from the 80s (Now That's What I Call Music 6 ... classy), a couple of old magazines and a half-eaten Vegemite sandwich - got away empty handed. Fuel prices being what they are, there wasn't even any petrol in the tank for them to siphon out. Obviously unimpressed they left the door open so the interior could get rained on. Ho hum.

In other crime news, our dog dug a hole in the garden next to our back porch this morning, unearthing a large pile of 'exotic' cigarette butts. Good to see that even though she quit the force seven years ago, she's still got it.

Meanwhile it's still school holidays here, and keeping the kids amused is always a problem for parents. Yes, there are all those who argue that sitting the littlies down in front of the TV for an hour or two is a Bad Thing, but then again the alternative is to let them make their own entertainment.

Bet they wish they'd let him watch Ben 10 now.