One of the first stories I sold was “Working for the God of the Love of Money”. It was slated to appear in “Horror”, a magazine edited by Stephen Studach. I still remember his letter to me (this was before email was boss!). He told me it was one of the best horror stories he’d read. This is the sort of thing you need to hear early in your career, and it stood me in good stead from then on. Those words helped me to believe that other people wanted to read my stories. I knew I wanted to write, and would do so regardless. But Stephen buying that story, and telling me how much he loved it, cemented for me that I wanted to write and be published.
Stephen has published a review at Chizine of “The Glass Woman”, the US edition of my first short story collection. He still thinks I can write! In fact, he calls me the Kate Bush of Australian dark fantasy!
Babushka Kate-bush-ya!