Refreshing the Wells 19

Shopping Dockets found in a Cookbook bought from the LifeLine  Bookfair.

The book is “Shoots, Leaves and Eats”, by Fran Archway. I’m assuming Fran knows the joke!

Tucked inside the pages are two shopping dockets.
Two different supermarkets.

One lists Shape Active milk, Brocolli and Sweet William Pears.

The other lists full cream milk, butternut snaps and peanuts.

One healthy, one not so healthy. I wonder; do two people do the shopping? Or does one person do the shopping, with conflicting purchases? Do they buy the healthy food where people they know can see them, and the unhealthy stuff at a place where they know nobody?

If I use it in a story, I’ll make the contrast more extreme, but I love the little contradiction these two dockets provide.

 

 

I found lots of excellent books at the bookfair. More soon.

Awards, readings, stories

I’ll be reading an excerpt from “The Glass Woman” at the Village Festival in Canberra this weekend. This is definitely an adults only reading! This story first appeared in Aurealis Magazine, and can be found also in my first short story collection, The Grinding House, soon in electronic form.

The Aurealis Award shortlist has been announced and I’m happy to see that I appear three times.

“Sky”, from Through Splintered Walls,  is shortlisted for Best Horror Story.

“The Lighthouse Keepers’ Club”, from Exotic Gothic 4, is shortlisted for Best Science Fiction Story.

Through Splintered Walls is shortlisted for Best Collection.

I’ll be in Sydney for the award ceremony in May. I was on the jury for the Illustrated Works panel. Loved sitting on this one and we’re really happy with the shortlist. I’m chairing the jury panel for the Stoker Awards Graphic Novel this year, and I’m looking to forward to lots of Australian submissions this year.

In publishing, Pandemonium press announced the Table of Contents for The Lowest Heaven, an  anthology of stories written about the planets. I scored Saturn, the planet of lead and of melancholy. I loved writing my story “Air, Water and the Grove”. The launch will be at the Royal Observatory in June. I so wish I could be there.

“Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells” was released this week. Tor Books ran a chat on Twitter, which actually out-trended the Prime Minister for a while! It was a really interesting discussion, worth catching up on.

I will be travelling to Perth in May, for the opening of the exhibition of works created during the Through Splintered Walls paper cutting workshops. Cannot wait to see these artworks! I’ll be running a writing workshop while there, and visiting the State Archives under the guidance of the talented and very amusing Lee Battersby.

Writerly Update

Lots of news to catch up on.

• Firstly, I’ll be in Melbourne this weekend for OzHorrorCon. You can find me at the AHWA table from around noon on the Saturday, and I’m on two panels on the Sunday. Lots of cool stuff happening there, and the venue looks very inspiring. I’m hoping to find a ghost or two there, as well as lots of humans.

• John Joseph Adams bought my story “All You Can Do is Breathe” for his electronic Nightmares Magazine. Very thrilled to sell a story to John, and to see this one available online.

This story recently appeard in Polish in the book Najlepsze Horrory.

• I’m interviewed by Mihai Adascalitei in the Romanian magazine Revista de Suspans

• Here’s the poster for Zombies vs Robots Women on War. I love this book! It’s so varied in its themes and directions. The signing sheets travelled the world, so grabbing a signed copy would be pretty special.

• Author Nicole Murphy embarked on a project to encourage new writers to reach publication. She did an incredible job, and has now published an anthology. I supported this by offering my very first published short story, “White Bed”, for the book. I read part of this aloud at the Harold Park Hotel, my first public reading. With my parents in the audience I had to read the opening page, which is not something I’d want my parents to hear. But what do you do? You can’t censor yourself because of your parents. In Fabula-divino looks to be an excellent book.

• My story “The Gaze Dogs of Nine Waterfall”, which first appeared in the stunning series Exotic Gothic, is appearing on Tales to Terrify, read by the very talented Kim Lakin-Smith. It’s amazing to hear your work read aloud. The pauses, the emphases, the voices used. Love it, and can’t wait to hear it! It will be up in a day or two. My last story there was “All You Can Do is Breathe.”

• Fablecroft Press have announced that they will publish the first Joanne Anderton short story collection. Joanne is an amazingly talented, original writer, and this book is a ripper. I know, because I’m writing the introduction so I’ve read it.
• The astonishing Joe Pulver has edited an anthology inspired by the writing of Thomas Ligotti. I’m thrilled to be included in this TOC, which is full of rule-breaking, genre-busting, crazy-arsed writers. My story, The Human Moth, was a joy to write. I felt a sense of freedom in writing it, knowing that it could be insane if I wanted it to be be. It starts like this:Behold the human moth. Drawn to the light, antennae out and ears alert, she can’t stay inside on a night like this.

  

• Finally, Through Splintered Walls news. The City of Rockingham has organised a series of paper-cutting workshops, using the mis-printed copies of Through Splintered Walls! The first workshop is already booked out, but there will be others. I cannot wait to see the result of these. Many thanks to Lee Battersby, author of The Corpse-Rat King, and Alisa Krasnostein, publisher, who made all this happen.

Dave Versace and Tsana Dolichva have posted excellent reviews of the book itself.

That’s all for now! Amongst all this I’m completing a number of short stories, and am working away on the next novel. And the next. So many words!

Refreshing the Wells 18

Art. One of my favourite artists, Stephen Harrison, presented his graduation work at the ANU on the weekend. He does amazing work. I have a castle built from found objects, which inspired my story The Castle. The story was published online at Shadowed Realms, but it no longer up. I’ll send the story to interested parties, if requested.

His work last year revolved around lighthouses. This year, it’s inspired by war. His work inspires many story ideas. I’m hoping to see a piece at Sculpture on the Sea this year.

You can see his work here.

Meanwhile, here’s an excellent review of Through Splintered Walls, from Mark Webb.

The Invisible Thread

Another interview, talking head this time. Actually you can see my arms too. Do they still call it a talking head if arms are on view?

Here, I’m talking about my story “The Glass Woman”, which appears excerpted in The Invisible Thread anthology of Canberran writing.

 

 

Racked

I’m on the Rack and “On Fiction Writing“, interviewed by Michael Keyton.

There are some fascinating interviews on the site, with people like Jack Ketchum, Jo Fletcher, Alan Baxter, Angela Slatter, Ellen Datlow and Lisa Tuttle.

And in other exciting news, here’s my story “Cooling the Crows“, translated and appearing in Romanian!

Refreshing the Wells 17

Watching the movie Natural Born Killers. This movie inspires me to continue to write angry fiction that doesn’t conform. I really love this movie, and the music. This is the opening scene, with the incredible “Waiting for the Miracle”, from Leonard Cohen.

Here’s Cohen singing “The Future”. Goosebumps, hand shakes, head aches. God, I love it.

And then, after writing, that, I remembered this song! There could not be a broader contrast between singers and songs! Christie Allen singing “Goosebumps“.

Yes, I did have some shiny pants like that. I had to do them up with a coathanger, they were so tight.