Learning what I can’t do – my latest newsletter
This just went out via Substack, but I’m also cross-posting it here.
Hello fiends
Once again, a long time between emails. Sorry about that. Things have been busy.
I mentioned last time that I was working on two big projects – a novel set in Wollongong and an exclusive Patreon serial set in Tasmania. That has turned out to be an interesting exercise in how I work. The plan was to write a chapter a week or so of that serial and just let it roll. See what happened. And all the while, to continue working on bigger projects and let the serial be a kind of “writing without a net” exercise. It turns out I can’t do that.
I found myself unable to focus on the big project as the serial had started to live in my forebrain. In the end, I accepted that reality and put aside the novel to concentrate on the serial. That became a novella of around 33k words. It’s called The Leaves Forget and I’m really happy with it. It’s a kind of mystery thriller that becomes folk horror sort of thing. I’m still serialising it on Patreon, so if you’d like to read it, head over there.
(On that front, if you can spare a few bucks to help keep me writing, the regular monthly income from Patreon makes a huge difference. Levels start at just AU$2 a month (exclusive fiction including that serial are from AU$5 a month). A few bucks each from a lot of people really helps to keep the doors open on my writing career.)
And I was given an insight into that career with this recent exercise. I’ve said before how I abhor writing rules. I hate it when the subject comes up in any context. There is one rule for writing: you must write. When, how often, how much, what for – all that is gravy. The only rule is that you must write. Everything else is advice, some of which is objectively good and some objectively terrible, but almost all of it is case-specific. If it works for you, it’s good advice. Anyone who says something like, “To be a writer you must…” and then says anything other than “write” is lying to you. You don’t have to do anything.
I don’t only write what I know – I learn about what I want to write.
I don’t write every day – I have a kung fu school to run and a family and a life.
I don’t do any number of things that people consider rules, because fuck the man, I go my own way.
And I learned, for me, working on more than one project at a time is not achievable. I think this honesty with yourself applies to all things in life. You have to actually do the thing you want to do, but how you do it is up to you. Be honest with yourself and figure out the best way that gets you the best results, and then lean hard into that.
Anyway, what else is going on?
If you like reading with your ears, there are two new additions to my Audible library. Sallow Bend is now available, read by the amazing Joe Hempel. He’s done a stellar job of it. And the third Sam Aston Investigation co-written with David Wood, Crocalypse, is also available now, equally well read by the awesome Jeffrey Kafer.
Talking of Sallow Bend, the Aurealis Award shortlists were announced recently and I was absolutely stoked to see both Sallow Bend and The Fall on there, for Best Horror Novel and Best Collection respectively. Especially as The Gulp won for Best Collection last year (my first Aurealis win after 11 nominations!), seeing The Fall as a finalist as well is a real treat. I can’t imagine lightning will strike twice there, but you never know. And to have Sallow Bend recognised in Best Horror Novel is truly amazing. The winners are announced in Canberra on June 3rd, so I’ll definitely be heading down there for that.
And talking of collaborating with Dave Wood, he and I recently ran a workshop on the subject – two one hour sessions across a couple of weeks. People who signed up got to be there live and ask questions, but the recorded sessions are available to everyone on my Patreon if you’re keen.
What I’ve Been Enjoying
I recently caught up on more Star Wars stuff and watched Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney+. That was good fun. The young Leia was great, a truly cool child actor. But for me, The Mandalorian is still the best of the new Star Wars serials. It captures both that western in space vibe that’s so much of the core of Star Wars and it’s just the right amount of cheesy to go along with it. Series 3 is being released weekly right now and it’s great fun.
In terms of reading, I recently finished Aaron Dries’s new collection, Cut To Care, and it’s superb. Definitely look out for that. Aaron also has a story in Vandal: Stories of Damage (Dark Tide Mysteries and Thrillers #6) along with Kaaron Warren and J S Breukelaar, and that’s an amazing book of three novellas. I also caught up on an old classic, Robert McCammon’s Swan Song, which is a truly epic post-apocalypse horror/fantasy kinda thing. That was awesome. And I read a bit of cyberpunk in T R Napper’s debut novel, 36 Streets. That was some great and intense cyberpunk gang warfare/crime/thriller action. I recommend all of the above.
Not much else to report at this time, my fiends. I’m back to work on the novel set in Wollongong, so I’d better get on with it. I’m loving it and truly hating the antagonist I’m writing, so that’s a great sign. This is a straight up human monsters book with no supernatural elements at all, which will be a first for me. I’ve written non-supernatural short stories before, but nothing of any length, certainly not a novel. I hope I manage to pull off the story I can see in my head. Only time will tell.
Okay, that’s all from me for now. Be well – go and splash cold water on your face, I promise it’ll make you feel better.
Big love to all.
Al
Sallow Bend and The Fall are Aurealis Awards FInalists
What an absolute blast to discover myself twice on the recently released 2022 Aurealis Awards shortlists! The Aurealis is the premier genre ficiton award in Australia and I’ve been after one my entire career. Last year, I finally won my first, for The Gulp in Best Collection. That was my 11th nomination! So imagine my joy yesterday when the 2022 shortlists were announced and I saw The Fall, the follow-up to The Gulp, listed in Best Collection and Sallow Bend listed in Best Horror Novel. Amazing! The talent on those two shortlists alone, let alone the rest of the categories, is amazing. Huge congratulations to all the nominees. I’m ecstatic! Full shortlists are here.
SALLOW BEND now in audio
It can be tough to get audiobooks of new work when you don’t have a huge marketing machine behind you, as good narration isn’t cheap and cheap narration isn’t good. So I was very happy when Crossroad Press offered to organise an audiobook of Sallow Bend. Published in print and ebook by Cemetery Dance, the book has been really well-received, so to pick up an audio deal was great news. They asked who I might like to narrate it. One of my favourite readers lately is Joe Hempel and, not expecting him to agree, I put Joe’s name forward. I was super-excited when he said yes.
I’ve just finished listening to his narration of the book and it’s so good. I couldn’t be happier with it. It’s available now via Audible if that’s your thing, and I’d love it if you gave it a listen.
An open letter to the HWA regarding Thomas F. Monteleone
To the HWA President, Vice President, Trustees, et al
As an Active Member of the HWA, I’m writing to add my voice to all the other members demanding Tom Monteleone be expelled from the organization and barred from attending future HWA events. His recent words and actions on social media, and the podcast which I won’t share as I’m sure you’re already aware of it, have revealed his true character in no uncertain terms.
It is particularly saddening to see someone who was considered a legend in the field reveal themselves to be as racist, transphobic, and bigoted as Monteleone has. But more important than lamenting the self-immolation of one person is the direct harm those comments and actions cause to so many others.
Allowing Monteleone to remain in the organisation and to attend HWA events will be putting a large number of people directly in harm’s way. It will also show the HWA is complicit rather than active in the face of hate speech.
The organisation’s by-laws allow for action to be taken, and I suggest action needs to be taken swiftly and decisively to protect the integrity of the organisation and, more importantly, the safety and well-being of its members. I know stuff like this isn’t easy, but the standard you ignore is the standard you accept and I cannot accept this. So I stand up to be counted.
Sincerely
Alan Baxter
Sallow Bend hits the Bram Stoker Awards® preliminary ballot
I was absolutely floored this morning to see my latest novel, Sallow Bend, on the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards®. This is the longlist, so it’s not a finalist yet, but it’s a huge step all the same. I’ve got all my fingers crossed that it makes it through to the next round, when it will officially become a finalist. This will be my third shot at such a prestigious achievement. Previously, Crow Shine and The Gulp both made the preliminary ballot for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection, but neither made it through to the shortlist. Third time lucky? Here’s hoping. Then again, look at the rarified company this book is currently keeping (including Stephen King, holy shit…). If any HWA voting members haven’t read Sallow Bend yet and would like a copy, please hit me up and I’ll get one to you right away. Here’s the full preliminary ballot for Novel:
The 2022 Bram Stoker Awards® Preliminary Ballot
Superior Achievement in a Novel
Baxter, Alan – Sallow Bend (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Iglesias, Gabino – The Devil Takes You Home (Mullholland Press)
Ihli, Noelle W. – Ask for Andrea (Dynamite Books)
Katsu, Alma – The Fervor (G.P. Putnam’s Sons)
King, Stephen – Fairy Tale (Scribner)
Kiste, Gwendolyn – Reluctant Immortals (Saga Press)
Kraus, Daniel – The Ghost That Ate Us: The Tragic True Story of the Burger City Poltergeist (Raw Dog Screaming Press)
Malerman, Josh – Daphne (Del Rey)
Nix, Gwendolyn – I Have Asked to Be Where No Storms Came (Crystal Lake Publishing)
Roberts, Nick – The Exorcist’s House(Crystal Lake Publishing)
Ward, Catriona – Sundial (Tor Nightfire)
And here’s the full ballot with all categories.
Huge congratulations to everyone across the board – what an amazing display of dark fiction talent. I’m honoured to be a one small part of it.
Content warnings are not weakness
I posted a version of this back in 2021, but rather than edit that I’m reposting, as the link to the previous one is in several places online. This is an updated version to address a couple of points that always come up in relation to this subject.
Secondary edit: Whenever this article gets shared around, a bunch of people always focus on the bit where I called people edgelords and fuckknuckles in the original, and they get to dismiss what I’m trying to say because of that. They suggest that if I resort to namecalling, then my argument has no legs. And you know what? Maybe that’s true. So I’ve edited this post to keep the focus on the point at hand.
There are frequently posts on social media where a certain subset of people end up ranting about including content warnings in horror books. Content warnings are sometimes called trigger warnings, but given the way the worst people all over have co-opted the term “trigger” as some kind of insult, it’s actually easier and more accurate to refer to what they actually are – warnings about the contents of any given book (or movie, etc.). From here on, I’m going to refer to them simply as CW.
There was a day when I was against the idea of CW, then I learned more. Now I’m not. Horror, or any other fiction for that matter, has no rules. Story is how we mirror and interrogate our world. Write your soul, your pain, your truth. Anyone who tries to tell you what you can write can go suck it. Equally, if you write something deeply offensive or harmful to others, be ready for consequences. Don’t be a dick is always the benchmark, for fiction of any kind or life in general. But write what you want. You should always consider whether a story is yours to tell, but we want diversity in our fiction. We want to see our world reflected. Doing that without harm is the trick.
Horror, of course, is meant to be confronting. But that doesn’t mean it should be traumatic, or that people avoiding trauma are somehow wrong, weak, or censors. If a reader asks for CW, that’s okay. People carry all kinds of trauma they don’t want reinforced. CW are not censorship. You don’t have to include them, of course, but don’t deny or complain about others discussing them. That’s a dick move. A lot of people don’t want CW, they want no spoilers. Fair enough, I’m like that too. CW should definitely be somewhere out of sight. A good idea is the back of the book maybe, where people who want them can look. Another option is to have them available via the publisher or author website. That’s an inclusive move. I’ve added a page to my site here that people can check or be directed to, then anyone who might need a warning about the content of any of my books can find what they need. It’s not exhaustive, but it’s something. I definitely deal with some seriously fucked up shit in my stories. Horror is the genre of honesty, after all, and honestly, the world can be pretty fucked up.
But the idea that people asking for CW are somehow “snowflakes” is bloody toxic. If I love cake but I’m allergic to peanuts, it’s not censorship of the cake’s integrity or commentary on the cake’s validity to include a list of ingredients. It’s not weak of someone with a peanut allergy to want to avoid a cake that can harm them. People without allergies can ignore the ingredient list. People with peanut allergies can stay safe. It’s really that simple. If you don’t include a list of ingredients and someone has a peanut allergy, they’ll avoid all your cakes entirely just in case. But if they have one allergy and your ingredients point out their problem isn’t in the cake, you might even gain a new reader. Do people read cakes? This analogy has taken me down a dark alley and mugged me. Let’s move on.
I don’t think books should have CW included. If you want to put them in the back, or somewhere people can easily ignore them or find them, that’s great. But they shouldn’t be required by any means. There are inherent issues that arise from that kind of prescriptivism. As is often the case, the best way lies somewhere along the middle path. Supplying a resource like I’ve done on my site here is easy and it’s kind. The vast majority of people don’t need CW, don’t care about them, and probably won’t ever even know about that particular page on my site. For the people who do need it though, there it is. Supplying that kind of information is such a simple kindness, and it’s a real indication of privilege and downright dickishness to say something like, “Ugh, the fact it’s horror should be trigger warning enough!” No, that’s not true. There are people out there who love horror but have PTSD from e.g. childhood abuse – they shouldn’t have that trauma reinforced while trying to enjoy books about ghosts or monsters or any other kind of horror.
And here’s where some people come along and start posting articles talking about how studies have shown that using trigger warnings in university courses, etc. can actually be counterproductive and so on. Like that’s some kind of gotcha. Guess what? We’re not talking about the real and challenging process of educating yourself at university. We’re talking about the kind of stuff that people choose to entertain themselves with. They shouldn’t be forced to confront damaging issues while they’re trying to relax and enjoy downtime.
And those same folk always come along with something like, “These snowflakes need to take responsibility for themselves and their issues!” That’s exactly what they’re doing. By asking for content warnings, they can judge for themselves and take personal responsibility for anything they consume. If it’s not something that is an issue for you, well done! You can literally just ignore it. It takes more energy for you to rant, incorrectly, about their “weakness” than it does for you to simply fuck on by. No one is changing your experience, and who the fuck are you to gatekeep a genre for others?
Just to reiterate:
Horror is meant to be confronting.
That doesn’t mean it should be traumatic, or that people avoiding trauma are somehow wrong, weak, or censors.
People with trauma can and do love horror.
If we can create whatever we want and protect people with trauma as well, why the fuck wouldn’t we?
The importance of your own place on the web
Ryan Cahill recently tweeted: “Processing some updates on my website and I stumbled across the stats differences from 2021 to 2022. 2021 had ~17k hits on my author website, ~5k visitors. 2022 the hits increased by 2.5 to ~43k, while the visitors tripled to ~15k. Websites are important.”
It is a really important point, especially with social media in the turmoil it is. Authors (or any other creative for that matter), your own central home on the internet is absolutely essential. As we’ve seen with the horrific Muskening of Twitter, it’s easy for a third party app to be absolutely fucked in pretty short order. Even if Twitter survives, engagement has dropped off a cliff and I don’t know if that will recover. I’ve talked to other authors who are worried as they’ve seen a significant drop in sales because they can’t talk directly to potential readers like they used to. There’s not a lot we can do about the loss of those promotional channels other than keep signing up for alternate social media sites and hopefully be around the next one as it grows into a main character in the social media landscape. We’re also almost certainly going to have to diversify and know that one site will no longer rule them all. But beyond all that, you need a website.
Twitter has for a long time been the main hangout for authors and readers. Being a primarily text-based interface, that makes sense. There are lots of alternatives out there, which I’ll get to later, but currently nothing compares to Twitter. And the imminent collapse of that site is what’s prompted this post. Any site can fail at any time, so if you rely only on social media for your online presence, you’re constantly playing digital Russian Roulette.
Get a website. Make it happen. Even a free one-page site with contact details is better than nothing. You can sign up today at WordPress or Wix or any of a bunch of other places and get a free site. Yes, there’s a chance that company could go under too, but those places don’t have the tenuous nature of social media and are unlikely to be bought and fucked by an alt-right manchild.
Ideally, you’ll have your own domain name (which isn’t too expensive) and paid hosting (which also doesn’t cost much for a simple few pages). It’s an important investment if you can afford it. That way you have control of your presence on the web. Whatever else happens, you always have a web address to direct people to. You always have something for people to find if they search for your name. Like this website right here. Mine is pretty big and complicated, but it’s been a work in progress for well over a decade. However, there are only two things you absolutely must have on your website:
ABOUT: This is just a longer version of any Twitter or Instagram or whatever bio. A decent chunk of information all about you and your work. You don’t need heaps of detail, but enough that anyone searching for you gets a good idea of who you are and what you do. This is my About page.
CONTACT: Here’s where you list at the very least your email address (or use a contact form widget that’s linked to your email address). People need to reach you. Sure, a lot of contact might be weirdoes or spam or whatever, but often it’ll be genuine fans, and that kind of mail is always awesome. And what if an editor wants to invite you to a project or reprint something of yours, etc. and they can’t reach you? They’ll go somewhere else. I’ve spoken to editors who have complained about exactly this – they wanted to work with someone, but had no way to get in touch. Here’s my Contact page. It lists loads of other stuff like my newsletter and Patreon and all my social media and stuff, but most importantly, right there front and centre at the top, is my email address for direct contact. (I have a separate email for “public” places like this and my more personal stuff, so that’s something to consider.)
After that, pages for your books, bibliography, etc. are all great, but About and Contact are essential. If you look around my site you’ll see there’s a page for every book, there’s a page about all my books, there’s a press kit for people to grab photos and bios, there’s free stuff, I even sell signed books directly through my site and more. Like I said before, my site has been a work in progress for years. But most importantly, if people Google me, they find my site. If they find that, they can learn about me and contact me if necessary.
And while you’re working on getting that site up, start an email newsletter to develop a mailing list. That’s a whole other effort, of course, but it’s something that’s proving invaluable as social media becomes more nebulous. I used to use MailChimp but I couldn’t get on with their interface and I use Substack now, which is great. It’s also a blogging platform, which I will use to some degree, but I’m likely to post all major blogging both at Substack and on my personal site. I know some people will stress about that as it’s potentially splitting an audience, but reaching an audience is what’s important. Substack is mainly for my email newsletter and it’s easy to get a widget for people to sign up, like the one I’ve got on the Contact page of my website right now.
And of course you can still have all your social media of choice. I’m still hoping Twitter survives the storm, but in the meantime I’m also on Hive, Mastodon, and Post as potential Twitter replacements. I’ve had Instagram for ages and I like that app, and I’m fairly new to TikTok, but it’s not awful. I’m still on Facebook, though I fucking hate that site and would drop it in an instant if I sold enough books, but sadly I need it still. And there’s also another free way to keep everyone apprised of all that stuff. Linktree is a way to have one link that provides all anyone needs to know about you, and you can update it and adjust it as much and as often as you like. Here’s my Linktree, and you can see I also have a Patreon for people to get extras and a Kofi account if people want to simply just drop me a tip, as well as merch and all kinds of shit. Honestly, there’s too much going on, but I tend to only focus on small parts of that list. Regardless, all of it is great and it all helps to keep my career alive. It also all distracts me from writing enormously, but that’s a balance we need to find in this modern age. But if everything died tomorrow, short of an EMP that wipes out all tech, I’ll always have my website, and that’s where people can find me and my books. That’s essential.
Honorable Mention in Best Horror of the Year 14
My copy of Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year 14 finally arrived and imagine my delight at seeing “Out on a Rim” from The Gulp included in the Honourable Mentions! Thank you, Ellen!
Serial fiction coming to my Patreon soon
One of my projects for 2023 is to serialise a story exclusively for patrons on my Patreon account. Already there’s loads of bonus content over at Patreon and I occasionally publish an exclusive short story there, not available anywhere else. At some point, some of those stories might get published in a collection, but not all of them, so some stuff will only ever be for patrons.
The serialised story I’m planning will be a Patreon-exclusive. It may or may not see wider publication at some future point, but right now it’s a real experiment in writing without a net. I’m going to get the first few short chapters written in advance so I’ve got my head into the story and I know I’m heading in the right direction, then I’ll be writing it as I go, with no planning and next to no editing. I might crash and burn horribly. Or I might fly. Who the fuck knows? That’s the beauty of it, and that’s the point of it, really. Right now, I don’t even know if it’s a novella or a novel or what. I’m thinking novella, but we’ll see!
So if you’re keen to read along, sign up for my Patreon at the Monster level or above and I’ll start posting chapters before the end of January.
Latest newsletter up now at Substack
My latest newsletter went out. You can find it here at Substack: https://alanbaxter.substack.com/p/one-last-missive-for-2022