SALLOW BEND out now!

Aug 18, 2022

SALLOW BEND, my first full-length novel in four years, is here! And it’s early. It was supposed to release on September 2nd, but a bit of a cock up means it’s dropped today. Not a bad thing at all. I am super proud of this creepy small town folk horror book and I really hope you’ll give it a try. And please, please, please do tell friends and family and colleagues (and enemies for that matter) about it. I’d really love to see it do well and word of mouth is incredibly powerful. Even if you only tell one person, the ripple effect can be amazing.

Here’s the blurb:

Something old and deadly has awoken.

When two teenagers go missing from the small, rural town of Sallow Bend, the residents come together to search for them. Little do they suspect that finding the wayward girls will be the start of their problems. An old evil is rising, and only one man seems to realize that everyone is in danger and this is not the first time it’s happened. With the carnival in town, people want to have a good time, but for many, this will be the worst time of their lives.

“(Sallow Bend) is an immersive page-turner where details about the characters and the eerie history of the place are effortlessly fleshed out. Paired with the unceasingly intensifying dread, the story quickly escalates from unsettling to terrifying. Baxter, already an award-winning horror author in his native Australia, seems poised to take over America as well.” – Booklist

“I truly love folk horror if it’s well done, and surely Alan Baxter conjured up something quite magical with his newest book Sallow Bend. It is a story that not only leaves reader’s at the edge of their seat, but also takes quite a few risks, and pulls them off beautifully.” – Julia C. Lewis

“Sometimes when kids get lost in the woods, they come out again. Sometimes that’s not a good thing. Sometimes they’re not alone anymore. Baxter’s Sallow Bend has more than a touch of King about it.” – Angela Slatter, award-winning author of All the Murmuring Bones

You can order from a variety of places, and I’ll update all the links on this page as the book populates out to various vendors. Give me a shout if you’re having any trouble tracking it down. And if you want a signed copy, no problem. You can buy a signed paperback directly from me by clicking right here: https://alanbaxter.com.au/?add-to-cart=16019 If you’re in the US, you can get a paperback directly through the Cemetery Dance website, which is ideal for them.

Otherwise, here are a few store links to get you started:

Signed Paperback from me.

Direct from the Publisher. (In the US this is a good option, but overseas shipping is killer and you’ll do better to use one of the online stores below.)

Amazon—US
Amazon—AU
Amazon—UK

Work published in 2022

Aug 18, 2022

It’s always good to remind people (and by people, I mostly mean me) of the successes in any given year. It’s important to take stock. I often feel like I’m not working hard enough and, while it’s true I could always work harder, I don’t tend to slack off much, and posting stuff like this helps to keep the doubting brain weasels away. It’s also a good reminder for people looking to nominate work for awards or reading lists to know what came out in any given year. So with that in mind, here’s my 2022 publication record (and thereby my awards eligibility list for all 2023 awards).

THE FALL: Tales From The Gulp 2 – Eligible in Collection

All five stories in The Fall are original too, so they each qualify as Long Fiction (or Novella):

“Gulpepper Curios” (19,340 words)
“Cathedral Stack” (13,160 words)
“That Damn Woman” (18,230 words)
“Excursion Troop” (16,500 words)
“The Fall” (19,850 words)

SALLOW BEND – Eligible in Novel

DAMNATION GAMES – Eligible in Anthology, edited by me. This one should be out around October.

As for short fiction for 2022, that should end up looking like this:

“Counting Tunnels To Berry” – The Hideous Book of Hidden Horrors anthology, ed. Doug Murano (Bad Hand Books, June 2022) – this one is out now.

And then these three should all be out in October:

“The Fiends of Turner’s Creek” – SNAFU: Dead or Alive, ed. A J Spedding (Cohesion Press)

“The Question” – Damnation Games, ed. Alan Baxter (Clan Destine Press)

“The Novak Roadhouse Massacre” – Found, ed. Andrew Cull and Gabino Iglesias

Now that’s not too bad for a year. I’ve also got a new novel out on submission (wish me luck, please!) and I’m about 20,000 words into the next novel.

That’ll do, Pig. That’ll do.

Limited edition Welcome To The Gulp nickel/enamel pin

Aug 17, 2022

Check it out. Limited edition #WelcomeToTheGulp nickel/enamel pin. Made with black nickel, so it sometimes looks silver, sometimes black, depending on the light. Only available direct from me (in person or through my site below). They came out better than I expected! There won’t be too many of these, so I’d get in quick if I were you. They’re only AU$10 each, and postage in Australia is only AU$5. I’m more than happy to send them overseas, but the postage is RIDICULOUS! Because they’re not a letter, they have to be sent as a parcel, which means I have to pay about AU$22 or something to post them. You can figure out the postage by clicking the link below and then decide if you’re not sure.

Of course, the easiest option is to get them directly from me at events and hopefully I’ll get out to NZ, the US and the UK again before too long. Any time I travel, I’ll bring some with me, all the time I have any left.

If you have any issues with the online store part, message me and we’ll figure it out!

Get them here: https://alanbaxter.com.au/?add-to-cart=16026

.

The Pixel Project’s work to stop Violence Against Women (VAW)

Jul 22, 2022

I’m very pleased to be part of the 9th annual Fall Edition of Read For Pixels, featuring live YouTube sessions highlighting award-winning bestselling authors in support of ending violence against women. This September’s Read for Pixels features myself, along with Alastair Reynolds, Bracken MacLeod, Carol Goodman, Daniel H. Wilson, Jenn Lyons, Kathryn Purdie, Kwame Mbalia, Namina Forna, Nghi Vo, Rin Chupeco, Romina Garber, and Tim Lebbon. Each livestream YouTube session will feature an author reading from one of their books and discussing women and girls in their work, why they support ending violence against women, and women in the media, geek culture, and popular culture. Each session will also include a live moderated Q&A segment for fans and book lovers. The sessions will take place on weekends throughout September 2022. All authors have also generously donated a range of goodies to help raise funds for The Pixel Project.

You can read more about the project and explore their website here.

The page where my YouTube session will be livestreamed is: https://tinyurl.com/ABaxterR4P
I haven’t quite decided what to read from yet, but I’m thinking it might be a scene from early on in my new novel, Sallow Bend, which is apposite to the project. Watch my social media for links and updates nearer the time.

A New Era for Novellas on The Indy Author

Jul 12, 2022

I had the pleasure of chatting with Matty on The Indy Author again. We discussed novellas! Stuff like:

• How the Novella Is a Fantastic Length for Genre Fiction
• Publishing Novellas Individually or as a Collection
• How eBooks Facilitate Shorter Novellas and Series
• How Short is Too Short?
• Advances from Traditional Publishers
• Publishing a Novella

And more. You can watch the video of the interview below, and there’s a full transcription of the chat here.

Ditmar Awards open for nominations

Jul 11, 2022

It’s that time of year again where the Australian Ditmar Awards (our very own mini-Hugos) are open for nominations. These are the fan-voted awards where anyone active in fandom can nominate work they think is worthy. What the hell does “active in fandom” mean? Well, this is something that comes up all the time. If you’ve ever been to a con, or engaged online with readers and writers more than casually, if you review, anything like that, you probably qualify. Basically, if you pay attention in any way to the Australian SFFH scene, even just as a reader, you’re probably eligible to nominate. As the rules state: “Where a nominator may not be known to the Ditmar subcommittee, the nominator should provide the name of someone known to the subcommittee who can vouch for the nominator’s eligibility. Convention attendance or membership of an SF club are among the criteria which qualify a person as ‘active in fandom’, but are not the only qualifying criteria. If in doubt, nominate and mention your qualifying criteria.”

These awards are always under-represented and awards operate best when more people get involved, so if you’re keen to nominate, give it a go. If we’ve ever interacted, feel free to mention me with your nomination.

The current rules, including Award categories, can be found here: https://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules

A partial and unofficial eligibility list, to which everyone is encouraged to add, can be found here: https://wiki.sf.org.au/2022_Ditmar_eligibility_list

And you can do it all online, via this form: https://ditmars.sf.org.au/2022/nominations.html

Am I eligible for any awards? Why, yes, I am, thanks for asking! Here’s what of mine is eligible this time:

THE GULP (13th Dragon Books, self-published, January 2021) is eligible in the Best Collected Work category (I’d love a Ditmar to go along with my Aurealis Award for this book!)

All 5 stories in The Gulp are eligible in Best Novella or Novelette:

“Out on a Rim”, Alan Baxter, in The Gulp, 13th Dragon Books, self-published.
“Mother In Bloom”, Alan Baxter, in The Gulp, 13th Dragon Books, self-published.
“48 To Go”, Alan Baxter, in The Gulp, 13th Dragon Books, self-published.
“The Band Plays On”, Alan Baxter, in The Gulp, 13th Dragon Books, self-published.
“Rock Fisher”, Alan Baxter, in The Gulp, 13th Dragon Books, self-published.

Also eligible in Best Novella or Novelette:

“Ghost Recall”, Alan Baxter, in Ghost Recall (Eli Carver 3), Grey Matter Press.

And I only had a couple of short stories published last year, but these are eligible in Best Short Story:

“Come His Children”, Alan Baxter, in Cthulhu Deep Down Under 3, IFWG Publishing International.
“Nurturing His Nature”, Alan Baxter, in The Bad Book, Bleeding Edge Books.

So if you feel like voting for anything of mine, THANK YOU! And please do vote for anything and everything from 2021 that you think is worthy. As I said at the start, the more people involved, the better the awards reflect the will of the fans. Now I’m off to make my nominations.

 

Books of Horror!

Jun 12, 2022

There’s a great group on Facebook called Books of Horror. Honestly, it’s almost all I do on FB these days, and it makes the whole site a lot more worthwhile. Apart from being one of the most friendly and supportive groups on there, it’s an absolute treasure trove of great book recommendations. One of the members there, Charlie Salt, started posting some truly definitive lists of the group’s recommendations, organised by genre, subject, etc. Rather than risk them being lost in the ever-rolling feed, I offered to host them here. So here they are. Each list is Charlie’s original post (with his comments at the start), and at the end is a link to the post back on Facebook – do follow the links as there are loads more great recommendations in the comments on each one.

SHORT STORY COLLECTIONS & SOME KEY ANTHOLOGIES

For the sake of my sanity and yours, I’ve not included themed collections otherwise I’d be here all day ???? This is a list of key short story collections that are frequently mentioned and some essential anthologies at the end. Feel free to add others but check if it’s in the list first, thanks! I’ve taken Poe, Lovecraft, M.R. James etc. as a given.
A.C. Wise – The Ghost Sequences
Adam Nevill – Before You Wake, Cries From The Crypt, Hasty For The Dark, Some Will Not Sleep, Wyrd and Other Derelictions
Alan Baxter – Crow Shine, Served Cold, The Gulp, The Fall
Bentley Little – The Collection, Indignities of The Flesh, Walking Alone
Bob Leman – Feesters In The Lake, The Tehama and Others
Brian Evenson – A Collapse of Horses, Songs For The Unraveling of The World, The Glassy Burning Floor of Hell
Brian Hodge – Skidding Into Oblivion
Carmen Maria Machado – Her Body And Other Parties
Charles Beaumont – Selected Stories
Charles L. Grant – Scream Quietly, Tales From The Nightside
Christopher Slatsky – The Immeasurable Corpse of Nature
Chuck Palahniuk – Haunted
Clive Barker – Books of Blood series
Dan Chaon – Among The Missing, Stay Awake
David Morrell – Black Evening
Dennis Etchison – The Dark Country, The Blood Kiss, Red Dreams, Cutting Edge
E. Reyes – Strange Tales of The Macabre
F. Paul Wilson – Soft And Others, The Barrens And Others
Gary A. Braunbeck – Halfway Down The Stairs
Gemma Files – In That Endlessness, Our End
Gerald Kersh – Nightshade and Damnations
Glen Hirshberg – American Morons, The Janus Tree, The Two Sams
Gwendolyn Kiste – And Her Smile Will Untether The Universe
Guy N. Smith – Tales From The Graveyard
Ian Rogers – Every House Is Haunted
Jack Ketchum – Peaceable Kingdom
Jack Townsend – Tales From The Gas Station (series)
Jeff Strand – Gleefully Macabre Tales, Dead Clown Barbecue, Everything Has Teeth, Candy Coated Madness
Jeremy Robert Johnson – Entropy In Bloom
J.G. Faherty – The Monster Inside, Houses of the Unholy
Joe R. Lansdale – High Cotton: Selected Stories, Bumper Crop
John Connolly – Night Music, Nocturnes
John Langan – The Wide Carnivorous Sky, Children of The Fang
Joe Hill – 20th Century Ghosts, Full Throttle
Joe McKinney – The Red Empire And Other Stories
John F.D. Taff – Little Black Spots
Jon Padgett – The Secret of Ventriloquism
Joseph Payne Brennan – The Shapes of Midnight, Collected Short Stories and Poems, Nine Horrors and A Dream
Karl Edward Wagner – Where The Summer Ends, Walk On The Wild Side
Kealan Patrick Burke – Dead Leaves, Dead of Winter, Milestone, Ravenous Ghosts, We Live Inside Your Eyes
Kelly Link – Get In Trouble
Kristi Demeester – Everything That’s Underneath
Kristopher Rufty – Bone Chimes 1 & 2
Laird Baron – Occultation, Swift To Chase, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All, The Imago Sequence
Laura Maruo – Sing Your Sadness Deep
Lisa Tuttle – A Nest of Nightmares
Maggie Siebert – Bonding
Malcolm Devlin – You Will Grow Into Them, Unexpected Places To Fall From
Mariana Enriquez – Things We Lost In The Fire, The Dangers of Smoking In Bed
Mark Samuels – The Age of Decayed Futurity
Mary Rickert – You Have Never Really Been Here
Matthew M. Bartlett – Gateways To Abomination, The Stay-Awake Men
Michael Marshall Smith – The Best of Michael Marshall Smith
Michael Shea – Polyphemus
Michael Wehunt – Greener Pastures
Nadia Bulkin – She Said Destroy
Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah – Friday Black
Nathan Ballingrud – North American Lake Monsters, Wounds
Paul Tremblay – Growing Things
Philip Fracassi – Behold The Void
Ramsey Campbell – Alone With The Horrors
Ray Bradbury – The October Country
Reggie Oliver – Flowers of The Sea
Richard Laymon – Fiends, A Good, Secret Place, Dreadful Tales, Madman Stan
Richard Matheson – The Best of Richard Matheson (Penguin Classics)
R. Chetwynd-Hayes – Gaslight, Ghosts & Ghouls: A Centenary Celebration
Ronald Malfi – We Should Have Left Well Enough Alone
Robert Aickman – Cold Hand In Mine, Dark Entries, The Unsettled Dust, The Wine-Dark Sea, Painted Devils
Robert McCammon – Blue World
Ronald Kelly – The Halloween Store, The Sick Stuff, Mister Glow-Bones And Other Tales
Shirley Jackson – The Lottery And Other Stories
Stephen Graham Jones – After The People Lights Have Gone Off
Stephen King – Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares & Dreamscapes (the essential horror ones in my opinion)
T.E. Grau – The Nameless Dark
T.E.D. Klein – Collected Stories, Dark Gods
Terry Dowling – The Night Shop
Thomas F. Monteleone – Fearful Symmetries
Thomas Ligotti – Teatro Grottesco, The Shadow At The Bottom of The World (many more if you like these)
Tyler Jones – Burn The Plans
Jay Bower – Hanging Corpses
Richard Chizmar – A Long December, The Long Way Home
ANTHOLOGIES:
Kirby McCauley – Dark Forces
David G. Hartwell –
The Dark Descent (as one collection or three volumes):
The Colour of Evil
The Medusa In The Shield
A Fabulous Formless Darkness
Foundations of Fear (as one collection or three volumes):
Shadows of Fear
Visions of Fear
World’s of Fear
Herbert A. Wise – Great Tales of Terror And The Supernatural
Ellen Datlow – The Best Horror of The Year (series)
Stephen Jones – The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror (series)
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories 1-3
Thomas F. Monteleone – Borderlands 1-7
Charles L. Grant – Shadows 1-10
Richard Chizmar – Shivers 1-8
Richard Chizmar – The Best of Cemetery Dance
David J. Schow – Silver Scream
Mike Baker – My Favourite Horror Story
Steve Jones & David Sutton – The Dark Voices 1-6 and Dark Terrors 1-6. Which are a kind of follow on to Van Thal’s long running Pan Book of Horror series
The Midnight Exhibit Vol. 1 & 2 (Rewind Or Die)

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2008261706023530/

HALLOWEEN BOOKS

Aron Beauregard – Scary Bastard
Kristopher Rufty – Prank Night
Kevin Lucia – October Nights
Hailey Piper – Benny Rose The Cannibal King
Kristopher Triana – Long Shadows of October
Cameron Chaney – Autumncrow
Bryan Smith – All Hallow’s Dead
& Racing With The Devil
Ray Bradbury – The Halloween Tree & Something Wicked This Way Comes
Norman Partridge – Dark Harvest
Tom Tryon – Harvest Home
Scott Thomas – Kill Creek
Robert Zelazny – A Night In The Lonesome October
Richard Laymon – Night In The Lonesome October & All Hallow’s Eve
Kevin J. Kennedy – Halloween Land
E. Reyes – The Halloween Grindhouse & Devil’s Hill
Kealan Patrick Burke – Dead Leaves
Ronald Kelly – The Halloween Store & Mister Glow-Bones
Glen Hirshberg – The Two Sams: Ghost Stories
Ellen Datlow (ed.) – Haunted Nights
Alan Ryan (ed.) – Halloween Horrors
Douglas Draa (ed.) – What October Brings: A Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween
Stephen Jones (ed.) – The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories
Richard Chizmar (ed.) – October Dreams 1 & 2
Kevin J. Kennedy (ed.) – Collected Halloween Shorts: Trick ‘R Treat
C.V. Hunt – Halloween Fiend
Jonathan Maberry – Ghost Road Blues
Lucy A. Snyder – Halloween Season
Robert McCammon – Usher’s Passing
Josh Hancock – The Girls of October
Lisa W. Cantrell – The Manse & Torments
Tom Rymer – Malevolent Nevers
Evans Light – Doorbells At Dusk
Adam Millard – The October Boys
John Everson – The Pumpkin Man
David Robbins – Spook Night
Stewart O’Nan – The Night Country
Briana Morgan – The Tricker-Treater
Chris Kosarich – Mister Jack & Night of The Pumpkin God
Dennis J. Higman – Pranks
Gregory Miller – Dark Nights and Candlelight: 31 Tiny October Tales
Jeff C. Carter – We Bleed Orange & Black: 31 Fun-sized Tales For Halloween
Brian James Freeman – The Halloween Children
James A. Moore – Harvest Moon
Russell Atwood – Apartment Five Is Alive
Patrick C. Greene – Red Harvest, Grim Harvest, Demon Harvest
Paul Melniczek – A Haunted Halloween, Frightful October, When The Leaves Fall, The Celebration, The Watching, Mischief Night, The Witching Hour, Children of The Night
Jade Royal (ed.) – Mischief Night
Scarecrows:
Steve Vernon – The Tatter Demon trilogy
Scott Donnelly – Killer Scarecrow
Gord Rollo – Valley of The Scarecrow

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007439382772429/

COMING OF AGE HORROR/KIDS ON BIKES/STRANGER THINGS STYLE BOOKS

Ray Bradbury – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Stephen King – It, The Body, The Institute
Robert McCammon – Boy’s Life
Dan Simmons – Summer of Night
Brian Keene – Ghoul
Ronald Malfi – December Park
Richard Chizmar – Chasing The Boogeyman
Jeff Strand – Autumn Bleeds Into Winter
Jeffrey Ford – The Shadow Year
Richard Laymon – The Traveling Vampire Show
Jonathan Janz – Children of The Dark
James Newman – Midnight Rain
J.G. Faherty – Cemetery Club
C.J. Tudor – The Chalk Man
Adam Millard – The October Boys
Craig Davidson – The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Edgar Cantero – Meddling Kids
Tim Meyer – Malignant Summer
M.L. Rayner – Amongst The Mists
Wendy M. Wagner – The Deer Kings
Ronald Kelly – Fear
Malcolm McDowell – The Elementals
J.F. Dubeau – A God In The Shed
Brett McBean – The Awakening
Joe E. Lansdale – The Bottoms
Nick Cutter – The Troop
Matt Hayward – Those Below The Tree House
Douglas Clegg – Neverland
Al Sarrantonio – Totentanz
John Peyton Cooke – The Lake
Graham Joyce – The Tooth Fairy
Joe Hill – N0S4A2
Christina Henry – The Ghost Tree
Tony Urban – Within The Woods
Philip Fracassi – Commodore
Greg F. Gifune – The Bleeding Season
Edward Lorn – Bay’s End
Tom Deady – Haven
Shawn Burgess – The Tear Collector
Grady Hendrix – My Best Friend’s Exorcism
Matthew A. Clarke – Sons of Sorrow
Erik Henry Vick – Demon King
Sam Gafford – The House of Nodens
John Durgin – The Cursed Among Us
Norman Partridge – Dark Harvest
Pamela Morris – The Witch’s Backbone series
Mark Morris – Toady aka The Horror Club
Max Booth III – Touch The Night
Mike Duke – Ghost Train
Stephen King & Peter Straub – The Talisman
Daka Hermon – Hide and Seeker

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007135689469465/

SMALL-TOWN HORROR BOOKS

Alan Baxter – The Gulp, The Fall, Sallow Bend
Bentley Little – The Town, The Store
Craig Davidson – The Saturday Night Ghost Club
Brian Keene – The Ghoul, Darkness On The Edge of Town
Dan Simmons – Summer of Night, A Winter Haunting
Robert R. McCammon – Boy’s Life, Stinger, Usher’s Passing
Ronald Malfi – December Park, The Narrows, Bone White, Snow
Richard Chizmar – Chasing The Boogeyman
Ronald Kelly – Fear
Richard Laymon – The Beast House series
Joan Samson – The Auctioneer
Adam Cesare – Clown In A Cornfield
William W. Johnstone – Blood Oath
Thomas Olde Heuvelt – Hex
James Newman – The Wicked
Jack Kilborn – Afraid
Robert Jackson Bennett – American Elsewhere
J.F. Dubeau – A God In The Shed
Thomas Tryon – Harvest Home
Ray Bradbury – Something Wicked This Way Comes
Jonathan Janz – Children of the Dark
Malcolm McDowell – Cold Moon Over Babylon, Blackwater
Todd Keisling – Devil’s Creek
Blake Crouch – The Wayward Pines trilogy
Jonathan Maberry – The Pine Deep trilogy
C.J. Tudor – The Chalk Man, The Hiding Place
Christopher Buehlman – Those Across The River
B.R. Yeager – Negative Space
Elizabeth Hand – Black Light
Peter Straub – Floating Dragon
Jack Finney – Invasion of the Body Snatchers
Ira Levin – The Stepford Wives
Ramsey Campbell – The Hungry Moon
Bernard Taylor – The Moorstone Sickness
Dean Koontz – Phantoms
Jennifer McMahon – The Winter People
Norman Partridge – Dark Harvest
Steve Vernon – Tatterdemon
T.E.D. Klein – The Ceremonies
Jeffrey Ford – Shadow Year
Kevin Lucia – Things Slip Through, Through A Mirror Darkly
Michael Rowe – Enter Night
Alan Ryan – Dead White
Tim Curran – Clownflesh
Hunter Shea – Misfits
Patrick C. Greene – Red Harvest, Grim Harvest, Demon Harvest
Micah Dean Hicks – Break The Bodies, Haunt The Bones
Brad Strickland – Shadowshow
Jere Cunningham – The Abyss
Josh Malerman – Goblin
Cameron Chaney – Autumncrow
Alan Baxter – The Gulp, The Fall
Tom Rimer – Malevolent Nevers
C.V. Hunt – Halloween Fiend
John Fram – The Bright Lands
Kelvin V.A. Allison – Blood Harvest

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/1841908845992151/

SUBURBAN HORROR

Bentley Little – The Association, The Mailman
Richard Laymon – Night In The Lonesome October
Ira Levin – The Stepford Wives
Eric C. Higgs – The Happy Man
Carlton Mellick III – Ultra Fuckers
Tim Waggoner – The Forever House
Kelli Owen – White Picket Prisons
Sarah Langan – Good Neighbors
Catherynne M. Valente – Comfort Me With Apples
Christopher Fowler – Psychoville
Robert Jackson Bennett – American Elsewhere
Ann Rivers Siddons – The House Next Door
Richard Matheson – A Stir of Echoes
Jack Finney – Invasion of The Bodysnatchers
Tim Curran – Blackout
William Holloway – Blackwood Estates

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007995449383489 /

HAUNTED HOUSE BOOKS

Henry James – The Turn of the Screw
Dorothy McArdle – The Uninvited
Susan Hill – The Woman In Black
Shirley Jackson – The Haunting Of Hill House
Richard Matheson – Hell House
Stephen King – The Shining
Robert Marasco – Burnt Offerings
J. Anson – The Amityville Horror
Anne Rivers Siddons – The House Next Door
Michael McDowell – The Elementals
Andrew Cull – Remains
Michelle Paver – Wakenhyrst
Bentley Little – The Haunted, The House
Tony Tremblay – The Moore House
Garrett Cook – A God of Hungry Walls
Kelvin Allison & Lisa Hutchinson – 12
John Boyne – This House Is Haunted
Mariko Koike – The Graveyard Apartment
Ania Ahlborn – Within These Walls, I Call Upon Thee
Jennifer McMahon – The Invited
Darcy Coates – The Haunting of Blackwood House, The Carrow Haunt, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, The Haunting of Gillespie House, The Haunting of Rookward House, The Folcroft Ghosts, The House Next Door, House of Shadows, House of Secrets
Tamara Thorne – Haunted, Bad Things
Tananarive Due – The Good House
Lee Mountford – Haunted: Perron Manor, Haunted: Devil’s Door, Haunted: Purgatory, The Demonic
Gaby Triana – Island of Bones
Graham Masterton – The House of a Hundred Whispers, The House That Jack Built, Prey
Ki Longfellow – Houdini Heart
M.L. Rayner – Echoes of Home
Simone St. James – The Sun Down Motel
Ben Farthing – It Waits on the Top Floor
Sarah Waters – The Little Stranger
James Herbert – Haunted, The Ghosts of Sleath, Ash, The Secret of Crickley Hall
Dan Simmons – A Winter Haunting
Steve Rasnic Tem – Deadfall Hotel
Billy O’Callaghan – The Dead House
Jeff Strand – Sick House
Adam Nevill – Apartment 16, No One Gets Out Alive, House of Small Shadows
Scott Thomas – Kill Creek, Violet
J.W. Ocker – Twelve Nights At Rotter House
D.M. Pulley – No One’s Home
David Mitchell – Slade House
Andrew Pyper – The Guardians
Jonathan Aycliffe – Naomi’s Room
Ronald Malfi – The Mourning House, Floating Staircase, Little Girls
Elizabeth Hand – Wylding Hall
Laura Purcell – The Silent Companions
Michael Clarke – The Patience of a Dead Man
Cherie Priest – The Family Plot
Chris Sorensen – The Nightmare Room
Riley Sager – Home Before Dark
Herman Raucher – Maynard’s House
Ambrose Ibsen – Black Acres, The House of Long Shadows, Malefic
Susie Maloney – The Dwelling aka 362 Belisle St.
Bernard Taylor – Sweetheart, Sweetheart
Michael Rowe – Wild Fell
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Quiet Houses
Yrsa Siagdottir – I Remember You
John Inman – The Boys On The Mountain
Jo Kaplan – It Will Just Be Us
Jonathan Sims – Thirteen Storeys
Kristopher Triana – The Long Shadows of October
Jonathan Janz – The Siren and the Spectre
Jack Kilborn – Haunted House
Jac Jemc – The Grip of It
Chuck Wendig – The Book of Accidents
Brian Asman – Man, Fuck This House
Joe Schreiber – No Doors, No Windows
Ray Garton – The Loveliest Dead
John Quick – The Corruption of Alston House
Steven E. Wedel – Seven Days In Benevolence
Paula Trachtman – Disturb Not The Dream
Gemma Amor – Six Rooms
Claire L. Smith – When We Entered That House
E. Reyes – The House on Moon Creek Avenue
Russell Atwood – Apartment Five Is Alive
Sarah Gailey – Just Like Home
Jennifer Fawcett – Beneath The Stairs
Curtis M. Lawson & Joe Morey (ed) – 13 Houses
Kathryn Cramer (ed) – The Architecture of Fear (collection of haunted house short stories)
Kathryn Cramer (ed) – The Walls of Fear (sequel to the above, collection of haunted house short stories)
Peter Haining (ed) – The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/1985977418251959/

CORPORATE/WORKPLACE HORROR

Bentley Little – The Store, The Bank, The Consultant
Rob Hart – The Warehouse
Dave Eggers – The Circle
J.F. Gonzalez – The Corporation
Thomas Ligotti – My Work Is Not Yet Done (see also My Case For Retributive Action & Our Temporary Supervisor)
Ling Ma – Severance
Grady Hendrix – Horrorstor
William Spencer Browning – Resume With Monsters
Todd Keisling – The Smile Factory
Zakiya Dalila Harris – The Other Black Girl
Edward Stasheff (ed.) – Corporate Cthulhu: Lovecraftian Tales of Bureaucratic Nightmare
Pierre Lemaitre – Inhuman Resources
Kristopher Triana & Ryan Goulding – The Night Stockers
Andrew Shaffer – Secret Santa

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007997446049956/

SPACE HORROR BOOKS

I was a bit economical here but there aren’t that many space horrors. I didn’t put cosmic horror as I don’t think that’s quite the same. As always, please add any others, thanks!
Mike Duke – Amalgam series
Peter Clines – Dead Moon
S.A. Barnes – Dead Silence
Joe Schreiber – Death Troopers
Judith Merril (ed.) – Galaxy of Ghouls
Greg Bear – Hull Zero Three
Colin Wilson – Lifeforce aka The Space Vampires
Kenneth W. Cain (ed.) – Midnight From Beyond The Stars
G.R.R. Martin – Nightflyers
Darcy Coates – Parasite
Courtney Alameda – Pitch Dark
Kali Wallace – Salvation Day
Groff Conklin (ed.) – Science Fiction Terror Tales
Mur Lafferty – Six Wakes
Stanislaw Lem – Solaris
Tom Sweterlitsch – The Gone World
Stephen Kozeniewski – The Hematophages
Brett J. Talley – The Void
P.W. Hillard – The Void Beyond
Lena Nguyen – We Have Always Been Here
Peter Watts – Blindsight
Iain Rob Wright – 2389
Caitlin Starling – The Luminous Dead
Tess Gerritsen – Gravity
David Wellington – The Last Astronaut
J.Z. Foster & Justin M. Woodward – Hell On Mars series

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007461032770264/

CLOWN BOOKS

Stephen King – It
Adam Cesare – Clown In A Cornfield
Jon Athan – Do Not Disturb 1 & 2
Alan Ryan – Dead White
Tim Curran – Clownflesh
Ruby Jean Jensen – House of Illusions
Tim McBain – The Clowns
Matt Shaw – Clown
Will Eliott – The Pilo Family Circus
Jeff Strand – Clowns Vs Spiders
R.S. Belcher – King of the Road
James A. Moore – Smile No More
Judith Sonnet – The Clown Hunt
Emery LeeAnn – Dank
Ashley Lister – Payback Week
Ramsey Campbell – The Grin of the Dark
Tim Miller – Clown Apocalypse

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007116842804683/

VAMPIRE BOOKS

Stephen King – Salem’s Lot
Elizabeth Engstrom – Black Ambrosia
Brandon Massey – Dark Corner
Crouch, Blake, Kilborn – Draculas
Michael Rowe – Enter Night
George R.R. Martin – Fevre Dream
Colin Wilson – Lifeforce aka The Space Vampires
Ray Garton – Lot Lizards & Live Girls & Night Life
Glen Hirshberg – Motherless Children
Chris T. Martindale – Nightblood
Michael Talbot – The Delicate Dependency
Christopher Buehlman – The Lesser Dead & The Suicide Motor Club
Skipp & Spector – The Light At The End
Stephen Jones (ed.) – The Mammoth Book of Dracula Stories
Stephen Jones (ed.) – The Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories
Ronald Malfi – The Narrows
Richard Laymon – The Stake & The Traveling Vampire Show
Robert R. McCammon – They Thirst

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007131076136593/

WEREWOLF BOOKS

J.R. Rice – Bane County series
Glenn Rolfe – Blood And Rain
Keith C. Blackmore – Breeds trilogy
Matt Serafini – Feral & Devil’s Row
Graeme Reynolds – High Moor trilogy
Stephen Graham Jones – Mongrels
T.W. Piperbrook – Outage trilogy
Ray Garton – Ravenous & Bestial
Toby Barlow – Sharp Teeth
Charles L. Grant – The Dark Cry of the Moon
Gary Brandner – The Howling trilogy
Steve Vance – The Hyde Effect
Glen Duncan – The Last Werewolf trilogy
Stephen Jones (ed.) – The Mammoth Book of Werewolves
Thomas Tessier – The Nightwalker
Whitley Streiber – The Wolfen
Nicholas Pekearo – The Wolfman
Robert R. McCammon – The Wolf’s Hour
Wayne Smith – Thor
Christopher Buehlman – Those Across The River
Ronald Kelly – Undertaker’s Moon aka Moon of the Werewolf
Jonathan Janz – Wolf Land
W.D. Gagliani – Wolf’s Trap

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007118239471210/

ZOMBIE BOOKS

I’m sorry if your favourite isn’t listed – there’s just so many zombie books and I’m a bit fussy so these are the ones that look strong to me. Anthologies are listed after the novels. As always, please feel to add any I’ve missed below – thanks!
I’ve done a separate post for rage virus style ‘zombies’ here:
Autumn series by David Moody
Day By Day Armageddon series by J.L. Bourne
Dead City series by Joe McKinney
The Savage Dead by Joe McKinney
Dead Sea and Rising series by Brian Keene
World War Z – Max Brooks
The Living Dead by George R. Romero & Daniel Kraus
And Then I Woke Up by Malcolm Devlin (zombies but not zombies, really good)
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Ex-Heroes series by Peter Clines (Superheroes defending civilians from zombies)
The Wild Ones by Jack Hunt
Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon
Fiend by Peter Stenson
Rise Again by Ben Tripp
Severance by Ling Ma
Handling The Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Pandemic by DiLouie etc.
The Collapse series by Alice B. Sullivan
The Dead by Mark E. Rogers
The Gathering Dead by Stephen Knight
Wake by Elizabeth Knox
Wet Work by Philip Nutman
The Reapers Are The Angels by Bell Alden
Handling The Undead by John Ajvide Lindqvist
Everything Dies series by T.W. Malpass
Hollow Kingdom & Feral Creatures by Kira Jane Buxton
Monster Island series by David Wellington
Night Songs by Charles L. Grant
Anthologies:
Book of The Dead by John Skipp & Craig Spector
Still Dead: Book of The Dead 2 by John Skipp & Craig Spector
Mondo Zombie: Book of The Dead 3 by John Skipp & Craig Spector
Zombies: Encounters With The Hungry Dead by John Skipp
Nights of the Living Dead by Jonathan Maberry & George R. Romero
The Living Dead 1 & 2 by John Joseph Adams
The Mammoth Book of Zombies by Stephen Jones
The New Dead: A Zombie Anthology by Christopher Golden
21st Century Dead by Christopher Golden
Zombie An Anthology of The Undead by Christopher Golden
The Undead by D.L. Snell
Zombies Recent Dead by Paula Guran
Zombies More Recent Dead by Paula Guran
Dead Set: A Zombie Anthology by Michelle McCrary & Joe McKinney
The Best of All Flesh: Zombie Anthology by James Lowder
Where The Dead Go To Die by Aaron Dries & Mark Allan Gunnells
River of Souls by T.L. Bodine

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007466636103037/

RAGE VIRUS ZOMBIES

This is a list of books involving humans that have gone violent and crazy, as opposed to regular zombies. Feel free to add your own suggestions – thanks!
The regular zombie list can be found here:
David Moody – Hater series
Josh Malerman – Bird Box & Malorie
Jose Saramago – Blindness
James Herbert – The Fog
Richard Laymon – One Rainy Night
Bryan Smith – Last Day
Brian Keene – The Complex
Blake Crouch – Run
Stephen King – Cell
Dean Koontz – Night Chills
Paul Tremblay – Survivor Song
Tim Curran – The Devil Next Door
Alan Spencer – The Three Days
Jeremy Robert Johnson – The Loop
James Demonaco & B.K. Evenson – Feral
Delilah S. Dawson – The Violence
Razak Melody – Moth
Gretchen Felker-Martin – Manhunt
Simon Clark – Blood Crazy
Kristopher Triana – They All Died Screaming
Ernie Kaltenbrunner Jr. – City of The Creeps
Sarah Langan – The Missing
Sea Sick by Iain Rob Wright

SERIAL KILLER BOOKS

I see serial killers as separate from slashers. I think serial killers are less gimmicky and more police procedural etc?
If you don’t see something on here, it may be because I’ve put it on my slashers list here:
Stacy Willingham – A Flicker In The Dark
J.F. Dubeau – A God In The Shed
James Patterson – Along Came A Spider (series)
Brett Easton Ellis – American Psycho
Glenn Rolfe – August’s Eyes
Mo Hayder – Birdman
Lauren Beukes – Broken Monsters
Shane Stevens – By Reason of Insanity
Richard Chizmar – Chasing The Boogeyman
Christian Galacar – Cicana Spring
Ronald Malfi – December Park & Come With Me
John Connolly – Every Dead Thing (series)
Michael Slade – Headhunter (series)
Dan Wells – I Am Not A Serial Killer (series)
Dan Chaon – Ill Will
T.J. Payne – In My Father’s Basement
Dean Koontz – Intensity
Michael Connolly – The Poet (series)
Oyinkan Braithwaite – My Sister The Serial Killer
Tony Burgess – People Still Live In Cashtown Corners
Thomas Harris – Silence of the Lambs series
Greg F. Gifune – The Bleeding Season
Jeffery Deaver – The Bone Collector (series)
Simone St. James – The Book of Cold Cases
Soren Sveistrup – The Chestnut Man
Stephen Dobyns – The Church of Dead Girls
John Fowles – The Collector
Sharon Bolton – The Craftsman
J.D. Barker – The Fourth Monkey
Jim Thompson – The Killer Inside Me
Catriona Ward – The Last House on Needless Street
Jeff Strand – Autumn Bleeds Into Winter & Kutter
Catherine Ryan Howard – The Nothing Man
David Jackson – The Resident
Jo Nesbo – The Snowman
Glen Hirshberg – The Snowman’s Children
Michael Marshall – The Straw Men
Steve Thayer – The Weatherman
Alex North – The Whisper Man
Meg Gardiner – Unsub (series)
Billie Sue Mosiman – Wireman
Megan Stockton – Quiet, Pretty Things
Patrick Suskind – Perfume
Blake Crouch – Desert Places
Daina Graziunas & Jim Starlin – Thinning The Predators

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/2007464082769959/

SLASHER BOOKS

For quite a while now I’ve been making a list of slasher novels, based on your fantastic recommendations and from the folks at Reddit. It was suggested I share it as a full post to see if anything can be added to it. Let me know what I’ve missed!
Serial killer books (Less gimmicky, more police procedural) can be found here:
They’re in no particular order, also let me know if I’ve missed any Richard Laymon’s ????
Ryan C. Thomas – The Summer I Died
Sergio Gomez – Camp Slaughter
Dan Padavona – Camp Slasher, The Face of Midnight, Crawlspace
James Sabata – Fat Camp
David Irons – Don’t Go To Wheelchair Camp
Jack Quaid – Escape From Happydale, Escape From Bastard Town, Escape From Slaughter Beach
David Sodergren – Night Shoot, Dead Girl Blues
W.D. Jackson – Slasher
Richard Laymon –
Come Out Tonight
One Rainy Night
Endless Night
Island
Blood Games
The Woods Are Dark
After Midnight
Cuts
Allhallow’s Eve
Aron Beauregard – Scary Bastard
Rex Miller – Slob, Frenzy
Jack Ketchum – Off Season, Offspring, Cover
Stephen Crye – Joyride
Gina Wohlsdorf – Security
Ania Ahlborn – Brother, The Shuddering
Christopher Fowler – Psychoville
Cameron Roubique – Kill River 1, 2, and 3, Disco Deathtrap, Golf Curse
Kealan Patrick Burke – Kin
David C. Hayes – The Great American Slasher
Bryan A. Smith – All Hallow’s Dead, The Killing Kind
Adam Cesare – Clown In A Cornfield, The Con Season
Mark Wheaton – Sunday Billy Sunday
Brian Keene – Urban Gothic
J.F. Gonzalez – Survivor
C.P. Bialois – The Slasher Experience 1, 2, & 3
Matt Drabble – Prime Time, Abra-Cadaver
Matt Serafini – Under The Blade
Joey Comeau – The Summer Is Ended And We Are Not Yet Saved
Jonathan Raab – Camp Ghoul Mountain Part VI
Michael Prescott – Kane
Ryan Harding – Reincarnage, Reincursion
Riley Sager – Final Girls, The Last Time I Lied
Stephen Graham Jones – The Last Final Girl, My Heart Is A Chainsaw, The Only Good Indians
Brandon Ford – The Final Girl
Paul Michael Anderson – Standalone
Lauren Beukes – The Shining Girls
Ruby Jean Jensen – Wait And See
Greg F. Gifune – Savages
Kristopher Rufty – Pillowface, Last One Alive, Prank Night
B.W. Battin – The Boogeyman
Søren Sveistrup – The Chestnut Man
Hunter Shea – Slash
Carlton Mellick III – Apeshit
Stephanie Perkins – There’s Someone Inside Your House
Ivy Tholen – Tastes Like Candy
S. Elliot Brandis – Young Slasher
David Charlesworth – Death Head Valley
Jack Kilborn – Afraid, Trapped, Endurance
Scott Cole – Triple Axe
Danielle Vega – The Merciless, Survive The Night
Ramsey Campbell – The Face That Must Die
Gretchen McNeil – Ten, MurderTrending
Thommy Huston – Jinxed
Ryu Murakami – In The Miso Soup
Gregory Lamberson – Johnny Gruesome
Adam Millard – Larry
Bryan Smith – Depraved
Tim Miller – Family Night, Curse of The Gut Ripper
Jon Athan – Do Not Disturb 1 & 2, Night of the Prowler, The Social Media Murders, Camp Blaze
Ken Greenhall – Death Chain
Travis Szablewski – Are You Alone In The House?, Do You Want To Die Tonight?, Did You Lock The Front Door?, Is There Someone Behind You?
Jeff Strand – My Pretties, Slice and Dice
Patrick C. Greene – Red Harvest, Grim Harvest, Demon Harvest
Iain Rob Wright – 12 Steps
Tim Meyer – Kill Hill Carnage, Paradise Club
Brandon Berntson – Boone: A Slasher Tale
Jessica Guess – Cirque Berserk
Tim Curran – Devil Next Door
Rick Wood – Shutter House
Natasha Preston – You Will Be Mine
Brooklyn Ann – His Final Girl, Her Haunted Heart, His Scream Queen, Her Halloween Party
Rafael Chandler – Mask Beneath Her Face
L.C. Valentine – The Last Girls Standing
Sean McDonough – The Class Reunion
P.J. Stanley – Most Likely To Die
Kenzie Jennings – Reception
T.J. Payne – The Venue, In My Father’s Basement
Laird Barron – Swift To Chase
Thomas Simpson – One Of Us
Brian G. Berry – The Sleepover Massacre, Blood Lanes, Thanksgiving Day Massacre
Russell Rhodes – Tricycle
John Russo – The Majorettes
Regina Watts – Babysitter Bloodbath
Darren Blake – Comedy of Terrors
Scott Donnelly – Killer Scarecrow
Gord Rollo – Valley of the Scarecrow
Judith Sonnet – The Clown Hunt
Ashley Lister – Payback Week
Adrean Messmer – Psychopomp and Circumstance
Angela Sylvaine – Chopping Spree
Hailey Piper – Benny Rose The Cannibal King
Todd Rigney – Dancing On The Edge of a Blade
E.V. Knight – Dead Eyes
John Everson – The Pumpkin Man
Brady Phoenix – Cardinal Rules
John Durgin – The Cursed Among Us
Angela Sylvaine – Chopping Spree
Hailey Piper – Benny Rose The Cannibal King
Todd Rigney – Dancing On The Edge of a Blade
E.V. Knight – Dead Eyes
John Everson – The Pumpkin Man

https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819/permalink/1830441433805559/

Again, please note these lists and all the comments are by Charlie Salt on the Books of Horror Facebook group – go and join! Thanks, Charlie.

I WON AN AUREALIS AWARD!

May 30, 2022

This post is going to be self-indulgent! The Aurealis Awards are Australia’s premiere genre fiction awards. Celebrating all forms of fantasy, science-fiction and horror, they’ve been around since 1995. It’s no lie to admit that ever since I started writing seriously, I’ve coveted one. They really are the pinnacle of peer-recognition outside of the obvious things like publications and book sales. The Aurealis Awards as good as it gets in Australia. They’re judged, so not a popularity award – they truly recognise the cream of SFFH every year. I’ve been incredibly lucky to be recognised as a finalist 11 times, across a range of categories. But I’d never won. Until now.

Back in March, the 2021 Aurealis Awards shortlists were announced and I was blown away to see my name three times. The Gulp was up for Best Collection and two stories from The Gulp – “Mother in Bloom” and “The Band Plays On” – were up for Best Fantasy Novella and Best Horror Novella respectively. (I’ll reprint the full list of finalists and winners at the end of this post.)

On Saturday, there was a big party down in Canberra and for the first time in three years we got to have an in-person awards ceremony. (Check out these fantastic photos from the awesome Cat Sparks.) It was so much fun to be among friends again. I honestly thought I had no chance of winning. Apart from the fact that I’ve become a little bit used to being an Aurealis Awards bridesmaid, the insane quality of work on the shortlists left me with no illusions.

I was fortunate enough to be asked to present the award for Best Science Fiction Short Story and Best Science Fiction Novella. That was a thrill. The announcement for Best Horror Novella came along and that went to “All The Long Way Down” by Alf Simpson. Then Best Fantasy Novella and that went to Bones Of The Sea by Amy Laurens. I’d had quite a few beers by the time legendary horror writer and my good mate, Kaaron Warren, stepped up to present Best Collection. So I honestly had a moment of dizziness and thought I might genuinely keel over when Kaaron read out my name! Looks at these photos – it gives me so much life to see how overjoyed Kaaron was that I won and I honestly couldn’t think of anyone better to receive my first Aurealis Award from:

(Photos by Cat Sparks)

This is one of the real pleasures of the Australian genre writing community – our genuine love for each other and our joy at each other’s successes. Thank you, Kaaron!

I was a blithering mess when I received the award and have no real recollection of what I said. I know I thanked my good mate Joanne Anderton, who did wonderful beta reading of this book. And I know I thanked my wife and kid for their tireless support of what I do. I don’t remember much else – beer and shock will do that to you. Hopefully I didn’t say anything too stupid.

I am so proud and pleased to have finally taken home the shiny here. Especially for this book. Writing The Gulp and The Fall was taking a chance of a kind. Putting them out independently was taking another risk. I am so happy with how well-received they’ve been, I was ecstatic to see The Gulp hit the preliminary ballot for the Stoker Awards, and now it’s won an Aurealis Award. Further proof of the advice we keep giving – write the stories you want to tell. Write what’s burning your heart and your soul, and it’ll find its mark.

Massive respect and thanks to Tehani Croft and all the Aurealis Awards team and judges. You lot are amazing. Thanks to the CSFG for hosting such a mega event. It was SO GOOD to be with friends again. And massive congratulations to all the finalists and winners. Here’s the full list, with the winners in bold.

BEST CHILDREN’S FICTION

The Boy Who Stepped Through Time, Anna Ciddor (Allen & Unwin)

Stellarphant, James Foley (Fremantle Press)

Dragon Skin, Karen Foxlee (Allen & Unwin)

The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)

Elsewhere Girls, Emily Gale & Nova Weetman (Text Publishing)

Barebum Billy, Nicholas Snelling (BAD DAD Publishing)

BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL / ILLUSTRATED WORK

The Curiosities, Zana Fraillon & Phil Lesnie (illustrator) (Hachette Australia)

Treasure in the Lake, Jason Pamment (Allen & Unwin)

Mechanix, Ben Slabak & Edoardo Natalini (Cloud 9 Comix)

Killeroo: Semper Fidelis, Matthew Soall & Ignacio Di Meglio (illustrator) (OzComics)

BEST YOUNG ADULT SHORT STORY

“The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #331)

“Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)

“Of Slaves and Lions”, Pamela Jeffs (Stories of Survival, Deadset Press)

“Slaughterhouse Boys”, Emma Osborne (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)

“Way-bread Rising”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Stories of Survival, Deadset Press)

“Hunger”, Marianna Shek (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)

BEST HORROR SHORT STORY

“Don’t Look!”, Lisa Fuller (Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Wakefield Press)  

“Traces of Us, Hot Enough for Dinner”, Ephiny Gale (The Dread Machine 1.3)

“The House that Hungers”, Maria Lewis (Aurealis #146, Chimaera Publications)

“The Quiet Room”, Martin Livings (Midnight Echo #16, The Australasian Horror Writers Association)

“Sins of the Mother”, Tracie McBride (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, IFWG Publishing Australia)

“Mother Dandelion”, Antoinette Rydyr (Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST HORROR NOVELLA

When the Cicadas Stop Singing, Zachary Ashford (Horrific Tales Press)

“The Band Plays On”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp, self-published)

“Hell’s Teeth”, Matthew R Davis (Haunted: An Anthology, Specul8 Publishing)

Cryptid Killers, Alister Hodge (Severed Press)

“All The Long Way Down”, Alf Simpson (Cthulhu Deep Down Under Volume 3, IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST FANTASY SHORT STORY

“Who Wants to be a Reaper”, Jane Brown (The Centropic Oracle)

“So-called Bin Chicken”, E J Delaney (Curiouser Magazine #2)

“All my Tuesdays”, Laura J Fitzwilson (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)

“Old Souls”, Aiki Flinthart (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, CAT Press)

“The Woods Echo Back”, Tania Fordwalker (Beneath Ceaseless Skies #331)

“Frabjous”, Alexander Gibbs (Cicerone Journal Issue 5: Curious Worlds)

BEST FANTASY NOVELLA

“Mother in Bloom”, Alan Baxter (The Gulp, self-published)

“The Little One”, Rebecca Fraser (Coralesque and Other Tales to Disturb and Distract, IFWG Publishing Australia)

“Bones Of The Sea”, Amy Laurens (Inkprint Press)

“Echo and Narcissus”, Tansy Rayner Roberts (Sheep Might Fly podcast, self-published)

“The Scarab Children of Montague”, Suzanne J Willis (Falstaff Books)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION SHORT STORY

“He Leaps for the Stars, He Leaps for the Stars” Grace Chan (Clarkesworld #178)

“For Autumn”, Melissa Ferguson (Revolutions, Deadset Press)

“Honey and a Hanging”, Aiki Flinthart (Tribute, Black Hart Publishing)

“The Reunion”, Emily Fox (Nature: Futures)

“Relict: (noun) A Widow; a Thing Remaining From the Past”, Alison Goodman (Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, CAT Press)

“Legacy of the Species”, Pamela Jeffs, (The Terralight Collection, Four Ink Press)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVELLA

“Access Denied”, Baden Chant (Aurealis #142, Chimaera Publications)

The Cruise to the End of the World, Craig Cormick (Merino Press)

“The Birdsong Fossil”, D K Mok (Multispecies Cities: Solarpunk Urban Futures, World Weaver Press)

“Problem Landing”, Sean Monaghan (Analog Science Fiction and Science Fact Mar/Apr)

“Preserved in Amber”, Samantha Murray (Clarkesworld #178)

“A Vast Silence”, T R Napper (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov/Dec)

BEST COLLECTION

The Gulp, Alan Baxter, (self-published)

Danged Black Thing, Eugen Bacon (Transit Lounge Publishing)

The Terralight Collection, Pamela Jeffs (Four Ink Press)

The Tallow-Wife & Other Tales, Angela Slatter (Tartarus Press)

Little Labyrinths: Collected Microfictions, Sean Williams (Brain Jar Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY

Who Sleuthed It?, Lindy Cameron (Ed.) (Clan Destine Press)

Relics, Wrecks & Ruins, Aiki Flinthart (Ed.), Lauren Elise Daniels & Geneve Flynn (assistant Eds.), CAT Press

Hometown Haunts: #LoveOzYA Horror Tales, Poppy Nwosu (Ed.) (Wakefield Press)

Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, Deborah Sheldon (Ed.) (IFWG Publishing Australia)

BEST YOUNG ADULT NOVEL

Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

Terciel and Elinor, Garth Nix (Allen & Unwin)

Echo in the Memory, Cameron Nunn (Walker Books Australia)

Dirt Circus League, Maree Kimberley (Text Publishing)

It’s Not You, It’s Me, Gabrielle Williams (Allen & Unwin)

BEST HORROR NOVEL

The Bridge, J S Breukelaar (Meerkat Press)

Midnight in the Chapel of Love, Matthew R Davis (JournalStone Publishing)

Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)

The Airways, Jennifer Mills (Picador Australia)

Holly and the Nobodies, Ben Pienaar (Hellbound Books LLC)

BEST FANTASY NOVEL 

Supermums – And So It Begins, Meg Grace (self-published)

The Rose Daughter, Maria Lewis (Piatkus / Hachette / Little Brown)

A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske (Tor)

Dark Rise, C S Pacat (Allen & Unwin)

She Who Became the Sun, Shelley Parker-Chan (Mantle)

All the Murmuring Bones, Angela Slatter (Titan Books)

BEST SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL

Waking Romeo, Kathryn Barker (Allen & Unwin)

The 22 Murders of Madison May, Max Barry (Hachette Australia)

Stealing Time, Rebecca Bowyer (Story Addict Publishing)

Papa Lucy & The Boneman, Jason Fischer (Outland Entertainment)

Aurora’s End, Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

Deepwater King, Claire McKenna (HarperCollins Publishers)

SARA DOUGLASS BOOK SERIES AWARD

Lifespan of Starlight [Lifespan of Starlight (2015); Split Infinity (2016); Edge of Time (2018)], Thalia Kalkipsakis (Hardie Grant Egmont)

Elementals [Ice Wolves (2018); Scorch Dragons (2019); Battle Born (2020)], Amie Kaufman (HarperCollins)

Unearthed [Unearthed (2017); Undying (2018)], Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner (Allen & Unwin)

Lifelike [LIFEL1K3 (2018); DEV1AT3 (2019); TRUEL1F3 (2020)], Jay Kristoff (Allen & Unwin)

Winter [The Road to Winter (2016); Wilder Country (2017); Land of Fences (2019)], Mark Smith (Text Publishing)

Blood and Gold [Crown of Rowan (enovella, 2014); Daughters of the Storm (2014); Sisters of the Fire (2016); Queens of the Sea (2019)], Kim Wilkins (HarperCollins)

CONVENORS’ AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE – Dangerous Visions and New Worlds: Radical Science Fiction, 1950-1985, Andrew Nette & Iain McIntyre (Eds.) (PM Press)

The Writer as a D&D character class

May 20, 2022

While chatting to some friends about Dungeons & Dragons recently we started talking about our own jobs as a D&D character class. It was kinda fun to think about how the main stats of a D&D character sheet would apply to our gigs. Because I’m a massive nerd, I started thinking about it in more detail and writing it down. And here’s what I came up with for Writer as a D&D Character Class.

All D&D characters have 6 primary stats, so let’s start with those:

STR – Strength – You need to be able to carry the weight of whatever work is required at any time, and you need to be strong enough to keep making work while living life. Making time to write takes a kind of strength – strength of conviction at the very least. And you need to be tough. You need a thick skin to be a writer, you need resilience. You need to be able to keep going in the face of rejection, because rejection is the default. (Obviously, this crosses a lot with constitution.)

DEX – Dexterity – You need to be able to pivot to take advantage of any opportunity. So much of writing is luck, but the harder you work, the luckier you’ll get. You need the professional dexterity to grab an opportunity when it comes along.

CON – Constitution – Along with STR above, it’s important to remember that this gig is a marathon, not a sprint. Don’t quit! You only fail if you quit.

INT – Intelligence – You gotta keep learning. You need to constantly improve your craft. If you stop learning, you’ll stagnate. So you have to apply your intelligence to constant improvement.

WIS – Wisdom – Not all things are equal. You need to develop the wisdom to make the right choices about what you want to write, what opportunities to prioritise and so on. (I’m constantly second-guessing myself on this one.)

CHA – Charisma – Despite what people say, there is definitely an advantage in being charismatic. This doesn’t mean looks, it means not being a dick. It means being professionally available and open, being a good person and easy to get along with. Being eloquent and appealing, online and in person. A Neil Gaiman quote comes to mind. To paraphrase: To succeed as a writer you need at least two of the following three: You need to be good at it, you need to deliver work on time, and you need to be easy to work with. Ideally you have all three qualities.

During your life as a writer, you’ll constantly need to make Saving Throws against these stats. You’ll fail a *lot* of them, but that’s okay. Keep going – see CON above.

A D&D character sheet lists a lot of Skills. The correlation here is relatively self-evident, but beyond the skills of grammar and prose, what else do you have? What life skills can you draw on for your writing? I’m a career martial artist, so I draw on that a lot. I’ve been in rock bands, I’ve had a variety of jobs and hobbies. It can all inform what I write. And then there’s the writing skills beyond grammar and spelling. What skills can you develop, like writing for an hour every morning or making notes while you’re out and about? What use of language skills can you develop, to write evocative prise that’s not purple?

In D&D you frequently roll for Initiative (usually in combat). It basically determines who goes first. In this case, who keeps working hard enough to be ready to take on projects. Who can work fast enough to get those projects done on time. What opportunities can you grab?

Again in combat, characters have an Armour Class. In D&D, that’s literally your armour, your ability to withstand hits. Plate armour is more protective than leather or chainmail, but it affects your movement and speed too. In writing, how thick is your skin? The hits keep coming, and you’ve got to resist them. But you’ve got to keep moving too. Taking hits and carrying on is part of the gig.

How many Hit Points do you have? That’s your health. How long can you stay in the game? How many hits before you fall down? But more importantly, in D&D a long rest restores all your hit points. Don’t underestimate the value of downtime, of refilling the well. You need to take breaks from writing in order to recharge. Then you can take more hits and get more done.

Equipment

What do you have beyond your keyboard? A notebook and voice recorder app, sure. But what else? Life is your toolbox – get out there and experience life, listen to people, don’t just look, but notice. This is your writerly equipment. And your brain, of course. Exercise it, keep it oiled and in good working order.

Background

Whether you like it or not, your background matters. I play life on easy – as a straight white male, I have massive privilege. And I’m not especially poor – at least, I’m not destitute. That makes it way easier to do what I do. However, I come from a poor working class background, so that plays well into the kind of stuff I write. Laird Barron once described my work as having a “strong blue collar sensibility” and I take that as a compliment. Your character background will colour your writing – PoC, LGBTQ+, your location, your socio-economic standing – it all affects what you write, how you write, when you have time to write. All of it.

Alignment

Are you evil? There’s a general rule in writing, and it applies to life in general: Don’t be a dick. But some people thrive on being an arsehole. That’s true of writers too. Will you be the kind who helps people or hinders them? Will you stay neutral and quiet? How chaotic are you? This is your alignment.

Magic

And here’s the real heart of it. Can you cast magic? I hope so, because storytelling is casting a spell. Books are a uniquely portable magic – Stephen King said that. The more you do this, the more it feels like magic passing through you rather than any conscious effort on your part. I’m fairly convinced that being a writer is constantly striving to become a high level Literary Sorcerer, where we create the most powerful magic that transports people. It’s something to always striver for, anyway.

So there you have it. The Writer as a D&D character class.

BLIND EYE MOON merchandise

May 14, 2022

BLIND EYE MOON are the best band in the world. At least, that’s true in the fictional world of Gulpepper. They first appeared in “The Band Plays On” in THE GULP, and they get another turn later on in THE FALL. A lot of people started talking about how the band should have their own line of merch, like a real band. It seemed like a fun idea. So I designed a band logo (with some valuable help from my friend, Dennis Lum – thanks, Dennis!) The logo is what you see there on the left.

I’ve subsequently made a whole line of merchandise. At this point, it’s split over two stores, which is a bit annoying. Most of the stuff is at my Teepublic store, but they don’t do double-sided t-shirts and you can’t have band merch without a tour shirt, so I set up another store to manage that. At some point I think I’ll try to move everything into one place, but for now, you can get:

Stickers here.

Full chest logo t-shirt here.

Phone case here.

A pin here.

And magnets here.

All that stuff is at the Teepublic store, so you can have a look around my storefront there too to see what else I have that’s not Blind Eye Moon merch.

And here’s the double-sided tour shirt, which is currently at a Zazzle store, as seen below.

Any problems, give me a shout!