You’ll get this in your inbox if you’re subscribed to my email, but I always crosspost it here too. If you want to subscribe, head to https://alanbaxter.com.au/contact/ and fill in the form.
Hello fiends
I hope this finds you well. I’m in pretty good shape, all things considered. I’m in a strangely liminal place in terms of writing and publishing right now, but I’m doing my best not to freak out about it. This job is so weird and only the truly masochistic and bloody-minded stick at it. I’m certainly stubborn, so I’m in it for the long haul. You know how we say, “Stubborn as a mule”? Mules say, “Stubborn as an Australian horror writer”.
I have a variety of things going on and, at the same time, absolutely fuck all going on. Which is a frequent state of being for a writer. I have a number of projects either on the go, on submission, or about to go on submission. I’m waiting to hear back about several things. The waiting, by all the gods old and new, the fucking waiting in this gig. But, I try to cope with it by staying busy.
If you’re a Patreon subscriber, you’ll know I’m serialising the first draft of a new novella over there. That’s been on hold because a sudden deadline came up, but I plan to get back to that this week. And talking of novellas, last year’s book, The Leaves Forget, has been nominated for a Ditmar Award in the Best Novella or Novelette category, which is very exciting. This marks my 15th time as a Ditmar Award finalist, but I’ve yet to win that award. If you happen to be a member of this year’s Conflux or any recent NatCon, you can vote and I would greatly appreciate your vote if you think the book deserves it. You can use an online voting form right here: https://ditmars.sf.org.au/2024
In other general writing news, the ebook of my novella collection, The Gulp, is on sale at the moment. You can get it at any vendor for 99c or the equivalent in your currency – that’s about 77p in the UK, about $1.49 here in Australia, and so on. If you buy the ebook direct from me through my website, it’s only 99c Australian, which is a bloody steal. You can get The Gulp and The Fall together for about US$6.00, which has to be a good deal, right? All the links and stuff here: https://alanbaxter.com.au/my-books/the-gulp/
If you prefer your books tattooed on dead trees, of course you can get those anywhere too and through my website if you’d like a signed copy, or if you’re anywhere near Sydney this weekend, come and see me at Oz Comic-Con! It’s my first in-person event of the year and I’ll have The Gulp, The Fall, Sallow Bend, Blood Covenant, and a few hardcovers of The Leaves Forget, as well as a bunch of other cool merch available. Or just come and say hello. All the details here: https://ozcomiccon.com/sydney/
If you happen to still frequent Facebook, there’s a huge group there called Books of Horror and they frequently run these brawls where books go head to head in a kind of indie tournament. It’s all good fun, but if a book happens to get into one of the brawls, that means a lot of extra sales and readers. The next brawl in November is called the Short Smack and it’s for short stories, novellas and collections. I’m entering The Gulp. If you fancy joining up in that group, you’ll find all kinds of good horror book chat, but you’ll also be able to help me get The Gulp up when the voting happens. Pretty please and thank you! But you need to join the group soon, because they close to new members when any brawl voting starts. You’ll find it here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/526308964218819
And that’s about it for me for the time being. I feel like this is a bit of a boring newsletter, but it’s been quite a while since the last one, so I thought I’d let you all know I was still here.
What I’ve Been Enjoying
In terms of TV, I recently rewatched all of Black Sails. I bloody love a good pirate story and that show is just so damn brilliant. I will no doubt watch it again, too. One of these days I’ll write the pirate horror/fantasy I’ve had in mind for many years. And now I’m catching up on The Umbrella Academy. I’m nearing the end of season 3. It’s a great show, albeit completely ridiculous. I have huge respect for how they managed Elliot Page’s transition (he played Vanya and now Viktor in the show). It’s brilliant the way they wrote it in and then the show just rolled on. Bravo, those folks.
In terms of books, I’ve just finished book 17 in the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly. Long-time readers will know I’ve been slowly working through those. This one is A Book of Bones and I think it’s my new favourite so far, I really loved it. And I also really loved The Underhistory by Kaaron Warren and Lone Women by Victor LaValle. Brilliant books both, highly recommended.
So that’s about it from me for now. Please keep all your various appendages crossed in the hope something comes from at least one or two of the various irons I have in various fires right now. Meanwhile, be kind, be well, be awesome. Until next time.
Al