The fat man has finished his annual rampage and crawled back into his Arctic lair as the new year arrives to dish up some fresh Aussie horror. This year you’ll notice some layout changes to keep you up to date with all things macabre (and we like to watch our minions slaving away – What? Everyone needs a hobby.) So strap yourselves in for two reasons. First, the demons tell us it’s easier to possess you if you hold still, and second, when it comes to Aussie horror, you know you’ll be in for a wild ride.
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From the fly on the wall…
For everyone out there looking to build or add to their list of publishing credits, it may interest you to know that the AHWA’s Market Hive is currently undergoing redevelopment. It’s a case of ‘Watch this space’ as Ray Gates works to bring you the markets hungry for your horror. And don’t forget, if you score a spot in a publication, we here at Sinister Reads are here to help you get the word out. Feel free to mention if you found the lead through the Hive, it will mean we can pay Ray in kudos rather than blood.
Next month we’ll be bringing you the Aurealis Awards results. Several members are nominated this year (Chris Green is nominated for 3!) and we wish them all the best of luck as the awards season gets underway. Be sure to find out who went home with a surcharge for the extra weight in their luggage.
We’ll also be giving you an update from the AHWA’s Critique Group who have started the new year with a bang. Rumour has it that a 2nd critique group is in the works, so be sure to grab your spot before they are all gone. We want to be telling tales of your success soon.
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Sinister Reads
~Pre-Order~ Australian Ghost Stories
Edited by James Doig
Release date: 5th Feburary 2010
ISBN: 978-1-84022-641-6
RRP: $12.95
Available from: Wordsworth Editions
Murderous ghosts, horrific curses and monstrous beings haunt an unforgiving landscape into which travellers stray at their peril. Journey through the dark byways of Australia’s Gothic past in the rare stories gathered in this memorable new collection. Work by acclaimed Australian writers such as Marcus Clarke, Henry Lawson and Edward Dyson appears alongside many lesser-known authors such as Beatrice Grimshaw, Mary Fortune and Ernest Favenc. Many of the stories collected here have never been reprinted since their first publication in 19th and early 20th century periodicals and showcase the richness and variety of the Australian ghost and horror story.
James Doig provides an authoritative introduction full of fresh insights into Australian Gothic fiction with detailed biographical notes on the authors represented.
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Savage Menace and other poems of horror
by Richard L. Tierney
Illustrated by Andrew McKiernan
Release date: January 2010
ISBN: 978-0-9804625-5-5
RRP: $35.00 AUD (Hardcover) less discount to AHWA members.
Available from: P’rea Press
Welcome to SAVAGE MENACE AND OTHER POEMS OF HORROR by Richard L. Tierney. Herein you’ll find poems of delectable horror and exquisite savagery and dread. RL “Terminator” Tierney, author of fantasy and the macabre for over fifty years, does not hold back from touching on the ghoulish rhythms of decadence and fright that live at the back of all our universes. Make no mistake, horror fantasy lives appallingly in this majestic book of heightened poetic magic, and feasts of delirious verse. SAVAGE MENACE, lavishly illustrated by Australia’s own Andrew McKiernan, will have you kneeling, groveling, and praying at the shrines of Poe and Lovecraft to make it all go away … And it won’t necessarily. Great poetry is never an acquired taste but the presence of mind to go one step further. It is “a fanfare of supernal trumpets and a clash of immortal cymbals,” to quote H.P. Lovecraft. So be brave, and go there. Down the dark gruesome corridors of this splendid book’s respiring steps and primeval by-ways you always go one mad step further. Might you look back and see how far you’ve gone? Ah, the amazing mazy labyrinth. You may have lost the Minotaur’s thread…. Horror poetry lives, Igor!
Reviews:
“If there is a finer poet in the tradition of Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, I don’t know of one. Tierney has a vision as cosmic and savage as any of theirs, and his expressive skills are enviable indeed.” Ramsey Campbell
“Richard L. Tierney has achieved a distinguished corpus of work in the fields of imaginative literature not just as a distinctive fictioneer but equally as a disciplined and unique poet forging ahead in traditional forms. The genre and shape are lyrical but the vision is epic and heroic, not to mention cosmic.” Donald Sidney-Fryer
“In his poetry there is not a word out of place, not a line that is other than musical, not a stanza that cannot be considered a triumph of quiet eloquence. In his poems Richard L. Tierney exhibits the quintessence of his multifaceted literary gifts.” S. T. Joshi
“There is no other present-day poet in the entire Lovecraftian galaxy who treasures to quite the same extent as does Richard Tierney the fabulous valleys and high mountain peaks of fantasy, or who has captured their splendors with a greater perceptiveness.” Frank Belknap Long
“Richard L. Tierney has ramped respect as one of the premier poets of the macabre in modern times. His finesse is spectral, and elegant. He has devoted most of his life to the pursuit and expression of fantastic literature, in prose and verse. In Savage Menace he hits the spot most powerfully.” Charles Lovecraft
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Kagemono: Tooth and Claw
by Jason Franks & others.
Edited by Jason Franks.
Illustrated by Nicholas Hunter, Yuriko Sekine, Renan L’Hopsum, Brendan Halyday, Carlen Lavigne, Jeff Womack, Luke Pickett, Carl Yonder, Richard Butler
ISBN: 978-0980516739
RRP: $15 AUD
Available from: Amazon and Blackglass Press
Bigger and badder than ever, KAGEMONO: TOOTH AND CLAW will drag you screaming and laughing through ten all new stories: a werewolf-infested city, a coma ward, a sanctuary for vampires, an old factory, the bathroom of tomorrow, a psychic medium’s copy shop, a Miami courthouse, a bluesman’s shag-pad, and a suburban home with a very unusual closet.
Reviews:
“Edited and collated by Melbourne’s Jason Franks, the project has excelled at bringing out mad and frequently violent horror tales with some deliciously talented artists brought on board.” Andrei Buters, Sticky Institute newsletter.
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Sinister Slices
XDA Zai: The Wild Hunt
by Jason Franks
Published in: Assassin’s Canon
Available from: Utility Fog Press
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