Sinister Reads
I had a really awesome dream the other night – the kind that most “normal” people would consider a nightmare. That’s all. I wasn’t really going anywhere with that story because I can’t remember the dream, just that I had one. I like to share.
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Sinister Happenings
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Welcome to Cohesion Press!
https://www.facebook.com/CohesionPress
We are a small press based in Australia.
Our concept is to publish within a new paradigm, in that we plan to release anthologies that are mostly filled by solicited authors, yet we will still open a few spots for general submissions.
Cohesion will be also be publishing novels and novellas by solicited authors, yet we will, at certain specified times, open to general submissions.
Our first offering will be SNAFU: An Anthology of Military Sci-Fi/Horror.
More details on our anthology submissions page.
For more information on upcoming submission themes and periods, check out our submissions pages.
Cohesion Press will be publishing world-wide, in both print and e-book formats, and also plan to venture into the limited edition hardback format.
We employ professional editors, artists, and proofreaders.
We will not do your work any injustice.
We are here to stay.
Geoff Brown – Editor-in-chief
Sinister Reminders
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AHWA Members Critique Groups
The AHWA announce the launch of two new critique groups last month.
The ever popular short story critique group is being resurrected – and we’re going to trial a brand new writer’s workshop that is open to all members of the AHWA. That’s right – novels, novellas, short stories – all are invited to participate. Membership to both groups is open to members of the AHWA by invitation only.
If you are interested in taking part in either of these two groups, you need to join the AHWA today, and check out all the other exciting opportunities, you as an author, are currently missing out on. There are tips on writing, how to get published, competitions, group forums and so much more.
Check out the Australian Horror Writer’s Association web-site today and become a member.
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The Australia Shadow Awards – 2014 Submissions Open!
The Australian Shadows are the annual literary awards presented by the AHWA and judged on the overall effect – the skill, delivery, and lasting resonance – of horror fiction written or edited by an Australian.
Winners of the Awards receive a hand crafted trophy from the masters of the horror special effects industry, Nightshade FX.
The awards are open to submission of any horror fiction published (or anthologies edited) by an Australian/New Zealand/Oceania resident or citizen in the 2013 calendar year—submissions until February 28th 2014.
Past winners of the Shadows include a who’s who of Australian Horror Writers; Lee Battersby, Terry Dowling, Paul Haines, Brett McBean, Kirstyn McDermott, Bob Franklin, Kaaron Waaren, Will Elliott, Deborah Biancotti, Amanda Spedding.
From 2011, the award has five categories: Novel; Long Fiction (novellas and novelettes); Short Fiction (short stories); Collection (single author collections); and Edited Publication (anthologies and magazine issues).
Shortlists for each category will be determined by a panel of judges . The shortlisted finalists are announced in March/April every year.
Read the Award Entry Guidelines to find out how to enter works for consideration.
Follow regular updates on the Australian Shadows Awards Facebook page.
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AHWA Creative Retreat
The Australian Horror Writers Association run three-day/two-night stays at haunted locations for writers, editors, artists, photographers, film makers and any other creative-type people.
They involve having the days to create and the nights to investigate how to be scared stiff.
Upcoming Event:
Mayday Hills Asylum Creative Retreat
Beechworth’s Mayday Hills Asylum was one of the largest institutions in Victoria. Opened in 1867 (the same year as Aradale), this building also housed thousands of people described as ‘lunatics’, ‘idiots’ and ‘imbeciles’. Closing in 1995 after 128 years of operation, this site is considered one of the most haunted locations in Australia. At its height, Mayday Hills consisted of 67 buildings and was home to over 1200 patients and 500 staff.
As you spend three days and two nights in the facility, you will be able to explore the cold and deserted buildings of what was once a notorious and feared institution in Victoria . Spend the days writing, drawing, filming or photographing the beautiful architecture, and spend the nights scared stiff in the haunted buildings.
Cost: $345
Keep an eye on the AHWA website and Facebook page for further details as they are arranged.
Sinister Reads
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Midnight Echo Issue 9
EDITOR – Geoff Brown aka GN Braun
Illustrator: Mel Gannon (cover/internal), Greg Chapman (internal)
Publisher: Australian Horror Writers Association
RRP: $12.50 print/$2.99 Kindle, ePub, PDF
Release date: 31 May
Available here.
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Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses
Leigh Blackmore
Illustrator: Gavin L. O’Keefe
Publisher: P’rea Press
ISBN no.: 9780980462524
RRP: $14AU (10% off AHWA members, 15% off 2 or more)
Release date: May 2013 (third revised printing)
Available at:
- P’rea Press
- Notions Unlimited Bookshop and other bookshops
- Amazon
Spores from Sharnoth is a spellbinding poetic expedition and trance undertaken by the author, Leigh Blackmore into visions like The Doors’ the end. It is a cloud of churning darkness with eyes flying
over a plain of Leng. Blackmore has written poetry of great audacity and verve. The darkness of Ubbo Sathla seethes between the lines of your holding, trembling fingers and spills over the pages like ooze. Now Sharnoth is reprinted for the third dastardly time and may require … exorcism. Any reviews relative to the publication.
Reviews:
- Outstanding technical quality … deeply felt and well-crafted poems. – Donald Sidney-Fryer (author Songs and Sonnets Atlantean, The Atlantis Fragments)
- The author undeniably has a talent for evoking mysterious and sometimes unsettling images … Superior in quality to most of the other poetry I’ve read in the same vein. – Don D’Ammassa (Critical Mass)
- Leigh Blackmore’s verse will appeal strongly to fans of H. P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith … To be treasured for its elegant lines, spooky sonnets, and cosmic vistas. – Darrell Schweitzer (author Transients, Ghosts of Past and Future)
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Avatars of Wizardry: Poetry Inspired by George Sterling’s “A Wine of Wizardry” and Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Hashish-Eater.”
George Sterling, Clark Ashton Smith, Richard L. Tierney, Leigh Blackmore, Alan Gullette, Bruce Boston, Earl Livings, Wade German, Michael Fantina, Kyla Lee Ward.
Editor: Charles Lovecraft
Illustrator: Gavin L. O’Keefe (cover), David Schembri (frontispiece)
Publisher: P’rea Press
ISBN no.: 9780980462586
RRP (Please specify currency): $14 AU (10% off AHWA members, 15% off 2 or more)
Release date: November 2012
Available at:
- P’rea Press
- Notions Unlimited Bookshop and other bookshops
- Amazon
Avatars of Wizardry is ten jewelled poems of classic strangeness and madness. The authors in these exotic works take on various challenges. They plunge through existence on perilous journeys of incandescent wonder and cryptic terror. The poetry is unparalleled, meticulous, and quintessential, driving between flamed pillars of hell, or glowing nymphaeas in the other place. One poet goes back to the dawn and slime of time. Another sees the destruction of the whole later universe (and, actually, three do that). The goddess of Fancy visits Satan. And unearthly Music strums on a lyre of lyrical voids. You are not spared gorgeousness, or vivid exhilarations of light and dark.
Reviews:
- Inspired by George Sterling and Clark Ashton Smith, yet fueled by the twenty-first century talents of celebrated poets from both hemispheres, this collection of vintages has something for every rarefied taste. From hashish dreams to psychic expeditions through deep space-time, here are experiences not to be found elsewhere. Sip slowly, and revel in the flight. – Ann K. Schwader (author Twisted in Dream, In the Yaddith Time, Wild Hunt of the Stars)
- A feast of fantastic verse, a special delight for Klarkash-tonians who need no further reassurance that the stately, cosmic tradition represented by such masterpieces as “The Star-Treader” and “The Hashish-Eater” is alive and well. – Darrell Schweitzer (author Pathways to Elfland, Exploring Fantasy Worlds)
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Sinister Slices
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Lament Of the Unknown Soldier
by Steven Gepp
Published in War Is Hell (anthology – Cruentus Libri press)
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La Mort d’un Roturier
by Martin Livings
Published in This Is How You Die
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Bangor Haunted: Stephen King’s Derry
by Brett Hiatt
Published in Sutro Media
* Fictional travel App that marks down real locations within Bangor and Maine where Stephen King has inspired locations and indeed content from his stories
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On the Darkness of Cats
by Jenny Blackford
Published in Horror Writers Association newsletter
* A guest column for Marge Simon’s regular Dark Poets feature Publication
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Sinister Reads 
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