Smoke and Mirrors

Podcast at last!

2008-07-03T23:25:00.003+08:00

My story "The Cutting Room" is available over at Pseudopod in all its blood-drenched glory. It's been given life by Damaris Mannering, who does a splendid job as the creepy corpse sex-kitten. Now you really want to listen to it, right?

(and for anyone interested, the word you may not immediately understand is "diener")

Comments and discussion on the Pseudopod message board has been intriguing. It's well worth popping over there and adding your voice.

I'm particularly proud of comments such as "What the hell is wrong with this author?"; "This is exactly what horror should do, make you squirm and feel terribly uncomfortable."; and "Good story, which was very well paced and played with our anticipations in an enjoyable way." I also scored "This was the worst piece of dreck ever pulled from the bowels of any Escape Artists slush pile." So there ya go, grossing people out and dividing audiences. Gotta love it!

On a completely unrelated matter, I was told today that Black magazine will be on sale at every Borders store in Australia - every store will have at least 10 copies! Keep an eye out for it from JULY 14 (i.e. don't rush into your newsagency or Borders looking for it until then).

Galley Club Award nomination!

2008-06-30T00:24:00.005+08:00

I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that I was nominated for a Galley Club Award for the design/galley work on Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2007 edition.

The book was nominated, appropriately enough, in Category 13 (of 18): Non-standard Mono/duotone digitally printed book.

2008 marks the 32nd annual Galley Club Awards, which are presented for excellence in book and magazine production and issued by the Galley Club of Sydney.

The winners were decided this weekend, although no word as yet on who the winners are.

[EDIT: I've since discovered that I did not win category 13, but it's fantastic to be nominated for a national award for excellence in book production. I wasn't even aware such a thing existed until the Google Alert came in. But anway, woot!]

BLACK Friday: the secret is out!

2008-06-13T22:03:00.003+08:00

It's Black Friday and the big secret (well, the big but not-quite-secret-because-several-people-knew-about-it secret) is finally out! Brimstone Press has finally flipped the switch and decided to blow the lid off this indie publishing thing by splashing out on what we believe to be the world's biggest dark entertainment magazine. Yes, as was mentioned on the Southern Horror Yahoo group ages ago, this is our 'Kanga' Rue Morgue, and with a huge print run, national news stand distribution, and a forthcoming national media campaign, BLACK: Australian Dark Culture magazine, will be kicking arses and taking names!

BLACK is not just a horror magazine - it covers the gamut of dark pop culture and entertainment. For example, issue one (launching in July) has features on Heath Ledger in his fateful role as The Joker in The Dark Knight, an interview with M. Night Shyamalan, and an Australian exclusive - a story by Stephen King from his upcoming book Just After Sunset. Plus, there's HEAPS more!

BLACK is a dream come true, and the product of a couple of years of blood, sweat, and the occasional tear. I hope it captures the public's imagination and puts Aussie dark fiction and dark culture squarely front and centre into the public eye.

Thanks to everyone who has wished us well with BLACK's impending launch. Your well wishes have really buoyed us. Most importantly, if you want to support the mag, spread the word, recommend it to friends and colleagues, and urge them to subscribe - it's great value and a fantastic read!

Info is here: www.blackmag.com.au

Black Friday

2008-06-02T01:46:00.002+08:00

This coming Black Friday June 13, the Australian dark fiction landscape will change forever.

SF has had its Golden Ages, but now is the time for dark fiction. The Dark Age of Australian horror is nigh.

Stay tuned...

Two things

2008-05-28T21:24:00.004+08:00

Two things...

1. The first AHWA internet mailer has just been posted to all AHWA members and includes all sorts of cool Aussie horror news including confirmation that Angela and I will be guest editing issue two of Midnight Echo magazine. We'll be reading submissions from August 1.

2. The cover of Morrigan Books' Voices anthology has been released (which will contain my story "A Picture of Death"). Looks pretty cool:

Time?

2008-05-07T23:22:00.003+08:00

My time is officially at a PREMIUM. There simply aren't enough hours in the day or night.

If you need to contact me, be patient. Very, very patient.

I did catch some time away with family birthdays and whatnot recently, but now, definitely, back to the grind.

Some quick news:
Mark and Amanda at Morrigan Books have bought my story "A Picture of Death" for the Voices anthology (hotel horror - awesome). This brings my forthcoming story tally to:

8 originals (including one novella) - in magazines and anthos.
7 reprints (including Spanish & French translations and a podcast).
11 originals in Shards. (Not to mention the 28 reprints!)

The trade off: I haven't written a word of fiction in months.

Now, back to critting, HorrorScope stuff, and painting the world black.

Contracts and subs

2008-04-10T23:49:00.000+08:00

I've been off the short story subs roundabout for much of last year, but in the last few months, I've been determined to rectify this.

I've had two subs rejected for fair reasons (off target subject and a rights issue), and another yesterday rejected (in part) because it was a little offensive. Not bad for a 200 word story! The slush readers reactions varied, but I think the brevity and the possible offensiveness were the culprits. It's actually a fairly innocuous piece (it's not even horror!) - unless you're a devout Catholic. Not to worry, you'll catch that story, "Virgin in the Mist" in the early pages of Shards.

The last few days have brought some welcome good news on the short story front:

1. "The Cutting Room" has been sold to horror podcaster Pseudopod. This story is available in print form in the truly outstanding Apex anthology Gratia Placenti, and is also due to appear in the Spanish horror anthology Paura 4. Pseudopod described it in the acceptance email as "delightfully filthy". As far as compliments go, you can't get much better than that!

I subbed to Pseudopod after Trent Jamieson's success there with his excellent story "Tumble" (which also appeared in Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 edition and was my favourite story from 2005). It's always been a dream of mine to have one of my stories podcast, so receiving the acceptance news was brilliant!

2. I received the contract for my involvement in an upcoming anthology from Morrigan Books. Editor and publisher Mark S. Deniz is like a man possessed with the number of book projects he has on the go. I'm really looking forward to stretching my writing muscles on this story.

3. Dark Wisdom magazine has changed format into a proposed anthology series and online magazine. After querying about my four (!) stories in the 'accepted' pile there, editor William Jones very promptly let me know (tentatively) that three stories will likely go in the anthologies and one ("On Dark Clouds Borne" - flash fiction) will go online. Some might think the end of Dark Wisdom is a bad thing, but I'm really looking forward to seeing what the Elder Signs Press team come up with in the new formats. Books are their forte, so seeing more anthologies come from ESP should be a good thing!

Aside from the subs stuff, I'm having a great time with the AHWA mentor program. Clint, the writer I'm working with, has a bucketload of talent and great potential with horror fiction. Now, I just have to finish off some critiquing and everything will be zen.

Listening to: Home by The God Machine

Damn you all to hell!

2008-04-06T20:45:00.000+08:00

He was widely acknowledged as one of the greatest actors of all time. Clearly a man of extremes, he was also a gun advocate, a civil rights activist, and a stoic sufferer of Alzheimer's Disease. At age 84, Charlton Heston has died.

Although his presence was commanding in Ben-Hur and similar biblical efforts, I think this scene from Planet of the Apes (with Heston as astronaut Taylor) best sums up the man's exit from this mortal coil:

[brandishing a rifle]
Taylor (Heston): Don't try to follow me. I'm pretty handy with this.

Somewhere up there in the Christian Heaven, Moses is racing around in a chariot chasing filthy apes with his boomstick. RIP.

HorrorScope stuff

2008-04-04T22:23:00.004+08:00

HorrorScope has been going great guns in 2008! We may not be the darlings of the awards set (the tremendously overworked Rob Hood the deserving exception in that regard), but it's tremendously satisfying to be doing the hard yards and putting the runs on the board (to mix my sporting metaphors).

The big milestone is HorrorScope reaching its first 100,000 readers. I never thought we'd reach so many people in such a relatively short time! As I said on HorrorScope, thanks for the loyal readers - and especially thanks to the hard-working editors who form the backbone of HorrorScope. HorrorScope is not a one-man show, it is a co-op based on consensus and a spirit of camraderie. I feel the team have a shared desire to promote Australian dark fiction that is infectious, and I'm proud to be a part of it.

For writers and fans of horror from the 90s, I've conducted an informative and entertaining interview on HorrorScope featuring Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond. This dynamic duo is the first team at the helm of the Australian Horror Writers Association's Midnight Echo e-zine and are a wealth of info on horror over the last two decades. You can read the interview here.

The new additions to the HorrorScope team are really adding to the output, too! In March, we set a new record of 73 posts. It all bodes very well for Aussie horror, in my book.

Keep an eye on HorrorScope over the next week or so for some more intriguing bits and bobs.

PS. Congratulations to Terry Dowling for winning this year's Australian Shadows Award! Congratulations also to the nominees and honourable mentions - I very much enjoyed reading your work as one of the judges. I'll be continuing on as an Australian Shadows judge again this year, and it should be fun!

Amazon author page

2008-04-01T21:33:00.002+08:00

In some great news, Chaosium has announced in a recent update that Cthulhu's Dark Cults, edited by David Conyers, is due for an August or September release. It's great (at least for me) because my novella "Requiem for the Burning God", a rip-snorter of a 1930s Lovecraftian Peruvian adventure (with zeppelins and pseudopods!), is filling up a significant portion of the anthology.

The anthology also features stories from Aussies Penelope Love, David Witteveen, and Conyers himself. The whole package looks to be a corker of a read, and it's now available for pre-order on Amazon for a ridiculously good price!

In related news, David has convinced me to set up a fledgling Amazon author page. On Smoke and Mirrors, you'll see a link on the right. All Smoke and Mirrors posts will be syndicated on the Amazon page, so that's exceptionally cool.

Positivity

2008-03-29T23:30:00.006+09:00

On re-reading my Swancon post, I think I was running the risk of being a whiner (sleep deprivation definitely plays tricks on the mind), so it's time to dwell on some very positive things that have happened lately.

1. A number of my stories, along with those from a few other members of the Australian Horror Writers Association, have been short-listed for development into a horror-themed television series being considered for the ABC. It's very early days, and I'm being realistic about it all (chances of this getting off the ground are relatively slim), but the exciting thing is at least an Australian horror series is being considered for mainstream Australian TV. It's fantastic to be on the periphery of something like this, with a chance my work and that of guys I respect could be actual make onto the small screen being a real motivator. Aussie horror rocks! Aussie horror writers rock!

2. New HorrorScoper Brenton Tomlinson (BT to his mates) has written a tremendously positive review of Apex Publication's Gratia Placenti anthology. All bias aside, Gratia Placenti is a small press gem - it follows in the steps of Apex's Stoker Award-nominated antho Aegri Somnia, and in my opinion is a far superior book. It was only published in December, and if you're looking for an excellent slice of the horror genre, pick yourself up a copy!

My story in Gratia Placenti - "The Cutting Room" - is probably my best horror story published to date. Here's what BT had to say about the story:

"The Cutting Room" by our own Shane Jiraiya Cummings is an amazing tale that many of you will already be aware of. This was the first time I’d had the pleasure of reading it. Shane easily translates the cold and clinical world of the morgue onto the pages and then adds a good measure of dark to disturb the reader. Then he twists, repulsing and yet drawing in the viewer so in the end, the tale will linger in the minds of the anthology reader for some time to come.

3. Speaking of HorrorScope, I couldn't be happier with how the 'dark little zine that could' is progressing. The six new 'Scopers are just freakin' awesome, and have provided some timely new blood to augment the phenomenal work done by the founding editors. This month, we have broken the record for the number of posts in a month (65, with 2 days to go) and we're soon to reach 100,000 visitors to the site. I've also just added the ability to do run polls on the site, with the first poll (on reading preferences) live on HorrorScope tonight. Go and vote!

I should also add that Robert Hood's winning of the Ditmar Award for Best Fan Writer was incredibly well-deserved. Rob's reviews on HorrorScope, his website, and his blog (plus various other venues) are amazingly insightful and staggering in volume. Nice one, Rob!

On a more thoughtful note, it occurs to me that given there was no official announcement or media release issued, if the Ditmar and Tin Duck Award winners weren't posted on HorrorScope (and also ASif), there would not be a public record of them. It's a small point given the positivity and professionalism surrounding the Swancon awards ceremony, but one worth noting for future awards.

Swancon thoughts

2008-03-26T22:54:00.003+09:00

I'm never sure what to say after events like Swancon. Glancing around the blogosphere, it appears a great time was had by all. There's also been some post-con discussion on alienated new members, and how to attract and retain these people. I think my experiences fall somewhere in the middle.

I was only there on the Sunday, but I still crossed paths (albeit briefly) with some great people: Matt Chrulew, Ian Mond, Dirk Flinthart, Satima, Helen, and some the KSP SF crew, Tehani, Tim from White Dwarf Books, Russell and Liz, etc etc. Also had what I thought was an entertaining and thoughtful panel on Australian horror with Stephen and Lee. I especially enjoyed sharing a couple of Tigers over lunch with refreshingly like-minded mate Robert Hoge and discussing all things dark and scary with HorrorScoper Craig Bezant.

My experience was somewhat muted by my lack of sleep. Because of a few issues to do with completing the Black Box e-anthology, I didn't sleep the night before, and had only slept a couple of hours the night before that. I have no idea whether the giant black boxes we put so much time and energy into has helped Fantastic Planet sell the CDs. I hope so. It's all a blur.

The awards ceremony was a good one. There was plenty of emotion in the room with the awarding of the Mumfan and Silver Swan awards. Lots of woo-ing, too, when names were called. Alisa and co took home a trolley load of awards, and it was especially great to see Russell win a Ditmar for Fantastic Wonder Stories. He reckons 10% of it belongs to me (which is about how much of the book "Yamabushi Kaidan" takes up), but I don't think I've added all that much to the momentum he's created with Ticonderoga Publications. It was also nice to see Rick Kennett, that quiet achiever of Aussie horror, win a Ditmar for "The Dark and What It Said".

No awards from my seven nominations, but that wasn't a surprise. It's always a thrill and an honour to be nominated, and as I've said previously, Swancon doesn't really cater to the horror crowd. Also, I don't think I'm all that well known locally, and I've put a few noses out of joint (inadvertantly or not), so I'm sure that's a factor when it comes to a popular vote. That said, in my sleep-deprived state, I was sure I heard a boo from one small section of the crowd when my name was called out towards the end of the evening, although Russell and Liz assure me this wasn't the case. I had planned to hang around and share some drinks with the winners, but after going non-stop for days and feeling (perhaps wrongly) not all that welcome, I had nothing left in the tank and so left for home and some sleep (although not before posting the award winners on HorrorScope).

Rather than dwell on perceived negatives, I'll offer a suggestion for those contemplating programming for future Swancons: take Grant Watson's lead (with my participation in the horror panel), be proactive, and invite suitably qualified panellists. Not everyone hangs around blogs and websites (as I'm doing a lot less these days), so if you have a panel on a specialised topic and are aware of people who may be experts in that field, then why not drop them an invite? There was a flash fiction panel at Swancon, for instance, but people like myself and Angela Challis weren't contacted. There are only half a dozen spec fic editors and one to two dozen spec fic writers in WA, so there's a natural resource to tap into. It's also a great way to make people feel more welcome.

Black Box

2008-03-18T08:31:00.003+09:00

At last, find out what's inside the box!

Swancon horror panel

2008-03-15T20:31:00.002+09:00

Here's the details of the Swancon horror panel. All you black-clad maniacs, come and check it out!

Horror: The State of the Art
Panellists: Stephen Dedman, Lee Battersby, Shane Jiraiya Cummings
Venue: All Seasons Hotel, Northbridge. Oshanesii room
Date: Sunday March 23, 12:00 noon

Description: Where exactly is the Australian horror scene today? Some commentators have pointed to a recent resurgence in the field - is this the sign of more growth to come, or a momentary swell of interest before audiences return to reading other genres? What is it that Australian horror has to offer that other nations can't? An incisive look into one of Australia's most promising - and oftentimes most neglected - genres.

Shards up for pre-order

2008-03-14T22:04:00.000+09:00

"This is how flash fiction should be written – sharp, brilliant images conjured by amazingly few words. Cummings’ aptitude for flash fiction is evident in every carefully chosen phrase."
– Stephanie Gunn, HorrorScope.

SHARDS is the debut collection of dark flash fiction from Ditmar Award winner and multi-award nominee Shane Jiraiya Cummings.

SHARDS features forty short, sharp tales, including stories that have appeared in Shadowed Realms, Apex Digest, Dark Wisdom, Horror Literature Quarterly, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Borderlands, Shadow Box, Book of Shadows, Simulacrum, and Shorthorror.com, plus ten originals so jagged, they'll shave a layer off your eyeballs when you read them!

EVERY story in SHARDS is accompanied by the darkly imaginative illustrations of Andrew J McKiernan.

SHARDS is now available for pre-order from Ticonderoga Publications (in limited and ultra exclusive numbered editions). The limited edition is available for a short time at the ridiculously low price of less than $20.

SHARDS is also available in a special pre-order bundle along with Sean Williams' 'best of' collection MAGIC DIRT and Lewis Shiner's upcoming collection LOVE IN VAIN. Save a fistful of cash by order all three in one hit!

The collection is expected to be published in October 2008.*

*Note: publication was delayed last year, so those patient people who have already pre-ordered can expect a much more polished collection when Shards is released later this year.

Swancon and Tin Ducks

2008-03-14T22:01:00.003+09:00

I'll be attending Swancon but on the Sunday only. The two set events I have in the diary are being a panellist on the 'Horror: The state of the art' at noon (the only horror specific panel on the program, but that's cool, it's a foothold in SF-ville) and attending the Ditmar/Tin Duck Awards ceremony in the evening.

I'm free to catch up any time for the rest of the day.

Speaking of awards ceremonies, I'm up for another three Tin Ducks. Two for short fiction (horror story "The Cutting Room" from Gratia Placenti and "Yamabushi Kaidan and the Smoke Dragon" from Fantastic Wonder Stories). Another for HorrorScope under fan production. The full (and I mean full) list of nominees is here.

This 'Duck completes a hat trick for the adventurous Yamabushi Kaidan. The story has now been nominated for an Aurealis Award, a Ditmar Award, and a Tin Duck.

The Clarion successes continue

2008-03-09T17:18:00.003+09:00

Good mate Nathan Burrage (author of the mystical thriller Fivefold, from Random House) has been interviewed by Sky TV about his novel. Well done, buddy!

It's great to see the Clarion South '05 alumni doing so well. Ellen K picked up a Nebula right after the workshop, Nike published a couple of novels (lit and kids, respectively), Deb scored a double book deal with a major publisher (look out for her in 2009!), and now Nathan has hit the bigtime with a debut novel some are comparing with the Da Vinci Code (presumably the success thereof, not the sucky bits).

The interesting thing is that the majority of these works were written before Clarion, but I think the success of the workshop comes not just from the honing of one's writing ability, but the business savvy and the industry advice one picks up. I learned a fair bit myself - I just need to finish off a novel or three and catch up with my illustrious co-Clarionites!

The day job

2008-03-04T23:36:00.000+09:00

I very rarely mention the day job here because the name 'Shane Cummings' is increasingly limited to my day job and that name doesn't belong here. In every other aspect of my life, I am Shane Jiraiya Cummings. If you have cause to address me by my full name, I'd much rather it be the latter. In fact, in fields of endeavour outside my day job, I find it rather disrespectful if you don't. How you use this information is entirely up to you.

As SJC, I may seem rather blinded to political and world affairs. These, too, do not belong on the news blog of a Western Australian dark fiction writer (except as fodder for storylines). Given the seeming lack of focus beyond publishing, it may suprise you, dear reader, that I am the managing editor of WA's doctors' magazine - Medical Forum - a rather long-running and (I'd like to think) respected magazine of medico-political and social matters. (Yes, I am a professional editor, some might even say journalist, but I shy away from ackowledgement of this).

Sometimes, my life as Medical Forum's editor spills me into the public eye. The most recent example: I ran a survey on resigned health chief Dr Neale Fong (Australia's highest paid public servant who quit after being tainted with Brian Burke's poisonous quills) which went on to be featured in stories in The Australian and The Sunday Times on the weekend. An elaboration of the Sunday Times story received top billing on the Perth Now (news.com.au) website today. The story, in full, is here.

In that story, I went on the record and broke the unspoken journalist's code. I picked a side. For the record, I think Fong was left to hang out to dry, and for all the demonising he's received through the media, he has always struck me as a decent bloke and our interactions have been nothing but professional. If you had read the transcripts of the allegedly damning phone calls and the emails from/to Burke - as I have - you'd see it looked to be a beat up.

(Incidentally, I was also the guy who broke that story last year about WA's spiralling Caesarean section rates. The one that caught the national media's attention last April and sparked changes in the WA health system. It was a nice piece of journalism, too!).

But enough about that Shane Cummings guy.

Applauding the best and darkest

2008-03-04T23:08:00.003+09:00

I have finally completed my duties as an Australian Shadows Award judge. Today, the Australian Horror Writers Association released the list of finalists and honourable mentions. Congratulations to the well-deserved nominees! Our judges reports are also online and worth the read for anyone interested in the horror field from 2007.

I enjoyed judging for the Australian Shadows Award with Gary and Mark (and Kirstyn hovering in the background). So much, in fact, that I've agreed to a second year in my judging tour of duty. I'm not sure who the other judges will be (Mark has completed the second year of his 'tour').

Today also heralded the discovery of not one but two reviews for Angela's Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2007 edition (featuring my story "The Garden Shed Pact").

Chuck McKenzie's review at HorrorScope is here.

Martel Sardina's review at Dark Scribe magazine is here.

Although Martel doesn't mention my story, Chuck says of "The Garden Shed Pact":
‘The Garden Shed Pact’ by Shane Jiraiya Cummings deals with spiders. Or, to be exact, one very big spider. What could well have become a standard big-bug shocker in the hands of a lesser writer here is elevated by the author’s focus on the human element - loss, guilt and redemption – plus the niggling suspicion, raised through the way in which the author presents his protagonist, that there may be more than a whiff of mental illness involved here.

Thanks Chuck! Both reviewers have nothing but praise for the antho, which I feel (as someone who co-edited the first but not the second) is a superior product to the first volume.

While on the subject of brilliant reviews, my story "The Cutting Room" in Apex Publications' Gratia Placenti anthology, has scored tremendously well with the reviewers.

Michele Lee at Dark Scribe said:
"The Cutting Room" by Shane Jiraiya Cummings easily surpasses its sex and gore façade. In this tale of a bizarre incident in an autopsy room and a corpse who isn't quite done with the living, Cummings shows not only an innate knowledge of what happens after death but also an ability to twist a story around a reader like a deadly trap. Playful and sexually-charged in all the wrong ways, this tale of dead love puts the stories of necrophiliac morticians to shame.

Norm Rubenstein at Horror World mentions in passing:
Shane Jiraiya Cummings’ The Cutting Room is a very different, graphic, and entertaining take upon an autopsy, not necessarily the easiest of combinations to pull off.

At Fear Zone, Steve Vernon didn't quite take to the story, while Gabrielle S Faust loved the anthology but didn't go into specifics.

Still, I'm hard pressed to be disappointed by any of the above.

Reasons to celebrate

2008-02-25T22:27:00.003+09:00

1. Thanks, Ju. Congrats to all nominees!

2. Aussie alternative/metal musos absolutely rock in a most substantial way! *sign of the Devil*

3. My story "Chasing Jormungand" is scheduled to appear in issue #35 of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (due May 2008).

Empire building

2008-02-24T22:30:00.004+09:00

Russell B Farr has started a Google group to run a moderated discussion on amendments to the Ditmar Awards. I joined it today and then quit - I can't afford to get involved in this debate any further as I'm likely to be burning bridges if I do. My whole and sole (and admittedly minor) involvement the Ditmar discussion was to correct what I perceived to be an injustice based in part on information I had provided.

In case anyone else asks me to put my money where my mouth is and help run the Ditmar Awards, I'll ask you which activity I've been doing in the last 12 months that you'd like me to give up to accommodate this:

Aurealis Awards horror panel convenor.
Australian Shadows Award judge.
Australian Horror Writers Association volunteer (currently PR/marketing).
Mentor to an emerging writer (through the AHWA).
Editing (currently two anthologies in production).
Managing Editor (and reviewer) for HorrorScope fanzine.
Critiquing my peers' work.
... and somewhere in there, I'm meant to be writing (enough that I've been nominated for an Aurealis and Ditmar this year, if that's any measure).

If you really want me to be involved in all the speculative fiction awards in this country, just give me a holler. You know, it's not like I won't get accused of empire building.

I'd say I've earned the right to offer an opinion, be it constructive or exasperated, on the state of the Ditmar Awards (or any other Australian award for that matter) without being accused of not doing enough. I know it's not exactly empirical, but at last count, I'd racked up 19 Ditmar, Aurealis, Tin Duck, and Australian Shadows Award nominations (including 2 Ditmar wins) - in both fan and professional categories - in the last three years (and this doesn't include the Tin Ducks that will soon be announced). But if you feel I'm not contributing enough to fandom and Australian speculative fiction in general, please feel free to elaborate on exactly what area I've let you down in the comments section.

Black Box

2008-02-23T21:10:00.002+09:00

Award to the wise

2008-02-21T00:03:00.005+09:00

I had a fascinating exchange tonight that's probably worth sharing for anyone interested in the decision-making behind awards ballots (in this case, the Ditmar Best New Talent award). Draw your own conclusions here... (in the comments).

Amongst other things, I learned that the William Atheling Jr Award is not considered a 'professional award'. Fascinating!

Chasing Jormungand

2008-02-20T23:40:00.000+09:00

In even more positive news on the 'hey, I'm a writer' front, my short story "Chasing Jormungand" has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

'05 Clarionites may remember this one as the notorious 'yawn' story. If they don't, their aching jaws certainly will!

I feel it's one of my best, and as a second person comic science fiction piece, it's something of a departure from my usual fare.

Here's a taste:

You flick the multimedia settings off, choosing standard audio as you answer the call.

"Hello?"

"Where are you?" Dr. Kane asks. His tone is a sharp blend of Germany and New York. There is no greeting, no cordiality with him. Just work. "The readings I'm receiving are unprecedented."

"On a train in Sydney," you answer.

"Where is the yawn now?"

"Well." You hesitate. The signs reappear--tilting heads, spreading lips, stretching arms.

"Good God! You must be right at the epicentre!" The Doctor's emotion is rare and startling.

"Yes--" The yawn grips you, sudden and powerfully, as you begin to say something more. Your training kicks in--the covering hand and the over-tensed jaw muscles. You escape the worst of it, managing to keep your lips sealed.

"Are you there?"

"Yes," you say, fighting the yawn's aftermath. "The yawn is trapped in the train. It appears to be gaining intensity."

"It's resonating! Stay with it. A yawn of this magnitude has never been studied so closely."

Swancon and Horror in WA

2008-02-19T22:23:00.003+09:00

This is going to get me into trouble, but what the hey.

The Swancon draft program has been released. Well, not the program, but the draft panels. Before I go on, I'll acknowledge that Swancon organisers have very useful forms to suggest new panel items, but it's the first impression I want to discuss.

At a glance, there are about 90 panels/program items on the draft list. Of these, at a rough count, there are just over 20 fannish/fan-related/con-related/in-joke-related panels. Nearly a quarter of the panel program (as it stands).

Fair enough, perhaps, given that Swancon has been going for thirty-odd years. The draft program caters to a group of long-term fans who use the convention as the high point of the social calendar. But it's very inward focussed, to me. As something of an outsider (to fandom, anyway), it appears to me that this doesn't seem like a viable strategy to grow attendances for future Swancons. Is this something organisers even consider from year to year?

Anyway, I raise two further points:

1. Given that it's the national SF convention this year, shouldn't there be a higher proportion of panels addressing broader science fiction and fantasy topics (and a bit more writing/publishing stuff)?

2. (and most importantly) Horror - it's supposed to be part of the speculative fiction umbrella, right? There were exactly 0 panels on horror and horror-related activities. The closest thing I could find was a panel on Charles Stross, and that's a stretch.

Before you jump in and hit me over the head with the 'suggest a panel, then!' line, allow me to remind you that it's first impressions I'm discussing. Whether it's intentional or not, this omission speaks volumes.

Many of the finest Australian horror short story writers live in Western Australia (Dedman, Battersby, Livings, even Simon Haynes won an Aurealis Award for horror a few years back!). We have at least three independent publishers who produce horror to various degrees (Brimstone Press, Ticonderoga Publications, and Equilibrium Books). But we don't have horror fans in WA? Certainly, it seems, none that will be going to Swancon.

Here are my questions to you, dear reader:
1. If you have an active interest in horror, will you be going to Swancon this year? (and why/why not?)
2. Is there an underbelly of horror fans in Perth who are not being catered for by events such as Swancon? If so, where are they? I'd like to meet them!