Sometimes it’s hard to know how much I’ve achieved in a single year with my writing. A quick look-back shows that I’ve published six new stories in Australia for 2008 which doesn’t seem like much. However when I look more closely, I have accomplished far more in the background with about a dozen tales slotted for release in 2009 across the world, and several nominations for awards in the mix as well.
My short stories published this year were all in Australia and were an equal mix of science fiction and horror tales:
- “Redemption Slot Machine” Antipodeans SF, Issue 117 edited by Ian Newcombe (Australia)
- “Soft Viscosity”, 2012, Twelfth Planet Press (Australia) edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Ben Payne
- “Hell’s Ambassador”, Black Box: Shadow Box II, Brimstone Press (Australia) edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings
- “Homo Canis”, 2008 Award Winning Australian Writing, Melbourne Books (Australia) edited by David Tenebaum
- “Terraformer”, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Issue 37 (Australia) edited by Tehani Wessley
- “Cactus”, Midnight Echo, Issue 1, Australian Horror Writers Association (Australia) edited by Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond
- “Cthulhu Cultus Australis: The Australian Perspective on H. P. Lovecraft” discussed by Leigh Blackmore, David Conyers and Chuck McKenzie, Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Issue 2, edited by Benjamin Szumskyj (Non-Fiction)
- Several reviews in Albedo One issues 34 and 35 published in Ireland
Although I didn’t win any awards I certainly received a lot of nominations, again all in Australia:
- “The Lord of the Law” Commendation in the Australian Horror Writers Associations Short Story Competition
- The Spiraling Worm which I wrote with John Sunseri received an honourable mention in the Horror Novel Category of the Aurealis Awards and an honourable mention in the Australian Shadows Award (and incidentally is selling exceptionally well on Amazon.com and still gathering great reviews including from Ellen Datlow from The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 team who called it "Impressive")
- Best New Talent nomination in the Ditmar Awards
- “Subtle Invasion” was read on the Writing Show in California and it was short-listed for the Australian Shadows Award
I also joined the Board at the SA Writers’ Centre and picked up a role as columnist with Albedo One in Ireland.
I also sold numerous short stories over the year which scheduled to appear in 2009 in:
- Jupiter Magazine #24 (“Black Water”, UK)
- SpecFicWorld (“The Entropy Collapse”, USA)
- Midnight Echo #2 (“Homo Canis”, Australia)
On the anthology front I will appear in:
- Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Vol 3 (“Subtle Invasion”, Australia) (Might even come out this year)
- Cthulhu Dark Cults (“Sister of the Sands”, USA)
- The Fourth Black Book of Horror (“The Lord of the Law”, UK)
- Best New Tales of the Apocalypse (“Subtle Invasion”, USA)
- Scenes from the Second Storey (“Dream Machine”, Sweden)
- Monstrous (“Six-Legged Shadows” with Brian M. Sammons, USA)
- Eldritch Steel (“The Hag of Zais”, USA)
- Macabre (“Sweet as Decay” with David Witteveen, Australia)
- Cthulhu Unbound 2 (“Stomach Acid” with Brian M. Sammons, USA).
2009 hopefully will also see the release of my first edited anthology Cthulhu’s Dark Cults.
So all in all, a satisfying year, with next year shaping up to look even better.
