Rage Against the Night in support of Rocky Wood

I'm excited to say I'm appearing in an anthology with Stephen King, Ramsey Campbell, Peter Straub, F. Paul Wilson, Joe McKinney and many other huge names in the history genre.

Rocky Wood is the President of the Horror Writers Association, an award-nominated scholar, and a top bloke. He is also battling motor neurone disease.

Rage Against the Night, edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings, brings together the megastars of horror in support of Rocky. Rage Against the Night features stories of triumph against the forces of  darkness from the biggest names in horror. All proceeds from the sale of the anthology will go to Rocky so he can purchase an eye gaze machine, which will help Rocky communicate as his disease progresses
Rage Against the Night will be published by Brimstone Press in late December (ebook edition) and January (print edition).

The anthology includes my original novella, "The Nightmare Dimension", the first in my new Gordon McColley series.

Here is the impressive line-up:

• The Gunner's Love Song—Joe McKinney
• Keeping Watch—Nate Kenyon
• Like Part of the Family—Jonathan Maberry
• The Edge of Seventeen—Alexandra Sokoloff
• The View from the Top—Bev Vincent
• Afterward, There Will Be a Hallway—Gary A. Braunbeck
• Following Marla—John R. Little
• Magic Numbers—Gene O'Neill
• Tail the Barney—Stephen M. Irwin
• The Nightmare Dimension—David Conyers
• Roadside Memorials—Joseph Nassise
• Dat Tay Vao—F. Paul Wilson
• Constitution—Scott Nicholson
• Mr. Aickman's Air Rifle—Peter Straub
• Agatha's Ghost—Ramsey Campbell
• Blue Heeler—Weston Ochse
• Sarah's Visions—Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
• More Than Words—David Niall Wilson
• Chillers—Lisa Morton
• Changed—Nancy Holder
• Dead Air—Gary Kemble
• Two Fish to Feed the Masses—Daniel G. Keohane
• Fenstad's End—Sarah Langan
• Fair Extension—Stephen King
• Rocky Wood, Skeleton Killer—Jeff Strand

 The e-book can be purchased at Amazon.com or Smashswords.

New Websites: Brimstone Press and John Kenny

Some interesting developments on the web these couple of weeks.

The first is Brimstone Press' return to the fold, with the re-launch of their website and does the site look profoessional. There are three books for purchase: Macabre edited by Angela Challis and Marty Young (and featuring a story from yours truly "Sweet as Decay"), The Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines, and Shane Jiraiya Cummings' Shards. More books are promised.

The second is from John Kenny, writer, editor and publisher of Albedo One and Aeon Press. John also offers his services as an editor for authors, and if you are thinking of going down this path, he comes highly recommended from me. John and I collaborated on "Expectant Green" (a science fiction story which will appear in a future issue of Jupiter), and his input made the story shine.

Macabre: Available for Pre-Order

Macabre: A Journey through Australia's Darkest Fears (edited by Angela Challis and Dr Marty Young and featuring my collaboration with David Witteveen, "Sweet as Decay") can now be ordered through Brimstone Press. The anthology retails for $44.95 and will be available in stores in October/November, but Brimstone Press are offering Macabre for sale at $30 + postage. The anthology will be shipped from Brimstone in September.

Macabre is a snapshot of the fears that have gripped Australians for over 200 years: the isolation of the bush, monstrous fauna, supernatural terrors, violence, war, terrorism, alienation, cannibalism, and murder. From the very earliest colonial ghost stories through to grim tales of modern life, Macabre will take you on a journey through the terrifying heart of Australian horror.

Macabre includes a detailed essay on the history of Australian horror, an Australian horror fiction timeline, and 38 stories from three eras (classics, modern masters, and new era originals) – at a massive 672 pages.

Contributors in the Classics and Modern Masters sections include Henry Lawson, Marcus Clarke, Mary Fortune, Barbara Baynton, A. Bertram Chandler, Kaaron Warren, Terry Dowling, Robert Hood, Stephen Dedman, Rick Kennett, and Sean Williams.

The largest section, the New Era, includes original stories from Will Elliott, Stephen M. Irwin, Kirstyn McDermott, Richard Harland, Martin Livings, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Kyla Ward, Paul Haines, David Conyers, and Bob Franklin (and many more!).

Macabre will be launched at Aussiecon 4, the World Science Fiction Convention, in Melbourne on the weekend of September 4-5 (exact details of the launch will be publicised when they become available). The editors and many of the contributors will be in attendance to sign copies at the launch (David Witteveen will be there, alas I cannot make it).

Recommended Books: Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Vol.4

The Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror series edited by Angela Challis is a great 'best of' anthology series published by Brimstone Press. I've always found the stories to be well mixed so that a most horror readers with their various tastes will find something that suits their reading habits.

I have appeared in Volume 3. Alas I will not be in Volume 4 which has just been announced and will be out in March 2010. But just because I'm not in it doesn't mean it is not worth buying. The latest edition features stories by Peter M. Ball, John Birmingham, Kirstyn McDermott and Jason Nahrung, amongst others, and then there will be summaries of the year of Aussie dark fiction that was.

Now if Brimstone Press would only release Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears (I have a vested interest in this one because I have a story in it that I wrote more than five years ago now).

Read about Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 4 here.

Recommended Books: Shards by Shane Jiraiya Cummings

Shane Jiraiya Cummings has just released his first book, Shards, out this week from Brimstone Press. The collection contains much of his short fiction, all of it dark, and some previously unpublished tales. The book is also enhanced by the wonderful illustrations of Andrew J. McKiernan.

Shane has been active in the dark fiction scene in Australia for many years editing several anthologies including Shadow Box and Black Box, and is the managing editor of OzHorrorScope. He and his wife Angela Challis also produced the very slick online flash fiction site Shadowed Realms, and Black Magazine. So he’s really contributed a lot to making dark fiction and horror as big as it is in Australia.

That said, I recommend Shards because Shane is a great writer. Last year he contributed a tale to the anthology I edited Cthulhu’s Dark Cults, and it was a great action packed tale of horror, “Requiem for the Burning God”. This story won’t appear in Shards, but plenty of other great tales will. I'm looking forward to it.

"Subtle Invasion" in Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Vol. 3

I appear in my first 'Year's Best of' collection today, in Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror Volume 3 by Brimstone Press, one of Australia's leading small press publishers in the speculative fiction field.

The collection contains my story "Subtle Invasion" which was short listed for last year's Australian Shadows Award, was read on The Writing Show's Halloween Gast Fest and will appear in the Permuted Press anthology Best New Tales of the Apocalypse (USA). It originally appeared in The Black Book of Horror (UK) by Mortbury Press. Not bad for one story, probably my most successful tale to date, soon to be published in three different continents.

Edited by Angela Challis, the collection also contains stories by Sean Williams, Marty Young, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Gary Kemble and others. So not bad company to keep.

I'm also pleased that the story is last in the book, my first in such a privileged position.

So that's two publications this year, and plenty more to come. Should have some news on some new stories soon too.