‘Other Stories’ and Other Stories by Adam Browne launch

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Alan Baxter

‘Other Stories’ and Other Stories by Adam Browne is a collection published by Satalyte Publishing and due for release soon. The official launch is happening on Wednesday 5th February at Southpaw, a supergroovy barcafe thing at 189 Gertrude Street, Fitzroy, Victoria. There’ll be artwork by the author on display and readings by the publisher and others.

There’s a Facebook event with the details here. Adam Browne is one of Australia’s most unique voices and a tremendously talented artist. Here’s the publisher blurb for the collection:

“From the warped mind that brought the world Pyrotechnicon“

The Author takes this opportunity to apologise for any feelings of inadequacy that might arise in those who open this volume to encounter, glittering like living diamond laceworks, plangent with ideas and pungent with wordplay, the exquisitudinal stories herein contained, all touching on, or rather, pummeling and stomping and cruelly toying with diverse fantastic notions, such as a man who quits drugs, then cigarettes, then everything else, an attempt by British colonials to terraform Hell (contrast with another story dealing with the late Carl Linnaeus’s attempts to classify the species of Paradise), a planet wrapped in fabric upon which pirates boom and roar in galleoned steam irons, a look at what it will mean to be disabled in the future … and so on — a book to be handled with care, for its close resemblance to a clutch of Faberge eggs, with Faberge chicks inside, waiting to be hatched forth by the Reader’s startled regard.

Bloody Waters by Jason Franks – review

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Alan Baxter

BW_cover_eBook_t-193x300 Bloody Waters by Jason Franks

Possible Press, 2012

ISBN: 978-0980813531

Bloody Waters is the debut novel from Jason Franks, maybe better known for his comics work. I reviewed The Sixsmiths here a while ago. This first novel was nominated for an Aurealis Award for Best Horror Novel last year and I can see why. Here’s the blurb:

When guitar virtuoso Clarice Marnier finds herself blacklisted she makes a deal with the devil for a second chance. Soon Clarice and her band, Bloody Waters, are on their way to stardom… but cracking the Top 10 is one thing; gunfights with the Vatican Mafia and magical duels quite another. Clarice is going to have to confront the Devil himself – the only question is whether she’ll be alive or dead when it happens.

I had no expectations going into this book, other than knowing it had an award nomination. I was really surprised. It’s a unique read. The writing style is tight and powerful, the book clips along at a solid pace. We start with young Clarice putting aside Barbie dolls for a guitar and we follow her progress through high school and into her first band and beyond, where nothing else matters but the music. Absolutely nothing. The chapters are short and the description spare but complete.

Clarice herself is an interesting main character. She’s very well-realised by Franks as a balls out, takes no shit hero of rock’n’roll. If I have any complaints about this book it would be that sometimes Clarice is a bit too cold and calculating. I would have liked to see a few more moments of humanity in her, but it’s no surprise they weren’t there. She is a force of heavy metal nature and no one gets away with messing with her. Except, perhaps, the Devil himself…

This book definitely had extra appeal to me as I’m a guitarist and a total metal head myself. I’ve played in bands, I’ve worked in music journalism and been on tours (nothing major, I should add – I’m talking pubs and university gigs, not stadiums). But I’ve also been backstage at major metal events thanks to friends in the industry and journalistic bonuses. I say all this to clarify my credentials when I say how authentic the music business side of this novel is. From the gigs to the dressing rooms to the record industry execs to the fans and inter-band rivalry, Franks maintains an authenticity that I couldn’t see through. That’s really important in a book like this. And it’s icing on the cake for anyone who’s a fan of rock and metal as well as a good horror yarn.

The plot is clever and convoluted, but it’s always clear and it leads to a conclusion that I certainly didn’t see coming, which is always a bonus and a good achievement on the part of the author. The supernatural elements don’t come into the story for a long time, but when they do it’s a slow build that leads to massive things. And I have to say, Clarice’s boyfriend and Bloody Waters frontman, Johnny Chernow, is perhaps my favourite character of the whole thing. He’s the mellowest warlock you could imagine.

This is a great book, superbly written and one of those things you can call truly different. I hope we see more from Franks if this is where he’s starting out with novels.

Wolf Creek Author signing

Posted on January 25, 2014 by Marty Young

[From Notions Unlimited Bookshop]

With the release of WOLF CREEK 2 due next month in Australian cinemas, Notions Unlimited Bookshop is proud to present the following event, to celebrate the release of Penguin’s WOLF CREEK prequel novel series:

Aaron Sterns (writer of WOLF CREEK 2, and co-author, with Greg McLean, of WOLF CREEK : ORIGIN), and Brett McBean (co-author, with Greg McLean, of WOLF CREEK : DESOLATION GAME) will be signing copies of their respective novels in-store.

Venue: Notions Unlimited Bookshop, 426 Nepean Hwy, Chelsea
Date: Saturday 1st Feb 2014
Time: Starts 4pm

Wine & Nibbles – plus some bloody surprises! – provided on the night.

This will be a FREE event, but space is strictly limited, so do please contact us to book your place.

info@notionsunlimitedbookshop.com / 03-9773-1102

North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud – review

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Alan Baxter

North American Lake Monsters

by Nathan Ballingrud

Published July 2013
Trade cloth: 9781618730596
Trade paper: 9781618730602
Ebook: 9781618730619

Small Beer Press

I’ve never come across the short fiction of Nathan Ballingrud before, but when this book was released I saw a sudden buzz around my social media feeds. I always pay attention to that sort of activity, so I picked up a copy of the ebook. Having just finished reading it, I went straight back to the Small Beer Press and ordered the Trade cloth edition. This is a book that needs to stand proud on a bookshelf.

There are nine stories in this debut collection from Ballingrud and each one of them is amazing. There is not a low point anywhere in this book. Balligrud’s writing is both beautiful and unrelenting, artistic and brutal. The same can be said for every story and every character. He draws on pain for his work, whether that pain is a lost young white supremacist, a broken down waitress, a man who recently got out of jail and doesn’t know his daughter any more, a man who lost his child, a husband who has become increasingly disconnected from his wife who suffers terrible depression and regularly attempts suicide. Against those characters of raw realism and terrible everyday struggle, Ballingrud draws the most incredible supernatural and horrific environments in which to put those people. The crass, the ugly, the brutal, the terrifying. It exists in every inch of every story and the characters reflect their terrible situations as much as those situations reflect the characters.

And yet, while I might make it sound horrendously bleak by the above description (and believe me, it often is!) it’s also sublimely beautiful, in both idea and execution. This book contains one of the most amazing vampire yarns I’ve ever read. Also one of the best werewolf stories and, at a stretch, the best zombie story ever. It’s not a zombie story in the Romero tradition, but even so. It’s better than that. More subtle, more heartbreaking. I’ve also read several stories based around the horror of New Orleans and Katrina, but Ballingrud’s The Way Station blows them all away. And there’s a touch of Cthulhu mythos in this book, equally well handled.

There are no answers here, no happy endings. Some stories are left hanging, almost too soon, but only better for that. There’s no suggestion of a way out of the darkness drawn by these tales, whether that’s the darkness of Elder gods, blood sucking vampires or humanity’s incredible ability to care so little for its fellows. Yet for a book with such a diverse eye for monsters and the supernatural, the overall sensation left after reading is one of humanity. Which should ever be the root cause of horror writing, that exploration of the truly dark nature of the human, in the face of monsters or of themselves.

Ballingrud’s touch is light, his implications subtle. For that reason, the moments of stark and visceral horror have all the more impact. This is without a doubt one of the best short fiction collections I’ve ever read. Not for the faint of heart, but worth the trauma for the incredible writing, absolutely real characters and palpable sense of wonder that comes from every touch of the unnatural along the way. This book is a dark road, emotionally battering and utterly incredible. I can’t recommend it highly enough.

The Digital Writers’ Festival

Posted on January 11, 2014 by Marty Young

The world’s first open online writers’ festival.

When: 13-24 Feb, 2014
Where: Eros & Thanatos Rooms, MONA (Museum of Old and New Art)
651-655 Main Rd, Hobart

In February, the team behind the Emerging Writers’ Festival is going to round up several dozen of the world’s best writers, readers, and publishing types for a series of live-streamed online discussions about the future of all things bookish.

The majority of Digital Writers’ Festival events will be streamed live on the digitalwritersfestival.com website at no charge, enabling readers and writers from across Australia to participate in conversations with artists and peers located interstate and overseas.

The Digital Writers’ Conference will equip writers with new ideas and inspiration about how to share their stories and words with audiences online. Panel discussions full of practical advice will explore how to write for online audiences and where the opportunities are in the digital space. Writers’ will share with you how they use new technologies to create and promote their work online. Most importantly there will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions!

With Bethanie Blanchard (Crikey, The Guardian), Fiona Dunne (Seizure), Rachel Edwards, Kelly Lee Hickey, Matthew Lamb (Island), Benjamin Laird, Kate McKenzie, Jennifer Mills, Connor Tomas O’Brien (Tomely.com), Zora Sanders (Meanjin), Jacinda Woodhead (Overland) and more.

For more details, or to register, please visit http://www.emergingwritersfestival.org.au/event-detail/digital-writers-conference-early-bird-tickets/

About the Emerging Writers’ Festival
The Emerging Writers’ Festival is an independent arts organisation based in Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing and Ideas. They exist in order to promote the interests of emerging writers – to improve their opportunities for professional development as well as their engagement with the broader public.

Each year the Emerging Writers’ Festival brings writers, editors, publishers and literary performers together with the reading public for a festival that is an essential part of Australia’s literary calendar.

Apocalyptic News

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Marty Young

Some bloody end of the world goodness from Permuted Press…

Paul Mannering (TANKBREAD, TANKBREAD 2: IMMORTAL) has a new SHTF* apocalypse novel under contract with Permuted Press.

“Dead! Dead! Dead!” is the story of an ageing biker who finds himself on the run with an ER doctor after a shipment of contaminated cocaine turns the city’s junkies into contagious cannibals.

This is Mannering’s fourth novel with Permuted Press, and will be published in 2015.

*SHTF = Shit Hits The Fan – an outbreak scenario, be it alien invasion, deadly flu, civil war – anything that triggers a change in civilisation.

Martin Livings (CARNIES, LIVING WITH THE DEAD) has just sold his short story “El Caballo Muerte” to Permuted Press’s upcoming Fat Zombie anthology.

Fat Zombie is an anthology of unexpected survivor stories from the apocalypse.

The collection will include stories that tell the tale of the losers, the geeks, the freaks and the sad-sacks. It could also include stories of the differently abled, or anyone lacking skills, physical ability, education, resources so common in many zombie survival stories.

These are the survivor stories of the people you never expected to survive the end of the world.

Coming soon from Permuted Press.

A Return to Wolf Creek

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Marty Young

Is this Australia’s most iconic horror villain?

Yes, without a doubt.

And while we wait for Wolf Creek 2 to be released in February to give us even more reasons to be terrified of the Australian outback, we can load up on all things Mick through the commercial release of two prequel novels that are now available from Penguin or at any good bookstores (paperback and digital formats). How good is this for Australian horror? Damn good!

The first is Origin: Wolf Creek Book 1 by Greg McLean and Aaron Sterns.

Nature vs nurture turns out to be a bloodbath

The wide open outback offers plenty of space for someone to hide. Or to hide a body.

When wiry youngster Mick Taylor starts as a jackaroo at a remote Western Australian sheep station, he tries to keep his head down among the rough company of the farmhands. But he can’t keep the devils inside him hidden for long.

It turns out he’s not the only one with the killer impulse – and the other psychopaths don’t appreciate competition. Is Cutter, the station’s surly shooter, on to him? And what are the cops really up to as they follow the trail of the dead?

In the first of a blood-soaked series of Wolf Creek prequel novels, the cult film’s writer/director Greg McLean and horror writer Aaron Sterns take us back to the beginning, when Mick was a scrawny boy, the only witness to the grisly death of his little sister. Origin provides an unforgettably bloody answer to the question of nature vs nurture. What made Mick Taylor Australian horror’s most terrifying psycho killer?

“One of the great horror film heavies of the last 25 years” – Quentin Tarantino

“One of the best serial killer novels out there . . . destined to be considered a classic in future years” – ScaryMinds.com

The second Wolf Creek prequel novel is Desolation Game: Wolf Creek Book 2 by Greg McLean and Brett McBean.

Mick’s learning, and his schoolroom is a war.

When sharpshooter and killer Mick Taylor searches for a place to keep a low profile, he finds somewhere where his peculiar talents are appreciated: a war. And in Vietnam, an out-of-control sergeant takes the amateur murderer and turns him into a pro.

Back home, Mick makes use of the sick lessons the army taught him, when hapless tour operators bring a Kombi-load of sightseers out his way into the Western Australian desert. Two suspicious flat tyres deliver an engaged Japanese couple, a father and son, a US army vet and his girlfriend, and a couple of cute girls to Mick’s lair. Middle of nowhere, population one. The group finds themselves in hell, as Mick makes sure their once-in-a-lifetime tour stays that way. And though one of the drivers escapes and goes for help, Mick sees no reason to stop the killing spree.

In the second Wolf Creek prequel novel, the cult film’s writer/director Greg McLean and horror writer Brett McBean get to the heart of Australian horror’s most terrifying psycho killer. Is Mick Taylor possessed by some dark power in the landscape itself? Something ancient? Does the Red Centre demand blood?

And if that’s not enough to terrify you, you can read what Director Greg McLean has to say about it all here.

Head on a stick, anyone?

THIRTEEN O'CLOCK

Australian dark fiction news and reviews

Monthly Archives: January 2014