ill at ease 2 now available

Following on from the critical success of “ill at ease” comes volume 2, featuring seven original horror short stories, all of them guaranteed to give you the chills. The anthology is published by PenMan Press and available from  Amazon in both print and digital editions.

Joining the original trio of Stephen Bacon, Mark West and Neil Williams this time are Shaun Hamilton, Robert Mammone, Val Walmsley and Sheri White.

You will descend into an underground train station to uncover a dreadful secret and watch in horror as a paradise holiday turns sour. You will see a bullied boy who’s helped by local history and share the anguish of a father, losing his child in a shopping centre. You will take a trip with a cancer sufferer and share the pain of a couple, desperate for a child. You will discover that history needs to be kept somewhere.

Seven stories, seven writers and you.

Prepare to feel “ill at ease” all over again.

The New Look Carnies

The new cover for the re-release of Carnies, by Martin Livings, has just been revealed, and it looks fantastic. Coming in 2014 from Cohesion Press.

half 2013_11_25_bright_2

The small town of Tillbrook has a secret. One that has been kept for over a hundred years.

Journalist David Hampden needs a good story to resurrect his flagging career. His damaged brother, Paul, just needs to find some meaning for his life.When David is alerted to a century-old carnival, the idea of a feature story is too good to pass up, so he drags Paul along to Tillbrook to act as his photographer. What they find is darker than they could ever imagine.Paul becomes part of the exotic world of the Dervish Carnival, est. 1899, and David must risk everything to save his brother. Even though Paul might not want to be saved.

Come on in, and enjoy the show. No photos allowed.

More details soon…

Desolation Game: Wolf Creek Book 2

Coming soon from Penguin Books Australia – DESOLATION GAME: WOLF CREEK BOOK 2. An original prequel novel co-written by WOLF CREEK writer/director Greg McLean and horror writer Brett McBean.

Book Cover:  Desolation Game: Wolf Creek Book 2

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?

Focus 2012: highlights of Australian short fiction

FableCroft Publishing is pleased to announce that Focus 2012: highlights of Australian short fiction is now available from all ebook retailers.

This ebook-only special anthology is the first of a series of yearly collections which will collect the previous year’s acclaimed Australian works. Containing only the most recognised speculative work of the year, Focus 2012 packs a big punch, for just $4.99USD.

Focus2012-Cover2

Focus 2012: highlights of Australian short fiction features work by:

Joanne Anderton – “Sanaa’s Army”
Thoraiya Dyer – “The Wisdom of Ants”
Robert Hood – “Escena de un Asesinato”
Kathleen Jennings – illustrations and cover art
Margo Lanagan – “Significant Dust”
Martin Livings – “Birthday Suit”
Jason Nahrung – “The Mornington Ride”
Kaaron Warren – “Sky”

Fresh Fear out now

Fresh Fear: Contemporary Horror is a collection of horror from some of the genre’s best writers of dark fiction. Edited by New Zealand’s William Cook, the anthology is now available from Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/Fresh-Fear-Contemporary-Ramsey-Campbell-ebook/dp/B00GMRDRU0/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1384681526&sr=1-1&keywords=fresh+fear

This collection has no central theme other than the stories’ ability to scare the hell out of the reader! Tales steeped in psychological horror sit alongside visions of strange worlds and inner landscapes drenched in blood. ‘Quiet horror’ sits comfortably next to more visceral portrayals of the monsters that lurk deep within the human heart. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle famously once said, “where there is no imagination there is no horror” – the horror expressed by the authors in Fresh Fear show that imagination is indeed tantamount to excellent story-telling. Prepare yourself for 28 tales of terror-inducing fiction that will have you checking the locks on every door and window of your abode!

Table of Contents

Scathe meic Beorh – God of the Wind
Robert Dunbar – High Rise
Ramsey Campbell – Welcomeland
Lily Childs – Strange Tastes
Lincoln Crisler – Nouri and the Beetles
Jack Dann – Camps
Thomas Erb – Spencer Weaver Gets Rebooted
Brandon Ford – Scare Me
Carole Gill – Raised
Lindsey Beth Goddard – The Tooth Collector
JF Gonzalez – Love Hurts
Dane Hatchell – ‘takers
Charlee Jacob – Inside the Buzzword Box
K Trap Jones – Demon Eyed Blind
Tim Jones – Protein
Vada Katherine – Block
Roy C Booth & Axel Kohagen – Just Another Ex
Shane McKenzie – So Much Death
Shaun Meeks – Perfection Through Silence
Adam Millard – The Incongruous Mr Marwick
Christine Morgan – Nails of The Dead
Billie Sue Mosiman – Verboten
Chantal Noordeloos – The Door
Don Noble – Psych
WH Pugmire – Darkness Dancing in Your Eyes
William Todd Rose – The Grave Dancer
EA Irwin – Justice through Twelve Step
Anna Taborska – Out of the Light

Valkeryn 2: The Dark Lands out now

Australian publisher Cohesion Press has just released Valkeryn 2: The Dark Lands, by Australian author Greig Beck.

2013_11_23_front

The wolf lives inside us all.

Valkeryn has fallen, the great king dead, and the Wolfen scattered. The monstrous Lygon and Panterran now rule. Arnold ‘Arn’ Singer, the youth from the past and perhaps the last human being alive on the planet, flees to the dark lands with the heir to the throne. He seeks answers to the missing Ancients – Arn’s ancestors – mankind itself. But back in his time the world continues to destabilize. The time distortion the mighty Tevatron collider created is growing larger and beginning to consume everything around it. The gateway vortex must be closed, Arn holds the key, and our world and its future is at stake.

Colonel Marion Briggs leads a team of Special Operations soldiers into the distant future world, fully armed and with one order – bring back Arn or his body. But there are more dangers in this strange and beautiful world than anyone knew. More horrors dwell in the deep jungles, below the inland seas and deep below the earth. There are things that can change the shape of two worlds, tear at sanity, and stretch friendships and loves to the limit.

Valkeryn II – The Dark Lands is the final chapter in an epic adventure that spans worlds and time itself. The book is available in print and digital formats from Cohesion Press and from Amazon.

“An engrossing plot, great character development… an excellent read”
FRONTLAVEN Reviews – USA.

“A great addition to your library.”
Voraciously Reads, USA.

Press release and review copies are available here.

Return of the Ancients: The Valkeryn Chronicles 1 is also available on Amazon.

About the Author: Greig Beck is an Australian author residing in Sydney with his wife, son and oversized black German Shepherd. “Beneath the Dark Ice” was Greig’s first novel. He now has many novels published in over 10 languages, and his Alex Hunter novels regularly appear in the best seller lists.

More information about Greig and his works can be found at www.greigbeck.com and he can be contacted at greig@greigbeck.com

Andrew McKiernan Signs Two-Book Deal

Australian writer and illustrator Andrew McKiernan has just signed a two book deal with Satalyte Publishing.

The first is for a collection of his short stories, “A Prayer for Lazarus & Other Strange Offerings” (14 published stories + 2 new stories), which will appear in print and e-book in the second half of 2014.

The second deal is for his crime novel “A Quiet Place”, which he sold on the strength of
the first 8,000 words and will be appearing in print and e-book in early 2015.

Stay tuned for further updates as the publication dates approached.

Andrew J McKiernan is an author and illustrator living and working on the Central Coast of New South Wales. His stories have appeared in magazines such as Aurealis, Midnight Echo and the Eclecticism e-zine, as well as the anthologies In Bad Dreams 2, Masques, Scenes from the Second Storey, Macabre: A Journey Through Australia’s Darkest Fears, and Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2010. He has twice (2009 & 2010) been shortlisted for both Aurealis and Australian Shadows Awards, as well as a Ditmar Award shortlisting in 2010. His story “The Desert Song” from the Scenes from the Second Storey anthology received an Honorable Mention in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year Vol.3. Andrew’s illustrations have appeared on many book and magazine covers, as well as featuring in the collections Shards: Short Sharp Tales by Shane Jiraiya Cummings from Brimstone Press and Savage Menace & Other Poems of Horror by Richard Tierney from P’rea Press.

Satalyte Publishing is an Australian publishing house of Australian authors for a global market. Their mission is to put Australian authors back on the world map of reading, and they will be offering the best of Australian authors in a variety of genres.

Satalyte Publishing