Category Archives: News

The Digital Writers’ Festival

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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

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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.

Permuted Press

 

The AHWA Short Story and Flash Fiction Competition 2014

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[From Martin Livings]
Yes, it’s, it’s come around again, the AHWA Short Story and Flash Fiction Competition is now open for 2014. Our judges are lined up and eager, so go ahead, do your worst!

(and by worst, of course, I mean best…)

What We’re After: Horror stories, tales that frighten, yarns that unsettle us in our comfortable homes. All themes in this genre will be accepted, from the well-used (zombies, vampires, ghosts etc) to the highly original, so long as the story is professional and well written. No previously published entries will be accepted – all tales must be an original work by the author. Stories can be as violent or as bloody as the storyline dictates, but those containing gratuitous sex or violence will not be considered.

There are two categories for submission:

FLASH FICTION
Stories up to 1000 words in length. The winning author will receive paid publication in Midnight Echo; The Magazine of the AHWA and an engraved plaque.

SHORT STORY
Stories with 1001 to 8000 words. The winning author will receive paid publication in Midnight Echo; The Magazine of the AHWA and an engraved plaque.

ENTRY DETAILS

  • Entries Open: January 7th 2014
  • Entries Close: May 31st 2014

Writers may submit to one or both categories, but entry is limited to 1 story per author per category. No simultaneous submissions.

Any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Prizes: the authors of the winning Flash Fiction and Short Story entries will each receive paid publication in Midnight Echo; The Magazine of the AHWA and an engraved plaque. Plus the adulation of millions.

(Legal note: your value of “millions” may vary. And “adulation”.)

Entry Fee:

  • AHWA Members have free entry.
  • Non-AHWA Members: $5 for flash fiction, $10 for short story entries.

Secure payments can be made via PayPal using our PayPal ID (please note, this is different to the competitions email address!):

ahwa@australianhorror.com

Alternative payment options are available; please contact us at ahwacomps@australianhorror.com and we will provide appropriate details.

All entries should be submitted via the web form here:

http://ahwacomps.martinlivings.com/

Mail submissions will ONLY be accepted as a last resort (we would prefer electronic submissions to save the trees); please contact us before sending anything through.

Please edit your manuscripts carefully before sending them through to us; it’s amazing how much careless typos or grammatical errors can put a reader off, so don’t go shooting yourself in the foot, let the story come through unhindered!

Also, please ensure your manuscript is formatted in standard manuscript format. The best thing to do is use the RTF template provided here:

http://ahwacomps.martinlivings.com/AWHAtemplate.rtf

Stories not using this format may be discarded without being considered, so please do use this template. You’ll make our lives easier, and increase your own chances of being judged fairly.

Contact ahwacomps@australianhorror.com if you have any further questions.

2014 Judges

PAUL MANNERING is an award winning author based in Wellington, New Zealand. He has published dozens of short stories, and edited two themed anthologies. His Tankbread trilogy is published by Permuted Press and he has two more novels scheduled for publication in 2014. http://permutedpress.com/authors/paul-mannering

TALIE HELENE is a writer and musician, from Melbourne, Australia. She has published fiction, poetry, and an extensive folio of music journalism. She is perhaps best well known as horror editor of The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy & Horror series (Ticonderoga Publications). You can learn more about Talie’s interdisciplinary adventures at http://www.taliehelene.com

ZENA SHAPTER is a British-Australian author who’s won seven national fiction writing competitions (including this one!). She’s also represented by literary agent Alex Adsett, leads the widely attended Northern Beaches Writers’ Group (whose collaborative writing has also won awards) and gives regular talks/tutorials on creative writing and social media (because, after all, she is part-cyber!).  http://www.zenashapter.com

McDermott’s Caution: Contains Small Parts now available

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Twelfth Planet Press has just released the ebook version of Caution: Contains Small Parts, an intimate, unsettling collection from award-winning author Kirstyn McDermott.

A creepy wooden dog that refuses to play dead.
A gifted crisis counsellor and the mysterious, melancholy girl she cannot seem to reach.
A once-successful fantasy author whose life has become a horror story – now with added unicorns.
An isolated woman whose obsession with sex dolls takes a harrowing, unexpected turn.

Four stories that will haunt you long after their final pages are turned.

Available now from Twelfth Planet Press for $5.95. Print copies can be purchased here.

‘Kirstyn McDermott’s prose is darkly magical, insidious and insistent. Once her words get under your skin, they are there to stay.’ – Angela Slatter, British Fantasy Award-winning author of Sourdough and Other Stories

‘The supernatural lurks in the shadows of Kirstyn McDermott’s first collection, an ambiguous or mundane presence that keeps these four quasi-horror stories feeling palpably real … McDermott’s poignant stories defy genre labelling, being primarily about damaged people seeking solace, escape, or meaning. The otherworldly merely gives them a chance to find it, and makes these unflinching but touching stories even more evocative and irresistible.’ – Aurealis, Issue 64

HWA Roundtable 14 – Audiobooks

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The HWA’s 14th Horror Roundtable is coming up later this week over on the HWA website, and it will focus on Audiobooks. Here are the details.

When: 18 December, 2013
Time: 9pm EST (use the Time Zone Converter to find your local time: for those on Sydney time, this is 19 Dec at 1pm)
Special Guests: David Niall Wilson, Jeffrey Kafer, Scott Jacobi, and Kevin Pierce

Audiobooks: The digital age has seen the popularity of audiobooks skyrocket; it is now a billion dollar industry, with a >30% growth rate in past few years and no signs of slowing. In a busy world, audiobooks are providing a way for us to get in our reading time even when we can’t sit down with an actual book; now we can ‘read’ while driving to work, working out at the gym, cooking dinner, or even doing the housework. And cooler still, you can synch from your ebook to the audio-version seamlessly. But how do authors and publishers get quality audiobooks made? What’s involved? And what are some of the pitfalls to look out for? Our guests for this roundtable have been involved in all aspects of audiobook creation, from narration, production studio engineering, to publishing, so come along and find out what they have to say.

* * * * *

Here’s how the HWA’s Horror Roundtable works:

1. The Horror Roundtable will run every month on the HWA blog. You do not need to register to follow the discussion, or to post comments/questions.

2. For each Roundtable, a group of special guests will be invited to participate in a discussion on a selected topic. The guests’ profiles will be posted on the website prior to each Roundtable, along with the topic of discussion.

3. The Horror Roundtable will begin with our guests discussing the topic.

4. After the first half hour, the Roundtable will be opened for the general public to comment/ask questions, while our guests continue their discussion.

5. After one hour, our Guests will leave, unless there are lots of comments and questions from the audience, in which case they will remain for a further half hour. After that, our Guests will check back in from time to time during the week to provide further comments on anything posted in that time.

6. At the end of the week, the Roundtable will be closed, but it will remain online so people can go back and read it at their own leisure. No further comments will be allowed.

7. An announcement about the next Horror Roundtable, including the next set of guest profiles, will be posted towards the end of each month.

The HWA Horror Roundtable was the brainchild of Weston Ochse and is managed by Marty Young. If you would like to take part or have a topic that would make for an interesting discussion, please contact Marty at martyyoung2002@yahoo.com.

Past Roundtables can be viewed here.

ill at ease 2 now available

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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

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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.

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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…