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

Cinema Nova’s Monster Fest

Melbourne is being treated to more horror fun this month with Cinema Nova’s Monster Fest taking place from November the 21st until December the 1st.

Monster Fest

Now in its second year, and backed by local distribution company Monster Pictures, the film festival contains over 30 horror films, a VHS swapmeet, Trasharama (according to the website: A celebration of the nastiest, crudest, cheapest, filthiest, smelliest, most revolting short films made in Australia, Trasharama is everything a degenerate freak like you could want in a festival program), and oh so much more.

Some particular highlights include:
* a meet and greet with Linda Blair prior to the screening of The Exorcist, followed by a Q&A session with her (Nov 21)
* a live Q&A with Tom Savini via Skype before he introduces From Dusk Till Dawn (Nov 27)
* a Nightmare on Elm Street 1-6 movie marathon (Nov 29)

Full details, including the complete program, can be found here.

Ballarat Zombie Day

For those of you with a love for dead things, you’ll probably want to head along to the Ballarat Zombie Day later this month.

When: 23 November at 10:00 until 24 November at 00:00
Where: PO Box 1013, Daylesford, Victoria 3460

ZombieHire.com is proud to present Ballarat Zombie Day, a day celebrating our favourite genre with their host venues Guf, Heroes HQ and The Tangled Maze.

Here are just some of the attractions:
* Kid’s Zombie Make-up (Cheap zombie scabs, scars, bites and wounds for kids of all ages)
* Zombie Props by Gore FX (Severed heads, lost limbs, bottled babies – can your stomach stand the GoreFX stall?)
* Zombie Steve’s Merch Stall
* Dead Rising 3 Launch Demos
* Left for Dead Gamer’s Comp
* Mister Bones’ Zombie Portraits (Talented zombie cartoon portraiturist Chris Bones will draw YOU AS A ZOMBIE!)
* The Walking Dead Zombie Photo Ops
* Zombie Antiquities by Nightshade FX (Gorgeous gothic hand-crafted artefacts and antiquities from the macabre minds at NightShade FX)
* Labyrinth Outbreak at the Tangled Maze (an unscripted open-air event in which survivors must navigate a hedge maze from start to finish at night, without getting attacked by zombies!)

TICKETS: Adults $20; children under 18 years $10

For more information, visit here.

ZombieHire.com is Australia’s #1 leading supplier of zombies, zombie-themed entertainment packages, film casting, promo stunts and sfx make-up services. ZH.com has has been invited to appear in campaigns for AMC’s ‘The Walking Dead'; IRL Shooter’s ‘Patient Zero'; BMW; Kryolan; Warner Bros; National Geographic; Hopscotch Entertainment; Nike and box office hits ‘Warm Bodies’ and ‘World War Z.’

ZombieHire.com prides itself on being a leader in the undead entertainment industry with a dedicated team of artists and performers, highly-realistic sfx make-up and costuming, and a masterful knowledge of the zombie genre.

Carnies is back!

Martin Livings’ 2006 debut novel, Carnies, gets a new lease on life thanks to Australian publisher Cohesion Press.

CarniesCover

The small south-west Australian town of Tillbrook has a secret, one that has been kept for over a hundred years; the Dervish Carnival, which has been there for a century, is run by people who are neither human nor animal, but live in the woods and howl at night. But when David Hampden, a journalist on the downward slope of his career, visits the town with his younger brother, unemployed photographer Paul, that secret is threatened. When Paul is seduced unknowing into their world, David will get him back, whatever the cost. And the cost may be both their lives… and possibly even more.

Carnies is a contemporary Australian supernatural thriller by debut novelist Martin Livings, and is described by the author as “an old fashioned horror novel, harkening back to the days when scary books were fun.” Containing equal helpings of horror, action and humour, Carnies is a sideshow haunted house of a novel, with dark twists and turns, sudden drops, surprises, shocks and delights.

So roll up, come to the carnival. You’ll never be the same again… if you survive!

Coming soon as an ebook from Cohesion Press.

About the Author: Perth-based writer Martin Livings has had over eighty short stories published in a variety of magazines and anthologies both locally and internationally.
His short story collection, Living With the Dead, was published by Dark Prints Press in 2012, and an original story from it, ‘Birthday Suit’, won the Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Fiction for that year.

Carnies was his first novel, published by Hachette Livre in 2006 and nominated for both the Aurealis and Ditmar awards.