809 Jacob Street by Marty Young

Posted on December 12, 2013 by toc_administrator

809 Jacob Street

by Marty Young, Black Beacon Books, 2013

Reviewed by Kyla Lee Ward

809 Jacob Street cover So, just what can an author like Marty Young do in a mere 189 pages?

For starters, set up one of those fictive situations that never end well. It’s the 1980s and fourteen-year-old Byron James is new in town. A run-down country town, where there’s nothing to do except go to school and there, it’s like he’s invisible. Only the other outcasts pay Byron any attention, and they are obsessed with the so-called Monster House out on Jacob Street. Byron is sceptical of their claims, Sceptical enough to go seeking answers himself.

“He knew then he was on the verge of the magical kingdom, the one he went seeking every time he ventured to the library. If he took another step back to where Joe had been, the old homeless man would come back into view and the shadows all about him would come to life… there’d be monsters in those shadowy vestiges of the world — there’d be nothing but monsters.”

At least Byron retains something of his childish innocence (“Kids who forgot they were growing up, he’d told them”). For all the immediacy of his fears, they can still be cast in terms of ghosts and vampires, entities with recognised limits and remedies. An exhausted remnant such as Joey Blue has no such defence.

Read the rest of this review at Tabula Rasa by clicking here.

Insert Title Here open to submissions

Posted on December 7, 2013 by Marty Young

Submissions are now open for the new unthemed speculative fiction anthology, Insert Title Here, from FableCroft Publishing.

Guidelines are as follows (taken from FableCroft’s website):

Stories should be between 2,000 and 12,000 words and contain speculative elements – science fiction, fantasy and horror and their sub-genres are all welcome, but we recommend researching FableCroft’s past projects for an idea of the sort of stories we publish. Generally, no erotica or splatterpunk is desirable. Please query the editor before sending stories outside those limits.

We are seeking original stories only, for first and exclusive world rights (for a period of twelve months, excluding any subsequent Year’s Best reprint request) – no reprint submissions please.

No simultaneous submissions please.

For multiple submissions, please query first.

Submissions open: December 1, 2013

Submissions close: February 28, 2014

Anticipated publication date: August 2014

Electronic submissions only. Please send story as an rtf or doc attachment to fablecroft [at] gmail [dot] com, with the subject line: SUBMISSION: Title of Story

Please be cautious to only submit final, proofread copy – ensure you have checked all your edits and removed all track changes in your document.

The editor will respond with a submission received email within 48 hours, but story selection may not occur until up to one month after the deadline. This anthology is open worldwide.

Payment will be AUD$75.00 and one contributor copy of the print book. Further royalties will apply for e-book revenue – information about royalties will be provided in contract negotiations with successful authors and is dependent on final book details.

Thanks to Jonathan Strahan for the title idea, from his Aurealis Awards acceptance speech in May this year.

Desolation Game: Wolf Creek Book 2

Posted on December 5, 2013 by Marty Young

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?