I’ll admit now that I’m not very good at public speaking and I hate hearing my own recorded voice.

I’ve done a few radio interviews with my local radio station now and usually I give these off-the-cuff responses and there are too many “ums” and “ahs” and I end up sounding like I have no clue what I’m talking about.

This week I did an interview with a young guy named Jarred. It was his first interview and one of his supervisors thought it would be a good idea to use me as a subject.

I talk mainly about my first forays into illustration, but my writing and the Witch Hunts graphic novel get a mention.

Fortunately I was able to get his list of questions ahead of time and make some notes before we recorded it.

The end result can be downloaded by following this link:

http://blogs.abc.net.au/queensland/2013/01/greg-chapman-writes-his-way-to-the-us.html?site=capricornia&program=capricornia_breakfast

Thanks for listening and please let me know what you think.

Over the weekend I reconfigured my Q&A group discussion page over at Goodreads. It’s something that I’ve been meaning to do but just haven’t got around to it until now.

You can join the group by following this link – http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/89294-q-a-with-horror-author-greg-chapman

You can read topics about my latest publication news, see my list of published works, and of course tell me a bit about yourself!

I’d love to hear from you all about what you liked or didn’t about my tales and I’m more than welcome to take questions about my writing process.

I hope that over time the discussion page will grow into something that readers and horror fiction afficionados will find interesting.

And if I’ve already sent you a request to join, I apologise for the double up.

Thanks for your support!

I’ve been sitting on this announcement for weeks, but now that it’s my birthday I’m releasing it into the wild!

Bad Moon Books, one of the United States’ leading small press publishers will publish my fourth novella The Last Night of October for Halloween!

There was a lot happening behind the scenes here, but essentially a few months ago I was given an open invitation by Bad Moon Books to send them a manuscript. BMB’s publisher Roy Robbins made my Christmas when he got back to me in early December with an acceptance letter.

Bad Moon is one of the publishers I’ve always dreamed of working with; they’ve published names such as Clive Barker, Gene O’Neill, John R. Little, John Skipp, Weston Ochse, Tim Waggoner and many other great authors. They started off as a bookseller and decided to get into the publishing in 2007 and now have the reputation of being one of the best in the small press and have even snagged quite a few Bram Stoker Awards.

These guys are also very well known for their special edition prints and hardcovers. I have no idea yet what format my book will be in, but it might feature some of illustrations as well! All very exciting! This is another huge notch in my belt for my burgeoning writing career and I feel very overwhelmed to be joining the ranks of Bad Moon.

I guess I should tell you a bit about the book, right? Well, here’s the synopsis:

Seventy-year-old Gerald Forsyth dreads Halloween.

Before the night ends, Gerald will have no choice but to bring his dark secret into the light.

So, how does that sound? I had real fun writing it, striving to capture the essence of Halloween and ensure the right balance of supernatural and psychological horror. But the tale does have a lot of heart too because after all horror is the most “human” of emotions.

I will very much be looking forward to October and I hope you will come along with me for the ride!

And don’t forget to check out some of my other titles – including my graphic novel – which you can find HERE

This might just be my very last post.

Well that all depends on whether the Mayans were right – right?

No, this is simply my obligatory end of year post. The one where I waffle on about what I’ve achieved and what I haven’t.

I don’t set myself any hard writing or art goals (unless it involves a contract!). I just kind of go with the flow, seeing where my muses take me.

But all in all 2012 was certainly a big year for me creatively, with a graphic novel and a new novella published. No mean feat, let me tell you. Seeing Witch Hunts in all its glossy glory was something I never thought would happen and I’m very chuffed to have worked with two of the most respected writers in the horror literature industry, namely Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton. Travelling down to Melbourne and doing the signing with Rocky in August was a real highlight and something I’ll never forget. Since its publication, Witch Hunts has been well received my reviewers and readers alike and opened up many new doors for me. I’ve made connections with many other authors and publishers overseas and things are brewing. So unless the Mayans are right you might see my name popping up a fair bit in 2013 and hopefully beyond.

One such “door” was being invited by Evil Jester Press to be a part of their proposed horror comic anthology Evil Jester Presents – something I am very excited about. It’s still early days, but I hope to chaining myself to the drawing board real soon and scribbling like a madman on that project.

Midnight Echo Magazine also published the first two chapters of the limited comic series Allure of the Ancients:The Key to His Kingdom, which I illustrated for author Mark Farrugia. The series is certainly taking an enjoyable dark turn and if you like vampires that don’t sparkle then it’s certainly for you.

My novella Vaudeville, which came out in July, was a joy to write, but it doesn’t appear to have enticed many buyers. That’s the nature of the business I suppose. So much competition out there. You can check it out over at www.darkprintspress.com.au/books_novellas and see if it’s for you. If anything it’s another notch on my belt to spur me on to keep writing and with any luck there might be a new piece of novella-length fiction from me in the near future.

Short stories have been a real challenge for me this year with quite a few written, but not many accepted. There was one expection to that though, with Dark Prints Press, adding me to the list of very fine authors for its April 2013 anthology A Killer Among Demons.

Next year I will try and get back to writing more shorts and submitting them, because its just something that I have to master if I’m going to be taken seriously.

One New Year’s resolution will be to do a new draft of my novel (yes, a novel!) that I’ve been working on for quite a few years. Tentatively titled Skin Deep, it’s an urban fantasy about a monstrous man who’s trying to find his origins. I aim to start submitting it before the end of 2013.

So that’s it. If this will indeed be my last post then I’d like to say thanks for reading my scribbles or checking out my art. It’s been fun.

Over the course of about 14 months from October 2010 to November 2011 I illustrated roughly 200 pages for the graphic novel Witch Hunts: A Graphic History of the Burning Times, authored by Bram Stoker Award Winners Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton.

The graphic novel was published by McFarland and so far has received much critical acclaim of which I am most humbled. It was a lot of work, particularly given the fact that I had to draw the entire book in the evenings and on weekends due to my full time job.

Page 2

Page 1

It was an amazing challenge taking Rocky and Lisa’s scripts and interpreting their words and descriptions onto the page. About 99% of my illustrations made the grade but there were some pages and drawings which didn’t suit and were left out or altered.

For those interested in seeing how the book was pieced together, I propose to show you some of the missing pages and the original five pages used as a pitch to the publisher way back in October 2010. Also included is a completely different cover to the one that was ultimately published:

Page 3

These pages are from the original proposal to McFarland. The page 2 you see here is nothing like the one that was ultimately published. It was the problem page, but it was also in my opinion the most important page in the book. It was a page intended to summarise what the graphic novel was about. The problem arose because there was a lot of text and I was trying to be creative and it just didn’t work. This page was a still being adjusted right up until the deadline.

Page 4

The other issue is that I was initially responsible for the placement of text – thankfully McFarland took this over. Not that I wasn’t capable, but I really needed to concentrate on the art rather than adding the text on the computer. The interesting thing about pages 3, 4 and 5 is that a lot of the panels you see here were ultimately redrawn as larger versions. I was thinking too small and the opening chapter of the book had to be expanded to seven pages.

Obviously McFarland liked the pitch, but we had to go back to the drawing board and think big. We decided that it would be easier to have more full page illustrations to cater for the text. I felt the text was just as crucial in the telling of this book – just as much as my illustrations. Yes, some editing was done but I think there were still some 20,000 words in the book.

Page 5

This page, page 5, one of my favourite pages from the book, was changed a little at McFarland’s suggestion. Vines were added to separate the Adam and Eve from the peeping monk panel, but I also wanted to tie the two ‘realms’ together and ended up drawing the maidservant holding Adam’s hand.

All in all the five page proposal was a very exciting challenge that dictated how the rest of the graphic novel would look. I wanted to capture that medieval engraving/etching look and I’m glad I ended up going with this style.

The Missing Pages!

This is a page from chapter six where de la Case kills Master Jehan for accusing his daughters of witchcraft. The issue with this page was that I wasn’t depicting the “blow” de la Case delivered properly. It took a few roughs before I got it right.

The third rough captured it as it was intended.

The page on the left here was changed because while you could see the man being tortured with the claw-like device, you couldn’t see who was doing it so I had to redraw it. The meeting between the man and the two witches also didn’t look sinister enough. The final page (right) actually turned out much better as I was able to merge the two different scenes into one so the reader’s eye could travel smoothly from top to bottom. 

The original page 2 from the Valais chapter

The final version of page 2

This page had to be completely redrawn as well because the intended focus was all wrong. In the first version I made the criminal prominent when it should have been the man and his wife in the foreground. This was simply a case of me misinterpreting the script.

It was a bit of a shame having to redraw it because I particularly liked how the soldiers clothes turned out.

And finally there’s the cover. I knew from the outset that I wanted to depict a witch being burned at the stake. At the very beginning of the project I drew this image:

      We all liked this image but over time we realised that the drawing of the woman was being lost in the flame (no pun intended there, I promise) so it was back to drawing board.

The next image was of the younger woman again, but in more of a full length body shot:

The overall image was liked, but it was agreed that the woman wasn’t “witchy” enough and I was asked to make her much older. By this stage I had already inked the final image! But all it took was a little white gouache and the final cover was done!
      

Anyway I hope you all enjoyed reading about the evolution of Witch Hunts. If you’d like to purchase a copy you can find it via the following links:

Direct from the publisher – McFarland

Amazon

The Book Depository

You can also check out our website at www.witchhuntsbook.com where you can read more posts about the book’s creation and read reviews or visit our Facebook page!

We hope you enjoy reading it as much we all enjoyed creating it!

My comrade Lisa Morton recently tagged me with these interview questions as part of The Next Big Thing initiative – a concept to allow authors to help other authors, so here goes:

1) What is the working title of your next book?
The Last Night of October – obviously it’s about Halloween and it’s novella length.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
Being an Australian I’m intrigued (if not jealous) of the Trick r Treating past-time during Halloween and the idea of a sinister kid knocking on your door and demanding much more than candy from you was irresistible.

3) What genre does your book fall under?
Horror – of the supernatural variety.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh, that’s too hard to say, but when I was writing the main character Gerald Forsyth, I kept picturing Jack Lemmon in my mind.


5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Every Halloween 71-year-old Gerald Forsyth’s horrific past comes a-knocking … for his soul. 


6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’ll be sending it out to various novella publishers.


7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Probably six months in total. I was very happy to get it completed before Halloween – was sort of a goal.


8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury or Harvest Moon by James A. Moore.


9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Halloween itself really. I wanted to celebrate it more on a personal level and the best way to do that was write a story about it. 

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
I’ve tried to capture all the common tropes around Halloween: Trick r Treating, ghosts – and even witches. So if you’re looking for a good tale to scare the crap out of you on Halloween night then you should give it a go!

It’s getting closer to Halloween and over at the Horror Writers Association’s blog, I’ve left a post on how I feel about Halloween as an Australian.

Want a chance to win this original artwork by yours truly?

This bad boy is the vampire Rahkh, central character in the comic series Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom, written by Mark Farrugia and illustrated by myself.

Rahkh is a nasty vampire, who’s literally addicted to the blood of those who have been baptised. He’s on a desperate quest to redeem himself for drinking Christ’s blood – it’s pretty heavy stuff I know, but it’s been a killer series to draw.

The magazine in which Allure is published, Midnight Echo, is currently running a subscription drive and I’ve put this illustration up as one of the prizes. It will be signed by Mark and I.

If you like the look of this art or any of the other amazing prizes for that matter then just head over to the Midnight Echo magazine site for more details.

Chapter 2 of Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom will be published in issue 8, scheduled for release on November 30.

Oh, and what do you guys think of the animated subscription promo banner I designed for Midnight Echo? There’s another one detailing all the prizes on the ME homepage.

Australian small publisher Dark Prints Press released the author line-up for its upcoming anthology “A Killer Among Demons” and although I knew I was going to have a story within its pages, I never knew I was going to be rubbing shoulders with the likes of Stephen M. Irwin, Angela Slatter or William Meikle – to name a few!

A Killer Among Demons is a supernatural crime themed anthology and is scheduled for release in paperback and e-book formats in April 2013.

My story, “A Matter of Perception”, without giving too much away, poses the notion of crimes being investigated by magicians rather than police officers. It’s dark, grisly stuff and I can’t wait to see it in print.

Here’s the line up (snagged from DPP’s blog):

Alan Baxter – The Beat of a Pale Wing
Greg Chapman – A Matter of Perception
S J Dawson – The Tape
Marilyn Fountain – The Intruder
Stephen M Irwin – 24/7
Chris Large – New York, New York
William Meikle – Truth Decay
Madhvi Ramani – Angel’s Town
Stephen D. Rogers – Grievance Visitation
Angela Slatter – Cuckoo

Let’s look at some of these authors a bit more closely:

Stephen M. Irwin is the author of the fantastic supernatural thrillers The Dead Path and The Broken Ones. I had the pleasure of meeting Steve in Brisbane last year and I feel very privileged to be sharing space with him in this anthology.

Another highly regarded Aussie author, Angela Slatter, very recently won a British Fantasy Award for her short story “The Coffin Maker’s Daughter” – the first Australian to do so! Alan Baxter, a Brit who now resides in New South Wales, is also making a name for himself in the horror and sci-fi field, with a growing list of short stories and tales like The Darkest Shade of Grey.

Scottish-born author William Meikle is a a bit of a phenomenon in speculative fiction, with a broad range of published novels and novellas, including new Arthur Conan Doyle Estate-authorised Sherlock Holmes tales.

And with the acclaimed artist Vincent Chong set to provide the cover artwork for this tome, A Killer Among Demons will really be worth the wait!

Incidentally, Dark Prints Press is the publisher of my e-novella Vaudeville, which you can buy direct from their site HERE

Right now I’m inking pages for the next chapter of the vampire comic Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom (written by Mark Farrugia), which will be appearing in issue 8 of Midnight Echo Magazine.

It’s with great excitement that the Midnight goblins release the Table of Contents for the upcoming Midnight Echo Issue 8, edited by Amanda J Spedding, Mark Farrugia, and Marty Young (due out on November 30).

Note: we also have a few advertising spots left, so please read on for details.

The Table of Contents:

Literature

A Visit With Friends by Joe R Lansdale

The Girl from the Borderlands by Felicity Dowker

Blissful Ignorance by Matthew Wedge

Hello Kitty by Jason Nahrung

Jar Baby by Michelle Jager (with artwork by Glenn Chadbourne)

The Boy With the Hole in his Heart by Caysey Sloan

They Don’t Know That We Know What They Know by Andrew J McKeirnan

Squirrely Shirley by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (with artwork by David Schembri)

Always A Price by Joanne Anderton (AHWA Short Story winner 2012)

Blood Lillies by Shauna O’Meara (AHWA Flash Fiction winner 2012)

Tooth by Kathryn Hore

Pigroot Flat by Jason Fischer

Poetry

Gallows & Blooms by Andrew Alford

Insatiable by Stuart Olver

Coming Home by Marge Simon and Sandy DeLuca

Comic

Allure of the Ancients; The Key to His Kingdom – story by Mark Farrugia, illustrations by Greg Chapman

Special Features

In the Art, The Dark: Glen Chadbourne

Facts, fiction and fevers by Gary Kemble (non-fiction)

An Interview with Jack Ketchum

An Interview with Lee Battersby

Regular Features

A Word from the AHWA President – Geoff Brown

Tartarus – Danny Lovecraft (poetry column)

Pix and Panels – Mark Farrugia (comic column)

Black Roads, Dark Highways #3 – Andrew McKiernan (column)*

Sinister Reads (all the latest releases from AHWA members)

Pre-orders for the limited print edition are now being taken. Please click here for full details: http://midnightechomagazine.com/2012/09/17/table-of-contents-for-issue-8/

We have a couple of spaces left for advertising, both full and half page, but time is short. If you’d like to take one of these places, please contact us at the email address above for more details. All artwork will be needed by the end of the month.

* Issues 1 and 2 of Andrew McKiernan’s column, Black Roads, Dark Highways, were first published in Black magazine in 2008. Issue 1 of this column will be republished on the Midnight Echo website at the end of September, with Issue 2 published online at the end of October.

Allure first appeared in a one-off chapter in Midnight Echo #5 and this new storyline, The Key to His Kingdom, began in issue #7. Looking at this cast of speculative fiction greats I feel very humbled to be sharing space in the magazine with them.

Allure will be a part of at least the next two issues of Midnight Echo after issue 8, so if you prefer your vampires to be of the unsparkly variety, please feel free to check it out in the pages of the Australian Horror Writers Association’s official mag.

As a bit of a taster, here are a few sample pages (minus the text) from the upcoming chapter of Allure: