To celebrate one year this month since the publication of my shorty story collection, Vaudeville and Other Nightmares I’m GIVING AWAY a signed print copy. š
To enter, just LIKE or SHARE my Facebook Author page and you go into the draw! (Click the graphic below to head over to the page)
The competition closes on September 30, so get on board!
Don’t forget you can purchase a copy of my collection in print or e-book formats from Amazon!
There were moments when I was close to throwing my novel into the trash icon on my laptop and forgetting I’d ever dreamed it up.
Thankfully the little devil on my shoulder told me to “finish the damn thing” and this week I completed the first draft of my novel, tentatively titled The Temple of Folly.
This was an on again off again novel; one that started inside a notebook about twelve months ago and I later shelved because I didn’t really want to write it at all. The previous novel I’d written had been rejected after almost a year of waiting and it was a real kick in the guts. I was ready to throw in the towel with writing altogether.
The little devil on my shoulder slapped me around and told me to grow a pair. He reminded me of one of Neil Gaiman’s rules that graced the poster on my wall –
“Finish what youāre writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.”
So that was what I did. I took out the notebook with the scrawl of the first few chapters that I’d written and started to type it up into a fresh word document. I hate writing long pieces straight into a computer because I can’t type for shit, but as I did, the story started to form, characters were fleshed out and the end no longer seemed like a chore.
So I’ve written a haunted house novel. It wasn’t as long as I wanted it to be (about 56,000 words), but I FINISHED it. It’s currently in the hands of two trusted beta readers and I’m looking forward to hearing what they liked and especially what they didn’t. I’m actually excited about the fleshing out and editing to come because it’s a complete novel, not some half-finished draft, or sheafs of notes, but a WHOLEĀ novel.
I’m very happy that the little devil talked me around.
One of the beta readers asked me for a brief synopsis and at first this made me cringe because who wants to write a goddamn synopsis – ever? Again the little devil poked me with his pitchfork.
FINISH IT!
So here’s the off-the-cuff synopsis. I hope it entices:
It was just the old house on the corner.
No one in Willow Street paid it any notice; not the disgruntled Campbell family next door, not Alice Cowley and her suicidal daughter, or Mr and Mrs Markham down the road.Ā Not even Darryl, the loner at number 70, who was abnormal himself, knew it was there. It was just old Kemper House, forgotten and seemingly abandoned as far as anyone knew.
Until it made itself known.
When the stench of death wafts from Kemper House through Willow Street, and comes to the attention of recent resident and newspaper reporter Ben Traynor, it will start a chain of horrors that will bring Kemper House’s curse into their own homes and lead others direct to its door.Ā
Kemper House will not only haunt its neighbours, it will infect them with an evil that traverses time and space itself.
I was very fortunate last week to be interviewed by ABC Local Radio for it’s “Getting to Know You” segment and talk about all things horror.
Twenty minutes talking to Mornings host Kim Kleidon about how I got into writing and horror fiction specifically was a whole lot of fun because any opportunity to discuss horror fiction is one not to be passed up.
In the interview you’ll hear about my inspirations, my thoughts about Halloween, my favourite authors and the Australian Horror Writers Association and the US Horror Writers Association.
You might also hear about my upcoming novella The Eschatologist and the novel I’m currently working on. I hope you give it a listen.
Thanks to Kim Kleidon and Megan Hendry at the ABC for the opportunity.
Click on the PLAY button below!
Looking back on my work over the years, I’ve discovered there’s a recurring theme in all of my novellas –Ā a child going through grief.
Torment features a girl whose mother died during an exorcism.
The Noctuary is about a man who is given the chance to go back and change a horrible moment in his childhood.
Vaudeville deals with a boy coming to terms with his father’s passing and finally…
The Last Night of October is about two children whose lives are changed forever on Halloween.
I know this is my sub-conscious at work here because grief and close personal loss defined my early teenage years.
When I was about 15 my best friend died suddenly at school. He’d had a history of heart problems and one day while playing sport his heart stopped and he never regained consciousness. When it happened I wasn’t at school because I had to go home and collect a piece of homework I’d left behind. When I got back to school I was told what happened. I was devastated and even more so when I went up to hospital to say my goodbyes. This moment, naturally stuck with me. I’d lost relatives; grandparents, uncles and aunts when I was younger, but then I never really understood the finality of death.
These feelings were reinforced when I lost my mother to breast cancer five years ago, when Rocky Wood passed away in December last year and a few months ago when my mother-in-law died.
Grief is a powerful force and I conjure the feelings I experienced all those years ago in my writing. Perhaps my writing is my mind trying to come to terms with the loss of all the loved ones I’ve lost over the years.
Horror, to me, is more about the human condition than monsters under the bed or gore for gore’s sake.Ā Horror is when someone is taken from life before their time and I think all of us can relate to that in some way or another.
I’m very excited to reveal that this week I signed a contract with Voodoo Press to publish my post-apocalyptic novella, The Eschatologist.
Voodoo Press, which is based in Malta, recently began publishing English language titles and I’m proud to have been added to their line up of releases for 2015.
The Eschatologist is a survival horror tale centred on David Brewer, who is trying to keep his family alive in a world torn asunder by a Biblical apocalypse. Yet there is salvation, in the guiseĀ of a stranger who offers survivors sanctuary. All they have to do is declare their faith in God’s final – and bloody – plan.
In addition I’ll be providing some internal illustrations for the novella.
I’ve been wanting to release a post-apocalyptic tale for some time and I’m very eager to start working with Voodoo Press.
Stay tuned for more details on the release of The Eschatologist in the near future.
The one-shot crime noir comic, Bullet Ballerina I illustrated for award-winning author Tom Piccirilli is now available for pre-order from SST Publications.
This was a whole lot of fun putting this together. Tom’s script was smart and sharp and full of wit and emotion. It was a real privilege to be able to bring his characters to life on the page. I received a proof copy last week and it looks amazing.
Below is the cover and two pages from the book.
SST will release the book in hardcover, paperback and digital formats on June 1, but you can pre-order a copy now via this link:
https://www.sstpublications.co.uk/Bullet-Ballerina.php
A signature version with mine and Tom’s signatures will also be available.
You can learn more about Tom’s writing via his website – http://thecoldspot.blogspot.com.au/
A lot of authors I know don’t write full time.
I’m one of those authors.
The simple fact is that it doesn’t generate enough income to chuck the day job away.
But it will never stop me from doing what I love to do.
I’ve recently been profiled on David McDonald’s blogsite as part of his “Paying for Our Passion” series, where authors from a wide range of genres and places talk about what they sacrifice to create.
You can read my piece here –
On the other side of the coin, there’s another series of guest posts on authors’ fetishes, or secret inspirations, over at Lee Battersby’s blog.
In my guest post I reveal that I actually have a very messy dungeon in my house.
http://battersblog.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/fetish-friday-greg-chapman.html
Thanks heaps to David and Lee for giving me the opportunity to hijack their websites. š
I’ve been writing quite a few short stories of late and I thought,Ā given it’s been a while between posts, that I’d share a few lines from them….
He realised he was telling himself the same thing he told his patients. Grief was no more than an addiction you had to let go of.
His crying woke me up in the middle of the night. I went to wake Mummy to try and tell her, but she was too asleep. The man was standing in the backyard, crying and singing, but his singing sounded a lot like moaning. I heard the word Allah again and wondered if he wanted his God.
Melissa saw Josie Millerās smiling face inside her head. She seemed so nice, so happy; until she came to this place. Now Melissa would join her in madness.
The cries were a symphony to Doctor Edgar Harding, a howling song that struck the soul with the certainty of a tuning fork.
The witches visited her more frequently, sometimes three times a night. The women were little more than shadows, their gowns loose shrouds barely keeping their dark souls together.Ā
Share some lines from your work (or works) in progress in the comments. š
In part two of my Women In Horror Interviews, I speak with Australian authors/editors Kaaron Warren and Amanda J Spedding. You can read Part 1 HERE.
Bram Stoker Award Nominee and Shirley Jackson Award winner Kaaron Warren has lived in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Fiji. Sheās sold almost 200 short stories, three novels (the multi-award-winning Slights, Walking the Tree and Mistification) and four short story collections including the multi-award-winning Through Splintered Walls. Her latest short story collection is The Gate Theory. Kaaron is a Current Fellow at The Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House, where she is researching Robert Menzies, Sir William Ashton, and the Granny Killer, John Wayne Glover. The resulting crime novel should see print in 2016. You can find her at http://kaaronwarren.wordpress.com/ and she Tweets @KaaronWarren
Amanda J Spedding is an award-winning author whose stories have been published in local and international markets earning honourable mentions and recommended reads. She won the 2011 Australian Shadows Award (short fiction) for her steampunk-horror ‘Shovel-Man Joe’. She is the owner and operator of Phoenix Editing and Proofreading, and between work is currently working on her first novel and awaiting the mid-year launch of her horror comic, ‘The Road’. Amanda lives in Sydney with her sarcastically-gifted husband and two very cool kids.
What first attracted you to the horror genre? Why do you write and read horror?
KW: Secrets and truths. I donāt like a happy ending in stories because happy endings are predictable and I want to be surprised. I write it sometimes because it’s my way of dealing with a world I have no control over. I read it because there are no holds barred and thatās the same with writing it. There are no barriers to the story; no niceties.
AJS: Who doesnāt love a good scare? Really, who doesnāt? Well, my father for one, but my love of horror rests squarely on his shoulders (although he refuses to accept responsibility!). I remember when he read Poeās The Raven to me when I was about five; I was enamoured with the cadence and the bleak imagery. Iāve sought out the darker side of storytelling since.
Thereās a beauty in horror I just love. The beauty in the struggle for survival, in the decisions (good or bad) a character makes, in how they deal when all appears lost. Itās that sliver of hope in a hopeless situation that draws me to the genre.
Itās what I try to bring to my own writing; to create a reality within unreality that would have a reader wonder what theyād do in the same situation. The more awful the situation the better. Thatās when I get to showcase the mettle of a character; when theyāre stripped back to their true selves, their primal selves. Thereās an honesty to horror not a lot of other genres get to show. Itās a great place to play!
How do you feel about Women in Horror month? Itās most certainly warranted, but recently Acting HWA president Lisa Morton said she wished it was a āCelebrate-Horror-Writers-Regardless-of-Gender-Monthā. What are your thoughts?
KW: I agree to a certain extent. However, many names mentioned during the month may not receive the spotlight otherwise. I donāt really like categories of anything because they can mean people focus on that one element and perhaps judge a writer for it. However, they can be useful for highlighting names. More categories, I say!
AJS: I have mixed feelings about WiHM. To my knowledge Iāve not been subject to gender prejudice within the industry, but Iād be a fool to think it doesnāt occur. Unfortunately, there is a resistance to women horror writers, and February seems to unleash the worst of those offenders. Iāve seen some truly dreadful blog posts about a womanās āabilityā to write in the genre let alone be good at it; that WiHM is a personal affront to male horror writers and the male population as a whole. Last year was a particularly godawful time for these types of posts, which, ironically, only furthers the need for WiHM.
Horror is often seen as the āman caveā of speculative fiction. One of the great things about WiHM is that it showcases female horror writers and perhaps results in someone whoād not normally read a horror story written by woman to give it a try. Would I like February to be āCelebrate Horror Writers Regardless of Genre Monthā? Wouldnāt it be nice if all writers, regardless of gender, were judged solely on their work all the time. Sadly, thatās not the reality. My wish would be for female horror writers to be held in equal standing with our male counterparts.
What are your perceptions of the number of female horror authors out there right now? What should the wider community be doing to encourage them?
KW: Iām one of the judges for the Shirley Jackson Awards this year and itās very clear: there are many, many talented female horror writers today. We can encourage all authors by reading widely and with an open mind. Articles like this excellent one from Marty YoungĀ http://martyyoung.com/the-wonderfully-horrific-world-of-female-horror-writers/Ā are great because they can expose us to writers we may not have read, and tell us more about our favourite authors.
AJS: I think there are a lot more female horror writers out there than most realise. What makes it difficult to judge is the amount of sub-genres and classifications being thrown around. When you add in the fact that some female horror writers use pseudonyms, the waters get muddier still. From what Iām seeing on social media, though, I do believe the number is growing, and that makes me a happy horror writer.
How to encourage a female horror writer? Buy their work. Review. If youāre a fan, tell the author then spread the word. The same applies to any author regardless of gender and regardless of genre. If you love an authorās work, let them know; review; spread the word. And if youāre someone who hasnāt read a horror story written by a female author, why not source one. Thatās great encouragement and support right there.
There are many women writing paranormal romance. Do you think that has had a positive or negative influence on women authors in the horror genre?
KW: This is not my genre, either writing or reading, but I know many women writing in the genre love horror as well as romance and I think they give both the respect they deserve. Paranormal romance is very separate from what is traditionally horror, so I donāt think one affects the other.
AJS: Ooh, tough question. I canāt speak on behalf of other female horror writers. Personally, paranormal romance isnāt for me. If youāre looking at the general reading community, I donāt think most understand the difference between PR and horror ā itās all lumped in together. When I say I write horror, the response I normally receive is: āLike Twilight?ā Itās that misconception I believe is based solely on gender; itās not an option I believe would be offered if I were male.
More often than not I have to explain the difference between paranormal romance and horror, and that my writing drags itself from the bloody abyss where monsters are born, not the sparkly, sepia tones Iāve often found in PR. It can be tiresome having to explain the why behind my choice of genre, and itās irritating to have to explain it all, especially when paranormal romance is often suggested (unasked) as an alternative.
I have found that paranormal romance does open some to reading horror, and that can only ever be a positive. Those who read paranormal romance may pick up a tome that treads more on the side of horror than what theyāre used to. Call it a stepping stone, if you like, to the horror genre.
Which women in horror inspire you and who should we be reading?
KW: Here are just a few of many: Lisa Tuttle, Gemma Files, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Elizabeth Hand, Margo Lanagan, Kirstyn McDermott, Deborah Biancotti, Lisa Morton, Livia Llewellyn, Lucy Sussex, S.P. Miskowski, Alison Littlewood and Thana Niveau.
AJS: Kaaron Warren ā without a doubt in my mind one of the most nightmare-inducing horror writers about! If you havenāt read her work, youāre doing yourself a disservice. Stop reading this and go get a copy of her workā¦ do it now!
Caitin R Kiernan is another writer who isnāt scared to take a reader to some very dark places; sheās won a stack of awards for her writing. Let her be your tour-guide to her worlds, you wonāt be disappointed.
Shirley Jackson. I mean Shirley Jackson. If youāre new to horror, then this is the place to start. If you havenāt read any of her work then get thee to a bookstore! Weāll talk again when you stutter your way through your fawning over the brilliance of the ladyās writing.
And finally, tell us about what youāre currently working on.
KW: Lots on! Iām finalising a new story for the print edition of my short story collection, The Gate Theory. Iām researching a crime novel as part of my Fellowship with the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. Iām hoping to sell my two completedĀ Ā novels. Iām working on my story for the Review of Australian Fiction, an issue in which Iām paired with Michelle Goldsmith. And moreā¦.
AJS: By midnight Friday the 13th, Iāll have finished the first draft of my novel āThe Lightning Treeā (working title). Itās an apocalyptic tale set initially in a fantastical world before moving ā¦ well, before moving on elsewhere (no spoilers!) Itās a story of gods and monsters, survival and its cost. Itās driven from my short story āThe Whims of my Enemyā, which Iāve always wanted to explore in greater detail. I get to create a world, culture, mythology then systematically destroy it. How can you not love writing horror?
Thank you Kaaron and Amanda! Well, I hope you all found this discussion interesting and will support women in the horror genre!
For more on Amandaās writing, visit her blog, āAuthor, editor, caffeine-addict, wannabe ninjaā – http://amandajspedding.com/ . You can also read one of her short stories for free at Cohesion Press.
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