AHWA NEWS DIGEST [03.08.09-03.09.09]

The following digest of recent horror news is compiled from pieces published to HorrorScope and the Australian Horror Writers' Association website.

2009 AHWA AGM Notice
The Australian Horror Writers Association's Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place in September, and all AHWA members are invited to attend and be involved in the organisation's future developments. 9 September 2009, 7:30 pm (EST), Venue to be confirmed (Melbourne metro area). Please contact AHWA Secretary Ian Mond for further info on the location of this year's AGM.

Family Demons Takes Awards At Fright Night
Australian horror film Family Demons, directed by Ursula Dabrowsky, has won awards in the following categories at Fright Night Film Festival 2009. Click through for details.

Eneit Press To Launch Two New Books
Eneit Press would like to invite you to the launch of two new books: Life Through Cellophane by Gillian Polack, and In Bad Dreams Volume 2 edited by Sharyn Lilley. 4th October, at Conflux. Click through for RSVP details.

Eye Of Fire Issue #1
Brimstone Press has launched a new, free e-zine entitled Eye Of Fire. Issue #1 can be downloaded here. Subscribe to Eye Of Fire as a show of support while Black Magazine is being restructured. Angela Challis, Brimstone Press and Black Magazine Editor-in-Chief comments: "...With enough interest shown through free subscription to this e-zine ... Black (magazine) will be back!" Click through to subscribe.

Paul Haines' Slice Of Life
A man. A liver. A mind? Meet the mind of Paul Haines. Slice of Life contains seventeen glittering stories, dripping with twenty first century paranoia and anxiety - to be launched at Conflux 09, 29 August. Slice of Life is a fund-raising venture for the Paul Haines cancer fund. 100% of the cover price will help Paul Haines fight his cancer. Help give Paul Haines a slice of life. Click through to order.

Dymocks Southland Bestselling Horror Titles For August ‘09
Dymocks Southland is a general bookshop in Cheltenham, Victoria, boasting an extensive range of genre stock. Click through for the top 10 bestselling horror titles for August 2009.

Shards and Shards: Damned and Burning
Shane Jiraiya Cummings' debut collection, Shards, has been published and is now available from Brimstone Press and selected bookstores in Australia. Every story in Shards is illustrated by Australian dark fantasy artist Andrew J. McKiernan. Coinciding with the release of Shards is the bonus e-chapbook, Shards: Damned and Burning. Shards: Damned and Burning can be downloaded (PDF) for free from the Brimstone Press website (click on the Shards page).

Thrill The World 2009 Perth
Perth zombie lovers and Michael Jackson fans are organising a zombie-themed dance off as part of the Thrill The World 2009 event. Organisers are inviting people to dress as zombies and dance to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as part of a simultaneous, worldwide Guinness World Record attempt. October 25, South Perth Foreshore. Click through for details.

Lovecraft Annual No 3
Lovecraft Annual No 3: New Scholarship on H. P. Lovecraft has just been published by Hippocampus Press. Edited by S. T. Joshi, this volume includes essays from Australian writers Leigh Blackmore and Phillip A. Ellis.

Digital Fringe 2009 Open For Entries
Digital Fringe is an open access public arts festival that places contemporary screen based media in public locations. In keeping with the Fringe Festival charter, Digital Fringe is open access and accessible to emerging and established artists, particularly those working in screen based and new media. Click through for more details.

Aussiecon 4 Membership Rates From September 1, 2009
Aussiecon 4 have announced that the following membership rates will hold from 1 September 2009. Click through for details.

Festive Fear
Tasmaniac Publications presents FESTIVE FEAR! An anthology of original stories from some of the leading horror writers working in Australia today. Fourteen disturbing tales, that will make you wonder if Christmas really is something to look forward to?

Writers Workshop Of Horror
Writers Workshop Of Horror includes an unparalleled list of teachers, all experts in their fields of endeavor. Woodland Press assembled a dream team of writers, editors and professionals for this special project. The book focuses solely on honing the craft of writing. Click through for more details.

Shades Of Sentience Short Story Competition
The Shades Of Sentience short story competition is open to "horror, fantasy, science fiction, and anything in between." Click through for more details.

Worldshaker Shortlisted For Golden Inky Award
Richard Harland's Young Adult steam punk novel Worldshaker has been shortlisted for a Golden Inky Award. Harland's book is one of 20 youth literature books listed on the awards shortlist - announced on the State Library of Victoria's youth reading website on August 21. Click through for a list of nominees.

World Premiere Of Australian Film: Eraser Children at Fantastic Planet Film Festival
Fantastic Planet, Sydney’s Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival and Crumpler are proud to announce the festival’s opening night film: the world premiere of the Australian science fiction feature Eraser Children. The festival runs for eight days at Dendy, Newtown Cinema, from October 30 to Nov 6, 2009.

The Lifted Brow's Valcapella and Dwinn
The Lifted Brow is an Australian magazine of writing, art, and music. The magazine's recent midyear issue includes an ambitious eighty-minute audio drama by Brisbane writer Thomas Benjamin Guerney entitled "Valcapella and Dwinn".

LegumeMan's Underground Fiction Forum
Independent Australian publisher LegumeMan Books, known for titles that explore the dark and absurd, has recently launched a forum to discuss underground fiction and culture.

The Man Who Collected Psychos
In The Man Who Collected Psychos: Critical Essays on Robert Bloch, editor Benjamin Szumskyj gathers essays examining Robert Bloch’s novels, short stories and life, as well as the themes and issues explored in his influential canon. Featuring a Forward by Robert Hood. Available from McFarland Publications.

Jennifer Byrne Presents Monsters and Bloodsuckers
As part of the special Jennifer Byrne Presents series, Monsters and Bloodsuckers is slated to screen on the ABC at 10pm, Tuesday 8th of September. A special episode of First Tuesday Book Club, the half-hour programme will focus on the classic horror novels Dracula by Bram Stoker, The Werewolf Of Paris by Guy Endore, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and Dr Jekyll And Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. Guest authors joining Jennifer Byrn, are noted horror and occult writer Leigh Blackmore, childrens' book writer Catherine Jinks, novelist Tara Moss, and novelist Will Elliott.

Submitting News

If you have news about Australian and New Zealand Horror publishing and film, or news of professional development opportunities in the field, feel free to submit news to Talie Helene, AHWA News Editor. Just visit HorrorScope, and click on the convenient email link. (International news is not unwelcome, although relevance to Antipodean literary arts practitioners is strongly preferred.)

For information on the Australian Horror Writers' Association, visit australianhorror.com.

This AHWA NEWS DIGEST has been compiled, written, and republished in select Australian horror haunts by Talie Helene. Currently archived at the AHWA MySpace page, and Southern Horror; hosted at the social networking sites Darklands and A Writer Goes On A Journey; and hosted by AHWA members Felicity Dowker, Brenton Tomlinson, Scott Wilson, and Jeff Ritchie (Scary Minds: Horror's Last Colonial Outpost).

If you would like to support the AHWA News effort by hosting a copy of the AHWA News Digest on your blog or website, contact Talie to receive a fully formatted HTML edition of the digest by email.