Musings Everywhere

I like the Internet. I like the ease with which I can spread my words all over - I feel like a huge flock of pigeons circling over clean washing. Ready, Aim , Fire!

When I click on 'Publish Post', this small entry in my blog, hosted by blogger.com, will zoom off to a number of different places.

Here at blogger.com (aka Musings Of An Aussie Writer)
Over at Wordpress (brentontomlinson.wordpress.com aka Musings Of An Aussie Writer)
On Darklands (BT's Page)
And Facebook (Brenton Tomlinson)

If you care to befriend me on any of these places, feel free. Go ahead and leave comments if such is your whim, join the communities if you haven't as of yet, or create a new presence to host your words of wisdom and further spread your fame (if not your fortune).

You would also be aware that pigeons are considered flying rats in many parts of the world...

The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon

For only $6, you can order Catherine J. Gardner’s The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon from Bucket O Guts Press.

Cate has been published in a huge variety of online zines and print publications to wide acclaim. She has a distinctive, mature, and immensely unique voice. But don't take my word for it. Read some of her online work here:

Trench Foot
A Blood-Splattered Letter from Mr. Grim
Insomniac Ink
Lonesome Pine
Uncle Eric's Leather Bound Tale
The Forest of Sepia Children

Now go buy 'The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon' - you won't be disappointed.

Spoilt Rotten

Okay, call me stupid (waits with hand cupped behind ear) - thank you.

Today is August 7th. My story Spoilt Rotten has been available for download for a whole week and I didn't realise it - told you I was over tired and not thinking straight.

Go here and download the free PDF from Demonic Tome (or just click on the updated link in my sidebar). If you like, you can also let me know what you think of it. Throwing money instead of appreciation is encouraged but not strictly necessary ;c)

I hope you enjoy it.

Friday

It's been a couple of days since I last posted and I don't have a great deal to show for it.

No writing, no reading, no thinking about anything in particular. I've not been getting a lot of sleep so I'm over tired and tonight shall not help. There will still be no reading, no writing and definitely no peaceful moments to contemplate anything.

My little one turns 10 on the 10th of this month. As that's a Monday, and a school night, she will be having friends over for a slumber party tonight. My house shall be inundated with 8-10 year old girls (well, there will be six in total so it shall sound like it's been inundated...).

Wish me luck. If I survive the encounter I shall sleep a great portion of Sunday away and then hopefully read a large chunk of the fourth Dexter book which has been wallowing beside my bed. My only oasis of peace shall be while the girls are attending a netball game this evening. During this brief interlude I'm hoping to read and critique a story I've been very slow in getting around to (or you could read that as having been very slack - I won't be offended).

Have a great weekend!

WIP Wednesday

Last Wednesday I was at 6559 words. This week I've bumped that a little to 10875. Nowhere near the 2-5k a day when I first wrote a novel length piece, but then most of that was dreck and not worth reading by sane individuals - hopefully a slightly more considered approach will produce something better.

This is a rolling WIP Wednesday total as it's only lunchtime here so there may well be more added to this before the day is out. My daughter is home with tonsillitis (again), so I'm home from work and enjoying some concerted writing time - which I've done over the last couple of hours. Now is time for a break.

Cue the bean...

He's A Very Naughty Boy

Well, I may not be the Messiah, but I have been a naughty blogger. I've not been posting or commenting on other blogs for purely selfish reasons.

I've been reading and writing. Honestly, I have.

I've almost completed 20% of my YA novel and I finished reading the Barclay novel. I've moved immediately onto the fourth Dexter novel which I hope to complete this week, and then I'll have two left to do for HorrorScope - hopefully by the end of this month.

Then I've been lucky enough to be asked to read and review for another independently published author - cool.

I've also got a first chapter to read for another writer - it's hard to be this popular...

As if...

I've got tax stuff to sort out, cricket season looming large, the EPL starting up again, the Ashes and a warm fuzzy feeling about the YA thing I'm currently working on which needs a title. I'm playing around with a few but nothing has struck home yet. Maybe Jason had the right idea in calling his secret project Fred for the sake of having something to call it other than 'The Secret Project'! Any and all witty suggestions are welcome.

As for being naughty: I lurk in the background and read the new posts in the 80 or so blogs I follow and then get back to work (Google Reader is wonderful for keeping me organised). Very occasionally, I comment. I should do more, but then if it's a toss up between writing, reading, spending time doing stuff I enjoy off the computer, spending time with family or blogging - blogging loses - I'm becoming okay with that.

Review: Ravensoul by James Barclay

My review of James Barclay's Ravensoul is up at HorrorScope.

Personally, because I haven't been an avid follower of the series, I found the first third of the book to be less than worthy, but the last two thrids of the book were exceptional.

On my Review Scale Ravensoul gets a solid 3.6.

AHWA NEWS DIGEST [02.07.09-02.08.09]

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

Dymocks Southland Bestselling Horror Titles for July ‘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 July 2009.

Eclecticism Issue 9
Eclecticism E-zine are celebrating their 2nd Anniversary with the release of Issue #9! Come and join the festivities by downloading the free online magazine.

Nameless bounty
The ‘Nameless’ competition has been extended until the 1st of September 2009, and a $500 winner’s cheque has been added to sweeten the already tasty prize pool. Read the story here. Come up with a conclusion and a title. Make your $10 donation and enter the competition here. Click through for more details!

Scribe launches the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize
Scribe is delighted to announce the launch of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize. The prize is open for an unpublished manuscript by any Australian writer over 35, who may or may not have been published before. The winner of the CAL Scribe Fiction Prize will be awarded a book contract from Scribe and a prize of $12,000.

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One
Ellen Datlow has announced the contents of the forthcoming The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One, due out in October from Night Shade Books. The book features two Australian horror writers - Miranda Siemienowicz and Margo Lanagan.

The Mother US edition
The US limited edition of Brett McBean's second novel The Mother is now up for pre-order from Thunderstorm Books. This is the uncut version, with two graphic scenes previously deemed too extreme, now restored back into the text.

First National Republican Short Story Competition
On 6 November 2009, it will be 10 years since the republican referendum was lost. To commemorate this event and to remind Australians of what they still don't have, the Australian Republican Movement is calling for speculative fiction short stories between 2000 and 4000 words that portray an Australian republican future in a positive light and demonstrate the absurdity of a hereditary monarch as the Australian Head of State in twenty-first century Australian society. Click through for more details.

'Family Demons' midnight screening
Ursula Dabrowsky, winner of the Best Australian Director award at the 2009 A Night of Horror International Film Festival for her eerie psychological feature film, Family Demons, is proud to be screening the film at the 2009 Melbourne Underground Film Festival. The event will be held on Saturday, 29 August 2009 at 11pm at the Embassy (formerly the Queensbridge Hotel), 1 Queensbridge St, South Melbourne.

Aeon Award 2009 2nd round shortlist
As recently announced on the Albedo One website, a number of stories have been added to the Aeon Award 2009 shortlist after the second round of consideration, which ran from April to the end of July. The competition directors would like to emphasize that the Aeon Award is still open for entries to the end of November '09. Click through for more details.

Quentin Tarantino & Popcorn Taxi present Dark Age
To celebrate the great Aussie genre films of the eighties, Inglourious Basterds director Quentin Tarantino presents his own personal 35mm print of Arch Nicholson's 1987 Ozploitation classic Dark Age for a phenomenal one-off Popcorn Taxi screening. Event Sold Out!

Award Winning Australian Writing 2009
The Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) congratulates Benjamin Hayes, winner of the AHWA Flash and Short Story Competition 2008 (Flash Fiction category), whose winning entry has been selected for inclusion in the 2009 edition of Award Winning Australian Writing, to be published by Melbourne Books. Other noteworthy Australian speculative authors to have work included are Cat Sparks and Simon Brown. The book launch will be held at this year's Melbourne Writers' Festival. 2:30pm, August 21, Festival Club, ACMI, Melbourne.

Terry Dowling Ticonderoga editions available for pre-order
The best work of Terry Dowling, Australia’s "master of fantasy", will be released in two volumes published by independent WA publisher Ticonderoga Publications. The two volumes, Basic Black: Tales of Appropriate Fear and Make Believe: A Terry Dowling Reader, collect thirty stories from Dowling’s almost 30-year career. These books are available for pre-order from Indie Books Online.

Damned By Dawn world premiere (FREE!)
Writer/director Brett Anstey invites horror affictionados to the world-premiere screening of his banshee/walking dead horror film, Damned By Dawn. The event is FREE - although management request RSVP by email to info@damnedbydawnmovie.com Wednesday August 12, 7:30pm, ACMI, Melbourne.

In The Dead Of Night
Australia’s first ‘choose your own adventure’ cabaret debuts in Melbourne… and it’s not for the faint of heart. After directing professional cabaret and theatre for nearly a decade, Play Right Theatre founder Kim Edwards has channelled her dark side and finally released a long-time pet project of her own on the stage. Edwards’ previous credits include children’s drama classes and Theatre In Education work, but it will be adults only when In The Dead Of Night: A Cult Show is let loose at The Butterfly Club in all its gothic, grotesque, and darkly funny glory.

2009 Chronos Award finalists
The Continuum Foundation has announced the ballot for the 2009 Chronos Awards, which honours the best works of science fiction, fantasy, and horror produced by Victorians in 2008 as recommended by Australian SF fans. The Chronos Award winners will be presented at Continuum 5. Click through for a list of nominees.

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.

Attention Everyone

Pill Hill Press has new guidelines!

Now everyone can submit. The issue was apparently payment. They were not setup with Paypal?! Now they are - so let the submissions roll!

Good luck.