Australian Shadow Awards Announced

As you know, I've not been online very much in the last few months due to physical restrictions, so I was somewhat blown away when I received a phone call from Alan Baxter of Blade Red Press fame, and author of the excellent books Magesign and Realmshift, to give me the excellent news that Dark Pages Volume 1 had made the short list for this years Australian Shadow Awards!

I don't expect to win, but then I wasn't expecting to be nominated either - but I should have been as I was given an opportunity to work with very talented authors, the best copy editor bar none, and a very supportive and encouraging publishing house.

Perhaps now would be a good time to click on the link in the sidebar to buy a copy of the award nominated anthology!

Here’s the full list of finalists:


LONG FICTION

* Madigan Mine by Kirstyn McDermott (Picador Australia)

* The Girl With No Hands by Angela Slatter (Ticonderoga Publications)

* Guardian of the Dead by Karen Healy (Allen & Unwin)

* Under Stones by Bob Franklin (Affirm Press)

* Bleed by Peter M. Ball (Twelfth Planet Press)

EDITED PUBLICATION

* Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis & Marty Young (Brimstone Press)

* Scenes From The Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar & Pete Kempshall (Morrigan Books)

* Dark Pages 1, edited by Brenton Tomlinson (Blade Red Press)

* Scary Kisses, edited by Liz Gryzb (Ticonderoga Publications)

* Midnight Echo #4, edited by Lee Battersby (AHWA)

SHORT FICTION

* “Bread and Circuses” by Felicity Dowker (Scary Kisses)

* “Brisneyland by Night” by Angela Slatter (Sprawl)

* “She Said” by Kirstyn McDermott (Scenes from the Second Storey)

* “All The Clowns In Clowntown” by Andrew J. McKiernan (Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears)

* “Dream Machine” by David Conyers (Scenes from the Second Storey)

Congratulations to all the nominees.

Winners to be announced on April 15th.

Researching

Recent topics Googled or read about in actual books!

• White slavery
• Deduction
• True Crime cases
• Mormonism
• Avenging Angles
• Danites

Point of note: This idea I have is inspired by the the Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Sherlock Holmes story titled 'A Study in Scarlet' where he outlines a "supposed" militant group of people the Mormon's employed many years ago to "recruit" suitable white women. My story will not involve the Mormon people, or any other religious group. My idea is far more seedier and much more despicable than that, but, in the end, it will be a love story. Not a Mills & Boon-style romance, a real love story - it will just be buried beneath a great deal of other stuff...

Think Bourne meets Ashanti with a fair sprinkling of Paperback Hero garnishing around the edges, but there will be no Jason Bourne, or even someone who knows martial arts as our hero. I'm going to drop a pretty nice, but also pretty average, bloke into the middle of a medieval nightmare which takes place in the 21st century.

At least that's the plan as it's playing out in my head. It will evolve and as it does, I'll post snippets of what I'm doing and what I'm researching as I go. Not sure if I'll go into word count updates at this point - I'm not sure that sort of thing will help or hinder, or even matters.

Research and Plotting

I've been knee deep in research and I've made a couple of major changes regarding required characters, and that has led to changes in the plot.

All this is being written down longhand.

No subplots yet, but there wouldn't be, would there? I haven't finalised the characters yet so how would I know what tangents they're likely to go off on...

Now when people tell me 'I'm off in my own little world', they don't know how right they are!

Working title for this project: Avenging Angels (hint: it has nothing to do with angels or religion)

Like Sands through The Houglass

It's been a long time.

A quick update:

My back is still preventing me from spending any quality time in front of a keyboard. Anymore than a few minutes typing and I start to push the pain tolerance levels.

But this doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it!

I've been reading, and I have a new idea. I spend my time formulating how I'm going to progress once I'm fully back in the saddle. This time, I'm not going to be spending large amounts of time networking or giving progress reports. This time I'm going to be writing.

While this is still a couple of months away, I'm spending the time on research and plot development. The end goal is very firmly fixed in my head, as is the path for my character to get there. The background is percolating nicely.

Plans are in place...this year, it's time to follow through.

But the biggest news - it is not horror. It's not even really dark.

I've been considering all the advise I've been given and read over the first few years of me trying out this writing caper and have come to the conclusion I've been playing in the wrong sandbox. Now I'm learning about a new way to formulate a story, one I would enjoy reading.

That's about it for now as the back is now killing me - told you I can't spend much time in the chair.

Speak soon

BT

A Stitch In Time

Life is difficult at the moment.

My back is a mess of pain and confused nerves which constantly send incorrect information to the pain receptors in my lower extremities, and cries for pain medication to my noggin.

I'm having the house underpinned which is a three grand expense I could have done without just before Xmas, but which the the house desperately needs.

My car brakes decided now would be a good time to require repairing and if I delayed any longer, the callipers would carve their initials into the discs.

My son's 18th is coming (two days before Xmas) and, of course, the fat bloke in the red suit is nearly upon us.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with money worries and stress up to the eyeballs.

But take a moment to think about Kennedy and Brendan Eyberg who will be spending their very first Xmas without their parents this year...all my issues seem to pale into insignificance - how about yours?

If you'd like to help, then place your order for the Strange Publications 52 Stitches anthology. Once you have placed your order, then fire off an email to the wonderful Cate Gardner to receive a further gift of her wonderful book Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits & Other Curious Things which I've just finished reading and recommend highly.

So two excellent collections for the price of one, and you'll be helping out two little kiddies who shouldn't have to face this time of year alone, but through tragic circumstance were robbed of their parents. If you can, buy a couple and give them out as Xmas gifts.

A Long Time Between Drinks

I apologise for the silence from this end, but I'm guessing very few people still pop by to see if I've stirred enough to post something new - but if you do, then today is your lucky day (and thank you for being stubborn enough to keep coming back).

I figured it was time I at least updated what I am reading - which I have. Cate's Men in Pinstripe Suits is something else. I truly believe if reality and the universe of Jeremy Shipp got together, Men in Pinstripe Suits may very well be the love child result. It is very different with a decidedly creepy dose of the tangible to make you stop and wonder: WTF!

Paint me extremely impressed, a little jealous, and very very proud to count Cate among my cyber friends (even if I have been somewhat remiss in my communication with you all of late - at least I hope she is still my friend).

To date, I'm still not writing, and I'm still in copious amounts of pain from back and leg issues. I've got an appointment with a specialist early in 2011 so I need to make do until then. Life is what it is.

Enough about me - go buy Cate's book if you haven't already (click on the picture in the post below) and enjoy.

Strange Men

My signed copy (I love collecting signed copies) of Strange Men in Pinstripe Suits arrived yesterday! (Thanks Cate)

As did a number of other, unsigned, things clamouring to be read. I've taken to reading in the car as I wait for my little one to come out of school. I get there with just enough time to read one standard-length short story/day. I have just about run out of space on my 'waiting-to-be-read-shelf' which now has books piled from top to bottom and front to back - it is utterly ridiculous.

I think all of my subscriptions have now finally run out. Yes, authors who want to be published in small press markets should support them (and read the type of stories they publish), but I've built up a massive backlog, and I'm not currently seeking to be published, so my money goes elsewhere (Tyarna is loving her horse riding lessons).

When I can afford it, I may still purchase the occasional release, such as the above example, but they will have to be fewer and much further between dips into the wallet. Life is what it is. I suppose making offers to personally sign a copy could entice me...

Little Surprising Reminders

I'm not writing at the moment. I'm reading The Blackness Within anthology very slowly (and enjoying it very much - becoming more and more honoured to have been included as I read the other contributor's stories).

I still have opinions on the things I read. I still go through them with a critical eye.

A friend sent me a story to critique hoping I was still around to do so. Unfortunately, I'm not online very much at the moment so I missed the request until after the due date. I still read it and passed back my congratulations on an excellently put together piece and a couple of little comments on things I might have considered changing if they require any additional edits in the future.

I was surprised at how easy it was to slip back into that thought process. I was surprised at how quickly I picked up plot devices in the story and could whittle them back to reveal their origins in stories long gone (this one was from Greek mythology no less).

The skills in the Craft don't disappear. They may lie dormant, and they will need honing once more if ever dragged out into the light of day, but writer's aren't made - they are born. Good writer's are those who take that latent talent and nurture it into something great - continually. Nothing will improve a writer's skills more than putting words on a page. Other things will help, but nothing as much as putting your bum in the chair and actually writing.

One day I will return to the fold, but I'm pretty confident I will do it all differently when I do. I'm also confident that day is a way off. Maybe I'll wait and see if the doom-sayers are right about 2012, or maybe I'll wait until I retire, or maybe I'll win lotto, but I know what I want to do when I sit down to write again, at least I know how I want to do it, and I have some ideas for what I'll be playing with - but all that is for another time.

For now, I'm happy to sit and read, or to offer opinion on a piece for a friend if asked (and given enough notice).

Good luck with your submissions.

Still Alive

I'm still around the place and I'm still reading your blogs - lurking can be habit forming :c)

I received notification that I had a comment requiring moderation, which surprised me as I don't moderate my posts and I haven't posted anything in ages, so why would anyone comment anyway?

To my surprise, a very old post (Feb 20, 2009) titled Idolatry And An Acceptance received a comment from a TOC collaborator, Dempsey from NVF #5. He has nicely offered to give me some info on new markets, but as I'm not currently writing, I'll have to say thanks but no thanks.

It sent me back a little though as I reread the post in question. To save you having to go back to it, I started the post by saying:

I've come to the conclusion much of my earlier work contains either clichéd characters or a clichéd plot, or worse - both.


In particular:

Too Late the Rain - has cliché characters

Dark Rose - Plot and characters

System Failure - characters

Wamphyri - tropes

Mobile - Not so much

Idolatry - characters

My more recent work (Swirls in Obsidian, Dreaming, Digging Up the Past, Newland) not so much.


I then went on to say:

Now clichéd characters aren't such a big deal, I think, if they're placed in a unique situation - a different way of using them, and it seems that may be the case because:


NVF Magazine has accepted Idolatry for the April Issue!

In the end, I never got my contributor's copy of NVF :c(

I emailed the 'editor' a number of times and eventually attempted to just buy a copy, and ended up just doing my money. I emailed requesting that be refunded but these calls have also gone unanswered.

But that's not what this post is about. Since the original listing of the stories above and their bad points I've sold Dark Rose, Wamphyri, and Dreaming. Swirls was renamed and shortlisted twice. I've retired System Failure and Newland but the others are sitting in my work folder waiting a burst of energy to be resent to new markets.

I've said it lots of times in the past but this is a post to show how true it is:

There is a market for every story.

You just need to be persistent enough to find it

(regardless of the bad points).

Good luck with your submissions.