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Calling Australian Goths - I Need Your Help
The time has come for me to move beyond short fiction and write the novel that lurks within. To do that, I'm going to need some help.
I'm looking for people who are involved in the Australian Goth scene, especially those who are based in Brisbane or on the Gold Coast, who can help me portray a credible representation of Goth culture. My aim is to be able to create characters and settings that are credible, as opposed to stereotypes or false images. My hope is that readers will either discover characters and settings they can identify with, or learn something new and see Goth culture in a more positive way.
If you're interested and able to help me out, please contact me.
Posted: 6 May 2011
TweetTiconderoga Picks Up The Little Red Man
How thrilled I am to have Ticonderoga Publications run with my story, The Little Red Man, in their upcoming anthology of Australian vampire stories, Dead Red Heart.
The anthology will be a massive 400+ pages, featuring 32 stories about vampires in Australian settings. The Little Red Man brings to life Australia's very own and unique vampire legend, and will be in the company of some of Australia's best known horror writers. A full listing of authors and stories can be found here.
For me this represents a significant achievement, in that it is my first paid publication. While I won't be retiring on the earnings (though now I can have that extra marshmallow with my hot chocolate) it does mark the achievement of one of my goals for the year, and get me a couple of rungs higher on the writing ladder.
I was very fortunate to have had a lot of help in making The Little Red Man publishable, and would like to acknowledge those that put time and effort into it. Big thank-yous go out to: Peta, Mitch, Ben, and Loretta for their critiques and support; Angela, for showing me how little I knew about grammar; and Russell, for having the patience, drive and desire to help me mould the story into something fit for Ticonderoga.
Details of the release of Dead Red Heart as they come to hand.
Posted: 19 January 2011
TweetHas the horrific gone out of horror?
One of my main goals this year is to advance my writing. Obviously it's always a goal to refine and perfect my writing, but this year I've made it my goal not only to see some of my fiction published, but published at a professional level.
So when I came across Stephen Jones' Mammoth Book of the Best New Horror Vol. 21, featuring, by Jones' account at least, short horror fiction that was considered to be the best of that published in 2010, I greedily grabbed it with the aim of discovering what the world considered a good horror story in the 21st century to be. Not to emulate it, so much as to gain an insight into what publishers were looking for in a good (or at least, publishable) horror story.
Now halfway through the stories contained within, I'm finding myself, concerned, as to where the genre appears to be going.
Before going further, I should point out that there are a number of good stories in Jones' anthology - it's not the quality of the stories that concerns me. It's what is considered to be horror.
Though the stories are certainly mysterious, paranormal, tension-building, and in some cases, "dark", I've yet to see one that is horrific. One that leaves me feeling uneasy, makes me squirm, or plays on my mind as I'm trying to go to sleep. One that makes me wonder at how sick, twisted, or fantastically frightening the imagination of the writer must be. One that, by definition of the word, horrifies me.
It's not just that these stories don't contain graphic depictions of monsters and mutilations (as is the definition of a horror story by some). There's no sign of implied horror either - of something left to the reader's own imagination, something that makes them feel uncomfortable without consciously knowing why.
What then, is a budding writer, wanting to make their own mark in the horror genre, to make of this? Is the genre changing? Is it in fact, as some have speculated, a dying genre? Has the public fascination with "paranormal romance" begun to temper what "horror" is? Perhaps driving it underground, forcing it into a small niche where only dedicated diehard fans will find it?
It will be interesting to see if I can answer those questions - and what my response will be - as the year progresses.
Posted: 5 January 2011
TweetCritiquing the Story - Beyond the Words
When you start out writing, critiquing is all about grammar and structure. Knowing how to punctuate correctly, eliminating inappropriate adverbs (some would say all adverbs are inappropriate - a discussion for another time!), and making sure your subjects and verbs don't disagree are the elements that tend to get the most focus.
Fortunately, writing, like any other skill, can be learnt, and can (and for the most part, does) improve with practice. When I started writing I considered myself to be a capable writer, and, in some ways, I did have a certain level of skill with words. Since then I've come to learn that my early attempts were, at best, amateurish, and through persistance and practice have (hopefully) increased my ability to string sentances together into a format that's pleasing to the reader.
Now I've got the real task in front of me. A requirements that, in my opinion, is far more difficult than editing and proof-reading: critiquing the story.
Like many writers who start out on their journey, I've got a myriad of stories clogging my synapses, waiting for the opportunity to travel along the neuromuscular pathways that will result in my fingers bashing them onto the computer screen. When I was a member of a critique group I was hammering out 1 - 2 short stories every 2 weeks, if only to have something for the group to sink their claws into. I still have numerous half-started or fragmented stories sitting in my "In Process" folder, and most, if not all, of those will eventually get their turn to be told.
But having had the opportunity to sit back and reflect on my writing, my submissions, and - perhaps most important - my rejections, I've come to realise that there's an element of critiquing that I've only just started to explore; one that is likely going to be the critical difference in seeing more of my work gaining ink. It can be summed up in one question:
Am I telling a good story?
Now as a writer, I like to believe that any story I tell is the most brilliant, creative, captivating and original tale that anyone's ever heard (and hopefully there are those of you out there who would agree with me, ha ha!). Reality, however, is starting to tell me that although I haven't (in my opinion) written any bad stories, the stories I've written may not always be at the level they need to be in order to be published. The style can be easy to read, the grammar (more or less) spot on, the characters well thought out and developed, the premise interesting and original, and yet, it's just missing that element which turns a good story into a great one; a read into an experience.
It's a very difficult thing to self-critique, because as the writer - the creator - it's hard to examine the story you've written in a completely objective manner, in the same way that you might pick up spelling errors or poor sentence structure. In fact, I don't know that it's possible to be completely objective - who will ever really sit down and think their own story is terrible? However, I've realised that if I'm going to be successful in getting my stories to an audience, I need to read my own stories and see past the words, see past all the structural and grammatical efforts I've put into it, and delve right into the core of whether I've told a good story, or simply put words on a page. To me, that's the difference between being a story-teller, and a writer.
And I want to be a story-teller.
So that's the next step on my journey. We'll see where it takes me, and you can judge for yourselves how successful I am.
Posted: 10 December 2010
TweetFirst Publication Now Available!
My first officially published piece of short fiction, Eros of the Blade, is now available in Pill Hill Press' Daily Flashes of Erotica #1.
I submitted Eros to Pill Hill Press in the hope that it would make it into its darker Daily Flashes publication (as I believe it to be more in the vein of dark fiction than erotica), however at the suggestion of editor, Jessy Marie Roberts, (who felt it was too saucy for Daily Flashes) it found a home amongst the erotic tales of DFE Quarterly.
Eros explores the link between sex and violence from a unique perspective... Check it out and let me know what you think.
Posted: 17 November 2010
TweetDark Critters Have Emerged!
One of the things I've found useful in my writing journey has been the ability to obtain critiques on my writing. Being a member of several critique groups enabled me to get constructive feedback on my writing, and I believed advanced my writing skills a lot faster than what would have happened if I was just writing, submitting, and getting rejected by markets.
In the hope of being able to continue to advance my own skills in the dark fiction/horror genre, and to be able to assist my fellow writers on their own journeys with whatever knowledge and assistance I can pass on, I have started the Dark Critters critique group. Set up for writers but also open to editors, publishers and others in the industry, Dark Critters aims to facilitate the development and improvement of a writer's skills through the provision of constructive feedback from those in the know, with a view to seeing more dark fiction and horror writers publishing quality, marketable stories.
It's only in its infancy, but hopefully Dark Critters will grow into quite the monster! If you're a writer, editor, publisher or otherwise involved in the industry, please feel free to join us.
Posted: 19 October 2010
TweetWelcome to the Website!
It's been a long time coming, but at long last, the website is up and running. There's still work to be done - this is the 1.0 version, or ... perhaps 0.3 would be more accurate - so expect a bit of tinkering and tweeking over the next few months.
However, almost anything is better than "Under Construction", and with several pieces coming due for publication, I'm pleased to be able to start sharing my efforts, as well as my journey towards becoming 'a writer'.
So enjoy the site, feel free to offer suggestions and comments, but please - judge with mercy, as a website designer, I'm not!
