Alan Baxter's Blog, page 69

Great news to wake up to

I woke up this morning (Sunday) to a few congratulatory messages from friends and discovered that my story, Punishment Of The Sun, from the Dead Red Heart anthology published by Ticonderoga Publications, was included in Ellen Datlow's Honorable Mention list in The Best Horror of the Year #4.

I'm so pleased with this news. When I decided to submit a story for this anthology of Australian vampire fiction it was important to me to write a story where the vampires were as they should be (in my opinion) and that's feral, nasty bastards who feed on humans without care or moral discomfort. They needed to be proper horror monsters. So for Ellen to pick the story for an Honorable Mention is a great indicator that maybe I achieved what I set out to. My thanks to Ellen Datlow for picking the story and thanks to Russell B Farr at Ticonderoga for publishing it.

Congrats to all the others listed. Here's the full list, at Ellen's LiveJournal.

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2012 Ditmar Awards now open for nominations

The Australian spec-fic fan-voted Ditmar Awards are now open for nominations. Any active fan or member of Continuum can vote. Continuum is the Melbourne SF convention, which is this year's NatCon, and will be happening in June. The Ditmars are always awarded during the annual NatCon. You can vote electronically here: http://ditmars.sf.org.au/2012/nominations.html and electronic voting is open until April 15th.

All the rules and details are here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/Ditmar_rules

There's also a massive, though probably not comprehensive, list of eligible works here: http://wiki.sf.org.au/2012_Ditmar_eligibility_list. This list is a good place to start reminding yourself of what you read and enjoyed last year.

Just to make it easy for you, I'll list below my own work that's eligible. If you've enjoyed any of these, I'd greatly appreciate your vote.

Eligible in the Best Short Story category:

"Declan's Plan", Alan Baxter, in Wily Writer's Podcast, April 3, 2011. (You can listen to the podcast or read the text of this one here.)

"Dream Shadow", Alan Baxter, in Winds of Change, CSFG Publishing.

"Duty and Sacrifice", Alan Baxter, in Hope, Kayelle Press.

"Mirrorwalk", Alan Baxter, in Murky Depths 16.

"Punishment of the Sun", Alan Baxter, in Dead Red Heart, Ticonderoga Publications.

"The 7 Garages of Kevin Simpson", Alan Baxter, in Pseudopod 242. (That podcast is here, and I reproduced the text right here on this site for people to read along.)

"Trawling The Void", Alan Baxter, in Midnight Echo 6, Australian Horror Writers Association.

"Unexpected Launch", Alan Baxter, in Anywhere but Earth, Coeur de Lion Publishing.

And, on the Ditmar Wiki, my name has also been put forward in the Best New Talent category, so there's that too!

Please do get active and vote. Not necessarily for my work, but for whatever work you really enjoyed in 2011. The more people that get involved and vote, the more realistic and honest the resulting awards. When it comes to fan-voted (as opposed to judging panel) awards, it's important to get as many votes in as possible. And voting really couldn't be easier. So if you've read something you enjoyed, take a few minutes and vote for it. Make your voice heard and give that good work the recognition it deserves.

I'm off to place my votes now.

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The One That Got Away and Monstres in the post

It's a funny old game, this writing business. I was lamenting a couple of recent rejections this morning, feeling misunderstood and cheated. You know, the usual egotistical, self-obsessed writer angst kind of thing. It always passes, but we all fall prey to it from time to time. This morning I didn't get to wallow in it for long before not one, but two physical objects slapped me back to reality. It's always a solid reminder of why we do this when we hold a physical book in our hands with our name on the cover.

Today, when I got back from teaching a class, there were two parcels waiting for me. The first was my contributor copy of The One That Got Away anthology from Dark Prints Press, which features my story In The Name Of The Father.

I'm really proud to be in this book, among some truly awesome names. Seriously, check it out: http://www.darkprintspress.com.au/books_totga.html. Get your copy from there. I can't wait to read mine.

The other parcel this morning was my contributor copy of the Monstres! anthology from Celephais Publishing. I can't read this one, at least, not very well. It's my first foreign language translation, into French. This time a reprint of my story Deep Sea Fishing, originally published in Seizure magazine. Or perhaps I should say, Peche En Haute Mer.

Again, I'm sharing the ToC with some great names – like Kaaron Warren and Lavie Tidhar – so this is another book I'm very proud to be in.

I'm not going to stress too much about those annoying rejections. I'll just keep plugging away and soon enough I'll get more parcels like this morning. It's a funny old game.

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Don't Be Afraid Of The Dark (DVD/Blu-Ray) – Review

Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is a horror film with a mixed heritage. It's an American story, written by Matthew Robbins and Guillermo del Toro, directed by comic book artist Troy Nixey and filmed in Mount Macedon and Melbourne in Australia. The setting, perhaps in a hat tip to H P Lovecraft, is Providence, Rhode Island. The film is a labour of love for Del Toro and a remake the 1973 ABC made-for-television horror film of the same name that had a huge effect on Del Toro as a child.

The film stars Guy Pearce as Alex, Katie Holmes as Kim and young Bailee Madison as Sally. It has to be said that the absolute star of this film is Bailee Madison. She's excellent in every scene. Alex and his girlfriend, Kim, are restoring an old mansion and estate, with an eye to getting some serious architecture industry attention and therefore a great boost to their careers. For reasons largely unexplained, Alex's young daughter, Sally, flies in and comes to live with them in the mansion while the restorations go on. We're told that Sally's mum gave her to her dad and the lack of care from the mother is clear in a few examples. No real reasons why, but that's how it is. We can accept that. It's just the first of many tropes this film plays.

Read the rest of my review at Thirteen O'Clock.

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RealmShift Audiobook now out

It's a little bit later than we hoped, but I'm very pleased to say that the audiobook edition of RealmShift is now available. You can get it from audible.com here.

It's a full and unabridged narration and runs to nearly thirteen hours. It's narrated by Matt "Bentley" Allegre and he's currently working on MageSign, so that should be out hopefully in the next couple of months.

So if you or anyone you know is an audiobook fan, please spread the word.

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Tuesday Toot – Nicole Murphy

Tuesday Toot is a semi-regular feature here at The Word. An invite-only series of short posts where writers, editors, booksellers and other creatives have been asked to share their stuff and toot their own horn. It's hard to be seen in the digital morass and hopefully this occasional segment will help some of the quality stuff out there get noticed. It should all be things readers of The Word will find edifying.

Today it's Nicole Murphy.

Who is Nicole?

Nicole Murphy has been a primary school teacher, bookstore owner, journalist and checkout chick. She grew up reading Tolkien, Lewis and Le Guin; spent her twenties discovering Quick, Lindsey and Deveraux and lives her love of science fiction and fantasy through her involvement with the Conflux science fiction conventions. Her urban fantasy trilogy Dream of Asarlai is published in Australia/NZ by HarperVoyager. She lives with her husband in Queanbeyan, NSW. Visit her website http://nicolermurphy.com

What are you tooting about?

The Dream of Asarlai trilogy

The Courier Mail called book two of the trilogy, 'A rollicking romp through the space where fantasy and romance collide' – and you know you can believe EVERYTHING you read in newspapers.

Actually, I loved this line because it nailed everything that the Dream of Asarlai trilogy is about, and that is FUN! I wanted to write a fast-paced, action-packed, un-putdownable read that wouldn't necessarily change the world but would damn well make the reader feel GREAT for a few hours.

And isn't that a good thing to want to achieve?

So, what is the trilogy? It's about the gadda, a race that live amongst us humans but for everyone's sake agreed long ago that secrecy was best. However, Asarlai believes that secrecy is at the route of everything that's wrong with gadda society. She's determined to make the gadda reach their full potential, i.e. rule the world, and she's stolen the Forbidden Texts to help her do it!

It's up to the guardians of the gadda to stop her.

The trilogy tells the story through the prism of three couples meeting and falling in love. Yes, there is romance, and some hot sex scenes. But there's also explosions, giant peat bog monsters, decaying flesh that crawls around bedrooms, magic and mystery and a threat that must be stopped at all costs.

Learn more at Nicole's swanky new website: http://nicolermurphy.com

Find Nicole on Twitter – @nicole_r_murphy

and Tumblr – http://nicole-r-murphy.tumblr.com/

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Review honestly and often

One of the best things about the modern world of publishing is that there is more good stuff available, and it's easier to get hold of, than ever before. Small press and boutique publishers are springing up everywhere and, along with indie and self-publishers, they're giving the "big six" more of a run for their money than ever before. I think this is great, as it really does give an outlet for pretty much anything. There are still gatekeepers in the form of all the hard-working editors at those small and boutique presses. Hopefully there's still control in content from the self-publishers, as they should be employing editors and proof-readers and cover designers to make their work the best it can be. Of course, a lot aren't and, whether indie, small press or big six, there's an awful lot of shit out there.

So, this is where everyone else steps in. That's you and me, the readers and consumers. I've blogged before about readers as gatekeepers and this post is an expansion of that. In part, this is simply a reminder of that post – you're a reader, so you have the power to share the good stuff by reviewing and/or rating it on Amazon, Goodreads, your blog and so on. Keep doing that.

But the expansion is this – do your reviews regularly and honestly. If you see a book on Amazon and it has ten five star reviews and nothing else, it's altogether possible that it's really that good. Or it's equally possible that ten friends and family of the author posted a review and nothing more. A lot of value is added to a book when there's a variety of reviews and ratings. A book with ten reviews that are a mix between three, four and five star reviews is a lot more likely to be something reviewed by a variety of people who actually read the book. You can read their comments and get a real feel for the book that way and decide if it's going to work for you. That's kind of thing is far better for authors.

I can understand not wanting to give a bad review. That's fair enough, and if you really hate something you can just choose not to review it. If you feel you want to review and mark it poorly with only one or two stars and explain why, then that's great too. If you're clear about what you didn't like, others can get value from that. What pissed you off might actually attract another reader with different sensibilities. The honesty of a range of reviews from a variety of readers is far better for an author than just a few dollops of glowing praise that won't really move anyone reading them.

So please, don't forget to review. It takes hardly any time, it's incredibly easy with places like Amazon and Goodreads, and it's invaluable for authors. If you enjoy their work, think how much time and effort was involved in making it and spend a few of your own precious minutes clicking a star rating and typing a few words of opinion. It doesn't have to be much at all, just a couple of comments about why you did or didn't like the book and the author will love you for it. Be honest. If I get a three star review and, "I liked this book and would recommend it. Not the greatest thing I ever read, but worth your time" then I'm as happy as Larry. (Who is Larry, anyway?)

Of course, I much prefer four and five star reviews, because I love it when people enjoy my work enough to praise it that highly. But any review is helping me out one way or another.

Review everything. Review honestly. Be a pal to all the authors.

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The Darkest Shade Of Grey now complete, and ebook on the way

I'm very proud of this story, and it's now up at The Red Penny Papers in its entirety. It's a novelette in four parts, totalling about 18,000 words. I'm also very pleased to announce that it will be the first in a new range of novella and novelette ebooks from Red Penny Papers. They run regular serials as well as their short story editions, and now all the serial authors will have the option to have their serial collected in an ebook edition after the initial web run. The stories will stay on the web as well, and be available on Amazon Kindle and via Smashwords. The Darkest Shade Of Grey ebook will be out next week for $1.99. Bargain! Details here. I'll make another quick post with links when it's available, or you can read the story now at The Red Penny Papers. Click the link or the book cover on the left.

And what a great cover it is, too. Megan Eckman was commissioned by RPP for that and she did a great job. It really captures the story, I think.

The story itself was inspired by a friend of mine, who told me about something that happened to him back in his days as a journalist. From that account, the germ of this story idea grew and it just blossomed into what eventually became The Darkest Shade Of Grey. The story is set in Sydney and tells of a bitter, divorced, alcoholic journalist, David Johanssen, who's desperately trying to see the point to his existence. He's saddled not only with his bitterness and alcoholism, but with unwanted supernatural abilites he developed after messing with occult practices he should have left well alone. And then one day he crosses paths with a very strange homeless man, who sets in motion a series of events that could make David's career. Or destroy him completely.

The publisher describes the story as "a bit of stunning supernatural noir".

I hope you enjoy it. Please tell your friends and colleagues if you do and share the links around.

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Mythic Resonance is real

I got a good parcel in the post today. My contributor copy of Mythic Resonance arrived.

It's even got my name on the cover. Very nice. The blurb reads thusly:

Ea, master of Apsu, the great water beneath the earth; Gelert, the faithful hound; Medusa and Herakles; sirens, valkyries, fairies; Leonardo Da Vinci and Snow White — these are just some of the legendary characters that resonate within this thought-provoking garland of short stories from Australia.

Archetypes from ancient mythology, lurking in the depths of our psyches, peer at us through the haze of history; cautionary tales from our nursery years remind us of what can happen when we disobey The Rules; well known themes of obsession, betrayal and exploitation, love and loss and renewal are skillfully manipulated into new and compelling forms.

From the lighthearted and tongue-in-cheek to the sad and the sinister, this selection of tales, with their clever mythic echoes, is sure to entertain, enlighten and challenge readers of all ages.

And the full Table of Contents is:

Foreword — Sue Hammond and Stephen Thompson

The Salted Heart — N A Sulway

The Everywhere And The Always — Alan Baxter

Annabel and the Witch — Paul Freeman

Through these eyes I see — Donna Maree Hanson

A Tale of Publication — Les Zigomanis

La Belle Dame — Satima Flavell

Glorious Destiny — Steven Gepp

Meeting my Renaissance Man — Vicky Daddo

Wetlands — Jen White

Man's Best Friend — Tom Williams

In Paradise, Trapped — Kelly Dillon

Holly and Iron — Nigel Read

Brothers — Sue Bursztynski

Get your copy here!

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Guest post – The Copper Promise by Jennifer Williams

I'm pleased to present a guest post today from Jennifer Williams, where she talks about the way writing often seems to have a life of its own. I hope you enjoy it. – Alan

The Copper Promise

Where did it come from? How did it go from a small thing to a big thing? This is what I've been thinking about lately. Sometimes I feel like I'm a scientist in a 1950s B-movie, looking sadly from the broken cage that once contained a small, docile bunny rabbit, to the very large and ominous bunny-shaped hole in the wall. Around me there are test tubes of various lurid colours. Some of them are gently steaming. From outside I can hear the distant screams of people being devoured by a giant bunny monster, and I'm not really sure how this happened.

I'd written some short stories, you see, enough that people started to ask me if I'd written anything longer. I have actually, I've written a number of chunky old novels, but the trouble with these is that they all require a severe beating with the editing stick and that sort of treatment takes time. So my thought was that I could write a longer thing, a story especially for the people who wanted something to get their teeth into; it would be longer than a short story, but not as huge and unwieldy as a novel. It would be a novella: it would be zippy and sexy, it wouldn't take all that long to do, and I could pop it straight up on Amazon for people to download onto their kindles.

In terms of keeping it small I didn't get off to a great start. My first idea was a horror story about the ghost of a serial killer haunting part of South East London. Zippy, I thought. Super-fast. Unfortunately the story ballooned, and eventually became The Snake House, a full-length novel containing all sorts of nasty stuff I didn't realise I was capable of, and just as needful of a damn good editing as all my other books. So, not so zippy.

I tried again. I asked myself, what do I really love? At the time I was reading a lot of fantasy, and had just launched into a merry re-read of the Discworld novels. Gradually, an idea formed; at this stage still a tiny wee fluffy thing with a pink nosie and tiny feet. Perhaps, I thought, I could write a novella that looked back to the golden age of pulp fantasy fiction. It would be quick and zippy and sexy, and that would be appropriate for a fast-paced adventure. I could make it modern too, trim off some of the sexism and racism that sometimes cropped up, and populate it with realistic characters.

At what point did The Copper Promise bloom into a series of novellas? It is difficult to say. One minute I had a bunny-rabbit of an idea, curled into my hand, peaceably munching on a carrot, and the next I had a beast chewing at my elbow. Perhaps, you could say, I have no self-control. You might suggest I got a little experimental with the test tubes and it's all my fault. Personally, I blame it on the genre.

The thing with fantasy books, and I genuinely believe this, is that they grow. All by themselves. I suspect there have been many fantasy writers, their beards glistening softly in the pearly light from their laptops, wondering how this little book, this off-the-cuff thing that was supposed to be 70,000 words at the most became a sprawling twelve book epic, taking up its own shelf at their local Waterstones.

I think fantasy has a life of its own. As George R.R Martin said (he of the glistening beard and sprawling seven book epic) "the best fantasy is written in the language of dreams"; it's coming from a place deep inside us that we can't necessarily control. There are whole worlds inside us and sometimes they make themselves known. I think this explains a lot.

And perhaps I can blame it on the characters a little bit too. Wydrin of Crosshaven, my charming rogue who was born out of a desire to write a strong female character and a love of Fritz Leiber's Gray Mouser, soon stopped listening to my instructions and disobeyed appallingly. Similarly, Lord Frith and my dear knight Sebastian soon showed themselves to be more fun than they had any right to be, and I knew that I couldn't leave them after just the one novella. The monstrous bunny flexed its terrible hairy muscles, booted open the door of the cage and sprinted off into the night, smelling faintly of mead and leather.

My short zippy experiment is now a serial. I suppose I'm lucky really; The Copper Promise will be about the length of a normal book when it's finished, and will still look puny next to the multi-volume epics. Although I do look at those test tubes, and I wonder…

Jennifer Williams is a fantasy writer from South East London. She started her career by making up scary stories to frighten her school friends, and when this inevitably attracted the ire of certain parents she took to writing them down instead. The Copper Promise is the first in a short series of sword and sorcery novellas.

These days she lives in one of the more excitingly eventful bits of London with her partner and their cat, and when not frowning at notebooks in pubs and cafes her spare time is often spent gesticulating wildly at her Xbox. Jennifer blogs about things like writing, video games and fandom at www.sennydreadful.com

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