The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013 Read online

  The Twelve Planets series from Twelfth Planet Press continued with two more excellent volumes, both edited by Alisa Krasnostein; Caution: contains small parts by Kirstyn McDermott, featured four unflinchingly confronting horror stories, the titular tale, the novella length “What Amanda Wants” and the utterly harrowing novella “The Home for Broken Dolls”, and the intertextual “Horn”; Asymmetry by Thoraiya Dyer also collected four stories, opening with the horror offering, the very fine werewolf story “After Hours”.

  David Conyers was prolific in his themed collection releases with The Impossible Object (The Harrison Peel Files 1) including the novella “Driven Underground” ; The Weaponized Puzzle (The Harrison Peel Files 2) with a novella length title story; The Nightmare Dimension featuring original stories “The Dream Quest of a Thousand Cats”; The Entropy Conflict including the titular tale original to the collection.

  Jenny Blackford published a chapbook of cat poems The Duties of a Cat (Pitt Street Poetry) which included the dark, weird poem “Something in the Corner”. The Bone Chime Song and other stories by Joanne Anderton (FableCroft Publishing) included the post-apocalyptic “Fence Lines”. Kaaron Warren published an electronic collection of five previously published works, The Gate Theory with Geoff Brown’s Cohesion Press. Andrez Bergen released The Condimental Op (Perfect Edge Books); this included the new story “Revert To Type” about a haunted typewriter. David Kernot self-published The Early Years collection. Keep Off the Grass from Michael Le Page was a self-published collection including three new stories “Attack of the Karma Pigeons”, “Thick Skin” and “Windows to the Soul”. Dayle R. Grixti released Nobody Can Scream and other stories (Really Blue Books). Daniel I. Russell published the Tricks, Mischief and Mayhem collection with Crystal Lake Publishing; the collection included one exclusive story “Linger” which engaged so energetically with popular culture and music, it inspired awe for the music publisher permission fees alone. Marija Elektra Rodriguez published the collection Masquerade and Other Stories (Huntress Ink), offering twenty-nine tales spanning Gothic horror and paranormal romance genres.

  Anthony Sweet published Simple Broken Things (An Altered Aspect), a collection of three short stories, predominantly fantasy, although “Tunevalve Blues” notably incorporated voodoo. C.M. Simpson self-published Short Stories & Poems from 2012, which included one dark fantasy and one paranormal/urban horror story; this very prolific author also published a number of stand-alone ebooks containing single stories including the novella Death Comes in Bone, and she boasted a prolific 2013 YA output as nom de plume Carlie Simonsen. Meg Mundell published Things I Did for Money (Scribe Publications), which had decidedly surreal and nightmarish moments. Jay Caselberg released self-published collection Unnatural Conditions : Collected Short Stories with the stories “Cuckooo”, “Laughing Boy”, “Magus”, “The Axe”, “The Tower”, “Thunder Head” and “Verisimilitude” all original to the collection. David R. Grigg self-published The Dark Lighthouse, collecting forty three stories, with seventeen previously unpublished; the collection tended towards dark fantasy over horror.

  Anthologies

  The Great Unknown (Spineless Wonders), edited by Angela Meyer, set out to “pay tribute to the undeniable cultural influence that American TV programs such as Twilight Zone and Outer Limits have had on our lives ‘down under’.” Gathering together authors from the speculative and literary enclaves, there were some darker and more macabre offerings, most notable Ryan O’Neill’s “Sticks and Stones” (reprinted in this collection), Damon Young’s “Art”, Chris Somerville’s “The Rift” and A.S.Patric’s “Memories of Jane Doe”. Other uncanny fiction from Krissy Kneen, Alexander Cothren, Kathy Charles, and Carmel Bird.

  Canberra Science Fiction Guild published Next, edited by Simon Petrie and Robert Porteous. An anthology ranging the speculative genres, it included four horror tales, Claire McKenna’s “The Ninety-Two”, Janeen Webb’s “Hell Is Where the Heart Is”, Ian McHugh’s “Vandiemansland”, and Craig McCormick’s “Ned Kelly and the Zombies”, and a wry poem from Chris McGrane titled “The Cat and the Zombies”. FableCroft Published One Small Step: an anthology of discoveries, edited by Tehani Wessely; dark stories featured were Kate Gordon’s “Shadows” and “By Blood and Incantation” co-authored by power-duo Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter. A Killer Among Demons, edited by Craig Bezant at Dark Prints Press was a very strong collection of paranormal noir with some dark and decidedly occult moments. Stories from William Meikle, Stephen D. Rogers, Chris Large, Greg Chapman, Alan Baxter, Madhvi Ramani, Marilyn Fountain, Angela Slatter, S.J. Dawson, and Stephen M. Irwin.

  New Zealand publisher Paper Road Press brought out the substantial Baby Teeth: Bite Sized Tales of Terror edited by Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray, thirty seven stories from twenty seven authors from New Zealand and elsewhere; the book collected a number of awards, winning the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Collected Work, winning the Australian Shadows Award for Edited Publication, and scoring the Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story for Debbie Cowens “Caterpillar”. New Zealand writers featured were Debbie Cowens, Grant Stone, Paul Mannering, Lee Murray, Jack Newhouse, Elizabeth Gatens, Jean Gilbert, Dan Rabarts, Celine Murray, Jenni Sands, Sally McLennan, Matt Cowens, Eileen Mueller, Darian Smith, Anna Caro, Jan Goldie, Michael J. Parry, Kecin G. McLean, Piper Mejia, Morgan Davie and JC Hart. The book was a fundraiser for Duffy Books in Homes, a program providing free books to over 100,000 New Zealand children every year.

  Tales of Australia: Great Southern Land (Satalyte Publishing) edited by Stephen C. Ormsby and Carol Bond, mostly collected magic realism and fantasy, but darker offerings were Lee Battersby’s “Disciple of the Torrent”, Sean McMullen’s “Acts of Chivalry”and David McDonald’s “Set Your Face Against the Darkness”. The Tobacco-Stained Sky (Another Sky Press) was an anthology of post-apocalyptic noir edited by two Australians who also have stories in the book—the cyberpunk “In-Dreamed” and “We Are Not Afraid, We Serve” by Andrez Bergen and feverish dystopian “The Dying Rain” by Guy Salvidge. No outright horror, but certainly dark in tone. The book also featured Liam Jose’s “The Holy Church of the Scalpel”. Kalamity Press produced two monstery anthologies, This Mutant Life: A Neo-Pulp Anthology and This Mutant Life 2: Bad Company both edited by Ben Langdon; while there were no outright horror tales, the anthology collected an interesting group of emerging writers, which bodes well for future speculative forays. Kayelle Press published Tomorrow: Apocalyptic Short Stories edited by Karen Henderson, which leaned quite strongly towards science fiction albeit with a bleak outlook. Robert Hood’s “Soul Killer” was published in Zombies Vs Robots: Diplomacy edited by Jeff Connor (IDW Publishing).

  Star Quake 1 (IFWG Publishing), edited by Sophie Yorkston, is the “Best Of” anthology from SQ Magazine; Antipodeans featured included Daniel I Russell, Michael B Fletcher, and Mitchell Edgeworth. Undead & Unbound: Unexpected Tales From Beyond the Grave (Chaosium), edited by Brian M. Sammons and David Conyers, included the excellent “Romero 2.0” co-authored by the editors, and “The Unforgiving Court” by David Schembri. Conyers had a strong year, and also published “Playgrounds of Angolaland” in Eldritch Chrome: Unquiet Tales of a Mythos-Haunted Future (Chaosium) edited by Brian M. Sammons & Glynn Owen Barrass, and “The Road to Afghanistan” in What Scares the Boogey Man (Perseid Publishing), edited by John Manning. Sharyn Lilley placed “Caleb’s Chair” in the Blood and Roses anthology from Scarlett River Press. Aimée Lindorff’s “The Silent Door” was included in Pillow Fight! (Tiny Owl Workshop), a project pairing art and story in a textile art format, launched at the Brisbane Writers Festival.

  Pete Aldin placed “Mud” in Horrific History—An Anthology of Historical Horror edited by Robert Helmbrecht (Hazardous Press). This Is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death (Mulholland Books) edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki, included two very fine stories by Australians—“Blunt Force Trauma Delivered by Spouse” fro
m Liz Argall, and “La Mort d’un Roturier” from Martin Livings. Peter M Ball published the YA ferryman tale “Tithes” in Canadian anthology Coins of Chaos edited by Jennifer Brozek (Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing), and Martin Livings also graced these pages with “In His Name”. Alan Baxter placed the very creepy male-gaze story “A Time For Redemption” in Urban Occult edited by Colin F. Barnes (Anachron Press). Linda Brucesmith’s “The 25th Caprice”, a Paganini inspired tale, appeared in New Ghost Stories 6 (The Fiction Desk) edited by Rob Redman. Crystal Lake Publishing’s For the Night is Dark anthology, edited by Ross Warren, featured a number of Australians—G.N. Braun with “His Own Personal Golgotha”, Tracie McBride with “Father Figure”, and Daniel I. Russell with “God May Pity All Weak Hearts”. Steve Cameron published “I Was the Walrus” in After Death... (Stony Meadow Publishing), edited by Eric J. Guignard.

  Jay Caselberg had a prolific 2013; Caselberg published “Angelic” in Halloween: Magic, Mystery and The Macabre edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books); published “Collage” in Dark Visions: A Collection of Modern Horror—Volume 1 (Grey Matter Press), edited by Sharon Lawson; published “The Track” in The End of the Road, edited by Jonathan Oliver (Solaris). Greg Chapman published “Like Windows to the Soul” in Sex, Drugs & Horror (James Ward Kirk Publishing). Simon Dewar placed “The Kettle” in The Root Cellar and Other Stories (Random House). John Paul Fitch published “Pyramid” in Keeping the Edge: An Anthology of New Urban Fiction edited by Alex Poppe and TC Clerkson, showcasing current and former students on Glasgow University’s Creative Writing program. Jane Domagala published “The Tunnel” in Dying to Live (Diabolic Publications), an anthology of vampire fiction.

  Mark Farrugia sold “The Emu in the Sky” and Tracie McBride sold “The Oldest Profession” to Horror Library, Volume 5 (Cutting Block Press), edited by RK Cavender and Boyd Harris. Demonic Visions: 50 Horror Tales, edited by Chris Robertson included Rebecca Fung’s “The Mile Low Club” and “Self Help” by Raymond Gates; the follow up anthology, Demonic Visions: 50 Horror Tales, Book II, also published in 2013 and edited by Robertson, included “Baby Hands” by Rebecca Fung and ‘Contemporary by Proxy’ by Raymond Gates. Rebecca Fung had additional publication successes with “Dresses of Fur and Fangs” in Witches, Stitches & Bitches (Evil Girlfriend Media) edited by Shannon Page, and “Tea Time” in The Inanimates I (Strange, Weird, and Wonderful Publishing) edited by Mary Patterson Thornburg. Raymond Gates published “All I Want for Christmas” in O Little Town of Deathlehem: An Anthology of Holiday Horrors for Charity (Grinning Skull Press) edited by Michael J Evans and Harrison Graves.

  Lisa L. Hannett published ‘Morning Passages’ in Shadows Edge (Grey Friar Press) edited by Simon Strantzas; Hannett placed “Snowglobes” in Chilling Tales: In Words, Alas. Drown I (Hades Publications), a showcase of twenty Canadian authors, edited by Michael Kelly. Gerry Huntman published in a range of anthologies in 20013; “In Arcadia” appeared in The Dark Bard anthology (Indigo Mosaic); “Pretty Kitty” appeared in Contrary Cats (Indigo Mosaic); and “The Cutpurse From Mulberry Bend” appeared in Penny Dread Tales Volume III: In Darkness Clockwork Shine (Runewright). Dmetri Kakmi published “The Boy By The Gate” in The New Gothic edited by Beth K Lewis (Stone Skin Press); Fi Michelle’s vampire tale “The Debt Collector” appeared in the same volume.

  The Demonologia Biblica (Western Legends Press), edited by Dean M Drinkel, featured prominent Australian horror writers, with Tracie McBride contributing “Waiting for Eisheth—E is for Eisheth” and Daniel I. Russell contributing “The Love Revolution—L is for Lempo”. Another prolific writer for 2013, Tracie McBride published in numerous anthologies; “Slither and Squeeze” appeared in charity anthology Shifters (Hazardous Press); “The Touch of the Taniwha” appeared in Fish (Dagan Books) edited by Carrie Cuinn and KV Taylor; “With Paper Armour and Wooden Sword” appeared in Bleed (Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing) a charity anthology where the profits aided children with cancer.

  Suburban Jungle (Tasmaniac Publications) included two highly contrasting Australian horror stories—Kirstyn McDermott’s “Partisan” where a female sexual assault victim connected socially and made choices to take her power back, and Daniel I. Russell’s “Devolution”, where a female narrator (along with her daughter) had options narrow until she was trapped in a rape crucible, in dreadful hopelessness. Intentional or not, the juxtaposition of the two tales was extremely interesting.

  Thomas David Moore’s “Old Souls” appeared in the themed anthology The Book of the Dead (Jurassic London), edited by Jared Shurin and published in collaboration with the Egypt Exploration Society, the UK’s oldest independent funder of archaeological fieldwork and research in Egypt. New Zealander Lee Pletzers published “Ellen” in The Best of the Horror Society 2013, edited by Carson Buckingham. Tansy Rayner Roberts published “The Raven and Her Victory” in Where Thy Dark Eye Glances: Queering Edgar Allen Poe (Lethe Press), edited by Steve Burman. David Schembri’s “The Black Father of the Night” appeared in Eulogies II: Tales From The Cellar (HW Press), edited by Christopher Jones, Nanci Kalanta and Tony Trembly. Angela Slatter’s “The Song of Sighs” appeared in Weirder Shadows Over Innsmouth (Fedogan and Bremer), edited by Steven Jones. Fearie Tales: Stories of the Grimm and Gruesome (Jo Fletcher Books), edited by Stephen Jones, included two Australian contributors, Angela Slatter with “By the Weeping Gate” and Garth Nix with “Crossing The Line”. Kyla Lee Ward’s “The Character Assassin” appeared in Schemers (Stone Skin Press), edited by Robin D. Laws.

  Kaaron Warren had a year of anthology publications more slanted towards fantasy genre, but there were some stellar horror stories—”The Human Moth” in The Grimscribe’s Puppets (Miskatonic River Press), edited by Joseph S. Pulver, and “Sleeping with the Bower Birds” in Shivers VII (Cemetary Dance Publications), edited by Richard Chizmar, and the quietly suffocating “The Unwanted Women of Surrey” from Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s Queen Victoria’s Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy (Tor). Marty Young published “The Frequency of Death” in Fear the Reaper (Crystal Lake Publishing), edited by Joe Mynhardt. Kim Falconer published “Blood and Water” in Vampires Gone Wild (HarperCollins), collecting four paranormal romance novellas.

  Magazines & Journals

  The Australian Horror Writers Association published two issues of Midnight Echo Magazine. Midnight Echo #9 was edited by Geoff Brown, and featured notable contributions from antipodeans—“Black Peter” by Martin Livings, “From The Forebears” by Stephen Gepp, “The Fathomed Wreck To See” by Alan Baxter, and “The Road” by Amanda Spedding. Midnight Echo #10 was edited by Craig Bezant and included the winners of the annual AHWA Short Story and Flash Fiction competition—joint winners “It’s Always the Children Who Suffer” by Alan Baxter and “Darker” by Zena Shapter, and the Flash Winner “Moonlight Sonata” by Tim Hawken. Other original fiction from antipodeans in this issue was “Stillgeist” by Martin Livings, “Blood and Bone” by Robert Mammon, “Exposure Compensation” by Alan Baxter, “Little Peace” by Rebecca Fung, and “Mother’s House” by Greg Chapman.

  Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine (Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-op) published two issues in 2013; ASIM Issue #58 included Felicity Pulman’s “Mirror, Mirror” and ASIM #57 included “Luminaries” by Jacob Edwards. Aurealis Magazine (Chimaera Publications) published six issues in 2013, not all of which showcased antipodean horror fiction. Notable issues were Aurealis #66 (edited by Michael Pryor) for New Zealander OJ Cade’s “Burning Green”, an extremely dark fantasy about fertility, loss and death, Aurealis #65 (edited by Michael Pryor) for Jason Franks urban grunge “Butcher’s Hook” and SG Larner’s confronting and violent “Poppies”, and Aurealis #61 (edited by Stephen Higgins) for Sophie Masson’s excellent ghost story “Restless”. The Review of Australian Fiction published two short stories per issue, and a number of issues showcased dark speculative writers. Notable publications were “The Canals of Anguilar” by Lee Battersby in Volume 5, Iss
ue 5; “Door Thread City” by Trent Jamieson in Volume 5, Issue 4; “Glasskin” by Robert G. Cook in Volume 5, Issue 6; and “Lost and Found” by Kirstyn McDermott in Volume 5, Issue 2. Dark Edifice Magazine (Dark Gaia Productions) edited by D. Robert Grixti published two issues—Dark Edifice #4 featured an apocalyptic tale by the editor, and Dark Edifice #5 included stories by antipodeans Jacinta Butterworth and Shannon Bell, and a rather fine dark poem from Brendan Sullivan. Griffith Review #42 (Text Publishing) edited by Julianne Schultz included a number of speculative tales, and the notable dark tales were “A Castle in Toorak” by Marion Halligan, “Snow White and the Child Soldier” by Ali Alizadeh.

  Jenny Blackford had success publishing poetry in a number of journals in 2013. “Hungry as the Living Sorrow” was awarded second prize in the Long Form section of the Science Fiction Poetry Association competition for 2013, judged blind by the esteemed Jane Yolen; published on the Science Fiction Poetry Association website in September 2013, the poem concerns a strange amphibious pregnancy. “Liquid Pleasure”, a cold and quietly sinister love poem to a water nymph, was published in the pagan literary webzine Eternal Haunted Summer Issue #14. Blackford’s abstract homage to Bradbury “The Aluminium Apples of the Moon” was published in Quadrant Volume LV11, #10.

  Krissy Kneen published “The Devil Smile” in Island #135, fiction editor Geordie Williamson. “By Desecration Rock” by Margo Lanagan appeared in The Lifted Brow #19. C.S. McMullen’s “The Nest” appeared in Nightmare Magazine #12 edited by John Joseph Adams. Fi Michelle’s “The Kyne Extraction” was published by Plasma Frequency Magazine #Issue 5, edited by Richard Flores. Alan Baxter published the western vignette “Not The Worst of Sins” in Beneath Ceaseless Skies #133, the Halloween Edition. Steve Cameron published “The God Thing” in Outposts of Beyond (October 2013), edited by Alban Lake & Tyree Campbell, and “Best Served Cold” in Disturbed Digest, Issue #1, edited by Terrie Relf. Deborah Biancotti placed the elegant Gothic tale “All The Lost Ones” in Exotic Gothic 5, Volume I and Terry Dowling placed the awesome horror story “The Sleepover” in Exotic Gothic 5, Volume II—published by PS Publishing, both volumes edited by Danel Olson. Thoraiya Dyer’s “Tintookie” appeared in Kaleidotrope (Summer 2013). “The Coronation Bout” by Lisa L. Hannett appeared in Electric Velocipede #27. Gerry Huntman’s “The Wooden Tomb” was published in Frostfire Worlds (November 2013). David Kernot sold “Harry’s Dead Poodle” to Cover of Darkness Magazine (White Cat Publications). “The Coming of the Drac” by Barry Rosenberg appeared in Hungur Magazine #16 (White Cat Publications). “Monster” by Natasha Sampson was published in Imagine: A Journal of Student Writing from Deakin University, Geelong. Angela Slatter’s “By My Voice I Shall Be Known” and Lisa L. Hannett’s “Another Mouth” both appeared in The Dark Magazine #1. Angela Slatter’s “The Burning Circus” was published in The British Fantasy Society Horror Anthology (March 2013) edited by Johnny Mains.