Flesh & Bone: Rise Of The Necromancers is an anthology from Pill Hill Press: Twenty-one dark short stories about the undead, and the persons who raise them…

My story, The King’s Accord, is one of them. Get your copy here.

*snoopy dance*

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If you already read the story after I posted an announcement about it on Monday, I apologise for wasting your time. For you, just so you don’t feel cheated, here’s an Arabic robot made of microwave ovens:

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I’m a sucker for a good fairy story. And I mean a proper fairy story, where nasty things happen, even to the good people. It makes my teeth flex to see these sanitised Disney fairy tales, where it’s all rainbows and unicorns and bollocks like that, with a final message that all you have to do is believe in yourself. Fuck off. That’s not a fairy tale. A real fairy story is where the witch does eat the children, not when the children outsmart the mean old witch with their goodness and wholesomeness.

So yeah, I like a proper fairy tale and I knew that Slatter’s book was a collection of such things. I also knew that it was a collection of interconnected stories, with the whole book becoming something of a novel-of-short-stories rather than a whole bunch of standalone yarns. And I knew that most of the stories were dealing primarily with women protagonists. I didn’t know anything more about it than that. I’ve read some of Slatter’s work before and knew what an awesome writer she was, so I had high hopes. I bought this book the moment it became available and it leapt straight to the top of my reading pile.

I consumed this thing whole and it consumed me. Slatter’s writing is exquisite, she really is a master storyteller. Her turns of phrase are often beautiful and haunting. It’s not that her prose is full of literary swirl or flowery excess. She just uses language like a virtuoso pianist uses a keyboard. She delights in the short form of the delivery and these tales are tight, incredibly crafted things. She builds a world and a set of characters and makes us care about both of them in the space of a few paragraphs. She creates a story that hooks us and takes along. And because I knew there was interconnectedness in this book, getting to the end of one story just made me desperate to read the next. I wanted to see whose baby would be the powerful witch later on, or whose actions would cause ripples in future generations. And I was distraught when the book ended and there were no more stories to read.

Terrible things happen in Slatter’s stories, to good guys and bad guys. Good guys do horrible things to bad people and vice versa. Often it’s not entirely clear who the good and bad people are. There’s realism in the desperate struggles of the characters. Often the women around whom all these tales revolve are subjugated and oppressed, yet they shine in the end as the ones with real power, real lasting effect on their world. There are beautiful moments of redemption and bittersweet justice and occasional moments of genuine joy for the characters.

There is constant genuine joy for the reader. This book is a fantastic achievement on every level. Tartarus Press are to be congratulated for creating a beautiful object and Angela Slatter is to be congratulated for crafting a reading experience that is truly sublime. If this doesn’t get up for the Best Collected Work at the Aurealis Awards or something similar I’ll be sorely disappointed. Get it. Now.

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The story is called Jeff Newman’s Headaches. There’s a certain autobiographical angle to this piece. I do get hideous migraines. I get them a lot less these days and I’m getting better at managing them. However, the second paragraph of this story is a pretty accurate description of the worst of my migraines. I actually wrote this story while recovering from one. How much truth there is to the rest of it is something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it. It’s only around 750 words, so it’s easily consumed.

Jeff Newman’s Headaches at 52 Stitches.

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NecroScope is the official zombie review subsite of Horrorscope (the award-winning news and literary criticism zine dedicated to dark fiction). Necroscope deals specifically with all things related to zombies, revenants, and the walking dead, whether in fiction, non-fiction, cinema, comics, games, or any other media, and regardless of origin or variety (supernatural or viral, Voodoo or Romero).

At the moment, Necroscope is having a subscription drive. Become a Shambler (a Necroscope follower) and go into the draw to win a prize-pack of zombie-related goodies:

* A copy of the novel State of Decay, by James Knapp (Roc, 2010).
* A copy of Feed, by Mira Grant (Orbit, 2010).
* A copy of Dead or Alive, by William Harms (Absolute Tyrant, 2010).
* One copy each of Black House Comics’ After the World: Killable Hours (Clay Blakehills) and After the World: Gravesend (Jason Fischer).
* A copy of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Zombie Jim, by Mark Twain and W. Bill Czolgosz (Coscom Entertainment, 2009).
* A copy of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Zombies, by Nathan Robert Brown (Penguin Books, 2010).
* A copy of the comic George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead: The Beginning, Issue #1 (Avatar Press, 2006).

Now that is quite the prize pack you lovers of the shambling dead. Get over to the official site to follow and earn a place in the draw.

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Gravesend is in newsagents now, but you can win a copy simply by penning a haiku. Jason is running this contest on his site and the rules are very simple:

To enter, simply compose a haiku – the only catch is it must be zombie or apocalypse themed. Post your haiku in this comments thread (either at jasonfischer.com.au or on the LJ feed, it’s all good). As long as you meet the 5-7-5 rule, I’m not too fussed if you mention a seasonal reference – though if you mention winter and brains, it will earn you bonus points.

Go to Jason’s site here to enter. (This contest is only open to Aussie residents). I’ve entered. Will you?

If you’re outside the US, there’s a surcharge from Amazon. For example, in Australia it’s a $2 charge, so the price is down to $2.99 from $4.99. If you’re in the UK, you can now also find both RealmShift and MageSign at the UK Kindle Store. It’s Kindle-o-Rama!

If you’d be so kind as to spread the word to any of your fellow Kindle (or iPhone, iPad, etc.) owners, I’d be very grateful. And that’s enough self-pimpage for now!

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Full official announcement here.

Please share the news with anyone you think might be interested.

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So you can imagine how interested I became when I was contacted recently by a fellow named Phill Teare. Phill is a film student at Sydney uni and for his current project he needs to work on an adaptation. He’s asked me if he could use my short story, Stand Off, for this purpose. I was more than happy to agree and yesterday we met and I signed off on an option for him to make a short (around 3 minute) film based on the abridged version of Stand Off as it appears on the Infinitas website.

I’m very excited about this and I’m really looking forward to seeing something I’ve written turned into film. Once the project is complete Phill intends to run the finished piece around the short film circuit, so I’ll post regular updates here whenever I hear anything from him and let you know where you can go to see it. You’ll not only get to enjoy the film, but you’ll be supporting Australian independent film-making, Phill’s career and, possibly, my own.

Watch this space.

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A bunch of us dark writer folk are going to be doing a group book signing there in celebration of all things… well, dark. It’s a great idea and I’m honoured to have been asked. I’ll be sharing the signing table with some truly notable writers. Joining in on the day will be Bob Franklin, Kirstyn McDermott, Jason Nahrung  and Bruce Kaplan (as well as little old me).

You’ll remember Kirstyn McDermott from this post the other day where I was talking about her new book, Madigan Mine.

Jason Nahrung is the author author of The Darkness Within and numerous short stories.

Bruce Kaplan is the author of the YA paranormal novel Jenny’s Dance.

Bob Franklin is primarily recognised as a comedian that you’ll probably know better from TV than from his writing. He’s stared in show’s like the ABC’s The Librarians or guest appearing on Thank God You’re Here. However, he’s also the author of Under Stones, a collection of “tales of unease”.

So as you can see, I’m in some stellar company. It should be a good laugh, so if you’re anywhere near Melbourne come along and join in the fun. Here are the party invite details:

12 noon ’til 1pm on Sunday 31st October

Dymocks Southland
Shop 3067/8, Westfield Southland
1239 Nepean Highway
Cheltenham, VIC 3192

Ph: 03 9584 1245

http://www.dymocks.com.au

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