My piece “Ashes to Ashes” has just come out as part of the winter edition of Breath and Shadow. “Ashes to Ashes” is quite unusual for me, as it is set firmly in Gippsland, where I lived for many years but which only rarely intrudes on the creative part of my mind.
It’s quite short, and completely free to read, so please check it out and perhaps even let me know what you think!
I received the good news earlier this week that my literary fantasy short “Ashes to Ashes” will be published in Breath and Shadow sometime around December this year. It’s the first of my pieces to be strongly set in Gippsland, and I’m very pleased that it’s found a good home.
My short play Love. Bite. was produced as part of the recent Short Works season at La Trobe university and my director, Amelia Latham, and actors, Susu Najjarin & Erin Miller did a great job with the piece.
Melissa Viola took some great photographs of the play and was kind enough to let me post one here.
Erin Miller as Joanne (left) and Susu Najjarin as Amy
(click on image for the full size photo)
On Monday, I learned that Grimdark Magazine will be putting out a print collection of all the short stories from their first two years of existence, which means that my piece “Ashes” will be included.
The cover looks fantastic, and it’s going to be available in places that most of my publications aren’t (like the Book Depository!) so I’m really looking forward to see the final product.
I have a short play, Love. Bite being produced as part of the La Trobe University Short Works season this year. Performances are nightly at 7.30pm from the 1st to the 5th of August and more information can be found at the La Trobe student union website or the Facebook event for the season.
I think everyone can agree that 2016 has been a year. Amidst all the bad, however, I’ve somehow managed to have my best year by far when it comes to publications, so that is pleasing.
On that note, a couple of fiction announcements:
(1) My gothic sci-fi piece “Scrap Metal” has just gone live with Issue 28 of Luna Station Quarterly.
(2) My horror novelette “The Starlight Circus” has been accepted for publication in the next issue of Red Sun Magazine, which is due out around Christmas.
In a few weeks’ time, I’m off for a belated honeymoon in the UK, with a brief stop in Denmark to meet a dear friend’s baby. I always find the UK very inspiring, so hopefully it’ll kick start a much more productive writing year in 2017.
To all those feeling a little lost in the world right now, I wish you creativity and hope in the new year. This too will pass.
Apologies for the long delay between posts. I’ve been up to my neck in study, so the focus has been more on essays than fiction. However, I’ve now completed the graduate certificate and hope to post more regularly in the future.
While I was away, I’ve had a few things published, so I’ll make this a quick dot point list to fill things in.
In more personal news, I got married last month! Australia is still dragging its heels on equal marriage but, as I’m a British citizen, my wife and I were able to be legally married at the home of the British Consul-General in Melbourne.
Firstly, and most importantly, my piece “The Cow Tower” has been accepted into Mosaics: An Anthology of Independent Women, Volume 2. It’s a great concept, collecting feminist writing from women writers and supporting The Pixel Project, and I’m really pleased to be a part of it. More once we’re closer to publication date.
Secondly, in a couple of weeks I shall be starting a Graduate Certificate of Arts (Gender Studies) at the University of Melbourne. I still have PhD hopes for the future, and I have a glaring gap in my studies right where I’d like to slot that PhD, so I shall finally have the chance to study gender and sexuality formally–and to do my first university English lit subject as well. Everything’s been about my writing up until this point.
Speaking of, I’m not exactly doing any of that right now. Hopefully my head will be in the place for it sometime soon.
My piece “In Dreams” was published on the 25th of September and can be read online for free at Zetetic: A Record of Unusual Inquiry. It’s an older piece of mine and somewhat different to my current style, but I’ve always been rather fond of it, so I’m very glad that it’s found a good home.
In future publication news, I have a science fiction piece, “Women’s Work”, expected to be in the December edition of the Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine. More details when it eventuates.
Writing-wise, I’ve just completed the first draft of a sword & sorcery short story, which is currently nameless. I hope to have it named, edited and out on submission before I head to Canada next month.
(Yes, I am going to Canada for the first time! I shall be staying with my best friend and her family and–very importantly–her cats.)
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