Another review for Dead America has appeared on the fantastic Australian dark fiction website, Horrorscope.

Reviewer Chuck McKenzie holds no punches – an admirable trait in the PR-puff rife world of the internet – and offers this author, at least, some food for thought.  You really don’t know what your work is like when you’re a writer, and it’s always up to readers (i.e. other people) to set you straight.  Inadvertedly or not, Chuck has given me plenty to think about when it comes to my writing.

Cheers, Chuck!

(Not bad – three reviews outside of Amazon, and only one pans me.  I like those odds!)

You can check out Horrorscope’s review of Dead America here.

Just a quick post to highlight the great work done by the Australian Horror Writers Association, a not-for-profit organisation of writers, editors and horror lovers who provide a platform for writers to showcase themselves and their work.  The AHWA has a great website chock full of info, from plugs for members’ books to short story competitions, reviews and news.  Check it out here.

As a card carrying member, I’ve submitted Dead America on the AHWA’s blog Sinister Reads, which highlights the works of author members.  Check it out here.

Keep watching the shadows…

I’m shameless, I know, but here’s another plug for a plug, a review of Dead America from Hellnotes, a great site dedicated to reviews of horror fiction, books and films.

Sheila Merritt writes of Dead America:

“It is wise in its societal perceptions, and knowledgeable about the conventions of hardboiled fiction. At one point the detective states: “Just what the world needs — another depressed zombie.” A book that pokes fun at itself for being part of a pop culture mania deserves a smile and a wry embrace.”

Sheila’s hit the dead nail on its dead head – one thing I was going for with Dead America was the sense that, through the character of Faraday, the reader was being let in on a joke, possibly the biggest joke in history (or at least the history of the novel).  Faraday exists in a world where the dead come back to the same, boring old life they died in – the afterlife becomes the punchline to life, the greatest joke of all.

I also liked Sheila’s genre-classification (something I have trouble doing with my own work): she calls Dead America a ‘necro noir novel’.  Hmm, think she might be onto something there…

Thanks Sheila and thanks Hellnotes.

You can check out the full review here…

Severed Press, publisher of Dead America, are on the look out for zombie stories. Here’s why:

Severed Press are now taking submissions for *Zombie Zoology: A Natural History of Zombies

Severed Press seeks short stories for its new anthology, Zombie Zoology. Stories must include themes revolving around living-dead animals, beasts, creatures, or anything of the sort. We are looking for variety in both animals and the locations in which the story is set. Stories involving local myths, legends and superstitions will be well regarded as will the use of science. Stories can be set in the past or present.

Payment: Payment will be $0.01 per word based on the final edited version plus one Author copy.

Stories should be between 2000-8000 words and be submitted with a brief synopsis and bio in standard form as an attachment to zombiezoology@gmail.com

Closing date is the 30th January 2010 and replies will go out after this date.

Yes, it’s shameless of me, but I’m about to plug a plug – which shouldn’t be technically possible, yet is.

Anton Cancre has reviewed Dead America on www.horrornews.net, a great site dedicated to all new things horror.  While he did give me a good review (way to go Anton!) I’m mentioning it here more for the view of Dead America than the review.

Anton wrote:

“It’s a world with infinite promise constantly undercut by ignorance and fear.  Yet hope shines in shit-caked corners and half-rotten eyes, in the tiny motions of outstretched hands.  It’s all just another day in America.”

Yes!  That’s exactly it!  Hope does shine in shit-caked corners – something that encapsulates the world of Dead America so much more than ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ does – and the novel is really ‘just another day in America’.  Not the ‘real’ America – hold the hate mail – but a romanticised America, a dirty, dark America viewed through Anton’s ‘half-rotten eyes’.

Glad you enjoyed it, Anton.  Long live Dead America!

If you want, you can check out the review here (go to Book Reviews and then follow the link from the side bar on the right for Dead America) or head along and see what else is on offer at HorrorNews.

From www.horrornews.net

The following is a guest blog by friend of the dead Mark David Ryan, QUT lecturer and Australian horror’s biggest fan.  The blog originally appeared on Digital Retribution.

In early 2009, Brisbane was the envy of Australia when it hosted the Be Afraid: Fear in North American Cinema horror festival boasting original prints of the most influential horror movies of all time. Screening at the Australian Cinemateque, Modern Institute Art, the festival brought us classics such as The Thing, Rosemary’s Baby, Jaws, The Exorcist, Friday the 13th, and Halloween, among countless others.

Well, for horror fans all over the country, it might be time to pack the bags and move to the sunshine state with Dead Country: Australian Horror Classics movie festival kicking off just before Halloween, and showcasing the very best of terror Australis.

The festival is an excellent range of moody horror/thrillers in Patrick and Road Games by the master Richard Franklin, iconic revenge of nature/monstrous landscape movies in Razorback and Long Weekend, to gore splattered action in Turkey Shoot and Body Melt. The festival also includes the classic Wake in Fright starring Donald Pleasence before playing Dr. Loomis in the US classic Halloween. Though not technically a horror film, the film paints an unrelentingly bleak and morally dark portrait of some of Australia’s most treasured institutions from drinking and mateship to gambling, and is regarded a standout of a broad Aussie horror tradition. The festival runs from 28 October to 1 November and movies are original 35 mm prints sourced from the National film and sound archive.

From the hilariously schlock humour of were-marsupials down under in the werewolf spoof Howling III, to exploding heads, penises and an incestuous mutant family getting high off Kangaroo adrenal glands in Body Melt, this is a festival not to miss.

The program

Wake in Fright – 1971 M – Fri 30 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Long Weekend - 1978 MA15+ – Fri 30 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Patrick - 1978 M – Sun 1 Nov 3.00pm / Cinema A

Roadgames - 1981 M – Sun 1 Nov 1.00pm / Cinema B

Turkey Shoot - 1982 M – Wed 28 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Razorback - 1984 M – Sat 31 Oct 8.00pm / Cinema A

Howling III: The Marsupials - 1987 M – Sat 31 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Body Melt - 1993 MA15+ -Wed 28 Oct 6.00pm / Cinema A

Venue: Australian Cinemateque, Modern Institute Art, South Bank, Brisbane, Queensland

For more information visit the Gallery of Modern Art website.

I was rather disheartened to catch a re-run of ABC’s often insightful (dare I say novel) program, First Tuesday Book Club, in which the genre of horror was examined – specifically the monster – and not once was the zombie mentioned.  Oh, there was plenty to be said about narrative uber-kingpin Dracula, more than enough on Frankenstein, and even the Cenobites from the always twisted imagination of Clive Barker rated a mention.  But, no zombie.

I knew the zombie was the poor cousin, but this is ridiculous.

Yet, as First Tuesday Book Club continued into Sunday afternoon (I said it was a re-run), the panel of authors and researchers hit upon a curious concept.  It was claimed that Dracula and even the Werewolf were the most popular of the monsters and the most sustaining; given the recent success of Twilight and the new Wolf Man film coming out with Benicio Del Toro in the titular role, it’s hard to disagree.  Yet, the underlying reason for their sustainability was their ability (ahem) to ‘mirror’ the anxieties and complexities of human nature that so define humanity.  Example, the wolfman can be thought of as a thinly veiled metaphor for what happens in adolescence – hair sprouting, and the like – while the vampire has morphed into a figure of tragic love, a romantic icon more than a deadly one.  Look at Edward in Twilight; I’ve had several female friends say the success of the book is due to Edward’s highly romanticised character, a man so perfect, so romantic, that his vampirism runs second to his sensuality.

And then you have the zombie.  A rotting, animated hunk of flesh, with no personality and no yardstick of analogy to measure him to.  He is neither romantic, nor metaphorical; he is simply a remnant of humanity seeking sustenance.

Maybe that’s why the zombie is such an unrecognised horror figure, at least to the First Tuesday Book Club.  It’s because he is actually too close to human, a monster that can’t be held at arm’s length, looked in the closet, or kept under the bed.  Zombies are us.  Us fundamentally – the spark of life and the burning desire to sustain it.

Maybe zombies are a little too much like us to truly be termed a monster…

Artwork by Jeremy Thompson

Sixty thousand words, five drafts, eighteen months and God only knows how many burnt out braincells later – Dead America is alive!

Published by new independent company Severed Press,  Dead America the novel is now available on Amazon.  Web champion Dr Soda is in the process of making a widget for the site, but if you can’t wait for it, you can buy a copy of the book (at the special introductory price of $13.95!!!!  That’s like, 5000 words for every dollar you spend!  Bargain) at Amazon by following this link.  For every copy you buy, I get $1.  The glamorous life of a  no-name author.  Sigh.

Oh, and if you like the book, or even if you don’t like it actually, feel free to post a review on Amazon.

Help a struggling artist to keep struggling with his art. Write on.

Luke Keioskie

Horrorscope is a fantastic blog site I came across after joining the Australian Horror Writers Association.  Dedicated to what it calls ‘dark fiction’, Horrorscope is a great collection of reviews, news and interviews from the world of my favourite genre.

The posts are varied, from interviews with the creator of Dexter to reviews of new horror books hitting the shelves – I even enjoyed the post on LegumeMan Books, which led me to an entertaining rant on why the independent publisher has a problem with zombie stories (Boo!).   Each to their own.

Check out Horrorscope, for all your horror needs.

About nine months ago, I created a profile on authonomy, Harper Collins‘ literary portal that is best described as Facebook for writers.  About a month after that, Severed Press contacted me after reading part of Dead America on authonomy.  About three months after that, Dead America is now alive – a real, honest-to-God novel sitting on my desk looking at me as I write this.

I couldn’t have done it without authonomy, and I’m honoured to be invited to do a guest blog on how the website helped me get published. 

Check it out here on their website, or see below for an abridged version.

How did authonomy help you get published?

I’m a big fan of the site. authonomy allowed me to establish an online presence for myself and my unpublished novel. Having the ability to create a profile page, upload samples of my writing, discuss my favourite genres in forums and network with other writers was invaluable.

Being a writer is one of the toughest jobs in the world, due to the inherent isolation; but authonomy combats this isolation and reminds a writer that you’re aren’t alone, that there are other people struggling with their art and the industry just as much as you are.

Would you recommend authonomy to other writers?

Definitely. authonomy offers a fantastic ‘service’ to both published and amateur writers – it’s like Facebook for writers. Authonomy lets you showcase your work in a free flowing forum, a place where writers, publishers and readers can sample fiction work they wouldn’t normally be able to access. The site opens up new avenues for promotion, while also allowing a writer to taste what other writers are doing in their genre.

How important is an online presence to a writer?

An online presence is crucial in the 21^st Century. Publishing is like any industry, it’s evolving before our eyes, and the internet is a huge part of that evolution. An online presence lets a writer connect directly to their audience, bringing them down from the proverbial mountain and letting fans – both old and new – get to know the writer and the writing more intimately.

For Dead America, I established both a website (www.deadamerica.info) and a blog (www.deadamerica.info/deadlettercentre) to help promote the novel while it was unpublished, which, along with my profile on authonomy, helped me to secure Severed Press as my publisher. Given the publishing industry is getting harder and harder to break into, online is the equivalent of a foot in the door for emerging and developing writers.

Last word

If you’re a writer looking to be read, jump on authonomy, create your profile, and upload your words.  You never know where it will take you.