Year's Best horror antho out now

TRADE and hardback editions of the Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror anthology are available through Ticonderoga Publications.

The anthology, edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene, features the best 33 genre stories from Australian authors published in 2010.

The anthology is available in hardcover (RRP AU$50) and trade (RRP AU$35).

It will also be released in an ebook edition.

Land of Bad Dreams launch performances released online

SEE video from the launch of Kyla Ward’s new poetry collection The Land of Bad Dreams online.

The footage was filmed at The World Bar in Kings Cross in September and includes live and multimedia packages.

The collection is available through P’rea Press.

READERS can get a sneak peak at Midnight Echo’s science-fiction horror issue due out this month.

The magazine has posted an interview from author Andrew J. McKiernan as well as an extract of his tale The Wanderer in the Darkness which will be appearing in the issue.

Pre-orders of the limited print edition are available for $10 plus postage.

The magazine is holding a magazine subscription drive this month.

Anyone who signs up for a one-year print or emagazine subscription before November 20 goes in the running to win $200 in cash, plus books signed by Kylie Chan, Greig Beck, Brett McBean and Tim Curran.

Subscriptions start at $3.75.

Submissions for issue seven are now open.

Aussie horror anthology contents named

AUTHORS have been named for the Australian Literature Review’s forthcoming anthology Ho Ho Horror.

The all-Australian line up includes Christmas themed fiction from eight authors and will be illustrated by Andrew J McKiernan.

Fiction to appear includes:

Ho Ho Ho by Gordon Reece

Let it Snow by Sam Stephens

Unwanted Gifts by Belinda Dorio

Naughty or Nice by Cameron Trost

Satan Clause by Keith Mushonga

X-mas Secrets by Steven Gepp

Rainmaker by Kathryn Hore

Glittering Were the Leaves by Tony Dews.

The anthology is expected to be released by Christmas.

Daly unleashes army of the undead

THE Army of the Undead - the second book in Stuart Daly's Witch Hunter Chronicles - will be released on November 1.

The novel, aimed at young adult readers, continues the story of 16-year-old Jakob, a seventeenth century witch hunter who has been charged with stopping Armageddon by fighting off a horde of 2000-year-old zombies set forth to retrieve an ancient tablet.

It is the Sydney high school teacher's second novel and was inspired by his own studies of the English Civil War.

The first, The Scourge of Jericho, has been widely praised by reviewers.

The Witch Hunter Chronicles: The Army of the Undead is available in print and ebook through Random House Australia for $17.95.

Blood Song released

MELBOURNE author Rhiannon Hart has released her debut book Blood Song through Random House Australia.

The novel tells the story of Zeraphina, a princess with a craving for blood, who when travelling to a foreign land when her older sister is betrothed learns that her own origins may lie not with her own kingdom, but that of the nightmarish people of the neighbouring country Lharmell.

It is aimed at young adult readers and is the first book in a planned Lharmell series.

The novel is available in print and ebook format for $18.95.

Cover work unveiled on Fischer zombie trilogy

THE cover art for Jason Fischer’s latest instalment in the After the World zombie series has been unveiled by Black House Comics.

Corpus Christi is the sequel to Fischer’s Afterworld story and again follows the story of bow-slinging Tamsyn as she battles to survive in a zombie ravaged world.

The novella is the second part of a planned trilogy.

Issue 3 of the After the World magazine series has also been released and also features work by Clinton Green, Raymond Gates, Jason Franks and Pete Kempshall.

Each edition features at least one work set in the zombie world as well as other tales of horror and science fiction by Australian writers.

Each issue is available for $5.

Macarbe released on ebook

BRIMSTONE Press’ Australian horror tomb Macabre: A Journey through Australia’s Darkest Fears has been released on ebook.

The award-winning anthology collects 38 stories from Australia’s past and present horror authors including Henry Lawson, Barbara Baynton, Terry Dowling, Kaaron Warren, Paul Haines, Richard Harland, David Conyers and Will Elliott.

The anthology won the 2010 Australian Shadows Award and was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award the same year.

Richard Harland’s the Fear won the 2010 Aurealis Award for horror short fiction.

It is available through Smashwords for $US4.99.

Aurealis makes switch to e-mag

AUREALIS magazine has made the switch from print to a monthly e-publication starting with issue #45.

The edition, which features stories from Lachlan Huddy and Aimee Smith, an interview with Glenda Larke, reviews and news, has been released in a number of e-reading versions through Smashwords.

It can be downloaded free and is available in iPad, iPhone, Kindle, Kobo Reader and PDF formats.

The issue is the first publication since the departure of editor Stuart Mayne last year and replaces the biannual print format which has been in place since 1990.

It is unclear whether payment rates for authors will change under the new format.    

Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs released on ebook

PAUL Mannering’s new short story collection The Man Who Could Not Climb Stairs and Other Strange Stories has been released on ebook.

The collection is available for kindle through Amazon for $2.99 and includes 21 stories from the award-winning New Zealand author.

Tales range in genre across the dark fiction spectrum from gothic horror and suspense to science-fiction and bizzaro.

The book has been published through BrokenSea Productions.

New horror books on release

A LIMITED run of Kyla Ward’s horror poetry collection the Land of Bad Dreams is available for purchase.

The collection, launched this month, is now available from P’rea Press for $18.

FOR a limited time, you can also pick up a free copy of South Australian horror author Matthew Tait’s debut short story collection Ghosts in a Desert World.

The 13-story collection is now free via smashwords.

Submissions open for horror club anthology

SUBMISSIONS are open for a new anthology of unspeakable horror entitled Tales From the Bell Club.

Edited by New Zealand author Paul Mannering and published by Knightwatch Press, the anthology calls for stories set in the early 20th century from members of the Bell Club – an exclusive establishment whose members have experienced unspeakable horror.

Successful membership requires the applicant to tell a story - and if the members find it disturbing enough – the applicant is granted access. It's like a nascent support group for the traumatised.

No one judges or questions the stories told - because all the members have seen such things as no man can rationalise - and who are they to judge if a fellow storyteller is lying, mad or hallucinating?

By its nature the stories are set in the early years of the 20th Century, with male or female protagonists.

Payment is $25 plus a free eBook edition of the anthology.

Submissions close on December 20, with an estimated publication date of Spring, 2012.