I have a short story titled “Yellow Palms” published the Weathering the Future exhibition, a collaboration between Ballarat Words Out Loud, the Soldiers Hill Artist Collective (SHAC), and communication design students from Federation University’s Arts Academy. The exhibition is curated and convened by writers Jason Nahrung and Kirstyn McDermott.

The project was a dual ekphrastic process in which the artists of SHAC responded to the theme of “Weathering the Future”, looking at the hurdles and innovations we face at the beginning of the Anthropocene. Writers at various stages of career responded to these artworks in flash fiction and poetry. These written works were embodied in text art by the Arts Academy students.

If you’re going to be in Ballarat between 6th and 23rd of December 2018, check it out at the Ballarat Backspace Gallery on Camp Street. It will be open Thursdays to Sundays, from noon to 4pm, so drop in for a unique experience if you’re in town.

My story, the artwork by artist Lorraine Huddle, the poster by Bridget O’Brien from the Federation University’s Arts Academy, and an audio of my reading of the story are available online here.

The exhibition was made possible by the City of Ballarat’s Backspace Gallery community arts program.

The Ballarat Book Launch for my short story collection Shadows on the Wall was a great success. Thanks very much to Jason Nahrung and Kirstyn McDermott for hosting, and to everybody who came along and made it such a success. I had a lot of fun and I hope you did too.

For anyone who was unable to attend the event here are some pics (courtesy and copyright, Jason Nahrung), and a recording of Kirstyn McDermott interviewing me.

Rather than just have me speak at the launch, which might have been quite boring, Kirstyn McDermott interviewed me instead (fantastic suggestion, Jason and Kirstyn!). Here’s the recording of the interview for anyone interested:

Fiona McVie has interviewed me for her Author Interviews blog. You can read it here.

If you’re in Ballarat on Sunday 18th February, Kirstyn McDermott and Jason Nahrung will be launching SHADOWS ON THE WALL in The Printer’s Room (behind Sebastiaans) starting at 2:30pm.

My new book, Shadows on the Wall, is out TODAY! 

It’s available in paperback and ebook from your preferred online retailer (links below) or from your favourite bookshop, so please buy yourself a copy if you like weird and dark stories of science fiction, fantasy and horror. And don’t forget to tell your friends.

If you read it and like it (and even if you don’t like it), please post a review on the platform of your choice.

BUY IT:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | iBooks | Book Depository | Booktopia | Angus & Robertson

Cover painting and internal artwork by Shaun Tan

Foreword by Isobelle Carmody

Shadows on the Wall contains the very best of Paulsen’s dark and weird tales…plus stunning new fiction written expressly for this volume.

• Glimpse a future where population controls force families into terrible choices.
• Visit Colonial British India and experience the awakening of an eldritch horror.
• Walk the steaming jungles of Vietnam alongside the spirits of the forest.
• Light an ancient oil lamp but beware, the shadows on the wall.
• And more…

These stories are beautifully written and subtle, and in their subtlety, they linger uneasily in the minds…Their particular potency lies in the honed sharpness of the writing, in the repertoire of emotional responses to strangeness they offer through brilliant and detailed characterisation…They are shadows, shifting on the wall, barely seen, slipping into our minds to lie, light and cold over our hearts…

• Isobelle Carmody – author of the Obernewtyn Chronicles

Paulsen’s body of work, as evidence by this impressive collection, explores the nature of our fears, effortlessly exposing us to shuddering horrors and milder terrors while drawing us in with utterly real characters.

• Kaaron Warren – author of the multi-award winning The Grief Hole

Shadows on the Wall will take you into some dangerously dark places, places that you know you should not enter, but enter you will, for, alas, you won’t be able to help yourself. The stories contained within are rocket-fuelled with narrative drive. These subtle, ironic, humorous, and sometimes horrific extrapolations and fantasies showcase Paulsen’s wild talent and tight grip on craft.

• Jack Dann – multi-award winning, international bestselling author

Distributed by Dennis Jones (Australia) and IPG/SPU (North America)