I am thrilled to have a story in the exciting Australian Horror Anthology CTHULHU: DEEP DOWN UNDER. It contains hundreds of pages of superb storytelling by 24 of the best Australian genre writers, backed by 24 brilliant artists producing amazing full colour plates for the book.

It looks like the 1996 William Atheling Jr. Award winning article “A History of Australian Horror”, which I co-wrote with Sean McMullen and Bill Congreve, is going to be republished in a forthcoming book. The article was originally published in the sadly now defunct American magazine, The Scream Factory, and an updated version was later presented as the end piece for the ground-breaking Bonescribes anthology. More news to come.

I attended Aussiecon IV, the 68th World Science Fiction Convention in my home town of Melbourne, Australia in September. It was great to catch up with old friends, writers, editors and book-lovers that I had not seen for some time. I was delighted to be there to see Shaun Tan, who illustrated my children’s book, The Stray Cat, win the Hugo Award for Best Professional Artist.

I started a new novelette based in part on “Travels in India” (1845) by Captain Leopold von Orlich, translated by H. Evans Lloyd, ESQ. It is titled “The Black Diamond of the Elephant God”, and is set in H. P. Lovecraft’s “Cthulhu Mythos”. This is the first time I have used another writer’s work in a story and it will be interesting to see if I can meld my characters and plot, plus my own experiences in India, with some of the settings and experiences in this antiquated journal and craft them into a viable story.

The book launch for Short and Twisted 2009, an anthology of short stories and poetry with a twist was held on May 2nd. It included “Severing Ties”, a short story I wrote in collaboration with Maurice Xanthos. It was edited by Kathryn Duncan and published by Celapene Press.

Benjamin Szumskyj has accepted an article from me on the pseudonymous horror novels of John Brosnan for inclusion in Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Volume 3. The piece is based on an earlier essay published in Bloodsongs #3 in 1994, but has been completely rewritten to bring it up to date and correct some errors and omissions contained in the original article. Sadly, John Brosnan has now passed away but hopefully this piece will honour his memory and revive interest in his wonderful tongue-in-cheek horror novels.

A correspondent contacted me after trying to buy a copy of The Cthulhu Cycle on Abebooks last week. He was shocked to learn that copies are not only in scarce supply, but also hideously expensive. In fact this week the price of the book on the second hand market reached a new high with a Californian bookseller asking a huge US$250.00! A second copy was on offer from a Florida bookseller for US$141.65. Strangely, a third copy autographed by the editor was available from another Californian bookseller for a mere US$30. Not sure what conclusion to draw from that.  🙂