I was delighted to be a guest at Oz Comic-Con on the 11th-12th June at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre. I participated on a fantastic panel with my writing buddies Jason Franks and Tracie Mcbride, and we sold a bunch of books on the IFWG Publishing Australia table.
Thanks to everyone who came along to say ‘hi’ and bought a book or two. And thanks to Kate Eito, Emily Ascough, Matt Kors, and all the volunteers for looking after us. And to Jimmy Eaton for emceeing our event. Looking forward to next time!
The School Magazine – “Australia’s most-loved and longest-running literary publication for children” – has published my short story “Busy as a Bee” in Orbit magazine (Issue 5, June, 2022), aimed at readers aged 10—11 years. It is enhanced with fantastic artwork by Aśka, a Perth based visual storyteller who specialises in comics, graphic novels and picture books.
Uncle Charles (aka Chuck McKenzie) does a fabulous spooky reading of my story “In the Light of the Lamp” on his YouTube channel “A Touch of Terrors“. This story originally appeared in Terror Australis (ed. Leigh Blackmore), Hodder & Stoughton, my first mass market paperback publication back in 1993.
In addition to my story, he reads lots of other horror stories by some fantastic writers, old and new, on “A Touch of Terrors“. Here’s the introduction to his channel:
Hello children. Uncle Charles here, with another…dreadtime story for you. Are we all tucked up comfortably? Feet up and under the covers, away from whatever lurks beneath the bed? Excellent. Then we’ll begin. Maybe a classic horror tale? A modern masterpiece of the macabre? Whatever tonight’s selection may be, we do hope it brings you…unpleasant dreams.
I am thrilled to share the news that IFWG Publishing Australia has acquired the rights to my new YA Historical Fantasy novel The Dream Weaver for publication next year. Here’s what readers can look forward to:
Anatolia – Autumn, 1405 AD.
The Ottoman Sultan and the barbaric Turko-Mongol conqueror Timur Lenk are both dead.
The empire is on the verge of collapse, caught up in bloody civil war. And dark powers are rising, employing Uzbeg mercenaries and blood magic to wrest control of the country.
In a small Mediterranean coastal town, a street-wise sixteen-year-old orphan named Ali starts to have uncontrollable nightmares he thinks are predicting the future, only to learn they are creating the future.
His dreams attract unwanted attention, and in an attempt to rid himself of them, Ali sets off on a quest to find a mythical sage called Luman, pursued by the evil men who killed his mother and will stop at nothing to capture him and corrupt his unwanted powers with gemeye blood magic.
An historical adventure/fantasy/romance story for Young Adults that will appeal to readers young and old.
The publisher says:
IFWG has had a long and fruitful relationship with the very talented Australian author, Steve Paulsen, including publishing a collection of his weird and dark fiction, Shadows on the Wall, as well as publishing some of his short fiction in flagship anthologies over recent years. It is with great pleasure that we can announce the acquisition of his Young Adult historical fantasy novel, The Dream Weaver, which will put on display another dimension to Paulsen’s already significant literary repertoire, and which also adds to IFWG’s YA catalogue, which is growing in respect and acclaim.
Dream Weaver will be released in the second quarter of 2023. Stay tuned for more information about this upcoming title.
It was fun and liberating to talk to fans and catch up with other writers and artists, and we did book signings and a panel event, with Christopher Sequeira and myself representing CDDU3, and writers Janeen Webb, Charles Spiteri and Tracie McBride there as contributors to Spawn. Janeen Webb also too the opportunity to announce her forthcoming alternative history novel (written in collaboration with Andrew Enstice), Five Star Republic, the first book in their “City of the Sun” trilogy, due for publication on 1st September, 2021.
On Stage and Book Signing Table photos courtesy of Anna Spiteri.
Steven Paulsen 