The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2014 (Volume 5)

by Kaaron Warren

  Twelfth Planet Press released the Aurealis Award-winning collection Female Factory from powerhouse duo Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter, which was also Honourably Mentioned in the Norma K. Hemming Award. The title story was also nominated for a Ditmar Award for Best Novella/Novelette. Rosaleen Love’s collection Secret Lives was also nominated for the Aurealis Best Collection, with the story “Qasida” being shortlisted for the WSFA Small Press Award. Both collections were listed in the Locus Recommended Reading List.

  Angela Slatter had her third collection for the year, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings published with Tartarus Press in the UK. Bitterwood Bible was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, and an Aurealis Award for best collection, as well as being mentioned in the Locus Recommended Reading List, with illustrator Kathleen Jennings receiving a second Ditmar nomination for her illustrations.

  Simon Petrie’s mix of new and previously published stories, Difficult Second Album: more stories of Xenobiology, Space Elevators, and Bats Out Of Hell, edited by Edwina Harvey, was released by Peggy Bright Books. The title gained Petrie an Aurealis Award nomination for Best Collection. Simon Dewar published Suspended in Dusk with Books of the Dead Press.

  Angela Meyer released her unsettling Captives collection through boutique press Inkerman and Blunt. Queenslanders Vision Writers released 18, their eighteenth anthology of short fiction from active members. David Conyers released The Shoggoth Conspiracy, the first volume of his Harrison Peel omnibus collections.

  Anthologies

  The very busy and very talented Jonathan Strahan again dominated Australian anthologies this year. He was nominated for a Locus Award for Best Editor, and edited a number of Locus Recommended Reading Listed anthologies. Solaris Books released the SF anthology Reach for Infinity, which was also nominated for a Locus Award, Fearsome Magics, which along with Infinity, was nominated for an Aurealis Award. Strahan also edited The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Eight for Nightshade Books, which was nominated for a Locus Award. Strahan also edited Subterranean, Winter 2014, for Subterranean Press.

  Twelfth Planet Press had a very successful year with Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios’ Kaleidoscope anthology, which won both the Ditmar and the Aurealis Award for Best Collection, the Tin Duck for Best Professional Production, and was listed in the Tiptree Award honour list and the Locus Recommended Reading List. Amal El-Mohtar’s story “The Truth about Owls” from the anthology won Best Short Story in the Locus Awards, and Sean Williams’ “The Legend Trap” won the Ditmar for Best Novella/Novelette. Dirk Flinthart’s “Vanilla” won Best Young Adult Story at the Aurealis Awards, as well as many of the stories being shortlisted for the WSFA Small Press Award, Ditmar and Aurealis Awards. Krasnostein and Rios also released their first volume of The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction.

  Ticonderoga Publications released two anthologies in 2014, the Aurealis and Tin Duck-nominated steampunk romance anthology Kisses by Clockwork, edited by Liz Grzyb, which contained the Ditmar-nominated novelette “Escapement” by Stephanie Gunn and the Tin Duck Best Short Written Work story “Siri and the Chaos Maker” by Carol Ryles. The Ditmar-nominated Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2013, edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene was also released.

  Tehani Wessely edited two anthologies at Fablecroft this year: the second volume of digital year’s best Focus 2013 and the fantasy anthology Phantazein. Phantazein deservedly collected a number of awards and nominations this year. It was nominated for the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology and the Best Collected Work Ditmar, and Charlotte Nash’s “The Ghost of Hephaestus” was shortlisted for Best Fantasy Short Story in the Aurealis Awards as well as Best Novella in the Ditmars. Cat Sparks’ “The Seventh Relic” won Best Short Story in the Ditmars, and “Bahamut” from Thoraiya Dyer was shortlisted. Kathleen Jennings also won the Ditmar for Best Artwork for her gorgeous cover.

  Keith Stevenson edited Dimension 6, the Coeur de Lion annual anthology. Dominica Malcolm edited Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction with Solarwyrm Press, which was nominated for an Aurealis Award for Best Anthology. Simon Petrie and Edwina Harvey edited Use Only As Directed from Peggy Bright Books, which included Stephen Dedman’s story “Large Friendly Letters” and was nominated for a Tin Duck Award for Best Short Written Work.

  Magazines

  ASIM was nominated for a Hugo Award for Best Semiprozine, a fitting acknowledgement of the co-operative’s longevity. Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine released two issues in 2014: #59 and #60.

  Australian-run SQ Mag became a paid market in 2014, released six issues, and included stories gaining much critical and popular acclaim. Alan Baxter’s story “The Darkness in Clara” was nominated for a Ditmar Award, Michelle Jager’s “Bones” was shortlisted for an Australian Shadows Award, and Rhoads Brazos’ story “Tread Upon the Brittle Shell” was chosen for inclusion in Ellen Datlow’s Year’s Best Horror vol. 7. Issue 14 of the magazine won the Australian Shadows Award for Best Edited Work.

  Review of Australian Fiction releases an issue with two short stories every fortnight in electronic subscription format. Angela Slatter’s Aurealis Award-winning, Ditmar-nominated story “St Dymphna’s School for Poison Girls” and Deborah Biancotti’s Aurealis-nominated “The Executioner Goes Home” were two notable fantasy inclusions.

  Aurealis Magazine released ten issues in 2014: issues 67 to 76, each fiction and non-fiction pieces. Antipodean SF released 12 issues in 2014, providing flash fiction in web-based and ebook format. David Conyers became the Arts and General Editor of Irish magazine Albedo One which released Issues 44 and 45 in 2014. Dark Matter Zine regularly publishes reviews, interviews, opinion pieces and guest blogs.

  Podcasts and other media

  Impressively, Galactic Suburbia won the Hugo Award for Best Fancast this year, and was also nominated for the Ditmar and Tin Duck for Best Fan Production for Alisa Krasnostein, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Alexandra Pierce and Andrew Finch.

  Kirstyn McDermott and Ian Mond’s The Writer and the Critic won the Ditmar for Best Fan Publication. Gary K Wolfe & Jonathan Strahan’s The Coode Street Podcast was nominated for a Tin Duck, and Sean Wright, Helen Stubbs, David McDonald, Alexandra Pierce, Sarah Parker, and Mark Webb were nominated for a Ditmar for Galactic Chat. Ion Newcombe’s Antipodean SF Radio Show became a weekly podcast in March 2014, giving multiple flash fiction stories each week.

  Kathleen Jennings’ Aurealis-nominated “A Small Wild Magic” comic strip story was published in Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant’s Monstrous Affections anthology, released by Candlewick Press. She was awarded the Ditmar Awards for both Best Artwork and Best Fan Art, after all three shortlisted pieces in the Best Artwork category were Jennings’.

  Shaun Tan was nominated for the Locus Awards Best Artist, and his picture book Rules of Summer (which was released in Australia in 2013, but in the US in 2014) was nominated for Best Art Book in the same awards. Fantasy/horror graphic novel Mr Unpronounceable and the Sect of the Bleeding Eye won Tim Molloy the Aurealis Award for Best Illustrated Book. It Grows!, Nick Stathopoulos’s short film, was nominated for a Ditmar Award for Best Fan Production.

  The Year In Horror

  NOVELS

  2014 was an interesting year for horror novels in Australia, with some new authors breaking through with first publications, and some high profile cinema tie-ins with the Wolf Creek franchise. Alice Through Blood-Stained Glass (HarperCollins) by Dan Adams is a horror-rollick zombie retelling of Alice in Wonderland, released as an e-Book. The Last Shot (Allen & Unwin) by Michael Adams is a Young Adult adventure, continuing the narrative of psychic teen Danby in a post-apocalyptic world. Goldie Alexander published the YA verse novel In Hades (Celapene Press); driving recklessly in a stolen car, 17 year old street boy Kai and his young brother Rod, die and descend into the underworld. Keri Arthur’s Darkness Falls (Piatkus) is the conclusion to the seven book Dark Angels Series centred around half-werewolf, half-Aedh Risa Jones. Keith Austin’s Snow,
White (Random House) is a YA twisted fairytale retelling. Suicide Forest (Ghillinnein Books) by Jeremy Bates is Book 1 in the World’s Scariest Places Occult & Supernatural Crime Series; a legend is awoken in the Aokigahara forest outside of Tokyo. Alan Baxter’s dark fantasy Alex Caine Series saw prolific publication with three titles—Bound, Obsidian and Abduction—being released by Harper Collins. Greig Beck published two novels with Momentum—Gorgon and Book of the Dead (Matt Kearns 2); the latter is a Lovecraftian romp as protagonist Professor Matt Kearns investigates sinkholes that open to infernal realms and primordial monsters, and unravels the prophecies of Al Azif. Depth Charging Ice Planet Goth (John Hunt Publishing) by Andrez Bergen is a weird fiction murder mystery wending through the 1980s Goth scene. Empties (White Cat Publications) by Jay Caselberg sees a man investigate the abduction of his comatose wife by strange smiling men. One Shot (Arrant Press) by Tom Conyers is an apocalyptic thriller in which a virus turns the infected human population into crazed cannibals. Uncle Adolf (Ginninderra Press) by Craig Cormick boasts the strange blurb: “1982 and Adolf Hitler has been living anonymously on the south coast of New South Wales for almost thirty years.” Beckoning Blood (Escape Publishing) by Daniel de Lorne is a Gothic vampire romance, the second in the Bonds of Blood Series.

  Nathan M. Farrugia’s The Phoenix Variant (Momentum) is a technothriller in a viral apocalypse. Secrets Room (Seven Tides of Nyx) by Kim Faulks; an abductee wakes trapped in a mysterious cell where torture and shock are used to manipulate a group of captives into revealing their darkest secrets. Blood Work (Night Call 1) by L.J. Hayward is an urban paranormal romance following the exploits of a vampire slaying hit team. Janis Hill’s Isis, Vampires and Ghosts -Oh My! (Hague Publishing) is a light paranormal adventure with a smattering of horror tropes for flavour. Justine Larbalestier’s Razorhurst (Allen & Unwin) is a highly original YA adventure set during the 1930s razor gangs of Sydney’s Surrey Hills; street urchin Kelpie and beautiful, ambitious prostitute Dymphna are guided by the ghost of Dymphna’s dead beau. 2014 saw the anticipated release Origin—Wolf Creek 1 (Penguin Books Australia), the first of the Wolf Creek prequel novels, authored by film writer/director Greg McLean and Aaron Sterns, and Desolation Game—Wolf Creek 2 (Penguin Books Australia), the second Wolf Creek prequel novel authored by Greg McLean and Brett McBean; both exploring the formative crimes of fictional serial killer Mick Taylor made infamous in the 2005 feature film. Origin—Wolf Creek 1 won the Australian Horror Writers’ Association’s Australian Shadows Award for Best Novel. Desolation Game—Wolf Creek 2 was originally to be co-authored by Greg McLean and Paul Haines, who lost his battle to cancer in 2012.

  Cassandra Page published Isla’s Inheritance (Turquoise Morning Press); a teen psychic’s powers are unlocked at a Halloween séance. Hoa Pham saw publication of The Other Shore (Seizure), winning Seizure’s Viva La Novella competition; when the dead begin speaking to sixteen-year-old Kim Nguyen she is meshed in a web of adult and supernatural exploitation. Devil City (The Lark Case Files 2) published by Gestalt Publishing, is Christian Read’s second book in a series about occult investigator Lark. Avril Sabine published two YA horror/paranormal romances, both with Broken Gate Publishing; Retribution—Demon Hunters 2 concerns a demon hunter named Scarlet, and Whispers in the Dark is an urban paranormal with elements of romance and same sex relationships. Nova Weetman published a YA ghost story The Haunting of Lily Frost with the University of Queensland Press (UQP); a girl moves to a new town, new house, with a haunted attic . . . Dark Child: Covens Rising(Momentum) by Adina West is the second book in the Kat Chancer series, following the adventures of half-vampire pathologist protagonist; originally released as a five part serial. Justin Woolley’s A Town Called Dust (Momentum); a YA thriller set in a walled city called Alice, with two teen protagonists battling hoards of undead ghouls.

  COLLECTIONS

  Collections in 2014 authored by a single author or a team of co-authors were frequently devoted to horror genre, or had a significant amount of horror fiction mixed with other genres. Ron Barton had two horror stories, “You’d Be Paranoid If You Knew You Were Next” and “Parent-Teacher Night of the Living Dead”, in his Paved With Words collection. Morgan Bell self-published Sniggerless Bondulations, a debut collection of fifteen flash fiction stories. Greg Chapman’s debut collection Vaudeville and Other Nightmares (Black Beacon Books), edited by Cameron Trost, is entirely devoted to the dark side. New Zealander William Cook saw publication with the collection One Way Ticket: Suspense Crime Horror Thriller & Mystery Short 2 (King Billy Publications). The prolific David Conyers released “The Elder Codex” and “The Spiraling Worm” (with John Sunseri) collected together in The Elder Codex (The Harrison Peel Files Book 3). M.R. Cosby’s Dying Embers (Satalyte Publishing) edited by Stephen Ormsby; tales of urban strangeness and transformation. New Zealander Sharon Hannaford included two horror tales, “So This Is Hell: Fergus’s Story” and “Blood and Thunder: Razor’s Story” in A Short Trip to Hell—Hellcat Series Origins Volume 1.

  The Female Factory (Twelfth Planet Press) by Lisa L. Hannett and Angela Slatter was a dark fiction tour de force, with four stories, particularly noteworthy for the titular novella that combined a harrowing picture of early convict settlement with evoking Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Brett Kiellerop’s The Cursed, Volume 1 (Brevid Books) charted an ambiguous dark territory with several horror tales. David McDonald’s Cold Comfort and Other Tales (Clan Destine Press) included his horror story “Our Land Abounds”. Andrew J. McKiernan’s stunning collection Last Year, When We Were Young (Satalyte Publishing) deservedly won the Australian Shadows Award for Best Collection. Angela Meyer’s Captives (Inkerman & Blunt) collected flash fiction stories of misfortune, brushing darker themes such as Alzheimer’s and electrocution. Ben Peek’s collection Dead Americans and Other Stories (ChiZine Publications) included the dark “There Is Something So Quiet & Empty Inside Of You That It Must Be Something Precious”. David Schembri released the substantial collection Unearthly Fables (The Writing Show and David Schembri Studios). C.M. Simpson self-published no less than four story collections, three of which contained some horror content: 365 Days of Flash Fiction, Short Stories and Poems from 2013, Vol. 2: The Year Just Gone, and Short Stories and Poems from 2013, Vol. 1: Remnants to Recent Years. Angela Slatter saw publication of another excellent collection, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings (Tartarus Press); the collection was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Collection. John T. Stolarczyk published the collection Mist and Mirrors (iUniverse); dark fantasy stories with strong horror themes. Janeen Webb’s beautiful complex collection Death at The Blue Elephant (Ticonderoga Publications), edited by Russell B. Farr, included the original dark story “Skull Beach” and novella “The Lady of the Swamp”; the collection was nominated for a World Fantasy Award in the category of Best Collection.

  STAND ALONE HORROR STORY PUBLICATIONS

  An emerging trend in 2014 was the publication of short stories and novellas as stand-alone titles, the trend tracking with an increasing reader market for electronic editions. New Zealander William Cook published Dead and Buried: A Supernatural Young Adult Thriller (King Billy Publications); stand-alone e-book containing a supernatural coming-of-age ghost story that deals with the consequences of bullying. Dreams of Destruction by Shane Jiraiya Cummings, a Lovecraftian novella published as an e-edition, won the Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction (novella) awarded by the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA). Nick Falk published a children’s comedy fantasy of novella length, Billy is a Dragon 2: Werewolves Beware (Random House Australia) incorporating the werewolf trope. Dirk Flinthart’s novella Sanction—Night Beast 1.5 (FableCroft Publishing); the technothriller sequal to Path of Night concerning former detective Jen Morris. Jason Franks published two related stand-alone story titles both with Possible Press; Hellhound on my Trail (Bloody Waters Book Two) details how bluesman Bad Jack Saunders meets a mysterious stranger at a crossroads at midnight, and The Martyr and the
Qarin (Bloody Waters Book Three) continues the story of shred guitarist Clarice Marnier. Dead Lucky by Rebecca Fung was released as part of the One Night Stands Series, published by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing. George Ivanoff’s novella-length story for children The Haunting of Spook House: You Choose . . . 4 (Random House Australia) is a haunted house adventure for children, in the “choose your own adventure” style of branching narrative. Trent Jamieson’s novella The Memory of Death (Death Works 4) published by Momentum continues the story of corporate Grim Reaper Steven de Selby, as an addenda to the Deathworks Novel Trilogy. R.R.Lang self-published the stand-alone story Army Dreamers as an e-book. Theresa A. O’Dea’s Professional Bitches is described by the author as “a horror fiction novella . . . about how two close girlfriends get involved in the sex industry.” Birch Plaise saw publication with Beauty’s Curse: A Horror Novelette (Bowman Press) a historical horror romance. D.L. Richardson’s novella Poison in the Pond is a paranormal psychological thriller about abduction and obsession. Angela Slatter’s Home and Hearth was released as a chapbook from Spectral Press. J.M. Thorne’s Watching (Infinity Dreaming) is a horror novella about alien invasion.

  ANTHOLOGIES—ANTIPODEAN

  2014 was another massive year for anthologies, with many produced by Australian publishers, including some interesting regional publications. 18, edited by Belinda Hamilton, was published by the writers’ group Vision Writers; the anthology included horror tales “Low Life” by Allan Walsh, “The Black Queen” by Melanie Bird, and “18 Barr St” by Christopher Kneipp. Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction (Solarwyrm Press) edited by Dominica Malcolm, featured a number of horror stories including the editor’s own “When The Rice Was Gone”, Robert Mammone’s “Suffer the Children”, Barry Rosenberg’s “The Dead of the Night”and David Kernot’s “The Lost People”. Jenny Blackford’s poem “An Afterlife of Stone” appeared in A Slow Combusting Hymn: Poetry from and about Newcastle and the Hunter Region, edited by Jean Kent and Kit Kelen (ASM and Cerberus Press). Another major regional anthology, Novascapes: A Speculative Fiction Anthology from the Hunter Region of Australia 1 (Invisible Elephant Press) edited by C.E. Page featured writers living in or having originally come from the Hunter, Newcastle and Central Coast regions of New South Wales; the anthology included stories from Margo Lanagan, Kirstyn McDermott, Jenny Blackford, Janeen Webb, Russell Blackford, Danuta Electra Raine, Catherine Moffat, Andrew C. Jaxson, Willie Southgate, Blake Liddell, Bethany Kable, Thoraiya Dyer and editor C.E. Page; this was funded by a Pozible campaign that raised $3,000.