The newest Kemble

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Originally uploaded by garykemble.

Aurora Ruby, born 10.38am, April 29. Amazing.

Learning the hard way, now on Newsvine

There are writers who hone their skills writing short stories, attend a few workshops to network and learn a few tricks, and then sit down and tackle the biggie, the novel-length manuscript.

Then there's people like me. Compulsive novelists. Over the past 10 years I've written or co-written five novel-length manuscripts, all but one rejected. I've had a lot of fun, but if I had my decade over again I might do things a bit differently.

Think there's nothing worth knowing from a failed novelist? Think again.

Read the feature on Newsvine...

(Note: feature first published in Writing Queensland, April 2007)

Review: 'Feast or Famine'

Kathryn Linge has reviewed my short story, "Feast or Famine" (from The Writing Show's Seven Days of Halloween) for ASiF.

"Now, let me warn you about 'Day Three with Gary Kemble' and, specifically, Kemble's story 'Feast or Famine'. If horror is demonstrated by me, running from the room, squealing with my ears covered, then I guess Kemble has done his job. It wasn’t so much that I was scared by the story, it was the realistic and unrelenting gore that got me in the end. I'm not good with blood and Kemble's story does not come with an 'explicit' rating for nothing."

Kathryn says the ending is "anticlimactic", "unrealistic" and "possibly supernatural". Stubborn as I am, I probably wouldn't have admitted this to be true but, after seeing what Angela Challis and Marty Young helped me get out of the story for Macabre, I can see her point of view.

I'm happy to say the new version of "Feast or Famine" has a much stronger ending although, given Kathryn's aversion to gore, I don't recommend she read it!

Read the full review, of all the stories, here.

Speculative fiction links

Have been playing around with del.icio.us, and thought I'd generate some speculative fiction linkrolls. (If you'd like to be added, suggest a link.)

Horror


Science fiction


Fantasy

Ben Templesmith: Comics 'in the blood'

Posted an interview with WA artist/writer Ben Templesmith yesterday, who has just been nominated for two Eagle Awards and whose vampire-fest 30 Days of Night will appear as a major Hollywood blockbuster later this year.

Since publishing a feature about Character Sketches a while back I've been getting tip-offs about happenings in the comics scene, and the more I hear the more interested I become.

I was in Borders the other day and thought I'd check out their comics section, but it was a total dog's breakfast. Didn't seem to be any order whatsoever.

Anway, here's a couple of choice quotes from the Templesmith interview.

On seeing 30 Days of Night on the big screen:

"It's going to be crazy to see something I came up with on my drawing desk at 3am in the morning living and breathing on screen."

On working with comic industry legend Warren Ellis:

"Warren's mind is like the Ganges river. You just don't know what might float on by next. He has so many ideas."

I also thought it was kind of cute Templesmith was stoked about Melissa George's involvement in the project. (He described it as "funny and cool as hell").

Read the full feature at Articulate.

Google adopts P-Mail!

Google has ripped off my p-mail project! :)

Ditmar nomination

I've been nominated for a Ditmar Award in the Professional Achievement award, for my coverage of speculative fiction in Articulate.

It's a great honour, but as I said to fellow nominee Angela Challis today, for me writing about speculative fiction (and horror in particular) is a "no brainer". It gives me a valuable insight into writing/writers, and I think speculative fiction is sadly neglected by the rest of the mainstream media.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be in a position to write about something I'm interested in.

You can read the nominations here.