TOC: Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror

I'm pleased to announce that my short story 'Saturday Night at the Milkbar' has been chosen for the Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror.

The anthology is scheduled for release in July 2013. You can pre-order your copy at Indie Books Online.

A big thank you to editors Talie Helene and Liz Grzyb and Russell B Farr, the man behind Ticonderoga Publications.

Full TOC:

• Joanne Anderton, “Tied To The Waste”, Tales Of Talisman 
• R.J.Astruc, “The Cook of Pearl House, A Malay Sailor by the Name of Maurice”, Dark Edifice 2 
• Lee Battersby, “Comfort Ghost”, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine 56 
• Alan Baxter, “Tiny Lives”, Daily Science Fiction 
• Jenny Blackford, “A Moveable Feast”, Bloodstones 
• Eddy Burger, “The Witch's Wardrobe”, Dark Edifice 3 
• Isobelle Carmody, “The Stone Witch”, Under My Hat 
• Jay Caselberg, “Beautiful”, The Washington Pastime 
• Stephen Dedman, “The Fall”, Exotic Gothic 4, Postscripts 
• Felicity Dowker, “To Wish On A Clockwork Heart”, Bread And Circuses 
• Terry Dowling, “Nightside Eye”, Cemetary Dance 
• Tom Dullemond, “Population Management”, Danse Macabre 
• Thoraiya Dyer, “Sleeping Beauty”, Epilogue 
• Will Elliot, “Hungry Man”, The Apex Book Of World SF 
• Jason Fischer, “Pigroot Flat”, Midnight Echo 8 
• Dirk Flinthart, “The Bull In Winter”, Bloodstones 
• Lisa L. Hannett, “Sweet Subtleties”, Clarkesworld 
• Lisa L. Hannett & Angela Slatter, “Bella Beaufort Goes To War”, Midnight And Moonshine 
• Narrelle Harris, “Stalemate”, Showtime 
• Kathleen Jennings, “Kindling”, Light Touch Paper, Stand Clear 
• Gary Kemble, “Saturday Night at the Milkbar”, Midnight Echo 7 
• Margo Lanagan, “Crow And Caper, Caper And Crow”, Under My Hat 
• Martin Livings, “You Ain't Heard Nothing Yet”, Living With The Dead 
• Penelope Love, “A Small Bad Thing”, Bloodstones 
• Andrew J. McKiernan, “Torch Song”, From Stage Door Shadows 
• Karen Maric, “Anvil Of The Sun”, Aurealis 
• Faith Mudge, “Oracle's Tower”, To Spin A Darker Stair 
• Nicole Murphy, “The Black Star Killer”, Damnation And Dames 
• Jason Nahrung, “The Last Boat To Eden”, Surviving The End 
• Tansy Rayner Roberts, “What Books Survive”, Epilogue 
• Angela Slatter, “Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean”, This Is Horror Webzine 
• Anna Tambour, “The Dog Who Wished He'd Never Heard Of Lovecraft”, Lovecraft Zine 
• Kyla Ward, “The Loquacious Cadaver”, The Lion And The Aardvark: Aesop's Modern Fables 
• Kaaron Warren, “River Of Memory”, Zombies Vs. Robots

Midnight and Moonshine, by Lisa L Hannett and Angela Slatter

Midnight and Moonshine is a beautiful book. There is beautiful writing on every single page of this book. Don't believe me?

The woman is so pale she hurts the eyes, shining with the same sheen as ancient ice. Her hair is long and silver-white, and her face ... For the briefest of instants, her face is thin and fine, translucent as the porcelain bowls Bjarni often obtains in the East. Blue highlights accentuate her high cheekbones and in place of eyebrows are long white feathers. Her irises swirl, now snow, now mercury. Then she settles. Her features firm, fill out, become almost human, but not quite, set apart by the perfection of her beauty. - p 23

 

Blue Dove extends her free hand, inch by inch, as though Magnus is a wolf keen to bite. Instead, he kisses her palm. The gesture seems to open a valve inside her, releasing all the fight. She sinks to the floor and unleashes a flurry of words. - p 67

 

The boy gulps, but straightens up. He is no tattertale. Lovers' trysts, illegitimate births, premature deaths -- he hears these and other mysteries whispered and grunted and moaned at night as he scours the chimney flues running from the cellars all the way up to the palace's top floors. Come morning, they are written in blood on the bed sheets Falki carries to the laundry. And though he reads them well, he never says a word. - p 124

 

Their infant skin remained white, she'd say, because of all the months they'd been swaddled in cobwebs. Spider poison flowed in their veins, not blood. Beetles rolled dung in their heads -- there wasn't half a brain between them. It was the only explanation, when beautiful girls behaved so vilely. - p 143

 

Delphine trace the strong line of the boy's jaw, trawl her fingers down his neck and place her palm flat on his chest, damping a print on his cotton shirt. Shivering him with her touch. She draw so close, the shrink-head talisman she always wear looped on a long cornhusk rope around her waist, the one she whisper to when she think no-one's looking, jab into his hip. The boy smell the oil in her white dreads. The cool peppermint musk on her unique dress, a collection of handkerchiefs knotted and plaited around her old-young form, thin fabric covering the round bits of her, the full womanly bits, the firm. - p 193

 

When the spell leaves her Bella feels exhilarated and empty, as if a part of her soul has darkened in payment for this wicked wish, for this vengeance. - p 250

 

But it's not all just beautiful writing. It's story too. Oh yes. If you love beautiful writing and powerful storytelling, you should buy Midnight and Moonshine.

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Photos featured on Hipstography

As some of you may know, as well as writing I also dabble in art and photography.

Some of my photos have been featured on Hipstography - a new website for fans of the Hipstamatic app.

You can view them on Hipstography.

Posted via email from garykemble's posterous