'Feast or Famine': number 6, with a bullet!

Paula Berinstein emailed to let me know the podcast of "Feast or Famine" and interview with me (recorded for the 2006 Halloween special) is in The Writing Show's Top 10 most popular episodes!

You can check it out here...

Blogging from the trenches

Thousands of people have been following the fate of a British soldier fighting in the trenches of World War I on a website publishing his letters home exactly 90 years after they were written.

Wonder what the wifi was like back then?

Horror in 2007: recommended reading list

Check it out at HorrorScope...

2007 ends with a bang

An unexpected flurry of activity to end the year:

"Dead Air" published in Zombies.

"Fortunate Lives" published in Borderlands.

"All You Need is Love" published in Dark Tales.

In 2008, I'm expecting:

"Feast of Famine" to appear in Macabre.

"Night Terrors" to appear in Black Box.

Merry Christmas

IMG_0788
Originally uploaded by garykemble

My Dad and my daughter Aurora share a moment on Christmas Day, 2007. I think this photo says a lot about Christmas!

Dead set keen on zombies

My local paper, the Westside News, has kindly done a write-up on the appearance of my short story "Dead Air" in Robert N Stephenson's Zombies anthology.

When the reporter asked me if the character in my story is based on me, what I meant to say is: "No, he's a successful writer, and no, he cheated on his wife and no, I don't think I could ever bring myself to stab someone through the eye with a plastic knife."

You can read the article here.

Buy the anthology here.

Writer wanted for collaborative project

Writer wanted to join myself and UK writer Mark Wagstaff on a
collaborative writing project.

The book is a crime/thriller (more thriller than crime) set in present-day London.

Participant will be required to write 25-30k, as well as critique other writers' work.

The participant will be writing mainly from the perspective of a North American character, so some knowledge of life in the US (as opposed to how the movies portray life in the US) would be an advantage.

Timeline: planning from now until December 31; writing from January 1 to March 31; polishing April 1 to June 30. Submitting to agents/publishers from June 1.

I know this is short notice, but this is due to a writer pulling out of the project. Their loss could be your gain!

More details available upon request. Please send samples of your writing (eg a short story) to garykemble@yahoo.com.au

The zombies are coming!

(Check out the non-blogger'd version of this pic here)

Robert N Stephenson's Zombies anthology is on its way - set for a December 1 release... just in time for a very zombie Christmas.

My local paper, Westside News, interviewed me this week, and we did a photo shoot out at Toowong Cemetery.

(I offered them the above pic, but they were worried about copyright issues, since the zombies are courtesy of The Zombie Diaries).

Zombies features my story "Dead Air" about a zombie outbreak on-board a 747 en route from LAX to Brisbane.

You can buy the anthology here.

ZOMBIE07 designs: get 'em while they're hot!

Xavier Ricebury has given me permission to upload cc-licensed versions of his ZOMBIE07 designs -- there are two for t-shirts, and one for a bumper sticker (although the t-shirt ones can be repurposed for stickers, magnets, whatever really).

Get 'em while they're hot!

ZOMBIE07: My kind of party

HorrorScope reports that some wag has set up a lobby group to champion the rights of the undead (or, at least, sell a few t-shirts).

Xavier Ricebury, who I once teamed up with to write a book, says:

"I know I'm trying to sell stuff, but on the other hand it is a lighter angle on the election, it's a link between current affairs and horror tropes, and then there's the Romero-esque subtext - many would say most of the electorate are zombies."

Check out the full story at HorrorScope.

Insight into Australian horror

There are signs in the US and the UK that horror fiction is in the throes of a comeback but Australia is yet to follow suit. So what is on the cards for Australian horror? Marty Young formed the non-profit Australian Horror Writers Association in 2003 to further the development and evolution of dark fiction and provide a sense of community for Australian horror scribes. To celebrate All Hallows' Eve, Articulate spoke to Young about the challenges facing Australian horror writers.

I'm more famous than Gary Kemble!

The Waikato Times laments the fact that I'm more famous (at least, in Google) than my rugby league-coaching namesake!

Zombie Chews - 'Lots a fun!'

Meels found this for me at a shop in Sandgate. The package reads 'Lots a fun!'. Made in Pakistan - I bet it's lots a fun! Haven't been game to eat it yet. Worried about the zombification process.

(Check out the big version of the pic @ flickr)

ASiF Q&A

I'm the special guest on the Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus forum for the next fortnight.

Feel free to drop by and ask me a question.

http://www.asif.dreamhosters.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259

2007 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction interview

Kathryn Linge interviewed me for the 2007 Snapshot of Australian Speculative Fiction series. You can read the interview here.

The new Articulate

Articulate has relaunched, so please update your link to: http://blogs.abc.net.au/articulate.

Now powered by Typepad, it offers the opportunity for comments, as well as the ability to view science fiction, horror and fantasy content.

Check out my Movie Minutiae on Aliens, and this post on Alisa Krasnostein's New Ceres project.

Horror making a comeback?

Last week I asked Shona Martyn, publishing director at HarperCollins, what her take was on the likelihood of a horror comeback.

She said there was no sign of Australia following the lead of the US and UK, but that it could just be a matter of time.

Agent Sydney (of the recently launched Call My Agent! blog) says horror will probably always be a niche market.

You can read Agent Sydney's full response here.

Convergence 2: special coverage!

(Well, as special as is possible without actually going!)

Rob Hood: Revenge of the giant monsters: Wollongong-based writer and editor Rob Hood turned his love of giant monsters into an anthology of short stories by writers from around the world, Daikaiju!, which went on to win the Ditmar award for best collection. But like any monster worth its scales, Hood has lost control of his creation, and ended up editing not one but three books full of giant monster stories. As he prepares to launch volume two - Revenge of the Giant Monsters - at the National Science Fiction Convention, Hood spoke to Articulate about his obsession with big monsters and some of the more bizarre takes on the theme.

Jason Nahrung and Mil Clayton: Looking on the dark side: In 2000, stranded three states apart, Brisbane writer Jason Nahrung and partner Mil Clayton started writing a story together, a chapter at a time, by email. Four years on Nahrung unearthed the novella and set to work transforming it into supernatural thriller The Darkness Within. He successfully pitched it to Australian publisher Lothian, which was soliciting for an adult dark fiction line. Lothian was then swallowed up by Time Warner, which was in turn bought by Hachette Livre. Lothian's adult dark fiction line was cancelled, but the books already contracted - including Nahrung's - were kept on. Ahead of the book's launch at Convergence 2, Nahrung and Clayton spoke to Articulate about the sometimes rocky road to publication, and the fortunes of dark fiction in Australia.

Tansy Rayner Roberts: Finding the Lost Shimmaron: In what appears to be an industry first, Australian writers group wRiters On the Rise (RoR) has sold a seven-part children's book series to ABC Books. The Lost Shimmaron tells the tale of the crash of an alien spacecraft in rural Australia and the quest of the 'mystical energy beings' to rebuild their ship and return home. As the 46th Australian National Science Fiction Convention gets under way in Melbourne, Articulate caught up with Tansy Rayner Roberts, who leads the series with Seacastle.

"Fortunate Lives" to appear in Borderlands

Heard from Stephen Dedman yesterday that the editorial committee of Borderlands has unanimously decided to buy my short "Fortunate Lives".

It's a big thrill because I was trying to push myself in a different direction with that tale - blending a love story (and a sense of melancholy I was feeling at the time) with sf tropes.

Special thanks to Miranda Siemienowicz, Chris Lynch, Damon Cavalchini and the folks at Cafe Doom for helping me make the story (then known as "Only Love Can Bind Us") as good as it could be.

'All You Need is Love' wins £100

Just found out that my sf/horror short story "All You Need is Love" has won the Dark Tales Spring 2007 competition.

The story picked up the £100 first prize, and will be published in issue 12 of the British dark fiction magazine.