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OLD NEWS

201020092008200720062005

2010

7 September 2010
Aussiecon 4 – the 68th Worldcon – has just taken place in Melbourne. I managed to win a Ditmar for Best Fan Writer (for Undead Backbrain). Also several stories were published: "Getting Rid of Mother" reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fifth Annual Volume, edited by Bill Congreve for MirrorDanse Books; "Primal Etiquette" reprinted in Orb: Greatest Hits. The Best of Orb. Issue #8, edited by Sarah Endacott; and "Ego" published in Scenes From the Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall, Morrigan Books.

11 August 2010
"Getting Rid of Mother" from Creeping in Reptile Flesh is to be reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fifth Annual Volume, edited by Bill Congreve for MirrorDanse Books. Due September 2010.

10 July 2010
"Desert Madonna" has been accepted for Anywhere But Earth, edited by Keith Stevenson for Coeur De Lion, 2011.

26 June 2010
My short piece on writing for the official Doctor Who anthology Destination Prague is up at George Ivanoff's Literary Clutter blog. Check it out.

1 May 2010
As advertising for it has now appeared on the web, I guess the forthcoming publication of Zombie Apocaylpse -- an anthology of connected zombie stories edited by Stephen Jones for Mammoth Books -- is no longer a secret. I have a story of approx. 10,000 words in it, tentatively titled "Wasting Matilda". It's due out later this year.

20 February 2010
New interview by Kathryn Linge for the Australian 2010 Snapshot project here.

17 February 2010
A story of supernatural self-obsession, "Ego", will appear in Scenes From the Second Story, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall. The anthology, inspired by the God Machine album of the same name, will be published by Morrigan Press in September 2010. More information here.

2009

29 September 2009
My story "Behind Dark Blue Eyes" (which is to be published in the upcoming anthology Exotic Gothic 3, edited by Danel Olson) has met with a very positive response from the publisher at Ash-Tree Press. It is to be the lead story.

28 September 2009
A review of the anthology Dead Souls, edited by Mark Deniz, calls my story "Sandcrawlers" "one of the top stories of this anthology". The "Anthology of Darkness and Mayhem" has just been launched and is now available from the publisher's website. Full review

2 September 2009
An excellent review of Creeping in Reptile Flesh has appeared on the Australian horror review website, Scary Minds.

1 September 2009
Just published in Dead Souls, an impressive and gritty new Horror anthology edited by Mark S. Deniz and published by Morrigan Books, is my story "Sandcrawlers" -- a particularly nasty tale featuring my hardboiled character Michael Crowe and based on the real-life Wanda Beach Murders of the 1960s. The "Anthology of Darkness and Mayhem" includes authors such as Ramsey Campbell, T.A. Moore, Paul Finch, Kaaron Warren, Gary McMahon, Tom English, Robert Holt, and many more. It is now available from the publisher.

Also completed is a new horror story inspired by the God Machine song "Ego". It will appear in an anthology compiled in dedication to God Machine's album Scenes from the Second Storey.

20 July 2009
The publication of my short YA novel Robot War Espresso (Twelfth Planet Press) has been moved to 2010, due to ... ahem ... technical difficulties (that is, I haven't finished writing it yet -- and it's getting longer).

On that subject, I have created a Robot War Espresso blog, which features articles relating to robots in fiction and the real world -- and later information on the book. Check it out occasionally.

17 June 2009
"Behind Dark Blue Eyes" has been accepted for inclusion in Exotic Gothic 3, edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press). Expect publication in September.

17 June 2009
Old news now, but at Conjecture, the 48th National SF Convention in Adelaide, held on 5-8 June, 2009, I won a Ditmar Award for Best Fan (Unpaid) Writer for my review/commentary blog Undead Backbrain.

My work had been nominated in several categories of the Ditmar Awards (which are Australian achievement awards in SF equivalent to the US Hugo Awards) -- including Best Short Story for "Moments of Dying", Best Novella for "Creeping in Reptile Flesh", Best Collection/Anthology for Creeping in Reptile Flesh (Altair Australia Books), and the Atheling Award for Criticism and Review for the article "George A. Romero: Master of the Living Dead" in Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine #2). You can see the full list here.

16 April 2009
An interview with Australian horror writer Kaaron Warren, who has recently sold three novels to new UK imprint, Angry Robot, has just gone up on the site. Kaaron is a terrific -- and disturbing -- author (well, her work is), and the interview is definitely worth checking out! Here's the link.

10 April 2009
Starting today in the Unnatural History section of the website! Mike Bogue and Todd Tennant's graphic novel serial, Tales of King Komodo. It features an original giant monster creation in a series of punch-ups with man and various daikaiju opponents. Beautifully drawn, the serial originally appeared in the pages of G-Fan issues 83 to 87, but it is appearing here for the first time in colour. It is made up of five episodes and I will be putting one episode up each week -- though I will hold off on the final one for a while as it has only just appeared in the pages of G-Fan -- you will have to grab a copy of that excellent magazine to learn about KK's ultimate fate. So, for today: enjoy Episode One of Tales of King Komodo.

27 January 2009
The Australian professional genre awards -- in the form of the 13th Annual Aurealis Awards -- took place on 24 January at the Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts, Brisbane, and I was there hoping to receive an award in the Best Anthology/Collection category for Creeping in Reptile Flesh. Unfortunately, my book was running against Sean Williams' Magic Dirt: the Best of Sean Williams (Ticonderoga Press) and it was announced as the winner. Very deserving, of course, and not unexpected -- and Sean was so generous in his acceptance speech, I was forced to abandon my plans for terrible retribution. Sean is one of our great writers and he more than deserves the piece of curved glass and the kudos, and I certainly don't begrudge him the victory. In the words of the Perpetual Runner-Up, it is simply an honour to get on the shortlist with him.

The Judges' report on Creeping in Reptile Flesh read: "An impressive, very personal and thematically cohesive collection of stories from horror writer, Robert Hood, and nicely laid out by Cat Sparks. Creeping shows the significant contribution Robert has made to the Australian horror genre." It's excellent that Cat received some well-deserved kudos there, too.

2008

20 December 2008
I haven't been updating news here with much frequency, a slackness I'll have to redress in the new year. Meanwhile, here's some of the latest writing news.

  • "Kulpunya" has been published in Exotic Gothic 2: New Tales of Taboo, edited by Danel Olson (Ash-Tree Press) to (so-far) good reviews.
  • My new collection of horror stories, Creeping In Reptile Flesh (Altair Australia Books), was launched at this year's Conflux by Jack Dann. It is available for purchase here and here.
  • Creeping in Reptile Flesh is a finalist in the Best Collection category in this year's Aurealis Awards, up against Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams (Ticonderoga Press).
  • The titular novella from the new collection, "Creeping in Reptile Flesh", has been listed in the worldwide 2008 Best Short Story list compiled by the folk at Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth (who, insanely, try to read everything published in the speculative fiction genre)
  • The Not If You Were The Last Short Story On Earth team listed both "Creeping in Reptile Flesh" and "Unravelling" from the same collection on their all-Australian list.
  • "Sandcrawlers" will be re-printed in Dead Souls, edited by Mark S. Deniz, Morrigan Books, expected March 2009.
  • An as-yet-unfinished novella, Robot War Espresso, has been accepted by Twelfth Planet Press for publication as a chapbook in 2009.
  • Other publications for this year are detailed here. All up, the year saw 9 new stories published, one collection, two academic columns, a major interview with George Romero, assorted film and book reviews, and various other journalistic pieces. Several novels got a little closer -- but so far, no cigar. A few accepted stories await publication.

21 August 2008

  • "Remainders" in the thematic anthology Voices, edited by Mark S. Deniz and Amanda Pillar, Morrigan Books, 2008 (comprises six discrete but connected short stories: "1928", "1948", "1968", "1988", "2008" and "Epilogue")
  • "Zombie Au Gratin" in Scary Food, edited by Cat Sparks, Agog! Press 2008 -- this is a book being published as part of the Australian SF community's Paul Haines fundraising project.
  • "Creeping in Reptile Flesh", "Unravelling" and "Getting Rid of Mother" are all previously unpublished stories due to appear in my collection Creeping in Reptile Flesh, to be published by Altair Australia Books. It can be pre-ordered now from here.
  • "Romero: Master of the Living Dead", an interview with George A. Romero in Black Magazine, issue 2, due September. The issue also includes my interviews with Aussie filmmakers Jon Hewitt ("Acolytes") and Steven Kastrissios ("The Horseman").
  • "Evolution of the Zombies" -- a short piece to accompany the above mentioned Romero interview.

14 July 2008
My five-part story "Moments of Dying" has appeared in the inaugural issue of Black Magazine. Part 1 ("First Moment of Dying") was first published in Shadowed Realms #11 in 2006, but the remainder are previously unpublished. Also in Black #1 is an interview (which describes me as "Aussie Horror's Wicked Godfather"!!). It's a terrific magazine, which includes much of great interest apart from the above -- including a new story by Stephen King). You can pick up a copy from your local newsagent (in Australia anyway).

7 March 2008
Read a Lovecraft-inspired story, "Call of Cthulhu's Mum" here.

2 March 2008
Newly added: a repository of my stories online, on this site and outside it. This will expand as time goes by. First off, a meta-fictional piece on Mary Shelley and Frankenstein, called "Dear Mary".

1 March 2008
My story "Pseudomelia of the Masses" -- an SF comment on the current working climate -- has finally surfaced in the excellent anthology, The Workers' Paradise, edited by Russell B. Farr and Nick Evans and published by Ticonderoga Publications. Buy a copy here!

27 February 2008
A ghost/horror story set in and around Alice Springs and Uluru, "Kulpunya", has been accepted for Exotic Gothic 2, by editor Danel Olson. It will be published by Ash-Tree Press in Autumn 2008.

18 February 2008
I've just been nominated in the Best Fan Writer category of the Australian 2008 Ditmar Awards, for the film reviews on this site. Members of the Natcon (Swancon this year) get to vote. Unfortunately I won't be there in person, but if any of you reading this are going, you can check out the reviews here and then vote for me with all due enthusiasm!

The most recent reviews are on this page.

18 February 2008
Both the US paperback and hardcover editions of Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs the World are now available from Amazon. Updates to the website, giving a full contents list, have also been made. Go take a look at the great line-up -- and then buy a copy!

16 February 2008
On Undead Backbrain I've been providing information on a slew of new giant monster films. Go there to check them out!

28 January 2008
The Giant Monster Movie List has now be updated and added to Undead Backbrain.

27 January 2008
I've just been to Brisbane for the Aurealis Award Ceremony for 2007 -- the annual awarding of kudos to Australian speculative fiction writers -- where I was presenter (and not a nominee) in the Horror Short Fiction section. The Award went to Anna Tambour. Congrats, Anna! Meanwhile my partner Cat Sparks won the Award for Best SF Short Fiction for her story "Hollywood Roadkill". She then went on to win the Golden Aurealis Award -- the Best of the Best Convenors' selection -- for short fiction. She was suitably shocked! Pics here.

23 January 2008
So far
, the Big Event of 2008 (from a purely biased POV, of course) is the release of producer J.J. Abram and director Matt Reeves' new giant monster film Cloverfield. The first real US Godzilla? Read my thoughts on the matter.

2007

28 November 2007
And now, I have put together a companion to the Ghost Movie list: a Zombie Movie list. It, too, is on the Undead Backbrain site.

17 November 2007
The Ghost Movie list has been updated and moved over the the Undead Backbrain site -- for convenience.

14 November 2007
I'm back from the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs NY and will be catching up with things over the next few weeks. Check here and the Undead Backbrain.

4 October 2007
Over at the Talking Squid, there's a Squidsquatch running -- that is, "A new interview (almost) every day. A single question. The subject one day becomes interviewer the next." I've just posted an answer to the question (asked by Chris Lawson): "Rob, I may be over-simplifying, but it seems to me that witches are mediaeval, werewolves are late feudal, vampires are Victorian, and apocalyptic flesh-eating zombies are late 20th century consumerist. What new monsters are in store for this coming century?" Go check out my answer.

2 October 2007
Back from Conflux 4, where Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs the World was launched. The event was very successful, despite potential disaster in the form of an absence of books (they turned up in time). I'll put up a longer account and some pictures when I get a chance.

27 September 2007
I just heard that Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales contributor Terry Dartnall passed away at his home on Monday evening (24 September). Terry had been suffering from cancer for some time. Knowing that he was gravely ill we had dedicated Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs the World (in which he had a second giant monster story) to him and hoped that he would live to see the book. It wasn't to be, but we will remember him as it is launched on the weekend.

The funeral is on Friday 28 September.

6 September 2007
Nick Stathopoulos' superb cover image for Daikaiju! 3: Giant Monsters vs the World has been revealed!

17 August 2007
New interview as part of the 2007 Australian Speculative Fiction Snapshot.

15 August 2007
Here's the first review of the Doctor Who Short Trips book Destination Prague, in which my story "Gold and Black Ooze" appears. The latter gets a passing mention...

9 August 2007
I have joined the team at the Australian Horror site Horrorscope. Some of my reviews and interviews will be appearing there first (though they will end up on this site as well, eventually). Join us there. It's a great resource!

8 August 2007
Giant Monstrous Limerick competition! Win a copy of Daikaiju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters! Here! Or just read the great limericks that visitors have left there...

4 August 2007
Recent additions to Undead Backbrain include: a review of the graphic novel Giantkiller by Dan Brereton ; and some information on the new Korean giant monster flick, D-Wars .

27 July 2007
Review of, or more accurately some comments on, George Pal's 1960 version of H.G. Wells' The Time Machine. Click the footprints for access to the Undead Backbrain.

17 July 2007
In order to make the posting of information easier, I have started a News blog. It's called "Undead Backbrain" and will include publishing news, latest sales, random comment, notice of changes to this website or new review links... that sort of thing. As it is a blog, visitors can interact directly and it has been syndicated to LiveJournal so that updates appear there. Hopefully all this will expedite the whole process. (Note: if you want to comment through LJ, you have to go to the actual blog site, or I won't see it!)

See you there!

20 June 2007
The undead secret is out, thanks to Martin Livings, author of Carnies. What secret, you ask? Go here to find out.

16 June 2007
Though I previously announced that the Dr Who anthology, Destination: Prague (edited by Steve Savile) was officially available, the announcement proved rather premature. Now, however, we have official confirmation that the book is "at the printers" and will be available for shipping in about two weeks -- in all its hardcover glory. This is perhaps the biggest of the Short Trips anthologies to date, full of excellent writers and truly inventive stories. You NEED to order a copy... now! You can do so from Big Finish, from Amazon and other enlightened booksellers. Buy it! You won't be disappointed.

12 June 2007
Daika
iju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters
has been officially launched! The event took place at Convergence 2: the Australian National SF Coinvention on Saturday 9 June, in the presence of four of the authors and a menagerie of well-wishers. The room was so packed -- and so noisy -- that hotel management came and closed it down!

31 May 2007
Guidolon
, the Giant Space Chicken
, who was first introduced to the world in Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, is now out in an animated version, Director's Cut. Check it out here! It's excellent!

30 May 2007
At long last Daikaiju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters is finished and at the printers. It will be available in Australia in a few weeks -- and worldwide through Amazon.com a bit later. For a peek at the cover (featuring artwork by Todd Tennant) go here.

10 May 2007
I've been working on some specific writing projects that are awaiting final approval (before I can report on them), doing requested revisions and editing Daikaiju! 2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters, so I haven't been updating very effectively. What's needed is a picture of a cat. So here's a cute one of Pazuzu (taken by Cat Sparks, of course):

21 April 2007
Just added -- a collection of reviews and comments on my stories and books. It's in no way comprehensive at the moment, but I'm working on it!

13 April 2007
Fantasy artist Marianne Plumridge has posted an enthusiastic review of Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales on her blog. Read it here.

10 April 2007
Fantastic Wonder Stories, edited by Russell B. Farr (Ticonderoga Press, 2007), which includes my story "Luxury Goods", was launched at Swancon in Perth over the Easter weekend. From a quick glance, it looks like a great collection of fantastical tales. Check it out here -- and don't forget to order a copy!

2 April 2007
"Fafrotskies" -- a short short story -- has been accepted for Black Box, edited by Shane Jiraiya Cummings (Brimstone Press, due Jan 2008)

30 March 2007
"Man and Super-monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents", from Borderlands #7, 2006, has been nominated for the 2006 William Atheling Jnr Award for Criticism or Review.

30 March 2007
A near-future SF story about work, "Pseudomelia of the Masses", has been accepted by editors Russell B. Farr and Nick Evans for The Workers' Paradise (Ticonderoga Press). Due out on May. This story is dedicated to my old friend David Young, who died unexpectedly last year.

22 March 2007
The Dr Who Short Trips anthology Destination: Prague, which includes my story "Gold and Black Ooze" as well as stories from such great writers as Sean Williams, Stephen Dedman, Lee Battersby and Paul Finch, is now officially available. It's edited by Steve Savile. The site even allows you to download a teaser extract from my story. Check it out here -- and buy a copy or two!

16 March 2007
Having finished reading the five excellent works shortlisted by the Australian Shadows Award judging panel for 2006, I have now fulfilled my duties as Guest Judge for this year and announced my choice of winner: Will Elliott's grotesquely funny evil-clown opus, The Pilo Family Circus. I loved it and recommend it to all! You can read my comments here.

27 February 2007
Horror story featuring cicadas, "Monstrous Bright Tomorrows", accepted for UK anthology In Bad Dreams, edited by Mark Sin Deniz and Sharyn Lilley.

11 February 2007
Nasty zombie story "In the Service of the Flesh" (from Aurealis #36) has been chosen by editor Angela Challis for inclusion in Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2007 (Brimstone Press' annual year's best dark fiction omnibus)
.

28 January 2007
SF story "Luxury Goods" accepted by Russell B. Farr for Fantastic Wonder Stories (Ticonderoga Press, due March 2007). The book can be pre-ordered here.

14 January 2007
My week at Clarion South is over. There's a bit of a rundown here.

1 January 2007
It's the New Year. Clarion South beckons (read about it here).

Hopefully 2007 will be a great year for publication. Though I'm still waiting on word regarding a couple of novels and a slew of stories, I'm already looking forward to the appearance of several I'm very pleased with: the Doctor Who tale "Gold and Black Ooze" in Destination: Prague, "Redlight Dead" in Steven Savile's Monster Noir, and the next four instalments of my "Moments of Dying" sequence in Shadowed Realms (as well as assorted re-print stories in various Brimstone Press volumes). Details here. Also likely is a collection of horror stories from Altair Publications, tentatively titled "Creeping in Reptile Flesh". Meanwhile the two sequels to Daikaiju! will finally appear in June this year.

The Year That Was

Though it was a slow year publication-wise, I sold a total of eleven stories and articles (many of which are awaiting publication), completed an additional three or four that are in editorial limbo and am currently working on several others. I'm a bit closer to finishing a horror novel, Dead Matter, but failed to get the sequels to Daikaiju! edited and published as originally planned.

It was a good year for film-related non-fiction: I won an Atheling Award for my King Kong article and had two other major articles published, one in Borderlands and another in G-Fan, both to good review. As well, "State of the Zombie Film" was reprinted in Australian Dark Fantasy and Horror 2006 edition (Brimstone Press, 2006).

Though there were many good books published this year -- a year characterised by a welcome upsurge in Horror publishing in Australia, largely thanks to Lothian -- and I saw many decent movies (not necessarily new), for me it was the Year of the TV Series. The following were my favourites (in no particular order), though few of them were actually produced in 2006:

  • Carnivale
  • Wire in the Blood
  • Afterlife
  • Sea of Souls
  • The new Doctor Who
  • Dead Like Me
  • Masters of Horror
  • Deadwood
  • Life on Mars
  • Battlestar Galactica (season 2)
  • Beasts (Nigel Kneale's anthology series from 1976)
  • Family Guy (cartoon series)
  • Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (anime)
  • Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2nd Gig (anime)
  • Ultraman Nexus / Ultraman Max

All in all, some great television genre work -- and a standard of originality and relative excellence that I'm not sure is being offered by cinema releases, not to the same extent anyway. The only downside is that these shows frequently get prematurely cancelled before they've reached their anticipated conclusion....


2006

30 December 2006
My stint as the first of this year's Clarion South tutors begins shortly. I've started a pseudo-blog about it here. Must be the beginning of a downhill spiral.

7 December 2006
I've added a bunch of old editorial and other cartoons to the site. This will grow in number over time and I may even draw new ones now and then. Check them out!

1 December 2006
New Zealander Michael J. Asquith has been kind enough to send me a DVD of the zombie movie (titled Zombie Movie) that he made with chum Ben Stenbeck. The short film is available online for download, but the required software isn't executable on Macs. Both Michael and Ben worked for WETA as designers/SFX artists on Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, and their living dead side project is a doozy. Read my review here.

25 November 2006
Daikaiju!
contributor Eric Shapiro -- has just announced the publication of his latest novel, Days of Allison. Read what he had to say about it... and, of course, pick up a copy or three.

12 November 2006
An SF story "God of War" has just appeared in the latest issue of Borderlands (#8). Along with some excellent stories by other authors, there is a fascinating history and re-appraisal of the Kevin Costner "mega-flop" Waterworld by Grant Watson. Check it out.

30 October 2006
Yesterday, the great British TV genre writer, Nigel Kneale, creator of Professor Bernard Quatermass and one of the scariest ghost stories ever broadcast, The Stone Tape, died at age 84. He was one of my writing heroes. Here is an obituary of him that I wrote for the Talking Squid site.

26 October 2006
As last year, this Halloween sees the US online podcast site, The Writing Show, headline members of the Australian Horror Writers Association reading one of their own stories. My story "Peripheral Movement in the Leaves Under an Orange Tree" has just gone up, followed by an interview conducted by host Paula Berinstein. Check out the terror here.

24 October 2006
This week there's an interesting article on Daikaiju! contributor Stephen Mark Rainey in his local entertainment paper, YES, WEEKLY. Mark talks about horror, his writing career and, of course, Godzilla and co. Read it here.

17 October 2006
WA independent publisher Brimstone Press has been busy. They've just announced their first two book titles: Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror 2006 (a Years Best) and Book of Shadows 1 (a collection of flash fiction from the first six issues of Shadowed Realms, plus other new stories). The first includes an article I wrote on recent zombie movie developments; and the second includes my nasty piece of work ("banned in Queensland"), a horror story called "Autopsy". Check out the books. They look great. And don't forget to order copies!!

16 October 2006
Shadowed Realms #11 has just gone online. This beautifully produced e-zine includes my story "First Moment of Dying" -- the first of five stories to be published in Shadowed Realms as a thematically connected sequence.

16 October 2006
Well, Horror Day is over and some of the prizes have been won. I'm leaving up my page and plan to update it shortly as an ongoing feature. So come back to check it out occasionally.

13 October 2006
Welcome to World Horror Day. To celebrate horror fiction in its various forms, I've created a special Horror Day page, which will give you access to stories and quizzes -- including lots of giveaways.

11 October 2006

This Friday -- Friday the 13th of October -- has been declared International Horrorday. Intended to promote horror fiction in any way possible, Horrorday will feature media interviews, readings, signings, give-aways and other wonders/horrors -- and has been enthusiastically embraced by the Australian Horror Writers Association in Australia. The AHWA's Horrorday info site is here.

Check back here on the day for some special surprises, and check Articulate and the AHWA site for Australian happenings more generally. The main international website is here.

1 October 2006
Now the greatest anthology of giant monster tales ever produced is available in the US and on Amazon -- softcover and hardback. Don't forget to pick one up!

5 September 2006
Just completed -- and accepted for publication in G-Fan, the long-running magazine of giant-monsterdom -- is an article on the Japanese gargantuan superhero Ultraman. The article's title is "A Giant Against Giants: Ultraman for the New Millennium" and it looks at the latest incarnations of the daikaiju-fighting hero. It will be in issue #77 of G-Fan and is due out in the next month or so. Keep an eye out for it!

4 August 2006
For the past week and a bit I've been Guest Writer on the speculative fiction website, ASif. I'll be there until next Wednesday, so feel free to drop by to ask questions, chat, be witty or whatever. You do have to register in order to post questions, but it's not difficult to do so. So far there's been some very interesting discussions. And the entire site is worth scanning while you're there. So drop by!

26 July 2006
Some excellent news regarding the anthology Daikaiju!, listing stories from that volume that have been included in Ellen Datlow's Highly Commended list for 2005. See here.

27 June 2006
A new story, "God of War", has just been accepted for publication in Borderlands #8. This is an SF anti-war diatribe, very internalised and intense. It should be out later in the year.

25 June 2006
The first installment of an ongoing column, tentatively known as The Ossuary, has been accepted for the inaugural issue of a new academic journal, Studies in Australian Weird Fiction. The essay is titled "Ghosts, Monsters and Chainsaws" and deals with naturalistic vs supernatural content in horror fiction.

14 June 2006
In case there are some who haven't heard, I have been asked to be a tutor for Clarion South -- the prestigious "boot camp for writers" -- in 2007. It's a great honour and I'm really looking forward to it.

13 June 2006
New out is my extensive article, "Man and Super-monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents" in Borderlands #7.

31 May 2006
An older story of mine -- and one of my personal favourites -- has just gone up on author Anna Tambour's Virtuous Medlar Circle website. The story, a particularly grim gargoyle tale, is called "Rough Trade". You can read it here.

26 April 2006
A few new stories sold, including one exciting commission: a Dr Who story in an official BBC anthology! I share this honour with three other Australians: Sean Williams, Stephen Dedman and Lee Battersby. More details here!

20 April 2006
This year's Australian National SF Convention, Conjure 2006, proved a particularly good one for me -- and for giant monsters! Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales won a Ditmar (the Australian Hugo) for Best Collection of 2005, and my article in the BenBella Book anthology King Kong is Back! -- "Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla" won an Atheling Award for Genre Criticism or Comment. Read the article.

28 February 2006
Newly added to the Daikaiju! section of the site is an ongoing report on Todd Tennant and Frank Wu's exciting Guidolon Project. What's it all about? Go and find out!

28 February 2006
On the weekend, two stories from Daikaiju! tied in the Best Fantasy Short Story category of the Aurealis Awards (Australia's Nebulas)! They were Rosaleen Love's "Once Giants Roamed the Earth" and Richard Harland's "The Greater Death of Saito Saku". Congratulations to them both for this remarkable result!

24 February 2006
My story "Cross-currents" can now be read online on the excellent new COSMOS magazine fiction webpage. Some terrific short stories here, chosen by fiction editor Damien Broderick. Check out all the stories!

23 February 2006
"Man and Super-monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents" has just been accepted for publication in Borderlands, an excellent Western Australia-based speculative fiction magazine.

21 February 2006
There's a new review of Daikaiju! on Bookgasm.com. A good one, too!

14 February 2006
Well, here we are into February and this is the first entry I've made for 2006! Life has been busy. The good news is: my story "Birthmark" -- a sort of post-human ghost story -- has been accepted by Keith Stevenson and Andrew Macrae for their cØck anthology. This should be an interesting one, a collection of original spec-fic stories addressing issues of masculinity. Look out for it in the future!

In other news, selection of the first four novels to be published in Lothian Books "Dark Suspense" line of horror novels (in which process I was heavily involved) has been made. They are:

Carnies by Martin Livings
Prismatic by Edwina Grey
The Darkness Within by Jason Nahrung
The Mother by Brett McBean

Return to Top

2005

9 December 2005
Note the change of email for contacting me via this website. The old shadey@roberthood.net address has been abandoned due to an abundance of spam messages being sent to it. A new email address appears at the bottom of this, and subsequent, pages. You will have to type it into your email client's address window.

2 December 2005
I just discovered this embarrassingly excellent review of Immaterial on the AS if website, written by Devin Jeyathurai. Read it here.

14 November 2005
I've just spent two weeks finishing off a dark-crime/horror novel, Scavengers, which has been tossed into the submission ring already. I'll keep you posted.

1 November 2005
My SF story "Cross Currents" is currently available in this month's issue of Cosmos magazine, available in good newsagencies everywhere.

28 October 2005
Also available as webcast on the Writing Show website is my reading of a second story, for Day 11 of the 14 Days of Halloween special. The story is "That Old Black Graffiti". There are lots of other fantastic readings as well, all undertaken by members of the Australian Horror Writers Association.

23 October 2005
It has just been announced that the "sequel" to Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales, which was to have been an e-anthology, will now be published as a real live book. More details as they are confirmed!

23 October 2005
The full list of tutors for Clarion South in 2007 has been confirmed. They are: Lee Battersby, Simon Brown, Gardner Dozois, Robert Hood, Kelly Link and Janeen Webb. What a fantastic list!

18 October 2005
You can hear me reading my spooky story "Nobody's Car" on the Writing Show website, as part of their 14 Days of Halloween special. It was recorded by phone from way across the ocean... Enjoy!

3 October 2005
It has been officially announced that I am to be a tutor at the Clarion South writers' retreat in 2007, along with SF/fantasy author Simon Brown (among others yet to be confirmed). It is a great honour to have been invited to take part and I look forward to the experience.

2 October 2005
My article on "The State of the Zombie Film" is to be reproduced in Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror: The Best of 2005, edited by Angela Challis and Shane Jiraiya Cummings. This anthology "will consist of the finest dark fantasy and horror short stories and non-fiction works published by Australians in 2005". The editors kindly wrote that this piece was "one of the more insightful pieces of Australian genre non-fiction published this year".

2 October 2005
My review of the new mainstream ghost film White Noise has just gone up on the excellent Tabula Rasa website.

26 September 2005
My story "Cross Currents" has been accepted by fiction editor Damien Broderick for publication in Cosmos magazine, the glossy new popular science magazine. It is scheduled to appear in the November issue.

25 September 2005
I've just returned from a week-long writer's retreat ("Writers on the Edge") in beautiful Rowen House in Maleny, Queensland, where SF author Sean Williams and myself acted as mentors to a group of extremely promising new writers. The group was made up of Nea Bovill, Michele Cashmore, Mark Curtis, Paul Garrety, Jason Nahrung and Deborah Soukup. I would like to personally thank them for their care and generosity in looking after Sean and I, and congratulate them on initiating such a productive and innovative writing-development program. Well done, guys!

2 August 2005
Part 1 of the Shadowed Realms serialisation of my once-banned horror tale, "Autopsy", is now online in Issue 6. Go there. Read it. It's free. The rest will follow.

4 July 2005
Final revised version of my article "Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla" went back to the publisher today. The article, to appear in a volume on the classic 1933 King Kong film, examines connections between the two Monster Kings and asks the question: "Who is really King of the Monsters"? To be published by BenBella Books in the US.

2 July 2005
We've finally contacted potential contributors to Daikaiju!2: Giant Monster E-Tales, the oft-promised supplement to Daikaiju! More soon.

15 June 2005
I've just returned from the 44th Australian National Science Fiction Convention -- known this year as Thylacon 2005 and hosted by Hobart. It was a small convention, but we all had a great time, and, I'm happy to say, I won a Ditmar (Australian SF Award), to be precise the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review, for an article on my website interpreting the film Weight of Water as a ghost story. To be even more precise, I was joint winner of the Atheling, sharing the honours with Jason Nahrung for his piece "Why are publishers afraid of horror?" (BAM, Courier Mail, 20 March 2004). An eminently desirable result! You can read my co-winning article here.

24 May 2005
Great news! Though the e-anthology is not yet fully underway, artist Todd Tennant has agreed to provide us with a cover. That's certainly something to look forward to!

22 May 2005
Aurealis SF/F magazine -- Australia's longest running genre publication -- has just accepted my zombie evangelist story "In the Service of the Flesh" for the first issue under its new editorship.

11 May 2005
Yes, the e-anthology is happening, but I haven't started yet. I've simply had too much to do. And on top of ordinary work, my cat Roswell has gone missing. It's been a week now. I feel too sad to do anything very useful.

10 May 2005
Well, Daikaiju! is still on Project Pulp's bestseller list ... and we've had to reprint. Still only a small number of books by any reasonable standard, but at this rate the publisher might get to pay off costs soon.

5 May 2005
Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales
is still #1 bestseller on the Project Pulp website. It's been there for a week or so now.

4 May 2005
Went to a Jethro Tull concert at the Enmore Theatre last night. I've been to see the lads every time they've come to Sydney since the "Songs From the Woods" tour in 1975. Great music, but, sadly, Ian Anderson's voice has deteriorated. He still sounds fine on new studio albums -- where he writes songs to suit his range -- but live, on old songs especially, he can't get the high notes any more. Age gets us all. Sigh....

25 April 2005
My newest SF story "<term UNTRANSLATABLE>" was accepted by Ticonderoga Online today: a bit of a "nerd" story, this one. Read it to see why. It's scheduled to appear in Issue 4, in June.

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