Well, who’s for 2021?

As I said in my Dropbears and Taniwha column for the HWA this month, please stay safe in these troubled times. It’s spooky out there, and we’re not through the worst of it, yet.

A lot of upcoming conventions, if not all of them, have been cancelled or postponed right now (and unfortunately, the World Con in NZ has been forced to become a digital convention…), but there are still things happening down under that may help take you mind of things. Here are a couple of highlights:

Cohesion Press released SNAFU: Medivac, a charity anthology for James A. Moore’s medical costs and ongoing costs of living, on April 1. With a word length of 120,000, four original stories and eight best-of-SNAFU reprints, it’s going to be spectacular – and for a wonderful cause.

Some of the most important military missions have been medical evacuations – medivacs.

Soldiers don’t often fight for themselves. They fight for the guy next to them, their brother, their friend, their family.

And they fight hard.

In 2019, Cohesion author and friend… hell, more family, really… Jim Moore was suddenly in the struggle of his life. He overcame the Big C, but his fight is ongoing. A fight to pay for all the treatments in a country that has no free public health system, and a fight to claw his way back from the ravages of the very treatment that saved his life.

His fight is our fight, and if we don’t fight for our friends, is there anything really worth living for?

All income from SNAFU: Medivac goes to Jim to help pay his bills and keep his household functional.

Once this is no longer necessary, the income will transfer to a cancer research or treatment charity.

Orders can be made at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085WW1DL3

And if you’re after more cool, dark books to read by Aussie authors, check these ones out:

Tracie McBride‘s dark fiction collection, Drive, She Said, and Other Stories (IFWG Publishing Australia) was released in Australia/UK on 3 March 2020, and North America on 1 April 2020. Full details can be found at: https://ifwgaustralia.com/title-drive-she-said-and-other-stories/

‘The themes and settings are diverse, but one common thread runs through the stories—they all feature women. Women as protagonists. Women as doomed heroines. Woman as villains. Mothers and spinsters, wives and prostitutes, sisters and witches. And in some stories, monsters in feminine form.’

Lee Murray’s forthcoming seminal collection Grotesque: Monster Stories, was recently announced by Things in the Well. More details, including sneak peaks at some of the wonderful stories within, can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/GrotesqueMonsterStories

To The Center Of The Earth by Greig Beck was available April 2 from Severed Press. ‘In the tradition of Primordia, Greig Beck delivers another epic retelling of a classic story in an electrifying and terrifying adventure that transcends the imagination.’ Check it out at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0855LQSL8/

Alan Baxter expands his successful ‘Eli Carver’ Supernatural Thriller franchise with Recall Night, released this summer by Chicago-based independent publisher Grey Matter Press. Eli Carver is a mob hitman haunted by a checkered past, and he returns in Baxter’s next installment of this ‘original genre-busting thrill ride of horror, noir and southern gothic.’ More at: https://mailchi.mp/greymatterpress/tarnish-your-mind-2692679

J. Ashley-Smith’s upcoming novelette The Attic Tragedy is coming June 9, 2020 from Meerkat Press. ‘This book doesn’t just pull your heart-strings, it yanks them out of your chest.’ More details at: https://www.meerkatpress.com/cover-reveal-the-attic-tragedy-by-j-ashley-smith/

Anthony Ferguson has a chapter on the Snowtown murders inThe Best New Crime Stories: Small Towns, edited by Mitzi Szereto, due out July 2020. Featuring a collection of true accounts by international authors, The Best New Crime Stories: Small Towns illustrates that small towns are not always what they seem. Sometimes within these idyllic rustic communities, real monsters lurk. More details at: https://mitziszereto.com/the-best-new-true-crime-stories-small-towns/

AntipodeanSF Issue 258 is out now. As always, ‘AntipodeanSF will entertain you, and get you out there, perhaps even land you in places you never expected to see — yet won’t take hours to read. You’ll find ten fabulous speculative flash fiction stories and one poem to read and enjoy.’ Check it out at: https://antisf.com.au/

And to wrap up, there’s some great news from Steve Dillon at Things in the Well: “Thanks to all the folks who bought copies of our first dark fiction Valentine’s Day fiction magazine, Burning Love and Bleeding Hearts (edited by Louise Zedda-Sampson and Chris Mason) which has so far raised $2,000 to support victims of the Australian bushfires.” The book is available from: https://www.amazon.com.au/Burning-Love-Bleeding-Hearts-Things-ebook/dp/B083D8K4X1

[Remember those devastating bushfires..? It’s inconceivable that they’ve been pushed to the back of our minds so quickly… This year sure is eager to beat the shit out of us – and it’s doing a good job thus far!]

Don’t forget, if you’re an Aussie/NZ writer, editor, publisher, artist, film-maker or who know what of horror, please get in touch if you want your latest news included in my next Drop Bears and Taniwha column in the HWA newsletter. It’s free marketing to over 1000 people! Just email me at martyyoung2002 [@] yahoo.com before the 10th of each month.

Stay safe, everyone!

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