With little more than a week to go before voting closes for the 2011 Ditmar Awards (22nd April, 2011) I have decided to make my nominated novelette "All the Clowns in Clowntown" temporarily available as a free PDF download.

"All the Clowns in Clowntown" was originally published in the wonderful anthology Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears (edited by Angela Challis & Dr.Marty Young) from Brimstone Press. It has now been nominated for an Aurealis Award (Fantasy Short Story), an Australian Shadows Award (Short Fiction) and a Ditmar Award (Best Novella or Novelette).

As voting closes on the 22nd of April, and some of you may not have yet voted, I'm offering a full PDF of "All the Clowns in Clowntown" for you to read for a limited time. After 22nd of April, I will be removing this file and it will no longer be available. So, if you are still undecided on which way to cast you Ditmar Award votes, download the story and have a read. If you enjoy the tale, and find it worthy of a vote in the Best Novella or Novelette category, you would make me one very happy author.

You can get yourself a PDF copy of "All the Clowns in Clowntown" at the following link and address:

File not longer available.

This year's Aurealis Award finalists have been announced and I am extremely happy to find that my novelette "All the Clowns in Clowntown" from the Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears anthology has now been nominated for Best Fantasy Short Story!

Also nominated for Best Collection are:

• Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis and Dr Marty Young, containing my abovementioned 'Clowntown' story
• Scenes From The Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall, which contains my story "The Desert Song"

Congratulations and Good Luck to all the other finalists! You can find the full list at http://www.aurealisawards.com/finalists2010.pdf[PDF]

Now available in ebook formats from Smashwords, the Morrigan Books anthology Scenes from the Second Storey. With three nominations in this year's Australian Shadows Awards (including Edited Publication & Short Fiction) and three stories with Honorable Mentions in Ellen Datlow's Best Horror of the Year anthology, this is an anthology you should all read... even if I do have one of my own stories included - "The Desert Song" (which is amongst those with an Honorable Mention on Ellen Datlow's list).

You can get your copy here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/46769

 I was extremely happy to wake up this morning and discover that my story "The Desert Song" from the Morrigan Books Scenes from the Second Storey anthology has been listed alongside other writing luminaries from both Australia and Overseas in Ellen Datlow's Honorable Mentions list for Best Horror of the Year Volume 3. Does snoopy dance!

You can read the full list at:

http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/334109.html and http://ellen-datlow.livejournal.com/334359.html

This year's Australian Shadows Award finalists have been announced and I am extremely happy to find that my novelette "All the Clowns in Clowntown" from the Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears anthology has been nominated for Short Fiction!

Also nominated for Edited Publication are:

• Macabre: A Journey Through Australia's Darkest Fears, edited by Angela Challis and Dr Marty Young, containing my abovementioned 'Clowntown' story
• Scenes From The Second Storey, edited by Amanda Pillar and Pete Kempshall, which contains my story "The Desert Song"

Congratulations and Good Luck to all the other finalists! You can find the full list at http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=256

Just added to the Colour Illustration gallery - a colour version for the e-book cover of Tom Piccirilli's "You'd Better Watch Out" forthcoming from Crossroads Press.

Click on the image for the full size view.

Early version of a map for a fantasy/science-fiction story idea that I have been researching. Still lots of work and changes to do, but I think it is coming along pretty nicely for only two hours worth of work. The map was hand-sketched with pen on paper, then scanned into photoshop. All the colours were done in photoshop on different layers - ie one for water, one for land, one for vegetation, and one for snow and ice. The longtitude/latitude overlay was imported from illustrator and added last, over the top of everything else.

Click on the image for the full size view.

Aussiecon4 - the 68th World Science Fiction Convention - is approaching fast and the preliminary program of panels and events has just been released at: http://www.aussiecon4.org.au/index.php?page=26

I'm making appearances on a few panels, a reading, a signing and plenty of book launches. And that's not to mention all the other events I'll be attending, such as the AHWA's Nightmare Ball, the Ditmar Awards and any number of other panels such as 20 Years of Aurealis and the Classic Australian SF series panel.

And, in between all the panels, workshops, ceremonies and launches hopefully there will still be time to grab a coffee, go out to dinner, or just sit in a bar and chat. It is going to be great, but also (I think) exhausting keeping up with everything that is happening. Come along if you can, say hello, because it would be great to put faces to names for all those I know online but have never met in the real world.

Below the cut is my current appearance schedule showing where you will probably be able to find me:

Just added to the Black & White Illustration gallery - my illustration for the short story "Humbuggered" by Paul Kane, to appear in Festive Fear 2, edited by Stephen Clark, forthcoming from Tasmaniac Publications.

Click on the image for the full size view.

Just added to the Black & White Illustration gallery - my illustration for the short story "That Olde Christmas Spirit" by Tim Curran, to appear in Festive Fear 2, edited by Stephen Clark, forthcoming from Tasmaniac Publications.

Click on the image for the full size view.