My latest! “Bitters”, a novella from Cemetery Dance.

IFWG have released a new edition of Tide of Stone, with a gorgeous new cover!

Crystal Lake Publishing published “Vandal: Tales of Damage”. A series of novellas from me, Aaron Dries and J.S. Breukelaar. So fabulous! My story is called “The Deathplace Set”.

Here are my stories:

“The Songs We Sing at Sea Are the Lies We Tell Ourselves”, in Looming Low 2, editor Justin Steele, Dim Shore Publishing, 3000 words

“Remnants and Bad Water”, in Damnation Games, editor Alan Baxter, Clandestine Books,  , 10,000 words

“The Smell of Waiting”,in Screams from the Dark, editor Ellen Datlow, Nightfire Books, 8000 words

“Everything So Slow and Quiet”, in The Art of Being Human, editor Tehani Croft, Fablecroft Press, 1500 words

This was the case with The Art of Being Human. Here’s the description from the Kickstarter page:

“Co-edited by Tehani Croft and Stephanie Lai, this anthology seeks to remind readers of the hope and beauty of the Arts, and the way our engagement with writing, music, film, theatre, artworks in all media, and craft of all kinds are at the core of our humanity.”

While I don’t often write stories that carry this kind of hope, a paragraph presented itself to me:

“Everything was so slow and quiet. The waves, and the way the air hummed in the heat, and the rustling of the Coastal Tea Trees (and their glorious camphorous smell) and the shifting of the sand; she could even hear that.”

And once I’d written that down, the rest of the story played out accordingly. It’s wondrous when this happens.

The feeling of the story came from that bizarre time between the bushfires of 2019/2020 and the pandemic. Those few months of quiet. My parents lost their large shed full of possessions (memories, photos, books, a family heirloom sewing machine, and, worst of all, a lot of my mother’s paintings). Their house was damaged so they had to live elsewhere for six months while it was being repaired, and the beach they lived by was quiet and almost always empty. Every now and then strange things would wash up to shore, as well as burnt wood and other destroyed things. It gave me such an odd sense of dispossession I knew I would write about it one day. And putting this to paper I realise it is the loss of my mother’s artwork that runs through the story. The loss of beauty but also the belief that there is more; that we can refill, redo and find new beauty around us.

The kickstarter is almost done but still time to support this wonderful anthology.

This is a list of lots of eligible work. There was stuff published that isn’t on the list! So if it was published in 2021 and you loved it, vote for that.

This is my eligible stuff:

Short story collection:

Tool Tales (with Ellen Datlow), IFWG

Short stories:

• “The Steering Wheel Club”, Giving the Devil His Due, Running Wild Press.
• “Exurbia”,  Out of the Ruins, Titan Books.

• “The King in Yella” Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign, Hippocampus Press.
• “The Red Shrine (Fingerless and Double-mouthed)” Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth And Babies, IFWG Publishing Australia.
• “Winter Sweet, Winter Grieve” Grimdark Magazine 25.
• “Corners” Weird Fiction Review 11

And here’s the form to vote!

I’m trying to decide what to talk about. What’s been inspiring you lately?

You can listen in here to last season:

https://ltcipodcast.com/#:~:text=Let%20The%20Cat%20In%20is,Warren%2C%20Aaron%20Dries%20and%20J.

It’s been a weird couple of years in publishing, that’s for sure! I’ve had lots out this year, some of it stories I sold ages ago. So while this list looks impressive, it demonstrates a few years of sales!

I’m really happy to have two books out, the non-fiction chapbook from Brain Jar Press and the marvellous short fiction collection with Ellen Datlow from IFWG.

“The Red Shrine”, in Spawn, editor Deb Sheldon, IFWG Publishing, July 2021, 2500 words

“Corners”, in Weird Fiction Review 11, Centipede Press,  January 2021, 2500 words

“The King In Yella”,in  Under Twin Suns,  editor James Chambers, Hippocampus Press, June 2021 4600 words

Capturing Ghosts on the Page, BrainJar Press, non-fiction chapbook

Tool Tales, short story collection with Ellen Datlow,  IFWG Publishing, June 2021

“Exurbia”, in Out of the Ruins, Titan, editor Preston Grassman, November 2021 2600 words

“Only Dead Men Do Not Lie: The Trials of the Formosans” , in Sisterhood, Chaosium Press, editor Nate Pederson, May 2021 4500 words

“Warp and Weft”, in  Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology, Dark Moon Books, editor Eric J. Guignard, November 2021 5500 words

“The Steering Wheel Club”, in Giving the Devil His Due, Running Wild Press, editor Rebecca Brewer, October 2021 3600 words

“Winter Sweet, Winter Grieve” in Grimdark Magazine #25, Grimdark Publishing, January 2021, 3000 words

Meerkat Press – Blog Tour Kick-Off – 11-Nov

MyLifeMyBooksMyEscape – Interview- 11-Nov

Crystal’s Library – Book Review – 11-Nov

Dolce Bellezza – Book Review – 12-Nov

Jessica Belmont – Book Review – 12-Nov

Speculative Fiction Showcase – Excerpt – 12-Nov

JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder – Excerpt – 13-Nov

Rockin’ Book Reviews – Guest Post – 14-Nov

TKentWrites – Top 10 List: Old Houses – 15-Nov

WritingForums.com – Interview – 18-Nov

Big Indie Books – Playlist – 19-Nov

A.E. Siraki Writer – Book Review – 19-Nov

Books I Like – Book Review – 20-Nov

The Qwillery – Excerpt – 20 -Nov

Seven Acre Books – Book Review – 21-Nov

The Bookish Crypt – Book Review – 22-Nov

More2read – Interview – 22-N