Archive for the ‘Shards’ Category

Freebies for review

In the spirit of this recent slew of reviews for Aussie horror, I’m offering free e-books (PDFs) of my work to anyone interested in writing a review.

The freebies (your choice of one or both):

  • Shards (flash fiction collection, illustrated by Andrew J. McKiernan, currently on the Bram Stoker Award preliminary ballot).
  • Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves (post apocalyptic Australian dark fantasy novella).

The bonus:

  • Shadow Box (Australian Shadows Award nominated multimedia anthology) – free if you want it (i.e. review optional).

The catch:

  • I request that you post a review (even a brief one) on your blog or website etc. within two months.

If anyone is interested in these freebies, please email me (shane-at-jiraiya.com.au) or leave a comment on this post (ensure you include your email address!).

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Shards in Black Static

Peter Tennant has set aside a substantial portion of his Case Notes column to review six recent Aussie horror books in issue #15 of the UK’s brilliant Black Static magazine.

One of those reviewed books was my debut collection Shards:

“There’s no denying that Cummings is vastly superior to most who venture into these [flash fiction] waters, with a rich palette of ideas and emotions at his command. He uses words with a scalpel-like efficiency, making us laugh and making us shiver or cringe with equal dexterity, and just when you think you know where you are, he slips something from the high concept end of the spectrum in through the wires.”

It was refreshing to see several stories reviewed in detail. Of “Prescience”, which is one my favourites, Tennant said:

“‘Prescience’ presents a convincing picture of a woman who knows when violent crimes are going to occur and is fated to be there to prevent them if she can, often getting seriously hurt as part of the bargain. Cummings plays his hand close to his chest, doling out the information piecemeal, and even after the end we are left wondering why this is happening, with only the woman’s idée fixe that this is right by way of explanation. It’s an announcement that the author knows his stuff, a calling card of sorts. And Cummings struts that stuff in the stories that follow, with an impressive variety of material…”

Other stories that were singled out include “Firewall”, “Cruel Summer”, “Congo Jenga”, “Rainbow-Speckled Field”, and “Memoirs of a Teenage Antichrist”. Andrew’s awesome illustrations were also highlighted as “the artwork being worth the price of admission on its own.”

Tennant also reviews (often very favourably and in great detail) Australian Dark Fantasy & Horror Volume 3 ed. Angela Challis, Slice of Life by Paul Haines, Uttuku by Robert N. Stephenson, Slights by Kaaron Warren, and The Dead Path (aka The Darkening) by Stephen M. Irwin.

Black Static can be purchased from TTA Press.
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Valentine’s in the land of the dead

Well, it’s the time of the year when love blooms, so to celebrate Valentine’s Day, I’m making available – for free – a short, romantic tale of love, survival, and brain eating in a world overrun by zombies.

“Love in the Land of the Dead” was first published in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and was recently reprinted in Shards. Download the story here (which includes Andrew J. McKiernan’s excellent illustration) and read it to your sweetheart. S/He will love you for it!
If you love “Love…” then there’s plenty more like it in Shards [buy online], which is currently on the Bram Stoker Award preliminary ballot, or the chapbook Shards: Damned and Burning [free download!].
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Shards and the Stokers

I was remiss in mentioning this earlier, but I was stoked (pun intended) to have my debut collection Shards make it onto the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Awards. For the uninitiated, the Stokers are the world’s top honour for horror fiction and they are presented each year by the international Horror Writers Association.

Although I must stress that this is not a nomination, it does mean that Shards has already been whittled down to a pretty awesome top 10. It’s an honour to make it this far, and I can only hope enough HWA members read and enjoy Shards enough to vote it onto the final ballot.

Shards is an outside chance at best, but as preliminary voting has now commenced, if any HWA active members are interested in downloading a free PDF of the collection, just drop me an email (shane@jiraiya.com.au) and I’ll send a copy pronto.

Another awesome review of Shards

Continuing the theme of good fortune and favourable turns that come out of nowhere, Martin Livings has posted an awesome review of Shards on ASif. This is the latest of several recent very kind reviews:

“[Shards is] handsome, slick, professional… hell, it’s kind of sexy, to be perfectly frank. Together, Shane Jiraiya Cummings, Andrew McKiernan and Brimstone Press have collaborated to create a superior collection in Shards, filled with fantastic illustrations and razor-sharp flash fiction that won’t disappoint fans of the form, and may even create some new ones, given the chance.”

Hopefully, a few brave souls out there might be tempted to read some dark flash fiction after reading Martin’s review. Thanks, Martin!

Also of note is Martin’s comment on “Itch”, which is currently online as part of LegumeMan’s free fiction series:

“Oh my lord, “Itch” can only be described as excruciating; it had me genuinely squirming as I read it, which has to be a good thing in my opinion.”

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HWA stuff

Well, some great news has rolled in regarding my membership in the US Horror Writers Association. I’ve been a member for four or five years and have made more than enough pro short story sales (Shadowed Realms, Surreal, Horror Literature Quarterly, shorthorror.com, Dark Wisdom …) but with my recent publication of “Hear No Evil” in the Anthology of Dark Wisdom, I finally obtained enough documentation to upgrade to Active member status.

So yay! I’m now an Active HWA member.
In somewhat related news, my collection Shards has been doing pretty well in the first round of the HWA’s Bram Stoker Awards (the one award I’ve always wanted to win – or at least, be nominated for). It’s early days yet, but my fingers are crossed that it will make the preliminary Stoker ballot. We’ll see how it goes…
As I’ve already mentioned, the ever supportive crew over at AHWA’s Sinister Reads blog are running a series of posts about Aussies who have received recommendations in the first round of the Stokers. Today, they’ve posted about Shards. Check it out here.
And if you want to know what all the fuss is about with Shards, Brimstone Press has a brilliant deal at the moment where if you buy a Brimstone book (such as Shards) through the publisher’s website, you get double movie passes to both Zombieland AND Paranormal Activity. Most of the free tickets have gone, so what are you waiting for?
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About Shane

Shane Jiraiya CummingsShane Jiraiya Cummings is one of Australia's leading dark fantasy & horror authors. He is the author of Shards and Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves and the editor of acclaimed publications such as HorrorScope, Black Box, and Black: Australian Dark Culture Magazine.

Find more info about Shane by clicking the links above.

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