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:

Some of my small press associates have been talking about awards already, what with the Aurealis Awards just dusted and the Australian-hosted Hugos coming soonish. It seems all the talk in the novella category is centred on Peter M. Ball’s Horn and Paul Haines’ Wives, which is fair enough, because they’re both fine stories, each have the Aussie small press social media machine rah rah-ing for them, and both were nominated for (or in Paul’s case, won) an Aurealis Award.

I will get to discussing my favourites for the Ditmar Awards later this year, but I’ll use this post as a placeholder to mention Andrew McKiernan’s fine novelette “The Message” from Midnight Echo #2 (while shorter) is also worthy of mention in the company of these other works. I’ll also put forward my own novella Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves, which lacks the network of supporters that Horn and Wives has received but is probably the strongest piece of fiction I’ve had published to date.

Compounding Phoenix’s outsider status is the fact it was published in December and was not entered into the Aurealis Awards. It is also not eligible for the Australian Shadows Award (as I’m the director and all my work has been excluded).

But yeah, Phoenix is beginning to receive notice, with BT at HorrorScope posting the first review last month. Phoenix is a post-apocalyptic fantasy story, grand and personal at the same time; a story of despair and redemption, but dark enough in places to be harrowing, if not downright horrific. As BT says:

“A richly Australian piece which will strike a chord with any connoisseur of dark tales. This is not a story full of rendered body parts, impatient sex or chilling tension, but it does have a core of vast proportions which lingers with the reader long after the final page has been consumed. Like the country it’s set in, there is an epic scale to all the facets of this easy read.”

If this sounds even vaguely interesting to read, it’s still available as a cheap (less than $3) ebook from publisher Damnation Books or from Amazon [Kindle] [paperback], Scribd [ebook], Tor [paperback], or Barnes & Noble [paperback].

It’s official – my post-apocalyptic Australian dark fantasy novella Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves has been launched and is now available for purchase as an e-book from Damnation Books.

Quite simply, it’s the best thing I’ve written to date. Here’s what others have said of the novella thus far:

“Robert E. Howard meets Cormac McCarthy? Lovecraft meets London? Imagine no longer; Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves weaves its own unique magic, binding ancient sorcery and modern apocalypse together on the plains of Western Australia. Cummings hooks us into nightmarish world of a haunted man on a mission of redemption … Vivid and imaginative, this is a novella with strong roots in traditional, sorcerous horror but with a distinctly Australian voice.”
- Stephen M. Irwin, author of The Dead Path

“Shane Jiraiya Cummings’ Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves is a fantastic, dark missive from a world where memories have been replaced by shadows and teeth, where magic and monsters have left the bones of their ruin, and family is the ultimate surviving grace. Lyrical and haunting.”
- Kurt Newton, author of Black Butterflies, The House Spider, and Dark Demons.

Damnation Books have an amazing purchasing system that involves *variable pricing* which means my novella can be bought right now for a ridiculously low price (less than $1 at the moment). With every subsequent purchase, the price rises a little bit, which hopefully should encourage anyone who is interested to nab a copy ASAP! The full price is $4.50, which is still a bargain!

It’s available in e-book format now from Damnation, although in the next few weeks, digital editions will pop up (at full price) on Amazon Digital (kindle), Omnilit, Browler Books and Shortcovers (iphones/smartphones). Print editions will soon be available through Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Bad Moon Books, among other places. Once I have the direct links, I’ll post them.

The ever industrious Jeff Ritchie has posted an in-depth interview with me on ScaryMinds. If you’re even vaguely interesting in my writing or various Brimstone Press projects, it’s worth dropping by. The interview is here.

Chalk up one more for the good news column: my novella Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves has been sold to US independent press Damnation Books. The novella will sell as a standalone e-book and trade paperback in early 2010.

What’s it about, you ask?

Think of it as an Australian version of Stephen King’s The Gunslinger (Dark Tower 1):

Australia has been devastated by a supernatural inferno. Damon believes he is the last ash-covered survivor, a man’s whose past – and future – is inextricably tied to the magick that caused the conflagration. Trudging through this apocalyptic wasteland, he hunts a phoenix in the hopes of using its magick to restore his lost family to humanity. His family, in turn, have been condemned to limbo as shadow wolves, emerging for a few fleeting moments every sunset to hunt Damon in the hope his death will free them from their torment. The hunt is on!

It’s probably the best story I’ve written to date.

Expect more in the coming months, but in the meantime, here’s a sample:

The sun had finally set in Northam.

The Fire was vaguely humanoid and had grown to skyscraper proportions. It had completely consumed its pyre and the bodies around it, and was expanding itself outward, throwing off walls of fire to incinerate priests as they attempted to flee. It spread further and further out, burning the very earth itself, gouging a crater as it took root. With each moment, the screams diminished and the roar of Fire consuming everything in its path grew.

“Sweet Gaia,” Damon murmured as the heat and the roar intensified, as two white hot pits in the centre of its being turned to regard him. “What have I done?”
Flames exploded all around him, and as the full force of the unleashed Elemental cascaded toward him, his thoughts fumbled for the cornerstones of his life. His family. His desire to protect them. His failures.

As the flame surged and engulfed him, slammed him against the car, and he threw his arms up in a futile gesture, his totem animal filled his mind. The spirit that sealed the protection runes cut into his flesh and gouged into his very soul. A spirit born of fire.

The Phoenix.