Yes, after twenty long years in the making, it appears that my collection Living With the Dead is so huge, so amazing, that it requires not one but two book launches in order to get off the ground.  Yes, there’ll be a smallish launch at GenreCon in Parramatta NSW next weekend, then a fortnight after that we’ll be in Perth WA to launch it again, this time at Stefen’s Books in the CBD, so all my Perth friends and family can make it.  Yep, this is a nationwide book launch tour, baby!

The details of each are:

Living With the Dead GenreCon Launch
Sunday November 4th 2o12, 3pm-4pm (AEST)
The Rydges Parramatta (at the convention!)
(this will be happening during the Australian Horror Writers Association community showcase, for which we give our sincerest thanks!)
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/349618555128834/

Living With the Dead Perth Launch
Saturday November 17th 2012, 11pm-12pm (AWST)
Stefen’s Books, Shop 8 Shafto Lane, Perth, Western Australia (then afterwards at The Generous Squire across the lane!)
Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/events/383858688349095/

I hope to see both east and west coasters at these events, and to press copies of this book into your unsuspecting hands!  Big thanks have to go to GenreCon, the AHWA and Stefen’s Books for kindly allowing us to launch.  You all rock!

Looks like I’m on another GenreCon panel, and this one I’m even chairing (as a last-minute replacement)!  The details:

Saturday, November 3, 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM

NAILING THE BIG SCENE

Austen Room

Every genre has them – those crucial scenes that make the story work. Whether it’s the climactic moment of your novel, or the short scene in your opening chapter that clues the reader in to the type of book you’re reading, it’s worth taking the time to get those scenes right. What does it take to nail the big scene in your novel? Join our panellists as they identify some of the crucial scenes within their genre and offer their advice for getting it right.

Participants: Daniel O’Malley, Bronwyn Parry, Karen Miller; Chair: Martin Livings

Should be fun, hopefully as chair I can just sit back and direct the discussion, rather than having to, you know, actually KNOW anything about how to nail a big scene. I have no idea, hopefully my panellists can teach me!

Hope to see lots of con-goers there!

The good folks at GenreCon, a genre-centric convention running in Sydney in November 2012 (Friday the 2nd to Sunday the 4th), have released their program, and it looks like a whole lot of fun.  And what’s more, I’m on the first panel at it! My panel is:

RATED [A] [S] [V] [N] [L] [D]
Conan Doyle Room; Friday, 8:00pm

Stays up late and discusses the craft of writing adult themes, from sizzling sex-scenes to acts of horrific violence. What phrases are best avoided? When is it time to stop letting yourself get carried away? Are there any lines that shouldn’t be crossed? Our panellists will talk frankly about what works, and what doesn’t.

Participants: Yvonne Eve Walus, Denise Rossetti, Martin Livings; Chair: Rosie Courtney

This should be a hoot and a holler.  Looks like I’m the only horror writer involved on the panel (and the only man too, eek!), so hopefully I can defend my particular dark alley of the ghetto, and can’t wait to meet my fellow panelists.  There’s also an Australian Horror Writers Association Community Showcase at 3pm on the Sunday, followed by an afternoon tea, and I’m hoping I might be able to squeeze in a book launch for Living With the Dead amongst that somewhere, as Craig Bezant from Dark Prints Press will also be there.

Anyway, it looks like being a fascinating convention, especially because it’s involving so many disparate genres that we in the spec-fic area normally wouldn’t get much of a chance to interact with, so I’m hoping to see lots of friendly and familiar faces there (other than the ones I’ve spotted already in the program and member list!), or else I’ll be frightened and alone.  And nobody wants that, do they?

The program is available here:

http://www.genrecon.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/GenreCon-Program.pdf

Hi there! We’ll return you to the Misplaced Emphasis Theatre production of “What? Women Want?” in just a moment… [1]

It’s been a little while since I’ve posted here, so I thought I’d share a couple of neat things happening in my vicinity.

Firstly, I’ll be attending my first interstate convention (Worldcon 2010 in Melbourne didn’t count, because, well, it was a Worldcon!) later on this year. The Australian Writer’s Marketplace is presenting GenreCon in Parramatta NSW, which, according to its website, is “a three-day convention for Australian fans and professionals working within the fields of romance, mystery, science fiction, crime, fantasy, horror, thrillers, and more.” Sounds pretty awesome to me, and the timing of the convention (November 2nd to 4th) matches perfectly with the planned release of my collection Living With the Dead from Dark Prints Press. So both myself and my publisher have already bought our tickets, and hopefully we’ll be able to launch the book there in some way, shape or form!

And secondly, Black Static Magazine has just reviewed Dead Red Heart from Ticonderoga Publications, and had some kind words to say about my stories in the collection:

Leading off this massive collection of vampire stories from a ‘land down under’ is ‘The Tide’, a collage piece written by many diverse hands, with a series of news items chronicling the plight of vampires in Australia as illegal refugees, and how they are treated by the locals, the story a very obvious and equally effective satire on the country’s attitude to immigrants, going from resistance through to a time of acceptance.

The vampires in ‘The Rider’ by Martin Livings are entities that shift from one host to another, and when some hunters attempt to destroy one of them
things go tragically wrong, the story tugging at the heart strings as the narrator is deprived of the thing in life that he values the most, made vulnerable by his own humanity.[2]

The review actually covers all thirty three stories in the collection, sixteen of which, incidentally, were singled (if that’s the right word in this case!) out by Ellen Datlow for Honourable Mentions in her Year’s Best Horror of 2011 (full list here, here, here, here, and here). So well done to all concerned!

And that’s about it for the moment. Back to our normal programming.

[1] apologies to Colin Mochrie
[2] Well, apart from the fact that my narrator was a woman, I guess!