Midnight Echo Issue 9, Edited by Geoff Brown (aka GN Braun)
eBook 150pp
Release Date: 31 May 2013
I edited this issue, and this review by UK site This is Horror is fantastic.
“Mythology is the theme for this issue of Midnight Echo, and it’s testament to the editors that the familiar and often overdone folklores are left out in favour of more obscure legends that will thrill, chill and enchant you.”
Read more via Midnight Echo Issue 9, Edited by Geoff Brown » This Is Horror.
Hi everyone,
A short Australian Horror Writers Association update for October, with news on U.S. distribution for Midnight Echo, as well as an update on the Aradale Asylum Creative Retreat.
MIDNIGHT ECHO NEWS:
October 18, 2012 – Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA) President Geoff Brown, and Midnight Echo Executive Editor Marty Young, are pleased to announce that the AHWA and JournalStone Publishing (JSP) have entered into an exclusive joint marketing agreement pursuant to which the AHWA and Midnight Echo magazine will be the exclusive Australian distributor of the quarterly magazine, Dark Discoveries, while JSP and Dark Discoveries Magazine will become the exclusive USA distributor of Midnight Echo. Both parties voiced their enthusiasm for the agreement, which means that the pre-existing high premium that potential readers of each respective magazine have had to pay to receive the other periodical in their respective countries will be eliminated making both magazines much more affordable and accessible/available for all. Look for availability on both the JSP and Midnight Echo websites soon, where you will be able to purchase the magazines individually or in a bundled offering that includes both Dark Discoveries and Midnight Echo.
Midnight Echo is also holding a subscription drive in the buildup to the eagerly awaited Issue 8, with a whole stack of prizes to be won. Just take out a 1- or 2-year print subscription between now and November 30 and you will go into the draw to win the following:
• ‘The Woman’ signed by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee
• ‘Edge of Dark Water’ signed by Joe R Lansdale
• Original ME8 artwork by Glenn Chadbourne (signed)
• A copy of ‘Tolerance’ plus 3 signed lithographs, by ME8 cover artist Chris Mars
• 1-year print subscription to Cemetery Dance magazine
• Original Allure of the Ancients artwork, signed by creators Mark Farrugia and Greg Chapman
• 1-year print subscription bundle to Midnight Echo and Dark Discoveries magazines
The winners will be announced on December 1.
Full subscription details can be found at http://midnightechomagazine.com/subscribe-to-midnight-echo/
ARADALE ASYLUM CREATIVE RETREAT:
Writers, editors, artists, photographers, filmmakers, game designers, screenwriters, and anyone creative that I have missed.
All welcome.
The Australian Horror Writers Association has arranged a three-day/two-night stay at Aradale Mental Hospital (formerly Ararat Lunatic Asylum) for writers, editors, artists and any other creative-type people.
It will involve having the days to create and the nights to investigate how to be scared stiff. There will be a ghost tour on the Friday night, and a paranormal investigation on the Saturday night (all equipment supplied).
When: THREE (3) DAYS – February 22-24th 2013
How Much: $395 PER PERSON all-inclusive three days
Includes: accommodation/full catering/tour/paranormal investigation.
Supplied: All meals, camp-beds.
Please supply sleeping bag or bedding (if you are travelling from interstate, talk to us and we will be able to help with this).
Confirmation of interest in attending will be accepted UPON PAYMENT OF $195 deposit (refundable up to thirty (30) days prior to the event. If, for any reason, you are unable to attend, notify us by Thursday 24th January for a full refund of deposit).
Full details here:
http://www.australianhorror.com/index.php?view=317
Geoff Brown – president, AHWA
My new column at This is Horror. Check it out!
Australian horror
These two words have different connotations for many people worldwide.
Australian horror has exploited fears of Australia’s ‘wide-open spaces’, and the isolation and vulnerability of people where the population drops to less than fifty individuals per square kilometre. Wolf Creek and Snowtown are based on real-life crimes such as Ivan Milat’s ‘backpacker murders’, or the murders in Snowtown last decade. The desolation of much of the Australian landscape, and the vulnerability of those within these areas, has been driven home both by crimes of opportunity and well-planned killing sprees. This is the horror of Australia in reality.
For many overseas residents, it seems Australia has a reputation as the home of many things that have no other aim in life but to kill humans in very nasty ways. Crocodiles, poisonous snakes and spiders, serial killers, giant insects, deadly jellyfish, shark attacks, drop-bears… the list goes on.
See the whole column HERE: A short history of Australian horror » This Is Horror.
For those of you who have been seduced by the dark side of writing, it’s time to give form to your finest literary golems, and unleash them on an unsuspecting public: the Midnight Echo goblins will soon be hungry for submissions.
Midnight Echo is one of Australia’s premier horror magazines, and the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA). Submissions for the upcoming issue #9, ‘Mythic Horror’, will open up from October 1, 2012. Guest editor, Geoff Brown, will be looking for fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and artwork to load the pages of ME#9 with all the mythic horror, terror, fear and trepidation he can cram in.
Speakeasy recently caught up with Geoff Brown (aka. G. N. Braun), realist and dark fiction writer, president of the AHWA, and guest editor of Midnight Echo’s forthcoming ‘Mythic Horror’ issue.
See the entire interview via ‘The horror! The horror!’: An interview with Geoff Brown — Speakeasy.
Midnight Echo Issue 9 – Mythical Horror
(edited by GN Braun)
Research and modernise a myth, legend, folk-tale etc. The tale must be written in such a way that the myth is recognisable, yet without ‘info dumps’. What we are looking for are re-workings of myths and legends, brought into the modern world and ready to scare the pants off us.
Remember, though: the tale must have horror as a central theme.
The Brothers Grimm defined legend as a historically-grounded folktale. For this purpose, that is not quite the definition we are looking for. We all know legends, yet not all of them are grounded in history. Loch Ness, Bigfoot, Johnny Appleseed… the list goes on. Use this concept to shock and amaze us.
Myth: a traditional or legendary story, usually concerning some being, hero, or event, with or without a determinable basis of fact or a natural explanation, and explains some practice, rite, or phenomenon of nature.
Myths have defined society for as long as there have been human beings. Whether those myths are religious or cultural or a mixture of both, we have always lived with them, one way or another.
Ancient Greece, Egypt, Sumeria; they all have their unique mythology. Sometimes, the myths cross over, due to immigration or expansion or colonialism.
NOTE: Any stories involving cultural borrowing from indigenous cultures should be respectful of the beliefs of the traditional owners.
Geoff Brown -Writer 