Short Fiction
My recent short fiction includes:
‘High Country’
Island No. 155
‘Martian Triptych’
First published in Jack Dann’s Dreaming in the Dark, also appears in Best Australian Stories 2016.
A meditation on Mars and extinction in three parts.
‘The Changeling’
First published in Jonathan Strahan’s Fearsome Magics. Also appears in Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2014.
A young woman trapped in a village on the edge of modernity struggles with a child who may or may not be enchanted. Australian readers can check prices on Booko; otherwise you can check out your favourite independent bookseller, head to Amazon or Amazon UK, or pick up the ebook for iBooks, Google Books and Kobo.
‘Skinsuit’
Shortlisted for the 2013 Aurealis Award for Best Horror Short Story
“At first he thinks it is a toy of some sort, something made of transparent plastic and left deflated in a crumpled pile like a blow-up animal, or perhaps some pool device. But as he looks closer he realises it is not a toy but what appears to be a plastic suit in the shape of a child, its shape nestled in the centre of the hollow, its body curved in on itself, legs to chest, head to knees, like a baby in the womb.”
‘Catspaw, or The Rakshasa’s Servant’
A short tale about love and sorcery with shapeshifting tiger demons, Maharajas and a love that spans the centuries.
‘Visitors’
Shortlisted for the 2012 Aurealis Award for Best SF Story.
“Three nights ago she looked up at him as he moved above her, saw his black eyes, the moon-pale glow of his skin in the moonlight and all at once she was afraid, as if she had woken from a dream to find a stranger fucking her …”
‘The Inconvenient Dead’
Also appears in Best Australian Stories 2012
“A week after he killed himself, Dane Johnson came to visit Toby at the service station …”
‘The Flats’
“On the morning that it happens he leaves early, slipping out after breakfast and mounting his bike to ride the block and a half to Nick’s house …”
city of tongues 