Midnight Echo 8 Read online

  Table of Contents

  Editorial

  A Word from the President

  A Visit with Friends

  The Girl from the Borderlands

  Blissful Ignorance

  Hello Kitty

  Gallows & Blooms

  Tartarus

  Facts, Fiction & Fevers

  Jar Baby

  Glenn Chadbourne

  The Boy with the Hole in his Heart

  They Don’t Know That We Know What They Know

  Insatiable

  Pix & Panels

  Jack Ketchum

  Squirrely Shirley

  Always a Price

  Blood Lilies

  Bright Lights, Big Desert

  Lee Battersby

  Tooth

  Coming Home

  Pigroot Flat

  Biographies

  MIDNIGHT ECHO

  Issue 8

  November 2012

  ISSN: 1836 - 3865

  www.midnightechomagazine.com

  Copyright © 2012 by The Australian Horror Writers Association

  and individual contributing authors.

  First published in 2012 by

  The Australian Horror Writers Association

  in conjunction with David Schembri Studios.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced

  or used in any form or by anymeans

  without the written permission of the publisher.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Production Team:

  Editors

  Mark Farrugia + Amanda J Spedding + Marty Young

  Executive Editor

  Marty Young

  eBook Layout Artist

  Geoff Brown - Cohesion Editing and Proofreading

  Support Staff:

  Media/Publicity

  Greg Chapman

  Advertising

  Marty Young

  Proof Readers

  Geoff Brown

  The staff would like to thank:

  Chris & Sally Mars, Tina Hall

  Editorial

  Mark Farrugia + Amanda J Spedding + Marty Young

  Long before we ever dreamed about partnering-up to edit an edition of Midnight Echo, one of us would occasionally email the other two quoting a paragraph from something they’d just read. It would be preluded with something like: “You guys have just got to read this … ”. It would always be a paragraph from a Joe R Lansdale short story: the opening sequence of ‘On the Far Side of the Cadillac Desert with the Dead Folks’, or perhaps a turn of phrase from Bubba Ho-Tep. Combinations of words that created scenes so beautifully put together, and yet so, so wrong that they would make the most hard-core of readers cringe. And while cringe we did, it was stuff we just couldn’t put down.

  If anything, we wanted more!

  And when the three of us eventually did come together to produce Midnight Echo Issue 8, we wanted to include that sort of stuff in the fiction we’d publish. In different forms, all three of us wanted to publish hard-edged-horror that pushed the boundaries and also blurred the distinction between right and wrong. Stories that would make readers feel uncomfortable but plant a seed of irresistibility that meant the stories would be very difficult to put down.

  While we were excited about the stories we envisaged we’d publish and what Midnight Echo Issue 8 could achieve, our best laid plans, no matter how desperately we wanted them to come to fruition, would add-up to nothing without authors that shared our vision.

  We ended up with over 350 submissions, which sounds like a huge amount to get your head around during a four-month reading period, but selecting the stories and poems turned out to be surprisingly easy. That’s not being disrespectful to the stories we didn’t publish; rather it’s emphasising the quality and content of those we did. If this edition had been edited by only one of us instead of all three, the outcome would have been pretty much the same. Along the journey we’ve been lucky enough to snare stories by two authors that are amongst our all-time faves and a director whose movies we’ve enjoyed, all wrapped in a cover illustrated by an artist whose art continues to blow our minds three years after we first glimpsed his work.

  As editors, we are extremely proud of Midnight Echo Issue 8; as readers, writers and fans of horror we love it; and we hope that you will too.

  Here’s a quick summary of what’s ahead.

  Joe R Lansdale and Jason Fischer open and close the edition with new takes on an ol’ trope— the zombie. Joe describes his story ‘A Visit With Friends’ as “mostly quiet, though it has a nasty bite.” Jason says Pigroot Flat is a reverse Wolf Creek. In between we take a harrowing look at the darker side of Australian culture, witness the carnage in a red-neck-shoot-em-up courtesy of the great Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee, blend the supernatural and the fight on global terror, and get emotional about the consequences of parental choices. We also hit the jackpot with three poems that specifically addressed what we were trying to do with the edition (we thought we’d be lucky enough to get one).

  We are also proud to publish the winning stories in the AHWA Short Story and Flash Fiction competitions for 2012, and the second instalment of Allure of the Ancients. If you haven’t read part one, pdf copies of Midnight Echo Issue 7 are still available from www.midnightecho.com.au. We have interviews with great writers and an amazing artist chap by the name of Glenn Chadbourne, and we ask the man once described by Stephen King as the scariest man in America, what scares him. His response is genuine, and one that we think you will all relate to in some way.

  There are also some new features appearing in this issue of Midnight Echo. We have the magazine’s first ever non-fiction piece, this one by Gary Kemble explores the science behind the apocalypse. Yes, you read that right; it’s a great article covering some truly frightening possibilities. Along with this are new columns on comics (Pix and Panels by Mark Farrugia) and poetry (Tartarus by Charles Lovecraft), along with the re-birth of Andrew McKiernan’s Black Roads, Dark Highways column, which began in Black magazine in 2008.

  So go get yourself a drink (a dry, woody scotch, perhaps) and make yourself comfy. Check the doors, make sure they’re locked. The windows, too. Things are about to get a little horrific …

  Mark Farrugia + Amanda J Spedding + Marty Young

  A Word from the President

  Geoff Brown

  Welcome to the eighth issue of Midnight Echo, the magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association. Without taking away from the editorial, I’d just like to mention a few things I’m particularly proud of in this issue.

  Snagging renowned writers Joe R Lansdale and Jack Ketchum, as well as movie director Lucky McKee, was definitely a bonus for the issue, and the editorial team have done a great job in sourcing writers that have the power to sell Midnight Echo to a greater audience worldwide. The quality of stories in this issue is amazing, and I know the editors worked long and hard to ensure the very best content for readers.

  Some new columns are appearing in this issue, along with non-fiction pieces for those who are interested in that side of the industry. We have columns on comics and poetry, and another that looks at more X-File events that can happen to those travelling the lonely roads of the outback.

  For the AHWA, Midnight Echo is something to be very proud of. Since its inception, the magazine has maintained a very high standard of production, and is only going from strength-to-strength.

  The announcement and process of running the Australian Shadows Awards for 2011
was a new thing for me. Judging for last year turned international, with the inclusion of James A. Moore, a renowned voice of speculative fiction from the US. A huge thank-you to all the judges: Steve Gerlach, Jeff Ritchie and James A Moore (short stories, collections and edited works), as well as Kirstyn McDermott, Marty Young and Greig Beck (novel and long fiction). The deserving winners were: Novel – no award, but an Honourable Mention to Stephen Irwin for The Broken Ones; Long Fiction – The Past is a Bridge Best Left Burnt by the late Paul Haines; Collection – Tales of Sin and Madness by Brett McBean; Edited – Dead Red Heart ed. Russell B Farr; and Short Story – ‘Shovel Man Joe’ by Amanda J Spedding. A big congratulations to all. I can’t talk about the Shadows without mentioning the amazing award statues sourced from Sideshow Collectibles. Zombie Dr Hyde is both creepy and striking, and makes a great addition to the high-quality series of awards given out over the years to the Shadows winners. I thoroughly enjoyed my role as director for the year, and would like to thank Robert Datson for stepping up and taking over, allowing me to concentrate more fully on my role as president of the AHWA.

  The AHWA is making further inroads now, and the 2012 Mentoring Program has just gotten underway. A good number of quality mentors, both local and international, meant that we could accommodate a good number of applicants, and I’m proud to say that every applicant was matched with a mentor in this round of the program. Emerging Australian writers were matched with established genre professionals, which can only help them improve and hone their craft. Over the next three months, these writers will be able to take advantage of workshopping and industry knowledge that is normally very hard to obtain.

  I look forward to hearing great praise for the mentorees from the mentors—and vice-versa—and to seeing the mentorees grow in skill as a result of this wonderful program.

  The committee is working very hard behind the scenes to ensure that the members of the AHWA get the best services available, and to promote the reach and growth of the association. A new website is in the works with a focus on usability and visibility for our members.

  We are starting to appear at festivals and conventions around the country: the AHWA ran a very successful panel at the inaugural Bendigo Writers Festival. Lucy Sussex, Cameron Oliver and Brett McBean were hosted by yours truly, attempting to dissect and explain the future of horror in this new decade, both in literature and film. Many people attended, and were, I hope, both entertained and informed by the hour-long discussion.

  Another convention that the AHWA is supporting and appearing at is the inaugural Oz Horror Con in January 2013 at the Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, which features guest of honour Ramsey Campbell. More details on the AHWA’s presence at this event can be found here: www.ozhorrorcon.com/library.

  We will be revisiting our Bendigo Writers Festival panel on one of the two days, and on the other, we will be holding a ‘Meet the AHWA’ Q&A-style function. We will also be hosting a table with many authors and committee members on both days, so come on over and say hello.

  A new event coming up for the AHWA is the Aradale Asylum Creative Retreat in February next year. A gathering for all creative types, the retreat is being held in the abandoned Aradale Lunatic Asylum over three days, from the 22nd until the 24th of February, 2013. Reputedly one of the most haunted buildings in Australia, the asylum consists of over sixty buildings in one giant complex outside of Ararat, Victoria, dating back as far as the 1860s. Normally, access is restricted to two or three hour tours, and there have been few instances where groups have been granted permission to stay overnight. The AHWA is proud to be one of those few groups. During the day, there is time for the participants to create, while the nights will be spent on ghost tours and a paranormal investigation run by one of the most experienced tour guides in the country. Open for writers, artists, editors, filmmakers and anyone else in the creative arts field, it promises to be a very exciting and haunting event indeed. More details are available on the AHWA website, and links to the event page are on the AHWA Facebook page.

  The AHWA is the professional association for writers of horror, and we continue to grow year by year. Welcome to the future of horror in Australia.

  Geoff Brown ~ President, Australian Horror Writers Association

  A Visit with Friends

  Joe R Lansdale

  Mary said, “You don’t visit Mason and Jane much anymore.”

  “No,” I said. “I don’t.”

  “It’s been maybe a month. You don’t even mention them anymore. Maybe you should see them.”

  “You don’t like them,” I said.

  “I don’t. I can’t tell you why, but you like them, so I don’t want you to keep from seeing them. You knew them before things changed.”

  “So did you.”

  “Yes,” Mary said. “I did, and I didn’t like them, and I feel bad about it, but I didn’t and I still don’t. I can’t explain it.”

  “You have good radar.”

  “Say what?”

  “You were correct about them,” I said. “You sensed a potential for something wrong, and it was there, and it had to have been there all along. Me, I didn’t notice it, didn’t realize it. You were right, and I was wrong.”

  Mary came away from the barred and wire-netted window where she was looking out and sat down at the table.

  “What are you saying?” she asked.

  “I’m saying you’re right, and I’m wrong.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  I sipped my coffee and looked at my watch. I didn’t have to go to work for another hour. “All right,” I said. “But it’s not a pretty story.”

  “Nothing these days is pretty.”

  “You are,” I said.

  Mary blushed. I loved that about her. She always seemed amazed that anyone would notice how lovely she was. Perhaps because she really didn’t realize how fine she looked.

  I said, “I think before the dead came back, and everyone had to change things, Jane and Mason may have been all right. But they were what they are now back then, but they didn’t have the opportunity.”

  Mary furrowed her brows. “I don’t follow.”

  “They can do what they’re doing now and get away with it, but back then there wasn’t that opportunity. I guess in one way it doesn’t matter as much if they were doing what they are doing now, because, well, there is a difference. But the difference doesn’t settle well with me, because it makes me realize how they are. If they’re that way now, they were that way then.”

  “Now I really don’t follow.”

  “I drove over to their place the other day. After work. I had to drive the long way around because the dead were all over the main streets, and the government sweeper had yet to come through, or maybe it had gone through and the dead people had come back thick again. It usually doesn’t happen that way that quick, but I guess it could be like that.

  “But the thing is, I thought since the streets to our house were full of the rascals, I might drive over and see Jane and Mason and have a drink. Nothing much, of course, since I was driving, but something. A soda, maybe. Kill a little time and visit. I always liked our visits. They are always so funny.”

  “They give good parties,” Mary said. “I know that.”

  “You only went to one,” I said.

  “Yes, but it was a good one. If I had liked them better, I would have gone to another. But tell me the rest of it.”

  “There’s not much to it, really. I told you I have a key to their garage?”

  “No. I didn’t know that.”

  “I do,” I said. “I have a key because of the dead, and because they like me to come visit them. I use the key to get in through the barrier they’ve built, and then I use it again to get in through the garage. They trust me to watch out for the dead and not let them in. It’s a peculiar set up they hav
e. You pull under a carport, and then there’s a barrier wall that runs up to the top of the extended garage, and you have to unlock a door there, and then it’s kind of like a narrow maze. You got to deal with any dead if they’re there before you get to the door, but that’s only a few feet, and you can see easily from the car if any are around. That way you know if you should get out of the car or not. It’s a good setup. They said they designed it that way so that if the dead got inside the door, they couldn’t come easily in a group. That there was only room for one to go through the maze at a time. It was easier to fight them back if they were jammed in like that, and it gave time to get through the main door and into the house.”

  “Smart idea.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “They’re smart. Anyway, there wasn’t any threat in the garage, even if the front yard was filled with the things, wandering about, stinking up the air.

  “I unlocked the door and went into the maze and went along the path, and then I came to the garage door and unlocked it. After you do the unlocking, the doors lock themselves when you close them, and then you have to go through another narrow tunnel that comes to a wire door, and you use the key to unlock it, and then you have to unlock another metal door to get in the house. Same key on all the doors.”

  “That’s serious,” Mary said. “But if one of them got in there with you, you’d do better to fight it instead of trying to unlock all those doors. While you’re unlocking, they’d be on you.”