The Australian Horror Writers Association is pleased to announce the line-up of the sixth issue of their official fiction magazine, Midnight Echo. This edition is a themed issue, with all stories being science fiction horror.
The nine stories are set in the far future and taking place in the distant reaches of space. Inside you’ll discover a strange world with a planetary ring forged from organic matter, bizarre aliens cataloguing and collecting humans to populate their idea of paradise, Lovecraftian horrors come to life in the heart of a comet, cybernetic monsters hunting humans in the hull of an abandoned star ship, and paranoid space explorers pushed to their limits at the frontier of an uncharted universe.
Stories have been penned by various renowned speculative fiction authors from Australia and the United States, including:
- Cody Goodfellow – editor of Perilous Press and author of Radiant Dawn and Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars
- Cat Sparks – fiction editor for Cosmos Magazine and multiple Aurealis Award winning author
- Stephen Dedman – Australian science fiction veteran and author of Shadows Bite and Foreign Bodies
- Shane Jiraiya Cummings – Managing Editor of Horrorscope.com.au and author of Phoenix and the Darkness of Wolves
- Joanne Anderton – author of upcoming speculative fiction novel Debris
Emerging talented authors include Helen Stubbs, Alan Baxter, Andrew J. McKiernan, Mark Farrugia, and poet Jenny Blackford.
The issue will feature an in depth interview with Charles Stross, one of the most imaginative and insightful science fiction authors writing today. Stross has been honoured with two Hugo awards and Locus Reader awards, and has published more than a dozen novels, including Saturn’s Children and The Fuller Memorandum. He talks to David Conyers for Midnight Echo about his Lovecrafitan science fiction horror series, The Laundry, and his latest novel, Rule 34.
A second interview is with Chris Moore, world renowned British science fiction artist best known for his striking covers for Orion Publishing’s SF Masterworks series and for his official wallpaper art for film The Empire Strikes Back. Insights are gained into Moore’s process for achieving his striking and imaginative art, and the many changes he has been facing in the publishing industry since he began illustrating in the 1970s.
The cover for Midnight Echo 6, ‘Strange Behaviour’, is a creation of talented UK artist, Paul Drummond, who will be well-known to readers of Interzone for his striking depictions of star ships, futuristic humans and robots.
Featured interior illustrators include:
- Steve Gilberts – Apex Digest, Space and Time, and Book of Dark Wisdom
- David Lee Ingersoll – The Black Seal and Worlds of Cthulhu
- Olivia Kernot – Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine
- Nathan Wyckoff – Jumpgates Comics
Midnight Echo 6: The Science Fiction Horror Special, has been edited by South Australian trio, David Kernot (editor of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine), Jason Fischer (Writers of the Future winner and Aurealis nominee), and David Conyers (author of The Eye of Infinity, The Spiraling Worm and co-editor of Cthulhu Unbound 3), and is due for release in November 2011.
Further details on Midnight Echo can be found at http://www.australianhorror.com/
Previous issues of Midnight Echo can be purchased at http://www.shop.australianhorror.com/