This short story is about an actual place near Kiama where I live in the Illawarra. The story was a semi finalist in the Aussiecon 4 Make Ready fantasy/scfi competition 2010. It's now part of my short story collection: A Matter of Perception “Hurry up,” Con shouted. His voice sliced through Ellen’s morning fog. She groaned and rolled over, pulling the quilt over her head. Con poked his head into the bedroom. “Are you coming or what?” “I’m coming,” Ellen grumbled. She struggled out of bed and grabbed last night’s clothes off the floor. “I wanna see this place as much as you do, I’d just rather do it later, that’s all.” “I’m not going later.” “I know,” she growled. Why else would she be getting up before sunrise. Half an hour later, they stood in lung-searing cold staring at blocks of jagged rock silhouetted against a predawn sky. Waves crashed, splashing treachery. A briny breeze whined around the basalt forms and Ellen shivered. The rocky monoliths reminded … [Read more...]
Review: Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
Title: Shadow of Night Author: Deborah Harkness Publisher: Penguin Genre: Historical fantasy Shadow of Night is the sequel to the popular book A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. That novel introduced Diana Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. At the end of the first book, which I enjoyed immensely (though I read the paperback and struggled with the tiny text), Diana and Matthew go back in time and we are left wondering where they end up. In this book we find them in Elizabethan London in a world of spies, subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew's old friends, the mysterious School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh. Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of Ashmole … [Read more...]
