KILLER CREATURES DOWN UNDER: HORROR STORIES WITH BITE ‘BEHIND THE SCENES’ – PART ONE

Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite
‘Behind the Scenes’ – Part One
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KILLER CREATURES DOWN UNDER: HORROR STORIES WITH BITE, conceived and edited by award-winning author and anthology editor Deborah Sheldon, will be released worldwide by IFWG Publishing Australia on 15 May 2023. From creepy-crawlies to crocodiles, you’ll have plenty to fear in this anthology penned by Australian authors. Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite offers disturbing tales that range from the action-packed and visceral, through the historical and futuristic, to the phantasmagorical and supernatural.

In this four-part series exclusive to Ginger Nuts of Horror, the contributors have agreed to pull aside the curtain and reveal the inspiration behind their nightmarish tales.

PART ONE includes insights from editor Deborah Sheldon, and writers Keith Williams, Ben Matthews, and Anthony Ferguson.


Editor Deborah Sheldon on “Species Endangered”, and Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite

My collection, Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories (IFWG Publishing Australia, 2017), is about monsters of all types including mythological, cryptid and supernatural. But when I was writing the original fiction needed to round out my collection, I realised I’d missed one important type: the genuine, flesh-and-blood animal. Since I like to use settings in my own country, I decided to write a story featuring an Australian animal. I Googled a list of our most dangerous creatures, and the story’s plot came to me as soon as I saw a photograph of this real-life killer.

The effect of my story “Species Endangered” partly comes, I believe, from the juxtaposition of the beautiful setting with the threat posed to my characters. Plus, out of all the stories in my collection, “Species Endangered” is the most plausible. I worked in the traits that humans generally find scary about wild animals: how they can be unpredictable, dangerous, and even downright repulsive to look at, let alone touch.

Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories was multi-award-nominated, and won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award. My story “Species Endangered” was also well-received, being selected by Ellen Datlow for her honourable mentions list for best horror of the year. Ever since the collection’s success, I’ve toyed with the idea of curating an anthology of horror tales about Australian creatures of all persuasions.

But it wasn’t until the critical acclaim for my anthology, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies (IFWG Publishing Australia, 2021), that I pitched the idea for Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite. Gerry Huntman, managing director of IFWG Publishing Australia, was intrigued by my concept and saw its potential.

Our contract was quickly signed.

In April 2022, we put out an open call for submissions from Australian authors. (This is the first IFWG anthology that doesn’t include work from commissioned authors.) The animals could be of any type – mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds, invertebrates, fish, arthropods – as long as they were real creatures that are native to Australia. I put no restriction on subgenre. Over the three-month submission window, I received a wealth of stories. I selected the ones that gripped me, unsettled me; stories that interpreted the theme in captivating, unexpected or shocking ways. I also included “Species Endangered” as a reprint since it was my inspiration.

I’m very proud of Killer Creatures Down Under, and hope that it finds a large, receptive audience. The authors who wrote these knock-out stories deserve nothing less.

http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com


Keith Williams on “Corvus”

I always love it when something simple inspires a new story. A song title recently inspired me to write a whole novel. It was “Tombstone Shadow” by Creedence...Yeah, folks, I'm old. And so it was with the invitation to write about Killer Creatures Down Under.

I didn't have to look far to find a villain. Living in a rural area, I only needed to look out the window, note the behaviour of certain critters, and think...What if? That's how it has always been for me when it comes to the craft — establish a baddie, add some characters, and then let them take over.

I've never written copious notes about plot, I usually just make a start with a basic idea, have an ending in mind and the rest just spills out.

Perhaps the biggest challenge in writing any genre of fiction is creating characters that readers can identify with in some way. If you can do that, make them believable, then they will take over the tale and lead the way. That's how it has always happened for me. Or maybe I'm just batshit crazy.

Even short stories like this, though, require numerous re-writes and even when you think it is just right, be assured, it isn't.

I have been writing quite a bit in the first person in recent times as I enjoy experiencing the travails of the main character in a more intensely personal manner, and so it has been with this story. For me, plundering the depths of psychological horror is more terrifying than the blood and gore of many stories. Nothing wrong with the latter — go where your spirit takes you — this is just where I'm at these days.

I had a blast writing this story, fine-tuning it and delving into the whys and wherefores of the protagonists. I hope it freaks you out and makes you wonder next time you look out the window...What if?

If you're interested, you can find most of my novels on Kobo.com. Great stories at bargain prices!


Ben Matthews on “Ixodes Holocyclus”

We all see the world through dead eyes. The vitreous humour or clear jelly that fills our eyeballs is composed of millions of dead cells. If you stare into a cloudless sky, or at a bright light, you can see them, too. They are always there, but you can only see them in certain situations or when you really concentrate.

Ideas for stories are much the same. They are always there, drifting through your mind, or flickering in brief moments of inspiration. Unless you pay attention to them, they disappear just as quickly. Like the dead cells in our eyes, they are old, and used up, and there’s nothing new or original about them. The important thing is not what you look at, but how you see it. The only difference between me and people who do not write is that I record these random ideas. Record them in notebooks or on my phone. Later, when I need inspiration, I will review my notes and look for something I can make into a story.

It is easier to write when I have a theme or a prompt. For me, a set theme is like a seed crystal in a chemical reaction: it creates a foundation for elements to collect and rapidly forms a much larger version of the seed. Previous ideas, different scenes, and characters are drawn to the seed, the better ones latching on, taking form, and turning into a plot. Now, my notes have crystallized, and I have a molecular lattice around which to write a story.

For “Ixodes Holocyclus”, I had a theme: Write a horror story about a native Australian animal that bites. I listed all the animals of which I could recall. Then I removed all the obvious answers. Sharks? It has been done before. Dingoes? Maybe. Kangaroos? Now I was being silly, but the creative juices were flowing.

Before I could decide on an animal, I cast my mind into my notebook, looking for something interesting. An idea that had been floating around for some time was that of a forensic cleaner. A forensic cleaner is a person who tidies up a crime scene and removes the bodies, and all the body parts, after emergency services and investigators are finished with their work. How did I know about this? Through one of our family friends, a retired farmer, who does forensic cleaning to pass the time. According to him, there is nothing more boring than spending the night picking pieces of car accident victims out of bushes and trees all night. “Although,” he said thoughtfully, “it is wild how far a human head will fly if they are not wearing a seat belt.”

I dropped this into the chemical concoction in my mind and watched it swirl around the prompt itself. By the time I chose an animal, all I had to do was build it into the structure that was forming. The hardest part was finding an animal, but eventually, I did it. I found a creature that would frighten even the most battle-worn forensic cleaner.


Anthony Ferguson on “Bait”

The thing I love about short stories, as opposed to novels, is that I can riff the narrative along in a stream of consciousness. What I mean is, I can usually start with one small idea, or even one line from my imagination, and the rest of it just comes out in one or two sittings. It’s only a few thousand words after all, predicated on one major theme. It still takes a lot of effort of course, but it’s not as intense a process as a novel, which I feel has to be carefully mapped out before I start.

In this case, I did a lot of research on deadly Australian creatures. I was looking for an angle I hoped would be unique enough to win me a place in this anthology. No spoilers, but when you read it, you’ll notice that I tease one particular creature, but throw in a twist which is somewhat obscure and one I am confident nobody else will use.

The characters usually come to me as I write. In this case, I knew I needed an Asian Aussie. I riffed on personal memories of a local lady I once spoke to in a street market in Hong Kong. I can’t elaborate any further without hinting at spoilers.

I often pluck images from my own memories and reconstitute them. For example, I went on a fishing trip once and saw a guy hook a hammerhead shark on a line. It leapt out of the water (we cut it loose). There’s also one specific line in the text that came to me before I even started drafting, and I was able to build the narrative around that line.

See, ideas can come from anywhere!

All my stories go through several drafts. I send them out to beta readers for feedback. In this instance, my readers pointed out a major loophole in the plot, which had to be addressed to give the story more impact. Let’s just say it was a matter of life and death.

I hope you enjoy it. You can find me and more of my work here: https://anthonypferguson.wixsite.com/mysite

KILLER CREATURES DOWN UNDER: HORROR STORIES WITH BITE

Australia: the land where everything wants to kill you. A continent filled with some of the deadliest animals in the world.

From creepy-crawlies to crocodiles, you’ll have plenty to fear in this anthology penned by Australian authors. Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite offers disturbing tales that range from the action-packed and visceral, through the historical and futuristic, to the phantasmagorical and supernatural.
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Prepare to confront your animal phobias... And perhaps develop some new ones.


Featuring work by:

Geraldine Borella – Tim Borella – Renee De Visser – Anthony Ferguson – Jason Fischer – Fox Claret Hill – Robert Mammone – Ben Matthews – J.M. Merryt – Helena O’Connor – Steven Paulsen – Antoinette Rydyr – Deborah Sheldon – Charles Spiteri – H.K. Stubbs – Matt Tighe – Keith Williams – Pauline Yates


Curated by Deborah Sheldon, editor of the multi-award-winning and multi-award-nominated anthology, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies.


 KILLER CREATURES DOWN UNDER: HORROR STORIES WITH BITE


Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Killer-Creature-Down-Under-Stories-ebook/dp/B0BLYQWSXS

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DEBORAH SHELDON is a multi-award-winning author, anthology editor, script editor and medical writer from Melbourne, Australia. She writes across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Latest titles include the anthology Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite, novelette The Again-Walkers, collection Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories, and novella Man-Beast.

Award-nominated titles include Body Farm Z, Contrition, Devil Dragon, Thylacines, and Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories. Her collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, and long-listed for a Bram Stoker.

She has won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award twice: for Midnight Echo 14 and for the anthology she conceived and edited, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies. Her short fiction has appeared in respected magazines, podcasts and ‘best of’ anthologies, been translated, and garnered numerous award nominations.

Other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, feature articles, non-fiction books (Reed Books, Random House), play scripts, and award-winning medical writing. Visit Deb at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com



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IFWG PUBLISHING AUSTRALIA and its sister-imprint, IFWG Publishing International, are based in Queensland Australia and has been operating for 12 years. They specialise in speculative fiction for middle grade, young adult, and adult readers, with a strong leaning toward horror and dark fantasy. Both imprints are distributed through Chicago-based IPG, world-wide, including their Spanish language titles. The Australian website:
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https://ifwgaustralia.com/

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