Midnight Echo magazine

With two weeks to go before the release of Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue, the Midnight Goblins, lead by Greg Chapman, cornered the issue’s editor Daniel I Russell and used the cattle prod to get him to answer a question or two…

Midnight Echo’s reputation is gaining momentum, how would does your issue stack up against the previous issues edited by the likes of Leigh Blackmore and Lee Battersby? Give us a run down on the sorts of taboos which feature in the issue.

Thanks for reminding me, Greg! It was my biggest concern when I was considering the position: how the hell do you fill such big shoes? The reputation of Midnight Echo has been well-earned through releasing quality magazines full of excellent fiction and articles. What if I ruined it all? What if my issue pales in comparison to its predecessors? Who is this joker who ruined Australia’s premier horror magazine?

Now that the magazine is at the layout stage and the stories, poetry and artwork are put to bed, I’m confident that issue 7 will fit right in with the previous issues. Our proof readers and in-house editors enjoyed the selected pieces by such names as Lee Battersby, Gary Kemble and Andrew J. McKiernan. We also have a brand new story by horror legend Graham Masterton, with an in-depth interview. Joe R. Lansdale and horror photographer Joshua Hoffine feature, with Joshua providing our stunning cover image.

And what taboos are on offer? We received probably every taboo you can think of during our submissions window. Technically, anything forbidden can be considered as taboo, but due to our desensitised modern society (he says!), I wanted really dark taboo elements. Fifty years ago, most of our horror stories would have been considered taboo, so these stories had to push the boundaries without overstepping the mark. I could have easily produced a magazine filled with splatter and extremities, but hopefully readers will be pleasantly surprised.

Specifically, we’re featuring stories that dabble in drugs, sexual fetishes, crippling secrets, addictions and basically places any decent member of society should stay away from.

Your own work seems to feature taboos. Is that why you chose that theme for ME 7?

It wasn’t really my own writing preferences that influenced the theme of the issue. I knew that I’d be doing a hell of a lot of reading for this, and I wanted to enjoy the experience. Is that selfish? I don’t know, but if I’d opted for romantic horror, I know that the submissions process wouldn’t have been as much fun for me personally, and my heart wouldn’t have been in it. That would not have led to the best magazine I could produce.

How can I sum up my love for the taboo? There’s a story I read a while ago called The Narcslaag by Matthew Fryer. It started off as pretty usual and descended darker and darker. That moment when you’re reading a story and, if you’re like me, the nastier part of your brain perks up. Is this writer taking this where I think he’s taking it? He wouldn’t dare…would he? That feeling of wanting to turn the page, but dreading what you’ll find on the other side. THAT is what horror is all about for me, and putting out a call for taboo stories I felt would garner that kind of storytelling.

This isn’t your first editing gig – you were editor for Necrotic tissue for many years. How did the editing process differ for ME 7?

Editing on the Necrotic team was easier as we went through the process four times a year, plus the submissions pile was split four ways! Then we had the democratic way of selecting the final table of contents, resulting in a combination of tastes. Yes, it felt a bit daunting at times with Midnight Echo, seeing all those submissions piling up, but now the work is done, it’s the pressure that’s the thing. This wasn’t a democratic selection process. This was me. If readers don’t like the stories…it’s on my head. And again, this being such a popular magazine, stakes are high!

I imagine you enjoy writing over editing?

With my own work, yes. The editing stage is like cleaning up after a party. The fun’s been had and the clean-up is a necessary evil! Editing a magazine is a different beast and it’s hard to compare. What I enjoy the most is discovering unknown talent. I’ve come across quite a few Australian writers who aren’t as established as others in this submissions period, and I’ll be hoping to read more from them in the coming years.

Graham Masterton features in the issue in an interview and with a brand new story….”What the Dark Does”. In his interview he expresses a fair bit of admiration for Australia and ME. Did you approach him for a story submission or was he already aware of Midnight Echo Magazine?

I’d contacted Graham in the past in the Necrotic Tissue days so when we were discussing possible big name authors to appear in Midnight Echo, he was obviously a contender. Also… this is a taboo issue! Graham’s been pushing boundaries his entire career so was a perfect fit for this particular issue. This also revealed how many huge Masterton fans there are in Australia.

Were there a lot of submissions for ME 7?

I’d love to give a figure but don’t have one at hand, but oh yes, there were many, many submissions!

Were there any stories that were just too taboo, or did too taboo guarantee you a spot in the issue

The taboo itself would not have guaranteed a spot without originality, a strong voice and a high level of writing skill on show. Most of the rejections were great horror stories, but didn’t have a dark enough taboo element. Granted that a slasher story, for example, includes forbidden acts (stabbing, hacking and…sawing, for example), to stand out from the crowd stories needed more than standard horror fair.

There was nothing too taboo, but some of the delivery wasn’t quite right for the feel of the magazine. Taboo doesn’t necessarily mean extreme. Even with some of the selected stories, we stripped the gory details right back. Less became more. I wanted readers’ imaginations to fill in the gaps.

A special tribute to the late Paul Haines will feature in ME 7 – can you give us some insight into what it will involve?

We wanted to introduce Paul and his work to readers who might not have had the pleasure, and what better way than to reprint one of his most successful stories? We’re proud to feature Paul’s story A Slice of Life: A Spot of Liver. It was hard to pick just one story, especially when considering the taboo element! We also have a few quotes from the man himself and the touching speech written and delivered by Cat Sparks at the memorial service for Paul.

Anything else you’d like to add?

Just a gratuitous plug!

Save and win with our Subscription Drive, on now! Prizes include $100 gift certificates from Cemetery Dance, professional short story critiquing, signed books by Graham Masterton, and lots more. Full details on our Subscription page.

All new Specials Page: go check it out and see what you can save!

Visit The Midnight Shop to purchase your copy now.

(Courtesy of Greg Chapman)

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

Also, don’t forget our Subscription Drive, with all manner of awesome prizes to be won! That closes on May 31, too.

* * *

While affairs and one night stands might seem common place and even accepted in our media, our good old boys believe in the sanctity of marriage. Adultery here is taboo. You don’t do it, hell, you don’t even speak about it. A.J. Brown gives us a small but colourful cast out in the woods, and one of them is about to toe that line…

Just Some Good Old Boys… by A.J. Brown

Shawn says nothing more, just takes a long defiant drag on the cigarette and then blows the smoke out. He turns the subject away from his smoking. “So, you ever want to plough into a car and take care of a sum’bitch that cut you off?”

“Sure, I have,” Roscoe answers, sets the stick back on the ground. His beer can is getting light and his head just the opposite. He can feel the weight of the alcohol as it affects his brain, making things a little less crisp. Roscoe tosses the can in the fire, beer spilling from it as it flies. It hisses as the liquid evaporates in the flames. “But, I’m not talking about road rage or anything like that.”

“What else is there?” Big Joe asks. “If not your wife’s tits or getting cut-off in traffic, what else is there?”

Ah, there’s the wife comment again. This time Roscoe sniffles hard, the smoke from the fire filling his lungs. His eyebrows furl and he licks his dry lips. He ponders letting it go, that maybe the first couple times Big Joe brought up Rhonda, it was the beer talking. If that were the case, then no harm no foul. He was drunk and probably wouldn’t remember it in the morning. But this last time… it was deliberate and without the aid of Budweiser or Miller to push him to flapping his gums. Roscoe knows this. Hell, they all know it.

It occurs to him that Big Joe is egging him on, trying to see how far he could go before he got pissed. Maybe Big Joe is still jealous? Rhonda did date him for a while before hooking up with and then marrying him. Maybe…

Sure, that’s it, his mind says. What else could it be? He was jealous and he was drunk and that combination was rarely ever good. But, all the other times he mentioned Rhonda there was no one else around. It was like Big Joe constantly had to remind him that he had stolen Rhonda away. But, this time there were friends around. That made it feel wrong. That made it feel all kinds of wrong.

Roscoe’s smile creases his face. Robert must have seen it. And so did Shawn. Both of them stand and casually walk toward the trucks.

“Someone ever piss you off and all you wanted to do was kill them? Huh, Big Joe? You ever want to gut someone like a Thanksgiving turkey?”

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

Also, don’t forget our Subscription Drive, with all manner of awesome prizes to be won!

* * *

Horrid places and horrid people are things often not discussed in polite company. Schiller has the pleasure of both as he rides through the night, sharing his subway car with the drunks, the drugged and the crazy. It’s his obsession…but something down here in the dark is just as obsessed with him. So step aboard, feel that hypnotic sway of motion, enjoy the Dead Inertia.

Dead Inertia by Eric Blair

The giant’s skin was pale, almost white, but damp as well, as if the man had sweated all the colour out of it, bled it through his pores and now had it flowing down his face. The edges of skin against his hair were bloodied, like a failed attempt at a scalping. A mess of unshaven hair under the chin might once have been a goatee. The ragged and heavy clothes were thick with some dark, viscous fluid. It seemed that he wasn’t breathing.

Under this silent review that stretched  for at least half a minute, the man said nothing. Then his arm, well-muscled and long, reached down. His hand clamped over Schiller’s, gripping tight and furiously cold. The fingers were ice, frozen digits speaking of a deep and hostile winter. But the grip was not hard. There was no fierceness to it, and though terrified, Schiller could not help but feel something familiar in that embrace; like the man was trying to let him know that they were, in fact, long lost brothers, and that their coming together was to be an occasion for joy.

And with these conflicting impressions, Schiller simply sat, speechless and motionless, but awake. He considered trying to use his whiskey bottle as a bludgeon, forcing the man to let go, but this thought was far away. It wandered across his mind with no real connection to his body. He looked back up at that white face. The eyes bore the same welcoming iciness. Then the man, or whatever he might have been, released him and simply walked away, moving not for the doors of the slowing train, but to the next car. He did not look back, but his arm lingered as he passed into the space between the cars. The fingers at first seemed to point back to him, a gesture not unlike the shape of a gun. They curled, the wrist turning over, seeming to beckon him: calling him forward,  deeper into the night that moved with him wherever the train should go.

The train  stopped. The doors of the car opened, but the station was empty. Schiller sat alone, silent and with a sense of unfolding terror in the stolid and motionless car. The doors closed, and the train started to move once again.

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

Also, don’t forget our Subscription Drive, with all manner of awesome prizes to be won!

* * *

Tammy misses her daddy, unlike her uncaring mother. He taught her how to hunt, how to load the shotgun and how to stuff the carcasses. Locked in his hunting room, surrounded by mounted kills and ammunition, Tammy’s going to show her mother…

The Hunting Room by Kia Groom

Momma was out of the house today. She was out of the house a lot since Daddy died. She’d come home smelling of sweat and cigarettes, talking about how lucky they were. How life was going to change for them.

Tammy didn’t want things to change. Things had changed enough.

The door to the hunting room swung open, giving up the scent of mothballs and dust, a perfume masking something organic and decayed.

Tammy stood in the doorway and breathed it in, slowly.

When Daddy had been alive they’d spent a lot of time in this room together. Daddy had shown her how to gut a carcass. How to flay the skin from the meat. How to preserve the parts you wanted to keep.

Those grisly treasures covered the walls. A crazy-eyed bull stared down from above the fireplace, mouth gaping, yellowed teeth exposed. From the corner, a congregation of smaller creatures (some road kill, some critters Tammy remembered having killed herself) watched her with blank, unseeing eyes. Their little bodies were erect, posed to convey a sense of interest. They seemed sympathetic, Tammy thought. They were keeping a silent vigil over Daddy’s things.

On the work bench remained a collection of tools Daddy had used. They were not cleaned or put away, just abandoned. A set of tiny scissors lay open, crusted to the split in dark brown blood. A scalpel was still imbedded in the corpse of a possum.

Tammy ran her fingers along the matted fur on the head of the creature. She had always liked animals best when they were dead; when they were still and glass-eyed – when they didn’t have to struggle any more. Sometimes the kills would thrash about if you shot them wrong. Daddy said if something was in pain you should always put it out of its misery.

Momma had never understood hunting. She’d fought with Daddy about it a lot, and fought him even more when he wanted to take Tammy with him. But Momma never won those fights. Tammy would help Daddy carry his guns, would be there to pick the still-twitching corpses from the ground. Daddy said that Momma was just jealous. Tammy liked that idea; that she and Daddy shared something that Momma would never understand.

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

Also, don’t forget our Subscription Drive, with all manner of awesome prizes to be won!

* * *

Surely we know by now not to push the boundaries of science? A professor astounds his students with theories of perception and symmetry, but maybe the universe has its own taboos? The dark things that mankind isn’t to probe and investigate?

Symmetry Fades by Rick McQuiston

“Behold, my denizens, the sole barrier between sanity and madness.”

It was a box. A simple object, constructed of a seamless metal of some sort. Eighteen inches square, it was utterly featureless, thus completing its apparently useless purpose and design.

“Excuse me, professor,” Johnson Tomal said with a stark undertone of disdain in his words, “but it’s just a box.”

“Exactly!” Laqueril retorted. He scanned the audience for their reaction to his outburst. “But not quite. Not entirely.” He swung his excited gaze over to the far left side of the classroom. Several of the students seated there were wearing expressions of disbelief. Their confusion was not aimed at their teacher. Rather, it was directed to another person in the class:

Johnson Tomal.

Another hand was raised.

“Yes, Ms. Samanther?”

“Excuse me, Professor, but I must say, as I am sure my fellow classmates would as well, that he is wrong.” She pointed a long fingertip painted with pink nail polish at Johnson Tomal. “It’s not a box. It’s a sphere, a ball of some sort.” Several other people seated next to her nodded their heads in agreement.

“Interesting,” Professor Laqueril added, “but you are both correct… and yet neither of you are.”

“But Professor,” a brash young man on the opposite side of the room named Tom Waunt chimed in, “I don’t see a box or a ball.” He leaned back slightly to converse with two other men seated directly behind him. “I mean, we see a triangle. It appears to be equilateral as far as we can tell.”

“Excellent!” Professor Laqueril beamed. “Excellent! But I must inform you fine young people you are not entirely correct either. Nor are you wrong.” He bent down, and retrieving the white sheet from the floor, set it aside on his desk. “So tell me,” he continued amid the confused chatter of the classroom, “what do you see… Mr. Lessotto? Please describe to the class what you see on the table before you.”

Samuel Lessotto glanced nervously to either side, his horn-rimmed glasses literally fogging up from his perspiration.

“I see a strange hybrid of shapes. Partly rectangular, and part hexagonal. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

Here it is, the cover for Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue, edited by Daniel Russell….

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

AND DON’T FORGET! Take out a Print subscription now and be in to win hundreds of $$ worth of cool prizes! Full details here.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

Also, don’t forget our Subscription Drive, with all manner of awesome prizes to be won!

* * *

Dark and gritty are the two words that spring to mind when reading the work of G.N. Braun. Away from the supernatural and macabre, Braun takes us to a place all too common. There’s nothing more terrifying than reality

Brand New Day by G. N. Braun

In the small space between the fence and a storage shed, a young girl I knew was crouched, all hunched over and trying to shoot up in her forearm. I hadn’t damaged my veins enough that I had to look anywhere apart from the inner elbow-joint, but it was only a matter of time. Most things were only a matter of time. I walked up to her, saw the foil opened on the grass, and next to it the brown bag her fit-kit would have been in, saw the look of intense concentration on her face as she fished for a vein. I waited patiently for her to find one.

Soon enough, red blood blossomed in the chamber of her syringe. Depressing the plunger, she let out what I assumed was an involuntary sigh of pleasure as the drug took hold. She noticed my shadow falling on her and looked up, eyes glazed and pupils shrinking to pinheads as she sought to focus on who was standing there. It took her a second to recognise me, relief evident on her face when she saw it wasn’t the cops. Still, getting busted after you had a taste was certainly better than getting busted before and losing the gear.

“Hey, Nadia. Nice gear?” I asked.

“Yeah, I just scored from Craig. It’s pretty good,” she said.

“I only score from Asians,” I told her. “Fucking Aussies always end up ripping me off.”

She nodded, the movement exaggerated by the heroin coursing through her veins, numbing her senses and making her jerk slightly.

“You wouldn’t have a spare fit, would you?” I asked. “A clean one, that is.”

“Yeah, mate. I just picked up a five-pack from the exchange.” She reached for the brown paper-bag, pulling out a vial of water and an unopened syringe. The water was to wash out her syringe, and the fit was for me. She handed it over, and I stuffed it in my sock.

I left her to her high and moved off towards home, eager to have my shot. I looked around carefully when I got out from behind the flats, but I couldn’t see any cops. There were a heap of Aborigines sitting on the sheltered seats on my left, and a couple of Asian guys and some Aussies sitting on the brick-work near the playground to my right.

Moving fast, I walked past the group of indigenous guys and curved around into the parking area that led past the newer walk-up flats.

What was I doing? I had to stop this shit before it was too late. Before I ended up in jail or on a slab, waiting for Mum or Gary to come down and identify me. Not now, I thought. Maybe next week. I’d book into The Bridge Detox Unit and get myself clean. Yeah, maybe next week.

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

While the Midnight goblins are busy with current submissions, we’ve decided to hold a subscription drive in the buildup to Midnight Echo Issue 7, the taboo issue, edited by Daniel Russell.

If you take out a Print subscription between now and May 31, you will go into the draw to win one of the following great prizes:

1. A copy of THE NINTH NIGHTMARE by Graham Masterton, signed and personally messaged to the winners. (Three to give away)
2. A signed and framed copy of ROBOT by Joshua Hoffine (the cover artist for ME7)
3. Five $100 gift certificates from Cemetery Dance Publications
4. A free short story critique from Kathy Ptacek* (Little Bird Editorial Services)
5. A free 2-year print subscription to Midnight Echo magazine

Print subscriptions go for as little as AU$20/year. Full details can be found here.

Prizes will be drawn on May 31 through random draws, so don’t miss out! Please note, all current Print subscribers are automatically entered into the draw.

Robot by Joshua Hoffine (Midnight Echo Issue 7)

* = Kathryn Ptacek has published 20+ books, including Satan’s Angel, which made the L.A. Times bestseller list; her novels are now being reissued in e-book format by Necon Ebooks and Crossroad Press.  She has written numerous short stories, articles, reviews, columns, and whatnots over the years.  She is also the editor of the landmark anthology, Women of Darkness, and its follow-up, Women of Darkness II; she also edited Women of the West.  Her newsletter, the Gila Queen’s Guide to Markets, focuses on publishers, magazines, contests, anthologies for writers and artists of all genres, and has been published in one form or another since 1988.  For the past decade or so, she has served as the editor of the monthly newsletter for the Horror Writers Assn.  She shares an old Victorian house with four rowdy cats; she collects unusual teapots, cat whiskers, and Gila monster stuff.

Kathryn also has an editing business, Little Bird Editorial Services, and will be offering her services free for one short story.  She’ll check the story for characterization, plot, spelling, grammar, formatting, punctuation, story flow, active voice, sentence structure … in other words, what she calls “the whole enchilada” of editing.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday from now on in the lead up to the May 31st release.

* * *

The wrongness was baking off the screen. I couldn’t have put it better myself. Gary Kemble spins a bleak tale of a reporter dealing with the death of his family and is presented with a story he can’t ignore. An unsettling tale, this is one will have you dread turning that last page.

Saturday Night at the Milk Bar by Gary Kemble

Vampires. The word hung on the screen, burning itself into my eyes. Around me the office carried on as usual: fingers stabbing at keyboards, stage-whispered phone conversations, the Chief of Staff cursing, and the babble of Sky News. It barely penetrated my bubble. I’d been drinking a lot. Too much? I don’t know. How much is too much when you’ve just buried your family? They put Donna in the ground, and Meg’s tiny coffin went down next to her. My olds wanted the funerals on different days. They wanted me to suit up two days running, just so ‘that bitch’ wouldn’t get the satisfaction. I said no. They turned up anyway. My step-brother spat on Donna’s coffin.

I stared at the email, pointer hovering over delete. Vampires. Vampires in Brisbane. A secret club. A soundproof room in an industrial estate in the badlands out past Inala, where members gathered to feed.

When you work in journalism, you hear rumours. Lots of them. Your inbox chokes on them. The TRUTH about THE REAL King of England. The SECRET CONSPIRATORS behind 9/11. Chemtrails and lizardmen. You learn to filter the crap. The crazies go first – anything with whole words in caps and multiple exclamation marks. The cadet can do it, and often does. The more mundane stuff is trickier. Councillors on the take. Police in cahoots with bikies. There’s usually a nugget of truth in it. But like a prospector looking for gold, you have to ask yourself whether that nugget is worth the sweat involved in unearthing it. Usually, the answer is no.

This email should have gone straight in the trash, but that day I needed to believe that there were things more horrific than a woman drowning her baby and then dosing up on sleeping pills, climbing into the bath next to her, and slitting her wrists. I clicked reply. Later, staring down into that 44-gallon drum, I wished I’d clicked delete and got on with grieving like normal people do.

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.*

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

Join writer and illustrator Greg Chapman over at his Darkscrybe website for an interview with Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom writer, Mark Farrugia. The interview can be read here.

Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom will be published in Midnight Echo Issue 7, due out on May 31, and the comic series will continue in Issue 8 (November).

Page 1 of the next chapter, "Allure of the Ancients: The Key to His Kingdom."

Here's a little from the interview:

Greg: Rahkh returns in Midnight Echo #7 with the first chapter of a new story, The Key to His Kingdom, where we get to see some of Rahkh’s past and his manipulation of mankind. There are a few taboos, which fit in with the issue’s theme, but what is your overall intent with the Allure and Rahkh series?

Mark: Originally with The Key to His Kingdom I wanted to explore fractured human relationships and vampire lore in historical settings. I was keen to create a secret vampire/human history before going on to explain the reason behind the vampires aversion to Christian symbols. However, when I pitched the idea to Midnight Echo Executive Editor Marty Young he wanted me to “..think how the horror genre could take back the vampire and make this creature horrifying again. Get rid of the sparkles and romance.” Then, when I formally submitted the idea to Editor Daniel I Russell he wanted my story to focus more on taboos. I sort of merged a little of what everyone wanted and the result seems to work, I think.

Read the full interview here.

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday and Wednesday in the lead up to the May 31st release.

* * *

Traumatic events, despite the counselling and the treatment, can shape our lives and make us who we are. Sometimes, these events can combine, twisting and malforming, entering taboo territory. Anthony Ferguson explores this idea in Driven.

Driven by Anthony Ferguson

Mr Blackford was a house guest of ours for a while. He became one of my charges, and I took particular interest in his case. I was there to take care of his basic needs, keep him medicated when required, clean up after him, make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anyone else and all that. I had ample opportunity to dig around and examine the motives for what he did.

Blackford had a specific sexual paraphilia. What I mean to say is, this wasn’t your run-of-the-mill pervert. Like old Mr Thompson, for example, who liked to expose himself to women in public. He would head out in a pair of tracky-daks with nothing underneath, hide in the bushes, and whip them down as soon as anything in a skirt ventured past, no matter what age the unwitting passer-by might be. He was undone when the local residents sussed him out and a welcoming party lay in wait for him in the park one day.

Then there was Mr Simpson, who was a coproscopist. He liked to play with shit. He would pay prostitutes to come to his house and defecate onto a glass-topped coffee table while he lay prostrate underneath masturbating. He got his come-uppance when the table gave way under the weight of one young lady and both of them fronted up at the local hospital to have several fragments of glass removed from their persons.

But I digress. Mr Blackford’s was an unusual case and one which intrigued me. He got an erotic charge from imagining graphic images of the aftermath of automobile accidents. It was said that after the car wreck which took the life of his female passenger, a conflagration in which traces of sperm were found amidst the pieces of charred and twisted metal and plastic, that the investigating officers found his one room flat adorned with pictures of car wrecks. Further incriminating were the digital images they discovered on his laptop.

It transpired that prior to staging his own successful homicide attempt with an alleged willing partner, he had planned a series of similar motor vehicle accidents by tampering with the car engines of a range of attractive strangers whom he had stalked for months on end. There were complete dossiers of their activities, their relationships, their habits, and everyone they came into contact with. The man was insane, of course, but there was a hell of a method to his madness. You had to admire the lengths to which he went to act out his fantasies.

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

With Midnight Echo Issue 7 creeping up on us like your favourite serial killer, the issue’s editor, Daniel Russell, thought you all deserved a sneak peek at the taboos within, a little slice of pleasure to tide you over…. So we’ll be posting story excerpts every Sunday and Wednesday in the lead up to the May 31st release.

* * *

Midnight Echo doesn’t shy away from controversy! Shaun Hamilton takes us into the twisted mind of a serial kidnapper, but sex and violence aren’t the taboos here. Oh no.

Commode by Shaun Hamilton

She murmurs; nothing too strident, but enough to inform the others of his presence. They shuffle as though seated in a cinema or theatre; eager to find a more comfortable position but unable to move too much for getting in the way of others. Heads lift from chests, blind eyes search for a source. With their chins up, they reveal their nameplates: gold necklaces carrying lockets engraved with the name of a celebrity. The girl in high heels reveals herself to be a brunette Dita Von Teese; the purple bra is a fuller-figured Gillian Anderson. The woman clad in the basque reminds him of Chrissie Hynde from The Pretenders, and the girl wearing only the white gloves had made him think of Emma Watson with platinum blonde hair when he first saw her walking the streets. The naked lady is the image of Scarlett Johansson.

And now he must buy a necklace for Catherine.

Recent additions to his collection start talking. Dita and Gillian have each been his for less than a month, and feel they still have something to say. Their futile pleadings are a familiar soundtrack to his work. Longer residents know there’s no point; that they’re only wasting their breath. Chrissie Hynde has been with him the longest. He’s had others before her, but they were gone now; dead or released into the woods to fend for themselves. Only when their minds are little more than mush does he grant them their final wish, releasing them into a wilderness far removed from civilization. An act of kindness, or would it better to let them die on the commode as others have done? It’s not something he likes to give much thought to, though he does wonder why – and how – Chrissie hasn’t yet succumbed to the futility of it all. Strong willpower? Frustration?

Hatred?

*

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$10.00 (plus $2.50 Australia-wide postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$20.00 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

Midnight Echo, the official magazine of the Australian Horror Writers’ Association, is pleased to announce the line for issue 7: The Taboo issue, due out on May 31. So if you like your addictions, your fetishes and all the other things you’ve been told not to like, slip on your latex gloves and take a peek inside. We’d love to indulge in your secret pleasures…and terrors.

Editor: Daniel Russell

Cover art by Joshua Hoffine

Fiction

Commode by Shaun Hamilton

Driven by Anthony Ferguson

Saturday Night at the Milk Bar by Gary Kemble

Symmetry Fades by Rick McQuiston

The Hunting Room by Kia Groom

Brand New Day by G. N. Braun

Dead Inertia by Eric Blair

Just Some Good Old Boys Sitting Around the Fire Talking Shit by A.J Brown

Parlour Party by Michael Penkas

The Case of the Kissing Corpse by Jack Skelter

My First Horror Show by Ed Higgins

I Like to Share by Ron Jon

Ghosts of You by Lee Battersby

See Jane Mesmerised! by Tom McLaughlin

The Final Degustation of Doctor Ernest Blenheim by Andrew J. McKiernan

What the Dark Does by Graham Masterton

Comic

Allure of the Ancients – The Key to His Kingdom by Mark Farrugia and Greg Chapman

Poetry

Cat by Michelle Scalise

Pain and Pin Me Sweetly, My Love by Kurt Newton

Pleasure Me by Bec Mirr

Interviews

Graham Masterton

Joe R. Lansdale

Joshua Hoffine

Art

Greg Hughes

Jason Paulos

Joshua Hoffine

Plus a special tribute to Paul Haines.

We will be posting teasers of each story on the Midnight Echo website over the coming weeks, so be sure to check back often to see what delights are in store…

Pre-orders for the limited edition print run are now being taken.
If you live in Australia:

AU$12.50 (includes postage)

If you live overseas:

AU$17.50 (includes postage)

If you wish to purchase more than 1 copy, please contact us at Midnight Echo and we will provide a quote for postage.

And don’t forget, Midnight Echo Issue 6, the science fiction horror special, is still available in both print and digital formats. Click here to purchase your copy now.

Midnight Echo Issue 8, edited by Amanda J Spedding, Mark Farrugia, and Marty Young, is now open to submissions. The reading period runs from March 1 to June 30, 2012.

The theme of Midnight Echo Issue 8 is knock our socks off with a damn good horror story! What do we mean by that? Well, we’re looking for stories that we might have trouble digesting. Stories that leave us feeling scared and excited about what’s in store… Scare us, shock us, freak us out, get up-close and personal with your imagination and startle us with the end result. We’re open to everything, but only the best will survive.

You can read the full submission guidelines here. In fact, we’d recommend you do so before sending us your story. We have goblins you see, hungry wee goblins eager to gobble down any story that doesn’t follow our guidelines…

The AHWA and creators of Midnight Echo magazine are pleased to announce that a new short story by horror legend Graham Masterton will be appearing in Issue 7.

Graham has published more than 35 horror novels in his career, his debut being The Manitou in 1976 which became an instant bestseller and was made into a motion picture. He has been awarded numerous awards and recently had a special issue of Cemetery Dance in his name.

‘Graham Masterton has been a hero of mine since I first read him as a teenager. He is iconic within both the horror genre and the larger literature scene, especially here in Australia and in Europe. To have Graham in Midnight Echo is a great honour, and hopefully begins a new era for the vanguard magazine of the AHWA.’ Geoff Brown, AHWA President.

Graham’s story, What the Dark Does, in Midnight Echo #7 explores childhood fears that follow us into our adult lives…particular the terror of the dark, what it hides and our reluctance to reveal this childish phobia.

In addition to Graham’s story, we’re also happy to reveal that acclaimed horror photographer and artist, Joshua Hoffine, will be providing cover art.

“Horror tells us that our belief in security is delusional, and that the monsters are all around us.” (from www.joshuahoffine.com)

We’re certain the cover for Issue 7 will live up to the high Midnight Echo standard while setting the taboo feel perfectly.

With submissions closed and the remaining stories being read, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank everybody that sent in a story, poem, or example of their artwork. There have been some fantastic stories that didn’t quite meet the needs of the theme, and I sincerely hope that these pieces find the homes they deserve. It has been both an honour and a pleasure to read your work.

Final selections will be made in the next two weeks and contracts sent to those who make the table of contents.