Ruminations on being an immigrant
Ruminations on being an immigrant
Welcome to my latest newsletter
Hey fiends
What’s new? I hope this finds you well. We’ve been having wild thunderstorms around here lately, which I always enjoy. Although we could use a little less water, ironically, because three years ago we were in drought. Ah, Australia in the era of climate change!
It’s like another world here compared to where I grew up. Being originally from an English country village… Well, back up a little. I was born in Crawley, which was known as Crawley Newtown back then as it was part of the great urbanisation where suburbs spread like mould across the landscape. We were poor as hell and living in a two-up-two-down terrace with other housing in every direction. I really learned about poverty in those days, even though I was very young. I remember it well, the struggles imprinted on me. But my dad went to night school, worked hard, and got lucky with some job opportunities and he pulled us out of poverty. When I was 7, we moved to a little country village. No shit, it was called Donkey Town. Classic. I used to walk up the lane and buy eggs and milk directly from the farmer as one of my chores.
Anyway, my point is, that lifestyle compared to where I live now in dairy country in rural Australia is a strange combination of familiarity and strangeness. The colonial nature of white Australia means so much of the culture here is like a weird combination of British and American, leading that uniquely Australian vibe. While at the same time, this land is ancient and the Indigenous population has been here for tens of thousands of years. That history and geography, impossible to ignore however much some people might want to, gives this place such an air of alienness to me—at heart, I’m still a little British lad from a small English village. And I love that. While I miss a lot about living in England, I really enjoy the sensation of being a stranger in a strange land.
I think it gives me a fairly unique perspective on Australia and maybe that’s why I explore weird Australia and small town horror so much in my fiction. Perhaps I see it differently from someone who was born here and has always known this place and only this place. However well-travelled you are, you need to live in a place to truly know it. My life is pretty much half and half with the UK and Australia. In fact, it won’t be long before I’ve lived in Australia longer than I lived in the UK, but you can never override the impression of the place where you were born and grew up. That’s intrinsic.
Anyway, this is the sort of stuff I’ve been ruminating on lately as I write the things I write. I’m working on a couple of big projects at the moment. One is a novel set in Wollongong, that’s a creepy thriller with no overtly supernatural shenanigans. It’s a slight departure for me and I’m enjoying it a lot. The other thing is a mystery serial that I’m posting weekly on Patreon for people at the Monster Level and above. That one is set in Tasmania, another place very close to my heart. It starts in Hobart but also explores that rural weirdness I like so much.
We’ll see where both of those things go. Right now, I’m not actually sure exactly where either of them are headed…
So, what else is new? Well, not much honestly. Other than working on the things above, but I’m keeping busy.
One of the things on the cards for the near future is the next novel with David Wood, and on that front, if you’ve ever wondered about collaborating with another author, David and I are running an online workshop on exactly that topic. It’s two one-hour sessions a week apart on the 18th and 25th February in America, which will be the mornings of the 19th and 26th February here in Aus.
Dave posted a short video explaining it here:
You can register here: https://www.paypal.com/instantcommerce/checkout/HQ7E5AJARBZKW
What I’ve been Enjoying
Following on from Andor, I’ve been catching up with other Star Wars shows. I loved The Mandalorian – it really had that nostalgic Saturday morning Westerns vibe going on which was loads of fun - so I’m now halfway through The Book of Boba Fett, which is pretty much The Mandalorian just without Mando himself. It’s also good fun.
In books, my copy of Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year volume 14 arrived and I’m slowly chewing through that. It’s always so good. And I’m also continuing my readthrough of the John Connolly Charlie Parker series. I’m up to book 7 now which seems to be a book dedicated to Parker’s friends and allies, Angel and Louis. It’s an interesting departure and I’m enjoying it, but a Charlie Parker book without Charlie Parker in it is weird.
Lastly, before I go, I wanted to drop a mention of a Kickstarter you might be interested in. Ashley Capes is an Australian fantasy novelist (and a poet and teacher) and he’s Kickstarting a new fantasy trilogy. This will be his (I think!) third fantasy series, described as “a multi-pov epic fantasy series with a connected story that follows four main characters on their struggles after being exiled from their homes, their loved ones and even their nations too.” Check it out here if that sounds interesting:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lionsheart/exiles-an-epic-fantasy-trilogy
Okay, that’s all from me for now. Keep being awesome, dear fiends, and as ever, hit me up any time in the comments or elsewhere. (On that front, the new potential Twitter replacement, Spoutible, is up and running and I really like it so far. Come and join me there and see what you think.)
Cheers and big love to all.
Al