Leigh Blackmore
Leigh BLACKMORE (BCA, Writing, Hons) (pictured above with Thoth, the Egyptian god of writing and magic) is a lifelong enthusiast of horror and the supernatural. He is the current/second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association, having been elected in Sept 2010 as the successor to Dr Marty Young.He is editor of Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror (Sydney: Coronet, 1993); co-author (with Dr Van Ikin) The Eternal Yes: The Affirmations of Terry Dowling (forthcoming); author Harlan Ellison/Terry Dowling/Jack Dann: A Bibliographic Checklist (Sydney: R’lyeh Texts, 1996); co-author (with S.T. Joshi) H.P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: A Bibliographical Supplement 1980-84 (West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1985) author, Brian Lumley: A New Bibliography (Sydney: Dark Press, 1984; San Bernadino CA: Borgo Press, 1986).
He is co-editor (with chief editor Phillip A. Ellis and with James Doig & Danny Lovecraft) of the bi-annual critical journal Studies in Australian Weird Fiction (Equilibrium Books).(See http://www.equilibriumbooks.com/siawf3.htm). The critical component of his Honours thesis was on Australian sf writer Terry Dowling's Tom Rynosseros Cycle. (A download is available here http://www.scribd.com/doc/28002113/Deep-in-the-Reality-Crisis-Individuation-Mytho-Realism-and-Surrealistic-Traces-in-Terry-Dowling-s-Tom-Rynosseros-Cycle ).
Leigh has contributed to various scholarly works on speculative fiction including Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press, 2005) and Monthly Terrors (Greenwood Press, 1985). Other critical writings and interviews with leading writers in speculative fiction have appeared in Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine, Calenture, Crypt of Cthulhu, Dagon, Dayspring, E.O.D., FuBar, Masque Noir, Outpost, Severed Head, Shadowplay, Shoggoth, Sirius, Tabula Rasa and www.tabula-rasa.com, Talents, & Twilit Grotto.(An old article on writers of weird fiction and the magical Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn can be found at: http://www.shadowplayzine.com/Articles/hermetic_horrors.htm; and an article on Robert Bloch can be found at http://mgpfeff.home.sprynet.com/essay_blackmore.html)(And you can read his interview with Jack Dann at: http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/JackDann.html and one with Colin Wilson at http://colinwilsonworld.co.uk/interview1.aspx)
His weird fiction has appeared in Agog! Fantastic Fiction, Agog! Terrific Tales, Aurealis, Avatar, Bold Action, Daikaiju 3, Eldritch Horrors: Dark Tales, Gaslight Grotesque: Nightmare Tales of Sherlock Holmes,www.ligotti.net, Micro, Phantastique, Pulse of Darkness, Tertangala and The Writing Show online (go to http://www.writingshow.com/podserver/Leigh_Blackmore_2006.mp3 for a podcast of Leigh's story "Cemetery Rose" and an audio interview with Leigh). Leigh's story “Uncharted” was a 2004 Ditmar Award nominee for Best Novella & received an Honourable Mention in The Year’s Best Horror and Fantasy (17th annual) edited by Ellen Datlow et al. Fiction is also forthcoming in Robert M. Price (ed). From Secret Asia's Blackest Heart (Mythos Books).
Much of his weird poetry is collected in Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses (P’rea Press, 2008); revised reprint 2010), which US journal Dead Reckonings declared places Blackmore "amongst the leading weird poets of our era." You can hear Leigh read his own poem "Dark Dedication" here: http://www.archive.org/details/DarkDedicationByLeighBlackmore and hear him read Clark Ashton Smith's poem "Chant to Sirius" at the Eldritch Dark site by going here: http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/spoken-word/38/chant-to-sirius . You can read one of Leigh's prose poems here: http://www.eldritchdark.com/tributes/prose-poetry-plays/2/vale-of-the-voluptuous and sample a few of Leigh's recent poems here: http://australianreader.com/index.php?section=articles&articleID=883&page=1
and here: http://www.pool.org.au/users/leigh_blackmore
Leigh's first collection of horror fiction, Nightmare Logic, is in compilation. You can read some of his stories, including "Uncharted", here: http://www.sffworld.com/community/story/1081p0.html
Leigh has reviewed horror and fantasy fiction for Dead Reckonings, EOD, Galaxy Newsletter, OzHorrorscope, Prohibited Matter, Science Fiction, Shoggoth, Skinned Alive and The Sydney Morning Herald.He has appeared as an expert on horror literature on TV programmes including The Ray Martin Show and Jennifer Byrne Presents. (Go to http://www.abc.net.au/tv/firsttuesday/video/podcast.htm for a streaming vodcast of the Monsters and Bloodsuckers special featuring Leigh along with Tara Moss, Will Elliott and Catherine Jinks).
He formerly co-edited (with Glayne Louise) Mythopoeia: The Newsletter of Dymocks Science Fiction & Fantasy (1995-97) and Terror Australis: The Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine (with Chris G.C. Sequeira and B.J. Stevens) (1987-92). Prior to Terror Australis, Leigh worked as a production assistant (uncredited) on Barry Radburn's and Stephen Studach's The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine (1984-86).
Leigh is Official Editor of SSWFT (Sword and Sorcery & Weird Fiction Terminus APA) and edits its blog at: http://sswftapa.blogspot.com/ . He also contributes his zine Mantichore to the Esoteric Order of Dagon APA. (Copies can be downloaded free, along with other material by Leigh, from http://www.scribd.com/LVXNOX ).
Recent critical work has appeared in the journals Studies in the Fantastic and Lovecraft Annual and in the books Robert Bloch: The Man Who Collected Psychos (McFarland Press, ed. Benjamin J. Szumskyj) and 21st Century Gothic (Scarecrow Press, ed. Danel Olsen, forthcoming 2010).
He co-founded The Sydney Horror Writers & Artists Society (The Gargoyle Club) and has been NSW Correspondent for Australian SF Writers News, local representative for Horror Writers of America, and a judge on the annual George Turner Awards for best first sf novel. He ran specialist sf and horror departments in major Sydney bookstores for 25 years before relocating to Wollongong in 2004. He has worked as a manuscript assessor for several literary agencies across Australia.
He is an active member of the Sydney Passengers Sherlock Holmes Society. http://www.sherlock.on.net/
His non-writing pursuits include specto-situationism, mixed media collage & high magick. He is a Master Magician of Ordo Templi Orientis http://www.otoaustralia.org.au/, the founder of Aurora Australis Thelemic Temple, co-facilitates MoonsKin coven and regularly lectures on the esoteric mysteries and ceremonial magick.
His esoteric writing includes Transpersonal Magick (with Margi Curtis, forthcoming); and poetry & reviews for Beastly, Crossroads, Kwa, Shadowplay, Sirius, ThAT (which he edited for seven issues) and Waratah magazines. His regular columns on matters magical (with Margi Curtis) have appeared in Spellcraft (column: 'Arts of the Craft') and Black: Australia's Dark Culture (column: 'Black Cauldron') magazines, and Leigh and Margi regularly run workshops on magick at Canberra's annual sf convention, Conflux.
Leigh lives with three cats and his collection of 10,000 horror and occult books, many of which are catalogued at LibraryThing (see http://www.librarything.com/profile/666777 ). The collection includes a complete run of Arkham House titles and a large (100+ issues) run of Weird Tales magazine.
A sometime muso, Leigh plays bass with Illawarra-based trio Third Road http://www.myspace.com/thethirdroad). He was formerly a drummer and keyboard player with such bands as Worm Technology, Koga Ninja, Astropop and Post-Mortem.
Official website: The Blackmausoleum, http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/
MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/lvxnox
Screen Shadows (Leigh's horror movies blog): http://www.orble.com/screen-shadows-horror-films-classic-and-contemporary/
Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/hadit93/
AuthorsDen page: http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?id=91771
FiledBy page: http://www.filedby.com/author/account/account.aspx
Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leigh_Blackmore
Darklands page: http://darklands.ning.com/profile/LeighBlackmore
Leigh's art at RedBubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/LVXNOX
For a recent interview with Leigh see "The Terror from Australis: An Interview with Leigh Blackmore" (interview by Benjamin J. Szumskyj) in Studies in Australian Weird Fiction No 1 (2008) pp 124-131.(Online download available from: http://www.scribd.com/doc/26575606/LB-Interview-for-SiAWF1).
If you bothered to read this far you may like to know that Leigh will be guest-editing Issue 5 of the AHWA's own magazine Midnight Echo. See the guidelines for submissions here: http://australianhorror.com/index.php?view=144
Contact: lvxnox@gmail.com