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 served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association (Sept 2010-Sept 2011). He edited Midnight Echo 5 for the AHWA. (Members can download their free PDF of the issue here: http://www.australianhorror.com/MidnightEcho.pdf
UPCOMING PUBLIC APPEARANCES
Sat Apr 29, 2012: Leigh's band, The Third Road, will play the Thriving Illawarra Festival, Corrimal High School.
Mon April 2, 2012: Speculative Poets read live at Owls Cafe, Wollongong.
Leigh will read many of his new poems, along with readings by other accomplished poets of the fantastique including Kyla Ward, Margi Curtis and Laura Goodin.
Place: Owls Cafe, Kembla St, opposite Wollongong Town hall. Start-time: 7pm. For more details contact Laura Goodin lauragoodin@gmail.com
SPECULATIVE FICTION FESTIVAL, Nsw Writers' Centre, 5 November 2011.
3-3.45 pm: Leigh will appear on the panel "Speculative Fiction: A Many-Headed Monster" , with Richard Harland (Liberator), Kaaron Warren (Slights), Jack Heath (The Lab) and Karen Miller (Clone Wars: Wild Space; moderator). New Weird. Heroic Fantasy. Space Opera. Paranormal Romance. Steampunk. Cyberpunk. Just what do all these terms mean and why do we lump them all together under SF? A lively panel discussion by some of Australia's weirdest, punkiest, in-the-know writers.
CONFLUX 7, Quality Hotel, Woden, ACT. Sept 30- Oct 3, 2011.
Leigh will run a workshop with Margi Curtis (Fri 30 Sept): 'From Here to There and Back Again'. What does it mean to enter an altered state of consciousness, and how can such states be used as inspiration for your fantasy writing?
Leigh will also appear on the following panels on Sun 2 Oct:
'Lovecraft Lives! The Increasing Stature and Popularity of H.P. Lovecraft' (with moderator Danny Lovecraft, and Andrew McKiernan).
'Great Libraries of Fantasy' (with moderator Kyla ward, and Lynn Triffitt and Gillian Polack).
'Incantations' (on poetry in fantasy). With Margi Curtis, Danny Lovecraft, and moderator Kyla Ward.
EDITING AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
He is editor of
- Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror (Sydney: Coronet, 1993); co-author (with Dr Van Ikin)
- 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).
- co-editor (with chief editor Phillip A. Ellis and with James Doig & Danny Lovecraft) of the annual critical journal Studies in Australian Weird Fiction (CA: Borgo Press).
- The critical component of his Honours thesis was on Australian sf writer Terry Dowling's Tom Rynosseros Cycle. (A print version is forthcoming in Van Ikin's journal Science Fiction, but 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). L
Leigh is currently editing The Selected Letters of Robert Bloch and a compilation of critical essays on H.P. Lovecraft. He is also working a novel.
CRITICISM
Leigh has contributed to various scholarly works on speculative fiction including
- Supernatural Literature of the World, edited by S.T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemanowicz (Greenwood Press, 2005) and
- Monthly Terrors by Mike Ashley (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.
Some essays and interviews online include:
- "Hermetic Horrors: Weird Fiction Writers and the Order of the Golden Dawn" at: http://www.shadowplayzine.com/Articles/hermetic_horrors.htm
- "Writer's Bloch: A Tribute to Robert Bloch" Bloch at http://mgpfeff.home.sprynet.com/essay_blackmore.html)
- "Time and Memory: An Interview with Jack Dann" at: http://www.tabula-rasa.info/AusHorror/JackDann.html
- "Seeking the Philosopher's Stone: An Interview with Colin Wilson" at: http://colinwilsonworld.co.uk/interview1.aspx)
FICTION
Leigh has horror fiction forthcoming in 2012 in several American horror anthologies including Black Wings III, The Madness of Cthulhu, From Secret Asia's Darkest Heart, and such magazines as Strange Detective Tales and Zandor.
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).A downloadable PDF of Tide 5 featuring Leigh's story "Leaving Town" is available at: http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=tide
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.
Leigh's first collection of horror fiction is due to appear from Dark regions Press in 2013. You can read some of his stories, including "Uncharted", here: http://www.sffworld.com/community/story/1081p0.html
POETRY
Much of Leigh's weird & fantastic 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."
- The 2nd printing of the P'rea Press edition can be bought here: http://www.preapress.com/.
- A variant edition by Rainfall Books, UK, as Sharnoth's Spores and Other Seeds, can be bought here: http://www.rainfallsite.com/Disciples12.html.
- Leigh's recent weird poetry has appeared in Weird Fiction Review No. 1 (2010).
- 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.
REVIEWSLeigh has been a regular reviewer for US print journal Dead Reckonings (Hippocampus Press) since Issue 6. In the past he has reviewed for 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).
OTHER STUFF
Leigh 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 (on M. John Harrison)and Lovecraft Annual (on H.P. Lovecraft) 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, 2010) (on Terry Dowling). Essays on Donald Wandrei, Ramsey Campbell, Poe & Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith are forthcoming in books by Mythos Books, Gothic Press and Anno Klarkash-Ton respectively.
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,
- 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 the proprietor of Proof Perfect Editorial Services (www.proofperfect.com.au )
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. As an occultist, 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 and "Mystery Circle" discussion groups in Wollongong and at Canberra's annual sf convention, Conflux.
Leigh lives with his three cats Beltane, Hades and Persephone, 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.
Also an experienced musician, Leigh plays bass and performs vocals 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
Leigh's art at RedBubble: http://www.redbubble.com/people/LVXNOX
Linked In page: http://tiny.cc/efyhm
Twitter page: http://twitter.com/#!/LVXNOX
INTERVIEWS
A brief 2010 audio interview with Leigh is available at 2SER radio here:http//:finaldraft.podomatic.com/entry/2010-10-18T22_33_00-07_00.
See above for the 2006 audio interview with Leigh for writingshow.com done in conjunction with broacast of Leigh's story "Cemetery Rose".
A recent print interview is:"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).
Contact: lvxnox@gmail.com