Awards Eligibility and 2025 Round-Up

Hello friends! It’s that time of year again... I don’t blog often but when I do I blog about the entire year in review (this is why I cannot have a newsletter) including awards eligibility/all spec fic and horror writing or art I’ve published in 2025. Author A.C. Wise maintains a fantastic list of awards eligibility posts (“What have you done, what have you loved 2025”) if you want a refresher!

Short fiction

I had one (1) short story published in 2025 and I’m really proud of it. Might have one more story out before the end of the year, will update this if that’s the case. I’m also eligible in artist (professional and fan) categories.

“A Shortcut via the New Tunnel, M-ate” in Never Say Die (CSFG Publishing, 2025)

I tried not to become friends; he’s my supervisor while I’m on my uni internship, and I’m no suck-up. Yet, he’s driving me home from ‘medical tourism’ in Sydney in his Toyota Camry—again—so guess how well that went.​

Could purgatory be getting stuck travelling through the M8 tunnel in Sydney with your complainer colleague forever? More likely than you think. A liminal space story in Never Say Die. *not free to read online so please email or DM me and I will happily send you an e-copy!

Art

Professional art

I had the opportunity to do the cover art for REBELS & RAINBOWS: An Australasian Queer Speculative Anthology (eds. Leanbh Pearson and Austin P. Sheehan, Deadset Press). It was a pleasure to work with Austin and Leanbh and read all the incredible stories. Particular inspiration for this artwork of the bird flying through space taken from Eugen Bacon’s story “Memories of the Old Sun.”

Fan art

Honestly no idea if unused watercolour sketches for commissions count as professional or fan art, but I’ll include the sketch I did of Aaron Dries’ powerful, heartbreaking horror story “Kookaburra Cruel” in REBELS & RAINBOWS here! Also had to paint Natalie (Juliette Lewis) from Yellowjackets, the “girls’ night”/“book club”/witches’ rebellion from THE BOOK OF BILL by Alex Hirsch, Chappell Roan’s music video The Subway, Dan and Ratty from the weird horror podcast Archive 81 by Dead Signals, and the dapper cymothoa exigua and his fish friend from How Fish Is Made by Wrong Organ.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read, and I hope you have a happy and safe rest of the year!

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Eligibility posts aside, it's been a great writing/art year. In 2025 I revised and went on sub with another novel (corporate horror, anomalous architecture, and centipedes) with my agent, and wrote a novella (coastal New Weird Bartleby the Scrivener retelling), and short stories. Thank you amazing beta reader writing buddies for your feedback, I also had a fab long weekend away with my writing group from NaNoWriMo days on the South Coast in May where I finished novel edits. My agent Carleen Geisler changed agencies to P.S. Literary and took all her old clients with her because she is not only a wonderful agent and editor but a wonderful human being! I feel lucky to have connected with Carleen—she has a fantastic thriller writer’s editorial eye, in particular for how much information to reveal and when, which gels well with my weird speculative stories.

South Coast long weekend with writing group

moodboards for novel and novella

I had 2x illustrations in Midnight Echo Issue 20 (ed. Marty Young) and 1x upcoming in Lost Souls Magazine Issue 2. Absolute joy to see the characters who live in my brain in print alongside spooky authors and artists whose work I admire.

Midnight Echo Issue 20 (ed. Marty Young)

And a reprint story in REBELS & RAINBOWS, “Integrated Learning,” originally published in Aurealis Magazine 166 and shortlisted in the 2023 Aurealis Awards.

Conflux speculative fiction convention in Canberra was a highlight as always! I caught up with friends old and new including my writing group who I regularly meet with virtually but only see in person at Conflux, appeared on two panels (“Forever Young” with Matt Tighe, Lauren Elise Daniels, Craig Cormick and Zena Shapter, and “Help!” with Imogen Cassidy, J. Ashley-Smith, Gabiann Marin, and Alex Swan), and won a Ditmar Award in the Professional Art category for the first time for my cover art for Jessica Nirvana Ram's beautiful poetry collection In the Aftermath (first published with Prismatica Press 2024, republished/currently available with Fifth Wheel Press 2025), absolutely over the moon. It was exciting to accept dark fantasy author Sarah K. Balstrup’s Best New Talent Ditmar Award on her behalf while she was overseas and pass this on to her when she was back in Australia, great to see her and others’ incredible work being recognised in strong shortlistings and winners across the board. I was a judge in the Australasian Shadows Awards and the Aurealis Awards in 2025, and I'm currently judging in the Robert N Stephenson Flash Fiction & Short Story Competition, as always an honour and a joy to get to read so much excellent Australian speculative fiction and horror.

top left with Sarah K. Balstrup, with Greg Foyster and Scott Steensma at Conflux (photos by Cat Sparks), "Forever Young" panel with Matt Tighe, Lauren Elise Daniels (mod), Craig Cormick and Zena Shapter (photo by Scott Steensma), book haul from Conflux, Ditmar Award-winning cover art for Jessica Nirvana Ram's In the Aftermath (Fifth Wheel Press)

I did multiple public speaking events this year (!) in the form of panels, speeches, and recorded and live readings, and it was fun (!!). This is mindblowing for me, a former public speaking avoider. Thanks everyone at Conflux, Lost Souls Magazine events, and the Never Say Die anthology book launch for being such a fantastic, supportive and inspiring bunch of writers, readers, and spooky people I am lucky to know. Thank you to my family for letting me practice my readings on them and for babysitting the children so I could attend.

Spooky Stories at Gang Gang Cafe: A macabre dreams event by Lost Souls Magazine with Ben O’Mara, Americo Alvarenga, Julia Hood, and S.R. Undershultz

Never Say Die (CSFG Publishing) anthology launch at Smith's Alternative with Fionn MacPherson, Americo Alvarenga, Emma Gerts, Merri Andrew, Elizabeth Pendragon, and more. Top left photo by Americo Alvarenga

Got pet rats… I mean the 9yo and 5yo got pet rats. They are named Snowdrop, Dumpling, and Squeaky Wheekers.

Last but not least, I finally joined Tumblr because IRL writer/artist friends kept telling me my people are on there… and you were so right, Tumblr is delightful, probably my favourite social media along with Bluesky. Say hello if you are there!

Thanks so much for taking the time to stop by!