Leigh Blackmore

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Leigh Blackmore
Leigh Blackmore in 2007
Born
Leigh David Blackmore

1959
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Alma materUniversity of Wollongong
Occupation(s)editor/proofreader, writer, manuscript assessor, critic, occultist, musician
Known for"Uncharted," "Exalted Are the Forces of Darkness", Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses
Parent(s)Rod Blackmore; Elizabeth Anne James
Websitehttp://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/

Leigh (David) Blackmore (born 1959) is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist, musician and proponent of

Horror Writers of America (1994–95) and served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association (2010–2011).[1] His work has been nominated four times for the Ditmar Award, once for fiction and three times for the William Atheling Jr. Award for criticism.[2] He has been a Finalist in both the Poetry and Criticism categories of the Australian Shadows Awards. He has contributed entries to such encyclopedias as S. T. Joshi
and Stefan J. Dziemianowicz (eds) Supernatural Literature of the World (Greenwood Press, 2005, 3 vols) and June Pulliam and Tony Fonseca (eds), Ghosts in Popular Culture and Legend (ABC-Clio, 2016).

According to The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy, "His name is now synonymous with Australian horror,"

Science Fiction Poetry Association's Rhysling Award
. His fiction has appeared in Australia, the USA, the UK, France, Denmark and Sweden. Translations of his poetry have appeared in French and Italian.

Early life (1959–1976)

Leigh Blackmore was born in

Lucy Boston's fantasy novel The Castle of Yew and terrified by the TV broadcast of Richard Matheson's "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" episode of The Twilight Zone
. He also encountered horror fiction via Stephen P. Sutton's anthologies Tales to Tremble By and More Tales to Tremble By.

Education

He was later educated at

H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos), discovering their work via anthologies edited by August Derleth, Peter Haining, Karl Edward Wagner (the Year's Best Horror Stories series), and via publications of Arkham House which he special-ordered via Space Age Books (Melbourne), then Australia's only specialist supplier of science fiction and fantasy books.[8][9]

He was also greatly influenced by the

Skywald 'horror mood' comics (Nightmare, Psycho and Scream) and Warren Publishing's stable of horror comics such as Creepy, Eerie and Vampirella, and the film magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland
.

The Arcane Sciences Society; The Horror-Fantasy Society; Azathoth Productions

While at high school, Blackmore co-founded the Arcane Sciences Society[10] and the Horror-Fantasy Society; the journal of the societies, Cathuria[11] (named after a place in Lovecraft's story "The White Ship"), was banned after three issues by Blackmore's high school principal for quoting in a review four-letter words used by the unleashed monster in Flesh Gordon.[12] With high school friends Lindsay Walker and Michael Blaxland, Blackmore formed a small independent movie house called Azathoth Productions. The only film made was an uncompleted version of Clark Ashton Smith's story The Double Shadow, though Blackmore also penned a screenplay for Lovecraft's story The Music of Erich Zann (never shot).

Early writing, fandom and occultism

Having corresponded with writers and enthusiasts in the field such as

sword-and-sorcery
novel, Starbreaker (with Ashley Morris). Several of these juvenile tales were first printed in Charles Danny Lovecraft's fanzine Avatar in the 1990s.

His earliest in-print appearances included Lovecraftian

Hammer horror and Amicus Productions era. Samuel Beckett and William S. Burroughs became lasting literary influences at this time,[10] the latter after his high-school English teacher lent him a copy of The Wild Boys (novel)
.

Early interest in the world of science fiction

Ursula K. le Guin's guest of honour speech in which she spoke of science fiction breaking out of the 'literary ghetto' and declaring that 'Philip K. Dick deserves to be placed on the shelf alongside Dickens'.[14]

He also played judo, Kendo and jiu-jitsu during high school in Sydney (at North Sydney Boys' High) and judo at Newcastle (at Newcastle Police Citizens Boys' Club, Broadmeadow); however he was only formally graded in judo. [citation needed]

Blackmore also became interested in

Thoth tarot deck. [citation needed
]

Early career and writing (1977–1990)

Blackmore attended

Mail Art network restricted to Australia. Beginning a 25-year career as a bookseller in 1978, he then worked in his spare time as an editorial assistant on The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine[13] in the early 1980s; Blackmore went on to publish and co-edit its successor, Terror Australis magazine from 1987–1992.[13][15]

In the 1980s, Blackmore published bibliographies on

Sydney University,(where he majored in Semitic Studies), Blackmore came in contact with Don Boyd, then editor of (Australian) Futuristic Tales. Blackmore came to be a well-regarded Lovecraft scholar,[13]
carrying on correspondence with other Lovecraft fans in countries including USA, the UK, New Zealand, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Russia. He was a member of the early Esoteric Order of Dagon under Mollie Werba and the Necronomicon (under R. Alain (Randy) Everts) Lovecraftian amateur press associations, with his zines Red Viscous Madness, and Forbidden Dimensions, Nameless Dreams. (He rejoined the EOD around 2000, contributing continuous quarterly zines for it ever since).

His first published story was "The Infestation", adapted for graphic form by Gavin O'Keefe and published in the fourth issue of Phantastique (1986), a comic which attracted notoriety (questions were asked in Australian Federal Parliament) for being government-funded via an Arts Council grant while containing visceral images and story content.[16]

He worked as a bookseller in Sydney for 25 years (1979–2004), primarily managing specialist science fiction & fantasy departments within larger bookstores such as

Cat Sparks, and Bryce J. Stevens
.

Music

Blackmore had classical piano training, but his formative musical influences were

The Models, Midnight Oil, MEO 245, Allniters, Outline and Voight 465. He had jammed with garage bands in his high school years in Newcastle, New South Wales including sessions at Newcastle Cathedral
underground studio with Lindsay Walker (guitar), Paul Beal (drums) and Ashley Morris (bass).

On moving back to Sydney in 1977, Blackmore played

synth player (an early user of synthesisers, including the Steiner-Parker Synthacon
) at high school.

Tiploid Grundy & the Rabid Slime Moulds

One of their earliest recordings (1977) includes a reggae version of "Kookaburra", played strictly for laughs. A cassette-only album of punk-style acoustic and vocal originals, "If You Don't Care for Your Scalp You Get Rabies" (1977) (its title a line uttered by Terry Jones in the Monty Python episode "Mr Neutron"), performed by Blackmore, Walker and Smith, was released under the band name Tiploid Grundy and the Rabid Slime Moulds. "Boils" was a parody of then-fashionable punk music by Blackmore, with a riff possibly cribbed from Paul McCartney's song "Smile Away". Simultaneously, with Smith, Blackmore initially concentrated on composing electronic music using sequencers, including the Robert Fripp and Brian Eno-influenced "Music for Bookshops" (1979), and a concept-cycle, recorded on reel-to-reel tape, called "The Guardian," based on a collaborative fantasy story written by the duo. When John Gardner (bass) joined, the band also released some cassette-only recordings including The Loungeroom Tapes and The Christmas Tapes.

Worm Technology

The band stabilised as a four-piece rock band with live drums as Worm Technology, though synth-based instrumentals such as "Africa" often featured in their sets. Blackmore initially played electric organ, string machine (a non-proprietary version of the Mellotron) and synthesiser, with Smith as drummer and synth programmer, but Blackmore often drummed when Smith was playing guitar or bass; his drum style was largely influenced by the Buzzcocks' John Mayer and The Jam`s Rick Buckler. Smith's girlfriend Myfanwy (Miffy) Ryan played violin, but dropped out after a year. (Ryan has since played with such renowned Australian folk bands as Madd Marianne, Wongawilli Band, Quartet d'Gong, Denizen and ClearStrings).

Worm Technology initially played covers by 1960s-1970s acts including

Rolling Stones, featuring Walker's famed one-note guitar solo on an amplified tin toy guitar bought from an op shop, preceded Devo
's take on the same number.

Worm Technology continued performing quirky originals, from "Here Come the Lonely Vegetables" to "Three Years on the Road", a country-and-western parody penned by Blackmore. Both Blackmore and Walker were both particularly influenced by

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, The Velvet Underground, The B-52s and by Lenny Kaye's Nuggets series of sixties garage-rock reissues – influences which skewed their pop sensibility. John Gardner was consistently the bassplayer throughout Worm Technology's existence; he never contributed lyrics or music. Rhythm guitarist Malcolm Elliott and second vocalist Peter Rodgers entered, left and re-entered the band lineup at different periods. The band played one early gig where Blackmore had briefly left, under the moniker "Leigh Blackmore's Rainbow". Elliott and Rodgers also contributed song lyrics, as did mixer Garry Ryan, all of which were put to music by Greg Smith. Elliott's "Slept-On Hair" and "Simulus Stimulus", Ryan's "Cry Laughing Clown",[17]
"Technical Suicide" and "Pilot", and Rodger's "Who Do We Think We Are?" were all popular elements of Worm Technology's set. Many of the bands early gigs were at church halls, as several of the band members were Christians. (Blackmore experienced a conversion to Christianity which lasted until a renewed rejection of it in the mid-1980s). Ian Walker became a Christian youth worker. Rodgers went on to become an Anglican minister and missionary in Indonesia 1991-2002; later Rector of St Stephen's, Newtown and Federal Secretary of the (Australian) Church Missionary Society).

Blackmore wrote many of the band's song lyrics, some in collaboration with vocalist Ian Walker (though Walker often wrote alone), and guitarist Greg Smith wrote much of the music,[10] though Blackmore wrote both lyrics and music for some songs including the Buzzcocks-inspired "Apathy." Blackmore's other song lyrics included audience favourites such as "Outerspaceville", "Futile Minds", "Living for Today" (partly inspired by Black Sabbath's "Looking for Today") and the Ramones-influenced "Infidelity". The band put unique twists on some of their covers, such as playing Glen Campbell's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix" in a Joy Division style, and doing a rock version of the Brian Eno/Cluster piece "Broken Head".

Worm Technology played gigs at various inner-city venues such as the Vulcan Hotel, Taverners Hill Hotel, The Rehearsal Room and the Sussex Hotel. They participated in a number of annual

The Hard-Ons. WT also undertook tours including the 'We Are Not the New Dylan Tour' (1980) in which they played obscure NSW country towns such as Fish River (Oberon)
and The Lagoon; and the "Moo Cow Tour", in which they played in several Sydney milk-bars. The band also issued several numbers of their official fanzine, Prince the Wonder Dog which were given away at gigs.

The band often parodied musical trends, as in "Dull Rapsville" (lyrics Blackmore/Walker; music Smith), a parody of early rap a la Grandmaster Flash. Continuing their disdain of most rock posturing, the band played one tour with all members dressed as crooner Val Doonican, wearing cardigans and thick black spectacles. Lead vocalist Ian Walker's renowned stage act included using a toy rabbit owned in Blackmore's childhood as a prop for the song "Furry Animals", and standing on a chair throughout the song "The Tree (That was Not a Tree)". In the original song (Revenge of the) Phantom Agents (based on the 1960s Japanese TV series), the band threw cardboard shuriken into the audience. In 1980, Greg Smith wrote a rock opera, The Lift, in the vein of works such as Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway and rehearsed Worm Technology intensively in its performance; a more serious work, it bemused many Worm Technology fans and received one live performance only; it was issued as both a studio and live cassette-only album. One song from the work, "Stereotypists", was re-vamped as "The Aliens" and became a set staple.

Worm Technology released several cassette-only albums including In Your Loungeroom (1985)(engineered by the band's mixer/sound technician, Garry Ryan). This contained two tracks imported from Ian Walker's side-project duo The Togs (with WT band manager Rik Ford), and other songs including "Crimefighter" (sung as if by a world-weary

Fischer Z, and The Angels, and Smith took his guitar line from "Magazine Madonna" by Sherbet. The band's later original repertoire tended to include a mix of catchy synth-driven pop songs such as "So Alone" and "Can't Stand the Pace", straightahead rock numbers such as "Can't You See," "The Light" "Love Grows Cold," "Out of Sync" and "The Height of Love," reflective numbers like "The King is Dead," "No Fear," and "Set your Mind Right," and danceable numbers including ska
number "(Put it in a) Nutshell", mostly penned entirely by Smith.

Koga Ninja

Worm Technology had several offshoot bands including Koga Ninja (named after characters from the 1960s TV show The Samurai), in which the band members (Blackmore, Smith and Elliott) dressed up as ninjas in costumes made by Smith. The band used synths and drum machines extensively. Koga Ninja released several cassette only live albums.[18]

Astropop, Post-Mortem and White Stains

Blackmore largely abandoned music when Worm Technology broke up, to concentrate on his writing, although Astropop, a short-lived

synthpop duo featuring Blackmore and Smith (extending Worm Technology's late emphasis on extended synthesiser-based numbers such as "Samurai") had some success playing electronica including Kraftwerk covers but never recorded. Blackmore drummed for Post-Mortem (1987), a band which featured Ian Walker from Worm Technology, bassist Brian Pember from Sydney Christian new wave band Crossroad/Surprise, and a guitarist only remembered as Colin. There are no extant recordings of Astropop or Post-Mortem. In the mid-1990s Blackmore recorded with the short-lived experimental group White Stains (1990) (named after Aleister Crowley's poetry volume of the same title, White Stains), with illustrator and viola-player Gavin O'Keefe. White Stains released a cassette single "Acid Bath" (Blackmore/O'Keefe") backed with "The Finger", a musical interpretation of William Burrough
's story about a man who cuts off his own finger.

The Third Road

Blackmore resumed playing music semi-professionally in 2009 with the formation of the Illawarra-based 'popstalgia' trio The Third Road in which he plays five- and six-string bass and shares vocal duties with guitarist Margi Curtis and keyboards player Graham Wykes. The Third Road developed from the band Fedora, a trio featuring Curtis, Wykes and Bruce Greenfeld (later of Damned Fine Gentlemen). Blackmore joined on bass when Greenfeld left. The Third Road has played live in Wollongong at various events including the Thriving Illawarra Festival, Summer on the (Crown St) Mall, the annual National Disabilities Day gig organised by Essential Personnel (sometimes accompanied by singer/guitarist Al Morrison of Riogh), and at the annual Christmas party of the

NSW Greens. They have also frequently performed Xmas gigs at Sydney's Royal Automobile Club of Australia
.

Later career

H.P. Lovecraft
Centennial Conference

In 1990 Blackmore travelled via New York (where he met

Fedogan and Bremer, with whom he made an agreement to act as F&B's Australian distributor), Italian scholar Giuseppe Lippi, critic Steven J. Mariconda, French scholar Jean-Luc Buard, Necronomicon Press illustrators Jason C. Eckhardt and Robert H. Knox, editor Robert M. Price, critic Paul Buhle, and German scholar Kalju Kirde. He attended the world premiere of Re-Animator. Blackmore also spent time with writers Dennis Etchison and William F. Nolan
while in Los Angeles.

Terror Australis, the Gargoyle Club and the Sydney Futurian Society

With Christopher Sequeira and Bryce J. Stevens, Blackmore co-edited Terror Australis: The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine (1987–1992) and co-founded the Gargoyle Club: The Sydney Horror Writers and Artists Society, which included Sydney horror writers and artists including Gavin O'Keefe, underground graphic novelists Steve 'Carnage' Carter and Antoinette Rydyr; Rod Marsden, Don Boyd and others. The Gargoyle Club operated in Leichhardt, New South Wales and Petersham until 1992, after which it moved to venues in inner city Sydney and was subsequently joined by writers such as David Carroll and Kyla Ward. The club published two issues of their horror fiction magazine Cold Cuts co-edited by Antoinette Rydyr, Ron Clarke and Don Boyd, Art Director was Steve Carter.

Terror Australis the magazine was followed by the anthology

Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror (1993), the first mass-market Australian horror anthology[3] (edited by Blackmore alone).[21][22] Leanne Frahm's story "Catalyst" from the anthology won the Ditmar Award for best Australian Short Fiction.[23] Blackmore was an invited judge on the Aurealis Award in 1995[24] and on the George Turner (writer) Award in 1999.[25][26]

In 1994–95, Blackmore was the Australian representative for the

Horror Writers of America under the Presidency of Dennis Etchison
.

Blackmore often hosted gatherings of the Futurian Society of Sydney (run by sf bibliographer/researcher and secondhand bookdealer Graham Stone) at his Leichardt home. Regular attendees included Kevin Dillon and David Ritchie. Blackmore also acquired the majority of his holdings of Weird Tales magazine via Stone over a period of around a decade.

Anarchism, Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth, Thoughtcrimes, the O.T.O. and Sydney Zeroist Alliance

In the early 1990s, owing to instinctive rejection of methods of

zero
.

Also in the early 1990s, following a renewed interest in

Genesis P. Orridge, Blackmore joined Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth via their Australian station, TOPY Chaos. Reading deeply in Aleister Crowley and other esoteric material, he accepted The Book of the Law, took the magical name Fr. LVX/NOX and was initiated into several degrees in Crowley's Ordo Templi Orientis.[10] via their Sydney body, Oceania Oasis (later Oceania Lodge). He was ordained as a Deacon in the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica and performed in several contemporary series of the Rites of Eleusis and in Crowley's mystery play The Ship. He has taken the role of Priest in Liber XV, The Gnostic Mass
in the Illawarra and presented numerous workshops based on Crowley's magick.

Marriage, honours degree and aftermath

Blackmore married fellow bookseller and

Earlwood, with friends including Peter Wilson, vocalist/trumpeter for Sydney-based ska band Backy Skank. Vowles died in June 2009 aged 36.[27] The Futurian Society of Sydney, to which she had belonged, observed a minute's silence at their meeting of 17 July 2009 for her, and for Locus editor Charles N. Brown, who had also recently died.[28]

In 2001, Blackmore's comic-book story "The Gargoyle Club Gambit" (co-written with Christopher Sequeira) was published in Bold Action, a one-shot special.[29]

In 2004, Blackmore left the book trade and relocated to Wollongong. He took a mature-age degree (Bachelor of Creative Writings (Hons)) at the

Elizabeth Siddall. The critical component of the thesis was on Terry Dowling
.

In 2011 he started his own editorial and manuscript appraisal business, Proof Perfect Editorial Services which he ran until 2023. He is a member of the Society of Editors (NSW). He regularly workshops fiction with a writer's group including Margaret Curtis and Andrea Gawthorne.

Writing, editing, convention appearances

Blackmore has been a guest lecturer on science fiction, fantasy and horror for the

Midday (television show), cable TV program The Graveyard Shift and Jennifer Byrne Presents[30] and has been interviewed on Sydney's 2SER radio[31]
in the same capacity.

He became the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association, serving from September 2010 until September 2011.[1]

Blackmore is Official Editor (with Scott A. Shaeffer) of the Sword and Sorcery and Weird Fiction Terminus (SSFWT)

C.G. Jung
Society of Sydney.

He is a frequent panellist at science fiction conventions such as the Magic Casements Festival (Sydney, 2003).

Aussiecon 4
(Melbourne, 2010).

Blackmore was heavily involved as a speaker and promoter in the June 2019 Australian speaking tour by Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi and lectured on Lovecraft alongside Joshi, Larry Sitsky and others at the ANU School of Music, Canberra and at the NSW Masonic Club in Sydney.

In 2020 Blackmore served as convenor and judge on the Poetry category of the Australian Shadows Awards.

Award nominations

Year Award Work Category Result
2004 Ditmar Award "Uncharted" Best Novella Nomination[33][34]
2010 Ditmar Award "Marvels and Horrors: Terry Dowling's Clowns at Midnight William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism Nomination[35]
2013 Ditmar Award "Things Invisible: Human and Ab-Human in Two of Hodgson's Carnacki Tales". William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism Nomination Ditmar Award results Entry 46
2013 Ditmar Award "A Puppet's Parody of Joy": Puppets, Dolls and Mannikins as Diabolical Other in the Work of Ramsey Campbell William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism Nomination Ditmar Award results Entry 46
2014 Rhysling Award "The Last Dream" (for Ambrose Bierce)" Best Long Poem Nomination
2020
Australian Shadows Award
 "The Tongueless Dead" Best Horror Poem Finalist[36]
2020
Australian Shadows Award
 "Sandalwood and Jade: The Weird & Fantastic verse of Lin Carter" Rocky Wood Award for Non-fiction and Criticism Finalist[36]

Work

Collections

  • Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses (P'rea Press, 2008) (verse).
    ISBN 978-0-9804625-2-4
    .
  • Sharnoth's Spores and Other Seeds (Rainfall Books, 2010) (verse; variant edition of Spores from Sharnoth – omits some poems and adds others).
  • Horrors of Sherlock Holmes (R'lyeh Texts, 2017) (fiction). Introduction by
    ISBN 978-0-646-96897-1
    .
  • Azathoth and Other Horrors by Edward Pickman Derby (verse) (IFWG Australia, Dec 2023)
  • Nightmare Logic: Tales of the Macabre, the Fantastic and the Cthulhuesque (IFWG Australia, April 2024).

Selected standalone nonfiction work

Books

  • Brian Lumley: A New Bibliography. Penrith NSW: Dark Press, 1984. San Bernardino, CA: Borgo Press, 1985.
  • Terry Dowling: Virtuoso of the Fantastic. (R'lyeh Texts, Apr 2005).

Record Album Liner Notes

  • Aleister Crowley. At the Fork of the Roads. Cadabra Records, March 2022. 7-inch vinyl recording on various colours of vinyl (total 500 copies). Narrated by Laurance Harvey, score by Chris Bozzone. Blackmore's liner notes essay as by Frater HekAL
  • Edogawa Rampo
    The Red Chamber. Cadabra Records, September 2023. LP vinyl recording. Narrated by Laurance Harvey, score by Chris Bozzone.

As editor

Selected critical writings and bibliographies

Fiction

Poetry

Blackmore's weird verse (primarily formalist in style) has appeared variously in And Then I Woke Up!,Arkham Sampler,[55] Avallaunius: The Journal of the Arthur Machen Society, Beastly, Cyaegha, EOD,[56] The Eldritch Dark,[57][58][59] EOD,[60] Etchings & Odysseys,[61] Melaleuca, Midnight Echo,[62] New Lovecraft Collector, Penumbra, Shoggoth,[63] The Small Tapestry, Spectral Realms,[64] Strange Sorcery,[60] Telmar, and Weird Fiction Review.[65][66]

Much of Blackmore's weird poetry to 2008 is collected in Spores from Sharnoth & Other Madnesses,

S.T. Joshi. The US journal Dead Reckonings declared that the collection "at once establishes Blackmore as one of the leading weird poets of our time."[68] A variant edition of this title, omitting the introduction and P'rea Press editors' foreword, and with some poems excluded and others added, under the title Sharnoth's Spores & Other Seeds, was published by Rainfall Books in 2010.[69][70]

General poetry has appeared in Melaleuca, Tertangala, and at Australian Reader and Pool online. Blackmore has read his poetry live at various venues in NSW including Live Poets at Don Bank (North Sydney), Yours and Owls Café (Wollongong), Jane's (Wollongong) and Philanthropy Tribe Book Cafe (Wollongong). Blackmore has also recorded readings of many of the poems of Clark Ashton Smith, e.g. "Chant to Sirius".[71]

Recent poetry has appeared in anthologies and magazines including:

  • Charles Lovecraft (ed) Avatars of Wizardry (Sydney: P'rea Press, 2012)
  • S.T. Joshi and Stefan Dziemianowicz (eds) Dreams of Fear: Poetry of Terror and the Supernatural (NY: Hippocampus Press, 2013)
  • Elizabeth R. McClellan & Ashley Brown (eds) The 2014 Rhysling Poetry Anthology: The Best Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Poetry of 2013 (
    SFPA
    , 2014).
  • Graham Phillips (ed) Cyaegha No 13 (Spring 2015).
  • Gutiérrez, Juan Julio (ed) Beyond the Cosmic Veil (Horrified Press/Barbed Wire Butterfly Press, 2015).
  • Adam Joffrain (ed) Nightgaunt No 2 (July 2015) [France; collaboration-translation with Adam Joffrain].
  • Steve Lines (ed) Hallowe'en Howlings. (Calne, Wiltshire: Rainfall Books (UK), Oct 2015).
  • Danny Gardner (ed) Can I Tell You a Secret?: Live Poets at Don Bank's 25th Anniversary Anthology. (Canberra: Ginninderra Press, Nov 2015.)
  • John T. Allen (ed) Songs of the Shattered World: The Broken Hymns of Hastur. (Ticketyboo Press/Green Sun Press [Createspace], Feb 2016)
  • Sam Gafford (ed) Sargasso: The Journal of William Hope Hodgson Studies 3 (2016)
  • Glynn Barrass and Frederick J. Mayer (eds). Anno Klarkash-ton. (Calne, Wiltshire: Rainfall Books, 2017).
  • Joshi, S.T. (ed) Penumbra No 1 (2020) and No 2 (2021) 9NY: Hippocampus Press)
  • Frank Coffman (ed) Speculations III: Poetry from the Weird Poets Society (Mind's Eye Press, 2021)
  • Calhoun, Pat (ed). Weird and Wondrous: An Anthology of Fantasy Poetry (2023)
  • S.T. Joshi (ed). For the Outsider: Poems About H. P. Lovecraft (NY: Hippocampus Press, July 2023)

Blackmore has collaborated on poems with US poets Richard L. Tierney,[72] Fred Phillips, K.A. Opperman and Ann K. Schwader; with French poet Adam Joffrain; and with Australian poet Charles Lovecraft. His poem "The Last Dream"[73] was a nominee for Best Long Poem in the annual Rhysling Award.[74]

In Oct 2021, three of Blackmore's weird poems were featured as part of a series of Hallowe'en recorded poetry readings hosted on Facebook by fellow weird poet Scott Couturier.

Reviews, radio and other works

Blackmore regularly reviews horror fiction for US critical journal Dead Reckonings.

Sydney Morning Herald.[citation needed
]

Blackmore's story "The Infestation" was read live to air by Steven Paulsen on Rick Kennett's 3CR and 3MDR Community radio guest shows "Pilots of the Unknown".[76]

His story "Cemetery Rose" was read by the author and dramatized with sound effects for the Writing Show's Six Days of Hallowe'en podcast (cohosted by Australian Horror Writers Association) in 2006. An interview with Blackmore conducted by Writing Show host Paula Berenstein was broadcast concurrently.[77]

His audio-walk sound piece Carbon Footprints was exhibited as an installation at the University of Wollongong (Faculty of Creative Arts), Oct 2007.[citation needed]

His radio play Calling Water was broadcast in late 2008 on

ABC Radio National Airplay.[78][79]

His

detournement, has been exhibited at the First Australasian Thelemic Conference (Sydney, 1994) and published in various issues of Tertangala magazine.[80]

Blackmore has adapted several works for short screenplay treatments and stage, including H.P. Lovecraft's The Music of Erich Zann (screenplay), Clark Ashton Smith's "The Double Shadow" (screenplay) and his own stories "Dr Nadurnian's Golem" (stage; workshopped at the University of Wollongong, Faculty of Creative Arts but unproduced) and "Fire on the Ghost Train" (screenplay, as "Inferno").

See also

  • List of horror fiction authors

Notes

  1. ^ a b "Leigh Blackmore". Australian Horror Writers Association. 2012. Archived from the original on 23 May 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  2. ^ "The Locus Index to SF Awards: Index of Literary Nominees". Locus Online. Archived from the original on 9 February 2008. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Collins, Paul (1998). The MUP Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press. pp. 11, 46–47.
  4. ^ "Hodder Media Release On Leigh Blackmore, Editor of Terror Australis: The Best of Australian Horror | Horror Fiction | Speculative Fiction". Scribd.
  5. ^ Review of Spores from Sharnoth and Other Madnesses, Dead Reckonings 4: 83 (Fall 2008)
  6. ^ Leigh Blackmore Black to the Blind: My Life and Magick (autobiography, forthcoming).
  7. ^ "Leigh Blackmore". Supanova Comic Con and Gaming. Archived from the original on 15 February 2013.
  8. ^ Johnson, Robin (7 September 2010). "A. Bertram Chandler Award Winners: Merv Binns". Australian Science Fiction Foundation. Archived from the original on 7 January 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
  9. ^ "Space Age Closes". Locus (Jan 1986).
  10. ^
    Benjamin J. Szumskyj
    The Terror from Australis: An Interview with Leigh Blackmore. Australian Studies in Weird Fiction 1 (Equilibrium Books, 2008)
  11. ^ Leigh Blackmore, J. Michael Blaxland (see Young Einstein and Lindsay Walker, Cathuria: The Newsletter of the Arcane Sciences Society and the Horror-Fantasy Society, Nos 1–3 (Newcastle, NSW: Blackmore/Blaxland/Walker, 1975)
  12. ISBN 978-0-9804625-2-4
    .
  13. ^ a b c d Masters, Chris J. (February 1994). "Leigh Blackmore: The Man Behind Terror Australis". Bloodsongs. No. 1. pp. 48–52.
  14. ^ Ursula K. Le Guin, Guest of Honour Speech, Aussiecon 1, Vector 71 (Dec 1975); corrected reprint in SunCon Convention Journal 1 (Winter 1976)
  15. ^ Paulsen, Steve (January 1994). "The State of the Horror Fiction Magazine". Bloodsongs (1). Archived from the original on 2 November 2013. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  16. ^ "Australian Comic Gallery: Phantastique". Tabula Rasa. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  17. ^ Blackmore, Leigh (10 August 2012). "Cry Laughing Clown performed by Worm Technology −1980". SoundCloud. Retrieved 17 September 2013.
  18. ^ Not the New Dylan: The Worm Technology Story R'lyeh Texts, 2010
  19. ^ The H. P. Lovecraft Centennial Conference: Proceedings (Necronomicon Press, 1991).
  20. ISBN 978-99926-42-50-4
    .
  21. ISBN 978-0-313-24030-0
    .
  22. ^ "Publication: Terror Australis: The Best of Australian Horror". Internet Speculative Fiction Database. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  23. ISBN 978-0-313-25112-2
    .
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  26. ^ "Turner Prize Shortlist Announced". Eidolon: SF Online - News1999. Retrieved 7 July 2021.
  27. ^ "GLAYNE LOUISE-BLACKMORE Australian Tribute Website | OnlineTributes.com.au". Archived from the original on 12 September 2012. Retrieved 21 January 2012.
  28. ^ As recorded in Garry Dalrymple's fanzine T S & E, online at efanzines.com
  29. ^ Carroll, David (2001). "Review: Sequence Productions". Tabula Rasa.
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  41. ^ Blackmore, Leigh (December 1991). "Under the Pyramids: On Lovecraft and Houdini: Part Two". EOD: The Esoteric Order of Dagon Magazine (5).
  42. ^ Blackmore, Leigh (September 1991). "Under the Pyramids: On Lovecraft and Houdini: Part One". EOD: The Esoteric Order of Dagon Magazine (4).
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  44. ^ "Happenings". Terry Dowling. Retrieved 17 September 2013. Leigh Blackmore's Honours thesis on Terry's Tom Rynosseros Cycle
    Leigh Blackmore completed a 15,000 word Honours thesis for the Bachelor of Creative Writing at the University of Wollongong entitled: "'Individuation', 'Mytho-realism' and Surrealistic Traces in Terry Dowling's Tom Rynosseros Cycle". This is the first tertiary thesis devoted to Dowling's work and examines the Tom Tyson and his adventures in his future Australia in terms of Jung, Surrealist theory and Joseph Campbell's conception of the 'monomyth.' Leigh's thesis will appear in a special Terry Dowling issue of Van Ikin's Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature.
  45. ^ Blackmore, Leigh. "Deep in the Reality Crisis: Individuation, 'Mytho-Realism' and Surrealistic Traces in Terry Dowling's Tom Rynosseros Cycle". Retrieved 17 September 2013 – via Scribd. This 15,000 word mini-thesis on Australia's acclaimed sf writer Terry Dowling was written as a component of my 2009 Honours degree at the University of Wollongong, NSW Australia. This is slated to be published in Van Ikin's prestigious critical journal Science Fiction, across two issues, but as this print appearance may take some time, I am making it available here as well.
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  58. ^ "Vale Of The Voluptuous". Eldritch Dark. 30 October 2005. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  59. ^ "Memoria: A Fragment From The Book Of Wyvern". Eldritch Dark. 29 November 2005. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
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  62. ^ "Twilight of the Mage" (with Richard L. Tierney, Midnight Echo 5 (2011))
  63. ^ Blackmore, Leigh (June 1992). Masters, Chris A. (ed.). "On the Quest of the Unknown: A Visit With Frank & Lyda Belknap Long". Shoggoth (1): 80.
  64. ^ Pearson, Boyd. "Spectral Realms No. 01 : Hippocampus Press, specializes in classic horror and science fiction". Hippocampus Press.
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  67. ISBN 9780980462524
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  68. ^ "Blackmore". Dead Reckonings (4): 93. Fall 2008.
  69. ^ Blackmore, Leigh (2010). Sharnoth's Spores & Other Seeds. UK: Rainfall Books. Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 6 June 2012.
  70. OCLC 781714598
    – via Open WorldCat.
  71. ^ "Chant to Sirius by Clark Ashton Smith". www.eldritchdark.com.
  72. ^ Title: Twilight of the Mage
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References

  • S.T. Joshi
    Emperors of Dreams: Some Notes on Weird Poetry (Sydney: P'rea Press, 2008), pp. 89–90.
  • S.T. Joshi
    and Stefan Dziemianowicz (eds). Supernatural Literature of the World: An Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005, pp. 1409–10.
  • Bryce J. Stevens The Fear Codex: Australian Encyclopedia of Dark Fantasy & Horror (Jacobyte Books, CD-ROM, 2001).

External links

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