2 July 2022
Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies (IFWG Publishing Australia), won the Best Edited Work category at the Australian Shadows Awards. I’m proud to have a story in this wonderful anthology! I’ve submitted “Destruction by Stealth”, a creative non fiction piece about a couple living with Multiple Sclerosis, to Blood and Thunder for the 2022 anthology. I’ve also completed a piece for Madwomen’s Monologues. I’ve been shortlisted a few times so hoping to make it all the way this time. Fingers crossed…
20 March 2022
The anthology Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, in which I have a story, is a finalist in the Australian Shadows Awards, so fingers crossed. My interview with award-winning horror author Deborah Sheldon about her latest anthology Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories published by Kendall Reviews. I’ve submitted another interview to Horror tree, so toes now crossed as well!
6 March 2022
Much has happened during the era of COVID. I’m so pleased I’ve had opportunities to submit pieces for publication and been successful with many of them, including a drabble and a flash-fiction story in Trembling With Fear, and two author interviews, with the extraordinary and inspiring horror writer Deborah Sheldon, in Kendall reviews and The Horror Tree. I’m currently working on a piece for the Blood and Thunder 2022 anthology.
10 May 2021
Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies
New release – and my story is in it!
I’m thrilled to be part of this amazing new book, edited by the fabulous Deb Sheldon and published by IFWG. The anthology of ‘weird horror tales about pregnancy, birth and babies’ is a showcase of dark Australian fiction.
Available now in stores and online.
26 April 2021
12 July 2020
An email from the University of Oklahoma. It’s a bit exciting…
Robyn O’Sullivan,
Thank you for your recent submission to Blood and Thunder: Musings on the Art of Medicine. Our Selection Committee independently reviewed your piece and rated it carefully on the basis of thematic relevance, overall quality, evocativeness, and uniqueness.
We are pleased to inform you that the following piece has been accepted for publication in the 2020 edition of our humanities journal:
“It’s Not Finished”
Wooohooooooooo… Just a little bit exciting 🙂
24 June 2020
And the winner of the 2019 Australian Shadows Award “Best Edited Work” is… Midnight Echo #14. I’m thrilled that my story is in an award-winning anthology. Congratulations to the talented guest editor, Deb Sheldon, and mega thanks for selecting my story for inclusion.
Another piece of good news is my blog for the MS Society of UK is up on their site.
5 June 2020
Midnight Echo #14, which includes my short story “A Tale of the Ainu”, is nominated for the 2019 Australian Shadows Award “Best Edited Work“.
14 December 2019
Sinister Reads published the “inspiration interviews” of writers featured in issue 14 of the Australasian Horror Writers Association magazine, and my essay is included in part 3. Midnight Echo #14 is now available.
24 September 2019
Midnight Echo will be published in digital format on Amazon at the end of the year. I’m thrilled to be included in the line-up of authors that includes some big names of the Australian and New Zealand horror writers scene. Here’s a sneak peek of the table of contents for Issue 14…
29 August 2019
I’ve had a few successes this week. In the last three to four months, I had submitted five pieces to various publications Two have been accepted and one is gracing a shortlist.
1. My short story, A tale of the Ainu, has been accepted for inclusion in the Australasian Horror Writers Association’s magazine, Midnight Echo, issue #14. The theme for this issue is Things Are Not As They Seem.
2. My drabble (100-word story), The devil incarnate, has been accepted by The Aussie small press, Things in the Well, for inclusion in the anthology Guilty Pleasures to be released later this year.
3. I made the shortlist of Baggage Productions’ Madwomen Monologues with my piece, Dad’s final masterpiece. Fingers crossed that come November someone will be strutting my stuff across a stage at The Butterfly Club.
In case you’re wondering about the body horror story, it’s still out there seeking the magazine that wants it…
9 June 2019
I’m workshopping my new story on Tuesday morning. It’s a ‘body horror’ story based on a recent medical experience I had. I’m writing it in third person because it was so traumatising, I need to distance myself from it.
On Friday afternoon, I decided I could best spend the time finishing the book I was reading. After all, I had a whole long weekend to finish the short story. And the book was niggling at me; I had to find out how it ended.
On Saturday, I decided to finish the quilt I was making. It had to be done. I’d been putting it off for at least a month and that hand sewing wasn’t going to do itself!
Today, I had to spring clean the Scriptorium. How could I possibly write when I knew the windowsills needed to be dusted and the decor items rearranged and the floor vacuumed and the antique cabinet polished and the doilies washed and the bookcases alphabetised and… my writing room looks great. It smells of lavender furniture polish. But it’s four o’clock now and… I’m exhausted.
I’ll finish the story on Monday. I know it’s a public holiday but I’ll just have to work. I have a deadline. I’m workshopping my new story on Tuesday morning.
23 April 2019
Earlier this year, my husband Grant was asked to write a blog, about coping with MS, for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in the UK. Our daughter Mel, who lives in London, has a friend at MS UK. Grant was keen to tell his story, but he wasn’t confident about doing the writing. We talked about his journey with MS, and then I wrote the blog for him. We’re so pleased to see it up on the MS Society UK website.
25 September 2018
I recently returned from six weeks in London to find a copy of the September issue of Quadrant magazine in my mail. It was such
a delight to see my story, ‘Painting with my father’, in print, not to mention my name on the front cover as the writer of the Fiction contribution for this edition!
Copies available at large newsagents, bookstores such as Readings, or by email: contact@quadrant.org.au
“I cried at the end of your story! It was very moving and beautifully understated. So lean and well paced…”
Jen Storer
children’s author and creative writing guru
25 June 2018
Progress on the book slowed a little while I was in Far North Queensland, because there were just too many fabulous places to visit and sights to see.
So pleased to report that the story I submitted to Quadrant magazine in April has been accepted for publication!
31 May 2018
Last day of autumn. Hello winter! But I’m in Cairns and it’s a glorious 28˚C. All day long. I’m sitting on the balcony of my sister-in-law’s home, writing. When I look up to ponder, this is what I see…
So far, I’ve had no trouble putting my fingers on the keys every day. I wish I could stay here ’till Christmas, I’d definitely get this book finished. Then again, I probably wouldn’t be able to write because I’d be too damn hot!
Anyway, my news is that four books I wrote for a Chinese ESL publisher arrived in the mail last week. They were illustrated and produced in China. I think the illustrations are lovely, except maybe for some of the noses…
Anzac Day, 25 April 2018
I’ve spent the greater part of this month planning my new novel. It’s a fictional memoir that, until a couple of months ago, concentrated on a woman’s relationship with her father. As happens with fiction, the story has twisted and turned and grown arms like an octopus. Now, the protagonist is dealing with both her father and her husband. So, I’m currently working on ways to weave the two stories together. It’s challenging, but oh so satisfying when the ideas and threads and links begin to gel.
In the last couple of days, I’ve submitted two short stories to a couple of magazines for publication. Fingers crossed…
Robyn O'Sullivan 