Gary Kemble’s award-winning short fiction has been published in magazines and anthologies in Australia and abroad. He is a two-time winner of the ‘One Books Many Brisbanes’ short story competition, and several of his stories have been republished in ‘best of’ collections including Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror. In 2011 he received an Australia Council New Work grant to write his supernatural thriller Skin Deep (Echo Publishing, 2015).
His journalistic career has included stints with local newspapers, national magazines and online publications in Australia and the UK. He is currently the Social Media Coordinator for ABC News.
Born in England, Gary emigrated to Australia when he was six, and grew up in Brisbane. He lives in Scotland with his wife, two kids, and a friendly weasel.
You can find him on Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of other places.
His journalistic career has included stints with local newspapers, national magazines and online publications in Australia and the UK. He is currently the Social Media Coordinator for ABC News.
Born in England, Gary emigrated to Australia when he was six, and grew up in Brisbane. He lives in Scotland with his wife, two kids, and a friendly weasel.
You can find him on Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of other places.
The Shining, Stephen King
This was the first book that actually scared me, and inspired me to become a horror writer.
It’s also a source of frustration, in that so many more people have seen the flawed Stanley Kubrick film than have read the book.
For those who haven’t seen the movie or read the book, it’s about Danny Torrence, a boy with psychic abilities, who winters in the haunted Overlook Hotel with his mum and alcoholic dad.
I read The Shining for the first time twenty years ago. The scenes that have stuck with me are: the sentient topiary animals; when Danny finds himself trapped in the concrete pipe in the playground; the wasp nest (I hate wasps); and of course Danny’s first encounter with the thing in the bath in room 217.
It’s also a source of frustration, in that so many more people have seen the flawed Stanley Kubrick film than have read the book.
For those who haven’t seen the movie or read the book, it’s about Danny Torrence, a boy with psychic abilities, who winters in the haunted Overlook Hotel with his mum and alcoholic dad.
I read The Shining for the first time twenty years ago. The scenes that have stuck with me are: the sentient topiary animals; when Danny finds himself trapped in the concrete pipe in the playground; the wasp nest (I hate wasps); and of course Danny’s first encounter with the thing in the bath in room 217.
The Road, Cormac McCarthy
Maybe this book isn’t so much scary as exhausting. It has been sitting on my bookshelf for years because I loved it and fully intend to read it again one day… but I can’t quite bring myself to do it.
Two things make this book resonate for me. I grew up in the 80s. I was nine in 1983, at the height of the nuclear war scare, when it looked as though the US and the USSR were going to nuke each other into oblivion, taking the rest of the world with them.
Secondly, as a father of two, the nightmare scenario is not being able to protect your children from the dangers out there. And in The Road, the dangers are very real and are everywhere: starvation, sickness, cannibals.
Two things make this book resonate for me. I grew up in the 80s. I was nine in 1983, at the height of the nuclear war scare, when it looked as though the US and the USSR were going to nuke each other into oblivion, taking the rest of the world with them.
Secondly, as a father of two, the nightmare scenario is not being able to protect your children from the dangers out there. And in The Road, the dangers are very real and are everywhere: starvation, sickness, cannibals.
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States by Dr Jeffrey Lewis
Don’t be deceived by the bureaucratic title – this is a gripping and terrifying read. Author Jeffrey Lewis is an expert in nuclear non-proliferation and geopolitics, and has turned his attention to the possibility of a nuclear exchange between the US and North Korea.
His ‘speculative novel’ draws on his wealth of knowledge to show how a series of unrelated events (including, you guessed it, a tweet by the US President) could be interpreted by North Korea as a looming pre-emptive strike by the US, prompting the hermit kingdom to get in first and lob nukes at a bunch of US targets.
His ‘speculative novel’ draws on his wealth of knowledge to show how a series of unrelated events (including, you guessed it, a tweet by the US President) could be interpreted by North Korea as a looming pre-emptive strike by the US, prompting the hermit kingdom to get in first and lob nukes at a bunch of US targets.
The Dead Hand by David E Hoffman
Along a similar vein, but moving from fiction to non-fiction, David E Hoffman delves into the twilight years of the Cold War.
It’s a riveting look at Soviet nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, how close the world came to annihilation in the 1980s, and also the work of US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbechev to pull the world back from the brink.
Incidentally, The Dead Hand was where I first read about Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant-colonel with the Soviet Air Defence Forces. In 1983 he basically prevented an all-out nuclear war by not following protocol when the USSR’s early warning system signalled a US nuclear attack. Instead of reporting the incident up the chain of command, which could have prompted a retaliatory strike, Petrov declared the incident a false alarm. (He was right).
It’s a riveting look at Soviet nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs, how close the world came to annihilation in the 1980s, and also the work of US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbechev to pull the world back from the brink.
Incidentally, The Dead Hand was where I first read about Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant-colonel with the Soviet Air Defence Forces. In 1983 he basically prevented an all-out nuclear war by not following protocol when the USSR’s early warning system signalled a US nuclear attack. Instead of reporting the incident up the chain of command, which could have prompted a retaliatory strike, Petrov declared the incident a false alarm. (He was right).
The Dead Path, Stephen M Irwin
Stephen M Irwin’s debut novel is set in my hometown, Brisbane. And while you don’t have to know Brisbane to enjoy this book (in the same way you don’t have to know Maine to enjoy Stephen King) it does add a certain resonance.
The Dead Path tells the story of Nicholas Close, a man who can not only see dead people, but sees the moment they die, replayed over and over again. Nicholas and I shared the same Brisbane childhood of broad blue skies, the scent of sun-baked eucalypts, of endless bike rides and adventures. But Irwin puts a dark twist on it, introducing ancient evil and dark magic we sense as children but (if we’re lucky) never witness.
Award-winning author Gary Kemble’s debut novel, Strange Ink (Titan Books) is out now.
Click here to read our review of Strange Ink
The Dead Path tells the story of Nicholas Close, a man who can not only see dead people, but sees the moment they die, replayed over and over again. Nicholas and I shared the same Brisbane childhood of broad blue skies, the scent of sun-baked eucalypts, of endless bike rides and adventures. But Irwin puts a dark twist on it, introducing ancient evil and dark magic we sense as children but (if we’re lucky) never witness.
Award-winning author Gary Kemble’s debut novel, Strange Ink (Titan Books) is out now.
Click here to read our review of Strange Ink
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