Coming into horror writing awards season (Stokers, etc). Authors hate this stuff—trust me. But here are my eligible works for those interested. If eligible voters would like copies, DM me! CUT TO CARE: A COLLECTION OF LITTLE HURTS is eligible in the collection category. 🧵 1/8

Because I sadly can’t be at StokerCon this year, I would like a wicker man erected in the main hotel foyer at midnight tonight in my honour. Only one human sacrifice required (plus maybe a couple of sheep)! Do that, and I promise I’ll join you all in 2027. I miss you all.

Devastated. Jamie Blanks, filmmaker and friend, has passed away at the age of 54. I’ll miss our calls, texts, sending each other ideas and stories, talking for hours about horror movies. More than anything, I’ll miss that laugh, his enormous warmth and generosity. Vale, brother.

Word of Jamie’s passing has devastated me this week. I didn’t know him long, we became close during COVID and since then I don’t think there was a month in all that time where I didn’t talk to him. We bonded over our mutual obsessions: synthwave and movies. But we also loved talking about our families, and were looking forward to a time when we could all get together and have some laughs. Jamie and I went from fast friends to frequent collaborators and I had the honor of working with him on two projects. Some of the most fun I’ve had in this business. His enthusiasm was infectious, for our work, yes, but for everything else, too. He had a larger than life personality and that came through no matter the topic of discussion. Jamie was one of those people who seemed to love life, and he made you want to love it more, too. Jamie loved supporting the horror genre. One of our last conversations was just rattling through the slate of horror films released so far this year. He was also quite deeply touched by the outpouring of love here on X for the 25th anniversary of his film VALENTINE. A film that, many of you know, was great back then and has only gotten better with age. So if you are among the many on this site to proclaim your love of that movie this year… just know that Jamie saw it and that it meant the world to him. Sincerely. The world feels a little quieter this week. And forever. I’m still adjusting to the fact that he’s gone. My heart goes out to his beautiful family in this unthinkable time. Rest in peace Jamie Blanks. I love you, brother.

Thank you so much! Love these pix.

IN THE HEAT OF PASSION (1992) walked so WILD THINGS could run. Written/directed by Rodman Flender (IDLE HANDS) produced by Roger Corman. Picked this up on VHS because I love erotic thrillers. Turns out it’s a fab satire with meta moments ala DePalma’s SISTERS. Twisty, hilarious!

My gay role models as a kid growing up in the 90s.

Best musical moments. 🎵

PASSIONLESS MOMENTS (1983), directed by Jane Campion and Gerard Lee, a short film (12 minutes). "There are one million moments in your neighborhood, and as the filmmakers discovered, each has a fragile presence, which fades almost as it forms.”

Tonight’s watch. Masterpiece.

Niche post, but there’s a guy on my bus who looks so much like Mike Nichols it’s crazy. Unless it’s his ghost? Just-in-case urge to approach and ask about DAY OF THE DOLPHIN rising…

BATTLE ROYALE: Book Club event for the Canberra Writers Festival/National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, a screening of the brilliant film from Kinji Fukasaku followed by a discussion about Koushun Takami’s original book between myself and D.P. Vaughan. So much fun!

There are many great films. There are many great film prologues. But there’s only one MAGNOLIA. “One is the loneliest number…”

CLYDE FANS by SETH took 20 years to write/illustrate, totals 500 pages. A masterpiece of melancholy. It chronicles brothers trying to keep a fan company alive. Tonally like your favourite Coen brothers film or Aimee Mann song or Keats poem. It’s about memory, legacy, capitalism.

I was awarded a Ditmar for Best Short Story of 2025 for BELLOW OF THE STEAMSHIP COW and another for LET THE CAT IN, the podcast I co-host with Kaaron Warren and J. Ashley-Smith. Ditmars have been awarded annually since 1969, and are basically the Australian Hugos. Congrats all!

READ. MORE. BOOKS.

MY HEART.

BUFFALO HUNTER HUNTER by Stephen Graham Jones is an outstanding novel, blowing my mind. I listened to the audiobook, often stopping in my tracks on my walks through the country, staring at the sky, shocked, gripped. Immersive, violent, angry, funny, mournful. It NEVER flinches.

THE LONG WALK (2025). A powerful adaptation of Stephen King’s great novel. Incredible performances. World-building that doesn’t get in the way of character. See it in the cinema so you’re wrapped in its dystopian stranglehold without distraction. One of the year’s best films.

Mood board that captures the vibe of the collection of stories I just handed into my agent. Look, it’s not exactly giving cheerful.

Larry Fessenden’s DEPRAVED (2019), a thoughtful post-modern retelling of the post-modern Prometheus. Who is more depraved—the creature, the man who made the creature, or the man who financed the making of the creature? Scenes shot inside The MET without permission are fabulous.