Summary: "Ray Kilworth, photographer, sets out to find a Cemetery Rose at the ghoulish Rookwood Necropolis in Sydney. Little does he know he will find far more than he bargained for: rare roses of unexpected kinds, including the rare Black Rose, and its supernatural guardians. His life will be irrevocably transformed by the encounter." Welcome to day 6 of the 7 days of Halloween 2006. Today Leigh Blackmore reads his short story "Cemetery Rose," and then joins us for a talk about writing. Leigh Blackmore is a writer, editor, manuscript assessor, and occultist who lives in Wollongong with his two partners, several cats, and a personal library of 15,000 volumes. He published and edited (with B.J. Stevens and Chris G.C. Sequeira) Terror Australis: The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine from 1987 to 1992 and edited Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror. The MUP Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy says that his name is "now synonymous with Australian horror." His weird fiction has appeared in the first two Agog! anthologies ("Uncharted" was a Ditmar nominee for Best Novella in 2003) and at various places online, including www.ligotti.net. He has contributed to many scholarly works on supernatural fiction including Supernatural Literature of the World (edited by S.T. Joshi and Stefan J. Dziemianowicz, Greenwood Press, 2006). He is a co-editor (with chief editor Benjamin J. Szumskyj) of the biannual journal Studies in Australian Weird Fiction and regularly contributes to the zine Mantichore. He deals out-of-print weird and occult fiction under the name Raven Books. Leigh regularly lectures on magick and the esoteric mysteries in the Illawarra, and co-facilitates MoonSkin, a ritual working group, with his magical partner Margi Curtis; their regular column on matters magical appears in the internationally distributed magazine Spellcraft. Leigh's Yahoo discussion group on ceremonial magick, Aurora Australis Thelemic Temple, can be found at groups.yahoo.com/group/aatt. He is currently undertaking a BA Creative Arts (majoring in Creative Writing) at the University of Wollongong.
