Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Audio: Directions in Australian Horror

Audio from the 'Directions in Australian Horror' session at AussieCon 4, featuring Stuart Mayne, Bill Congreve, Angela Slatter, Trent Jamieson and Honey Brown.

I found this session a little frustrating in that we're still trying to define what horror is and what it isn't! (Check out this similar discussion back at Conjure in 2006) And the divide between how authors want to define their work and how publishers want to market it.

Part of me wants to scream IT DOESN'T MATTER, LABELS AREN'T IMPORTANT! But I think labels are important to horror fans. And I saw evidence of that in the questions at one of the other horror panels. Horror fans, I think, want to be able to go to their bookshop and find a decent horror section that contains more than paranormal romance and a gazillion Stephen King books.

But maybe this is old-fashioned, given many books are sold directly via the internet now, and the knowledgeable bookseller has been replaced in many cases by social networks.

What do you think?

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NewDirectionsinHorror.MP3 (20549 KB)

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