We're pleased to hear that Lucy Sussex's essential collection, Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies, has been nominated for New Zealand's Sir Julius Vogel Award. Congratulations Lucy and we wish you luck!

We're also pleased to be able to be sponsoring Lucy's attendance at next year's SwanCon, WA's annual science fiction convention.

Damnation and Dames, our latest anthology of 16 stunning tales of paranormal noir, was launched in Perth and Melbourne over the Easter weekend.

On Good Friday, Marianne de Pierres, best-selling creator of the Tara Sharp series, launched the title at SwanCon 37 in Perth. Co-editor Liz Grzyb and contributor Pete Kempshall were on hand to sign books for a fantastic audience.

Today, Notions Unlimited Bookshop in Melbourne hosted the east coast launch, where Kirstyn McDermott did the honours. Co-editor Amanda Pillar was in attendance, along with a star-studded audience.

In an attempt to stir up some east-west rivalry, we're happy to reveal that the Perth launch sold the most copies!

(photos available below)

Katharine Stubbs over at Shades of Sentience reviews The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror Volume 1 (edited by Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene) and says some very positive things, including

It is comprised of 33 carefully selected short stories of fantasy, dark fantasy, horror and paranormal romance – a very cool 150,000 words of the best Australia had to offer in 2010.

You can read the full review at http://sentientonline.net/?p=3121

Delia Sherman talks about Lucy Sussex's work and her Ticonderoga collection Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies over at Gillian Polack's blog.

Last year, in preparation for an introduction to a new collection of Lucy’s stories, called Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies, (Ticonderoga Press—look for it) I read very nearly all her stories, one after another, and was blown away all over again.

You can read the full article here http://gillpolack.livejournal.com/941759.html

Paul Kincaid reviews Lucy Sussex's Matilda Told Such Dreadful Lies at SF Site and we're over the moon when he says

There is a richness in the imagination at work here that really deserves to be far better known and recognised, and we can only hope that this superb collection will do the job.

You can read the full review at http://www.sfsite.com/01a/lu359.htm

Scary Minds reviews Liz Grzyb's More Scary Kisses and gives it 9 out of 10. We're really pleased to read:

If after a good collection of offbeat dark genre musings then you have come to the right place. Editor Grzyb throws down the gauntlet to non-romance readers and makes you wonder just what you might have been missing in a certain genre.

You can read the full review at http://www.scaryminds.com/reviews/2012/book132.php