Hello fiends

How the fuck are ya? I hope this finds you well. First of all, I need to stop apologising about these newsletters being infrequent and promising to do better. I mean, I am sorry they’re so infrequent, but I clearly can’t do better, so I need to accept the truth of the situation. I will send out a newsletter as frequently as possible, with no guarantee of regularity.

Honestly, accepting how things are rather than how we wish they were is a powerful and valuable life skill. We absolutely should strive to make things better, to make the world we inhabit more into the kind of world we want to inhabit – from personal relationships, to careers, to politics and beyond – but recognising something for what it is rather than what we wish it was is the best place to start all of that.

It’s an important lesson in this writing life too. I’ve talked before about how the only thing we control is the writing, so that’s what we have to focus on. We can wish all we like that things were different, that we had that guy’s career, or whatever, but recognising how things actually are is important. Then we figure out what we can do, however seemingly insignificant, to move us towards something better.

I do have one more excuse than usual this time when it comes to the newsletter being late, which is that I went away with my family for a little while. It was a great recharge, but now I’m back and working towards firing on all cylinders again. What does that mean?

Weeellll, not all that much right at this moment. There’s a lot of stuff going on in the background, but nothing coming to fruition yet. And there’s a few things that didn’t work out at all, which is normal in this job. I saw a bunch of people lamenting recently, and some of it got a little bitter, so I ended up writing this. ​https://www.patreon.com/posts/141918761​ It reiterates a bit what I’ve said above, but goes into a lot more about the dangers of jealousy.

It also finishes with the reminder that all we control is the writing and that we have to do the fucking work. So, on that front, while all these other things tick away in the background, I’ve been doing the fucking work. I’ll always much prefer working with publishers, but you’ll also be aware that I put out some books independently too, and they’ve been some of my most successful stuff. Among those things are the Tales From The Gulp. The Gulp and The Fall are already out there, of course, and now a third book is coming. I recently shared the cover for The Rise. Five more novellas set in the creepy harbour town of Gulpepper, with some returning characters and some new ones. I’m really excited about this book and I’m getting it organised for a February 2026 release. It’s with the editor now and I should have early ARCs before too long. Here’s the cover:

Horror author of The Cursed Among Us and The Envelope, John Durgin, kindly read an early draft and had this to say:

“At the center of Gulpepper is a blackened heart that pumps fear into each of these new stories. With The Rise, Baxter proves there is far more lore to uncover, and while I’d never spend a minute in this town myself, I sure as hell love reading about the poor souls who do.”

Thanks, John!

In other release news, I’ve mentioned before that 2025 has been a little lean on new releases, but two short stories I’m really proud of are both out now. “Watch the Skies” in Fever Dreams and “Eighty-five Per Cent, Give or Take” in This Way Lies Madness are both out in the world.

I also had a story fall by the wayside when an anthology project failed to come together, so I’ve now shared that story on Patreon instead. It’s right here: ​https://www.patreon.com/posts/142073015​ If you’re not a patron, you can pay the once-off fee of AU$5 (that’s about US$3) to read it. I wanted to price it more cheaply than that, but AU$5 was the lowest available. I guess because that’s the cheapest tier option on my Patreon? No idea, I don’t know how these things work. But hopefully it’s worth your bucks if you give it a go. If you do sign up to Patreon for AU$5 a month, there’s loads of free and exclusive fiction to be found there.

I mentioned before as well that Blood Covenant was eligible for the Best Novel in the Ditmar Awards. Well, it didn’t win but it was shortlisted, which is wonderful. The Ditmars are becoming my white whale among Aussie awards – I’ve been nominated 16 times now, but have yet to win one. Maybe one day!

What I’ve Been Enjoying

I’ve been catching up recently on the TV show Vikings. I really enjoyed the first few seasons, then kinda fell out of watching it for some reason. So I’ve just finished rectifying that and binged all the rest. It’s enormous fun. I have no idea how accurate to history it is, but it makes for brilliant TV regardless. I also watched Life of Chuck, based on the Stephen King story. I get it, I understand the central conceit, and the performances are fantastic, but the film as a whole fell a bit flat for me. I’m keen to read the book though. And I watched Tenet. I think I followed about 10 to 20 % of it… Interestingly, if you’ve seen Tenet and you read the story over on Patreon that I mentioned above, you might spot a weird overlap!

As for reading, I’ve finally caught up on The Jade Setter of Janloon and Jade Shards by Fonda Lee, which are stories set in her Green Bone Saga world. I absolutely love that trilogy (Jade City, Jade War, Jade Legacy) – I think it’s one of the best fantasies I’ve ever read – and these stories are a great addition. I also read Strange Eons by Robert Bloch, in its new Valancourt edition. While it’s essentially an homage from Bloch to his friend, HP Lovecraft, it’s actually a lot more than that and a great yarn in its own right. Finally, I had an early read of It Came From The Flower Shop Down Under by Chris Heinicke and Kate Reedwood. It’s set in the 1970s and is a great Aussie creature feature romp. I really enjoyed it.

Right, that’s all from me for now. More news when I get around to the next one and when I have something cool to share. Hopefully soon, as I really would like to have some good news before long!

Be kind to yourself and others. All the best.

Al

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