The work of author Rick Kennett is some of the best you'll find anywhere. He is one of Australia's foremost sf/df/h writers, and his work has drawn international attention and praise. One of his more widely available works is the story "Out of the Storm," a haunting tale involving the missing minesweeper-corvette HMAS Barrinji. The story appears in the trade paperback Terror Australis, the Best of Australian Horror, available from Coronet Books, Hodder & Stoughton, 10-16 South Street, Rydalmere, NSW 2116, Australia. Rick's story is in good company in this collection.
Another excellent example of Rick's work is "The Outsider," featuring the reluctant ghost hunter Ernie Pine. The story first appeared in Ghosts & Scholars and now appears in The Year's Best Horror Stories XXI, published by DAW Books and availabe at most bookstores. This page lists most of his published work, including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Rick has just contracted for the publication of his second novel. Full details will appear here as they come available. If you have questions about any of the following information, please direct them to Rick at P.O. Box 118, Pascoe Vale South, Victoria, Australia 3044, or e-mail the webmaster. Thanks for stopping by.
OUT NOW...
472 Cheyne Walk, Carnacki: the Untold Stories
by A. F. (Chico) Kidd and Rick Kennett
Available now from Ash Tree Press, a collection of twelve new adventures of William Hope Hodgson's famous "ghost finder." Contents: "The Darkness," "Matheson's Inheritance," "The Silent Garden", "The Case of the Grey Dog", "The Steeple Monster", "The Witch's Room", "The Roaring Paddocks", "The Psychic Doorway", "The Sigsand Codex", "The Keeper of the Minter Light", "Arkright's Tale" and "The Gnarly Ship."
For further inquiries, contact Ash Tree Press at P.O. Box 1360, Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada, VOK lA0, or visit their website.
Books and Booklets
13, Jacobyte books, 2001; a collection of thirteen stories, mostly in the ghost/horror genre, 239 pages, including the stories "Due West," "Bottle Green Dreams," "Isle of the Dancing Dead," "Kindred Spirits," "Log Recording Found in a Dead Man's Gut," "Out of the Storm," "The Windows," "The Battle of Leila the Dog," "The Road to Utopia Plain," "The View from Stickney Crater," "The Outsider," "Time in a Rice Bowl," "The Seas of Castle Hill Road." Available from the publisher, Jacobyte books, in the following formats (all prices are in U.S. dollars): download $5.10; printed book (trade paperback) $10.15; CD $8.10; floppy disc $5.60.
472 Cheyne Walk (booklet) Ghost Story Society, 1992: "The Birth of a Booklet: Synchronicity, or, Intersecting Parallel Lines" (with Chico Kidd); "The Silent Garden"; "The Steeple Monster" (with Chico Kidd); plus two stories by Chico Kidd.
472 Cheyne Walk (book) Ash Tree Press, 2002.
The Reluctant Ghost-Hunter (booklet) Haunted Library, 1991: "Introduction"; "Alley Ghost"; "The Impromptu Seance" (with Bev Lane); "Time in a Rice Bowl."
A Warrior's Star (novel) Alternative Productions Company, 1982.
Poetry
"The BEM": Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine #4, 1985"Downwind": EOD #7, 1992.
"Margo In Orbit": Enigma, 1979.
"The Richest Man in the Cemetery": EOD #7, 1992; Linq, Vol. 19, #2, 1993; Scavenger's Newsletter #154, Dec 1996; and Braquemard #8, 2001.
"Shangri-La Star": The Scribbler, #1, September-October 1987; Keene SF, Vol. 2, #3, 1997.
"That Crazy Sky": Crux #4, 1981.
"When We Played in the Mortuary Station": Linq, Vol. 17, #2, 1990.
Short Stories
"Ace!": A young killer, addicted to electronic games, is recruited by aliens as a pilot in an interstellar war. Note that this story was written and published some years before the similarly plotted 1984 movie The Last Star Fighter -- and the special effects are much better in the story! Published in Enigma, December 1979; Linq, Vol. 11, #2, 1984 (revised version); Waves, #76, February-March 1986; Spin Outs, (Addison Wesley Longman) 1999.
"The Adventure of the Unearthly Spy": A Sherlock Holmes pun story, featuring the great detective Sheerluck Groans and his assistant, Dr. Whatnott, who attend an inventions exhibition to smoke out an alien spying on Earthly technology. Published in Aphelion #5, 1986/'87 (50-word version); The Metaluna Sherlock Holmes Special, 1989 (full version).
"Alley Ghost": Youngsters ask Ernie to "kill" a frog-eyed ghost haunting their backyards and lane. Published in Terror Australis #1, 1988; The Reluctant Ghost-Hunter (Haunted Library), 1991.
"Approved to Scrap": Two former enemies make up the salvage crew of an old destroyer, HMAS Defiant, as she's being towed from Australia to Japan for scrapping. They slowly come to realize she is not going to go quietly. Set in the sixties and based on a molecule of fact. Published in Cygnus Chronicler, Vol. 5, #2, 1983; Winter Chills #4, 1990.
"Attack on the Line": An ant's view of being sprayed with insecticide. Published in Waves #77, April-May 1986.
"The Battle of Leila the Dog": Cy De Gerch, the 17 year old executive officer of the Martian frigate Utopia Plain, is haunted by a spectral dog during a space battle. Published in Eidolon #5, 1991; Picatrix #1, 1992; The Lottery (Omnibus), 1994, reprinted in the U.S. as Altered Voices (Scholastic), 1999, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"Big Magic": Extract of the Ernie Pine novel Abracadabra. With the best of intentions, Ernie breaks into an antiques shop late at night, but finds himself in the shop as it was in 1914. Later, he is pursued down the freeway by a giant hand. In a supermarket car park, he makes his stand against the hand, utilizing the contents of the supermarket's dumpster. Published in Bloodsongs #2, 1994.
"Bottle Green Dreams": Owners of a junk shop discover that an old green bottle, bought with a job lot, has not only brought its own ghosts with it, but also brings to life a long-dead moment in the shop's past. This short story is the basis for the novel Abracadabra. Published in All Hallows #8, 1995 and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"Cargo": Who sampled the samplers? Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine #8, September 2003.
"Chinese Whispers": An ordinary party game uncovers some dark secrets during a night out with a dining club. Agog #1 (Agog Press), 2002; Weird Tales #340, May-June 2006.
"Coming Home": All Hallows #37, Feb 2005. Reprinted in Shadow Box, 2005.
"The Cross Talk": Acquainted with the Night (Ash Tree Press), 2004; Antipodean SF #100, September 2006.
“The Dark and What It Said”; Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine #28, 2007.
"Dead Air": While working at public radio station 3LTD, Ernie and radical feminist Polly Styrene encounter an evil magician intent on bringing beings of the Cthulu Mythos through a portal in the space occupied by the station. Published in EOD #6, 1992.
"Drake's Drum": Set during the Second World War. The crew of a sinking destroyer are saved from under the guns of a Japanese cruiser by the intervention of a strange battleship. Based on an article from a 1924 newspaper. Published in The 19th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (Fontana), 1983.
"Due West": Set in 1935. A retired history teacher, Arthur Lewisham, has retreated to the Queensland outback to write a book on the Gallipoli Campaign of the First World War. Unknown to him, his house has been built on the site of a ritual triple murder committed 37 years before, and where a commonplace action one day re-awakens dormant magic. Published in Eidolon #25/26, '97, Year's Best Australian SF & Fantasy #2 (Harper/Collins) '98, Year's Best Fantasy & Horror #12 (St Martin's) '99, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"Ep and the Aliens": A drunken farm hand is kidnapped by aliens. Ends with an excruciatingly dreadful pun. Published in Metaluna #21, 1988.
"The General": Another excruciatingly dreadful pun story. Published in Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine #2, 1984.
"A Girl and Her Snake": A girl kisses a cobra as a tourist event. The snake, however, is not what it seems, and the money received for the performances has a strange purpose. Published in Artlook, December 1980.
"The Gnarly Ship": Circa 1910, Carnacki takes a trip aboard a Royal Navy submarine haunted by monstrosities and followed by an incredibly weird vessel -- either a warning or a sure sign of a great conflict looming in the future. Published in 472 Cheyne Walk (Ash Tree Press), 2002.
"The Impromptu Seance": Written with Bev Lane. While working in a laundrette, Ernie finds traces of amateur magic having been performed which has invited something dangerous into one of the washing machines. Published in The Reluctant Ghost-Hunter (Haunted Library), 1991, and Redsine #2, 2000
"In Quinn's Paddock" (novella): While on a motorbike trip into the Queensland countryside, Ernie and Sonja discover the still-living magic behind a hundred year old triple murder in an outback town. A sort of sequel to "Due West." Published in the long-awaited anthology Southern Blood, 2003.
"Isle of the Dancing Dead": A young grave digger determines to disprove a legendary curse on a wealthy family's mausoleum. Published in The Fifth Book of After Midnight Stories (Robert Hale), 1991; Get It Together #3 (CWK Gleerups Centrum AB) 1998 ; Cemetery Sonata, (Chameleon Publishing) 1999; Orb #0, 1999; 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001; and Voices in the Dark (web audio) 2006.
"Keeper": Rabbit-like creatures on another planet worship a metallic image found years before. One day a stranger enters the community, declaring an historical interest in the statue. He and the statue, however, are not what they seem. Published in Arkham Sampler #9, June 1985.
"The Keeper of the Minter Light" (novella): An acquaintance asks Carnacki to look into the mystery of a lighthouse-like folly which appears to be taking exception to being torn down. Published in 472 Cheyne Walk (Ash Tree Press), 2002.
"Kindred Spirits": Two drifters are accidentally picked up with a slice of countryside by aliens. Unable to be returned, they are given jobs as rangers. When one dies, the other is asked to officiate at the burial in space. The dead man has other ideas. Published in The 18th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (Fontana), 1982, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"The Last of Mr Benjimen": When a passenger ship sinks after a collision in fog, the witnesses at the subsequent inquiry give conflicting evidence on the last moments of the mysterious Mr Benjimen. Published in Shadows & Silence, (Ash Tree Press) 2000, and Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine #1, June 2002.
"Legends of Mars": During her space schooling on Mars, 12 year old Cy De Gerch crash lands into a gigantic dust storm. Lost and with her re-breather unit broken, she finds help coming from an unexpected quarter. The Red Planet (Longman), 2002; Tales From Beyond (Harcourt), 2004.
"Log Recording Found in a Dead Man's Gut": A starship, infested with gremlins causing mischief and sabotage, is seriously damaged by a meteor. The gremlins must work against their natures to save the ship and themselves. Published in Aurealis #4, 1991, Keene SF, Vol. 2, #1, 1997, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"Made in Hell": An old magician, killed by his greedy nephew, uses the young man's boyhood toys as instruments of vengeance. Published in Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine #1, 1984.
"The Necropolis Watch": A cemetery's night watchman becomes convinced a stately mausoleum is haunted. Published in Monbulk Magazine, June 1981, and Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine #2, 1984.
“Now Cydonia”; ORB #7, 2007.
"On Sherman's Planet": Four engineers arrive on a desert planet to determine the cause of a spaceship crash that occurred there five years before. Published in Crux #5, 1984.
"Out of the Storm": During the Second World War, a bomb-damaged minesweeper, HMAS Barrinji, is found drifting abandoned in the middle of the Indian Ocean. As a salvage crew sail her back to Australia, a spectral atmosphere begins to manifest aboard the little ship. Published in Chills #6, 1992, Terror Australis: The Best of Australian Horror (Hodder & Stoughton), 1993, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"The Outsider": While on a motorcycle tour of England, Ernie is hit by the Earl of Woodthorpe's Rolls Royce. Invited to stay at the manor while his bike is repaired, he comes to realize he's being induced into investigating a haunting of long standing. Published in Ghosts & Scholars #14, 1992, Year's Best Horror Stories XXI (DAW), 1993, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001; The Ghostbreakers: New Horrors (Cyber Pulp), 2003.
"Playback," with Paul Collins, published as "Whispers": A down and out music producer, desperate for a come-back, falls foul of his hated wife’s dabbling in recorded spirit voices. Published in Stalking Midnight, Paul Collins collection, Cosmos Books, 2001.
"Presumed Dead": Novel excerpt, SF EnVision #1, Feb 2005.
"The Road to Utopia Plain": After a freak occurrence in subspace as they return home to Mars, the crew of the Utopia Plain find all is not as it should be. The Captain's wife has died in an epidemic that never was; and Cy's lover, Jos Manxman, though killed in a training accident two years before, is alive and planning a hike into the Martian desert. Published in Eidolon #15, 1994; Beyond #1, April/May 1995; Transversions #8/9, 1998; and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"The Roads of Donnington": While visiting country cousins in Donnington who know of his interest in the occult, Ernie is asked to investigate the case of a ghostly motorcyclist haunting the town. Ernie takes off along the roads of Donnington on the very bike the dead man rides. Published in The 20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories (Fontana), 1984; Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost Stories (Carroll & Graf), 2006.
"The Roaring Paddocks": During his younger sea-faring days Carnacki helps an ex-shipmate investigate a roaring sound haunting his recently inherited Australian cattle station in outback Queensland. Published in 472 Cheyne Walk (Ash Tree Press), 2002.
"Rookwood" (w/ Bryce Stevens): A chase story set in Sydney's massive Rookwood Cemetery in 1898. An old man living in the wild scrub of the graveyard boasts of his powers as a magician. But is he a true sorcerer or a mere madman? Published in Aurealis #24, 1999.
"The Seas of Castle Hill Road": While staying with his friend Sonja Vanhoeven in Queensland, Ernie hears the sound of the sea surging through the windows of her house at night, despite being 40 kilometres from the coast. Published in Eidolon #9, 1992, Strange Fruit (Penguin), 1995, Enigmatic Tales #9, 2000, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"The Silent Garden": A 'Carnacki the Ghost-Finder' pastiche, based on the character created by Edwardian horror writer William Hope Hodgson. Carnacki is asked by a prominent botanist to investigate the peculiar silence haunting his garden of rare flowers. Published in 472 Cheyne Walk (Ghost Story Society), 1992, and 472 Cheyne Walk (Ash Tree Press), 2002.
"The Sniffling Room": A 'Carnacki' parody in which Our Hero noses about a nasally haunted room, and certainly finds a lot to sneeze at. Published in The Goblin Muse, April 2000.
"The Steeple Monster": Written with Chico Kidd. Carnacki investigates the bell tower of a rural church after the new steeple keeper inexplicably vanishes. Published in Aurealis #7, 1992; 472 Cheyne Walk (Ghost Story Society), 1992; Enigmatic Tales, March 1999; and 472 Cheyne Walk (Ash Tree Press), 2002.
"Strange Fruit": Ernie holds a night vigil in a second hand bookshop haunted by poltergeist activity -- or something worse. Published in Terror Australis #2, 1989, and Dark Dreams #8, 1990.
"They Wait": Written with Barry Radburn. Gary Lafferty hates lifts, and lifts hate Gary Lafferty. Published in Linq, Vol. 13, #2, 1985; Antipipodean SF, March 1999.
"Time in a Rice Bowl": Ernie's ten-year-old niece Christine has turned into an ancient Chinaman and disappeared into the ghost of a house long since demolished. After a rice bowl full of water that take no notice of time is found in her bedroom, an evil rag-face spirit begins to intrude into the search for her. Published in The Reluctant Ghost Hunter (Haunted Library), 1991, 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001, and Andromeda Spaceways In-Flught Magazine, #11, April 2004.
"Timelines": The U topia Plain encounters the Earth survey ship St Petersburg orbiting a supposedly lifeless planet. Aboard are a parrot and a new-born baby. Published in ORB #1, 2000.
"The View from Stickney Crater": The Utopia Plain is assigned to destroy a damaged troop ship before it can fall into enemy hands. However, Cy is physically unable to fire on it when she mentally hears the voice of an ex-boyfriend trapped aboard. Published in Aurealis #18, 1997, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001; SF/F (Cyber Pulp), 2005.
"When the Old Man Died": Set in a future where taxation is out of control, the father of two boys is not allowed to die until he pays his departure tax. Published in Waves #79, August-September 1986.
"The Willcroft Inheritance": Written with Paul Collins. Set in the mid-19th Century. A young wife, managing her husband's estate during his long absences at sea, uses the rubble from a ruin on the grounds to repair susidence damage to the house. Unknown to her, a ghost whose appearance presages death has been brought in with the old rock. Published in Gothic Ghosts, Tor Books, 1997, and Stalking Midnight, Paul Collins collection, Cosmos Books, 2001.
"The Windows": During the graveyard shift at public radio station 3LTD, a DJ watches through the studio window as a wannabe magician performs strange rites with oversized records labeled in Latin. But the more he watches, the more he sense all is not going well with the magic. Published in Ghosts & Scholars #13, 1991, EOD #9, 1994, Redsine #4, 2001, and 13 (Jacobyte Books), 2001.
"Young Sue Pregnant, Mr. Herbert Utterly Gay": The owner of a boarding house speculates on her strange tenants and their equally strange behavior, and is irrevocably drawn to a frightening conclusion. Published in Linq, Vol. 8, #2, 1980.
Nonfiction
"Australia's First Naval Casualty Remains a Mystery": Written with C.S. Fuqua. In September 1914, Australia's first submarine, the AE1, disappeared without a trace while on patrol in New Guinea waters. Published in Warship Annual (Conway), 1992.
"Australia's Stake in America's Civil War": Written with B.L. Fuqua and C.S. Fuqua. On January 18, 1864, the Confederate raider Shenandoah arrived off the port of Melbourne in the budding Australian colony of Victoria. It was to cause an international incident. Published in Naval History (USN), Vol. 3, #2, 1989.
"The Birth of a Booklet: Synchronicity, or, Intersecting Parallel Lines": Written with Chico Kidd. An outline of the amazing coincidences which brought together Chico Kidd and Rick Kennett to collaborate on this booklet of Carnacki the Ghost Finder pastiches. Published in 472 Cheyne Walk (Ghost Story Society), 1992.
"A Comparison of This Island Earth with Its Pulp Origins": Contrasts the 1955 movie with the story's original appearance as a three-part serial by Raymond F. Jones in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1949-1950. Published in Metaluna #30, 1989; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
"Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, or, Paranoia vs. Ignorance: Cause and FX": Often overlooked in any critique of this famous SF film is the fact that the aliens originally came in peace and were greeted with a barrage of artillery. Published in Metaluna #21, 1988; The Golden Age of Flying Saucers, Vol. I, #5, Feb/March 1998; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
"Finding Carnacki the Ghost-Finder": A true story of coincidence and sychronicity that led from a chance purchase in a Canberra bookshop to the publication of the hardback edition of "472 Cheyne Walk: Carnacki, the Untold Stories," SF Commentary #78, 2003; Second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
"Fontana's Great Ghost Stories Series": A bibliography of this 20-volume anthology series. Published in Sirius #2, 1993, and All Hallows #12, June 1996; third printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
Fourteen Ghosts in the Twilight Zone": Between 1959 and 1964, The Twilight Zone aired 156 episodes. Fourteen of them were ghost stories. All Hallows #17, March 1998; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
"The Ghost Book Series": A bibliography of this series of ghost story anthologies. All Hallows #20, February 1999; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
"Introduction": Outlines how Ernie Pine came about and the inspiration behind each story. Published in The Reluctant Ghost Hunter (Haunted Library), 1991.
The Invaders: The Show, the Model and Me": In 1968, the SF show The Invaders screened on Australian TV -- and I was there with my ray gun and plastic model saucer, waiting. The Gold Age of Flying Saucers, Vol. 2, #1, June/July 1998.
"Peter Nicholls Interview": Written with Jill Carrick. SF editor and commentator Peter Nicholls is know chiefly as the co-compiler of the massive Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Published in Aphelion #4, 1986.
“Radio Daze”: An article concerning my years hosting an SF/F/H program on Melbourne’s public radio station 3PBS, improbably titled "Pilots into the Unknown." Andromeda Spaceways In-Flight Magazine #21, January 2006; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2006."Shades of Grey: The Ship that Died of Shame": Discusses the 1952 Nicholas Monsarrat novella and the 1955 film made from it, depicting a gunboat with a proud war record and its subsequent fall from grace as a smuggler's vessel and physical disintegration, and asks whether it's a crime or a ghost story. All Hallows #21, June 1999; second printing, Tabula Rasa (web site), 2005.
For great links and information concerning fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and more, go to C.S. Fuqua's Website. Thanks again for stopping by.
Rick Kennett