Leigh Blackmore
Leigh David Blackmore is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor and occultist. He is editor of Terror Australis: Best Australian Horror (Sydney: Coronet, 1993); co-author (with Dr Van Ikin) The Eternal Yes: The Affirmations of Terry Dowling (forthcoming); author Terry Dowling: Virtuoso of the Fantastic (R’lyeh Texts, 2005); author Harlan Ellison/Terry Dowling/Jack Dann: A Bibliographic Checklist (Sydney: R’lyeh Texts, 1996); co-author (with S.T. Joshi) H.P. Lovecraft and Lovecraft Criticism: A Bibliographical Supplement 1980-84 (West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1985); author, Brian Lumley: A New Bibliography (Sydney: Dark Press, 1984; San Bernadino CA: Borgo Press, 1986).
He has contributed to various scholarly works on speculative fiction including Supernatural Literature of the World An Encyclopedia (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2005.) He is a co-editor (with chief editor Benjamin J. Szumskyj) of the bi-annual journal Studies in Australian Weird Fiction. Other critical writings & interviews with leading writers in speculative fiction have appeared in Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine, Calenture, Crypt of Cthulhu, Dagon, Dayspring, E.O.D., FuBar, Masque Noir, Outpost, Severed Head, Shadowplay, Shoggoth, Sirius, Tabula Rasa and www.tabula-rasa.info, Talents & Twilit Grotto.
His weird fiction has appeared in Agog! Fantastic Fiction, Agog! Terrific Tales, Avatar, Bold Action, Micro, Phantastique & Pulse of Darkness, Tertangala and online at [1] and h[ttp://www.writingshow.com]. In 2004 his novella "Uncharted" was nominated for a Ditmar Award for Best Novella & received an Honourable Mention in The Year’s Best Horror & Fantasy (17th annual, ed. Ellen Datlow et al. His weird verse has appeared in Arkham Sampler, Avallaunius, Beastly, www.chaosmagic.com, EOD, Etchings & Odysseys, New Lovecraft Collector, Shoggoth, Telmar, & http://www.eldritchdark.com, where he was Featured Poet of the Month Oct 2005. General poetry has appeared in Tertangala.
Leigh has reviewed horror & fantasy fiction for http://www.AsIf.com, EOD, Galaxy Newsletter, Prohibited Matter, Science Fiction, Shoggoth, Skinned Alive & The Sydney Morning Herald. He formerly co-edited (with Glayne Louise) Mythopoeia: The Newsletter of Dymocks SF & Fantasy (1995-97) & Terror Australis: The Australian Horror & Fantasy Magazine (with Chris G.C. Sequeira & B.J. Stevens) (1987-92). He regularly contributes the zine Mantichore to the SSFWT amateur press association.
He co-founded The Sydney Horror Writers & Artists Society (The Gargoyle Club) & has been NSW Correspondent for Australian SF Writers News, local representative for Horror Writers of America, & a judge on the annual George Turner Awards for best first sf novel. He is an active member of the Sydney Passengers Sherlock Holmes Society.
His non-writing pursuits include specto-situationism, mixed-media collage & high magick. He is an initiate of Ordo Templi Orientis. As founder of Aurora Australis Thelemic Temple, he regularly runs esoteric workshops in the Illawarra and with Margi Curtis co-facilitates MoonSkin coven. His published esoteric work includes Transpersonal Magick (with Margi Curtis, forthcoming); & poetry & reviews for Beastly, Crossroads, Kwa, Shadowplay, Sirius, ThAT (which he edited for seven issues) & Waratah magazines. His regular column “Arts of the Craft” (with Margi Curtis) appears in each issue of internationally distributed magazine Spellcraft.
Blackmore worked for over 25 years in the book trade. Currently he is a freelance manuscript assessor for various agencies and is undertaking a Double Degree: BA Creative Arts (Writing) & Journalism at the University of Wollongong. His website, The Blackmausoleum, is at http://members.optusnet.com.au/lvxnox/