Rob Hood

Robert Maxwell Hood (born 24 July 1951) is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers, although his work frequently crosses genre boundaries into science fiction, fantasy and crime.

He has published five young adult novels, four collections of his short fiction, an adult epic fantasy novel, fifteen children's books and over 120 short stories in anthologies and magazines in Australia and overseas. He has also written plays, academic articles and poetry and co-edited anthologies of horror and crime. He has won seven Ditmars out of twenty nominations, and been nominated for six Aurealis Awards.

Biography

Hood was born in 1951 in Parramatta, New South Wales. At the age of nine he moved with his family to Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches of Sydney.Blackmore, Leigh. "Profile of Robert Hood", ''Mantichore 14'', pg. 9 (2 August 2009); accessed 26 May 2017. His initial experiments in writing began in primary school, where he produced short "flash fiction" style pieces. He continued to write fiction throughout his teens, and in first year of high school commenced his first full-length piece, which he later described with retrospective humour as "a bad Dr Who-type scifi novel", featuring an eccentric professor with a beautiful daughter combating alien invaders and carnivorous plants. He wrote in school exercise books, and not infrequently during his mathematics lessons.

He was interested in fantastic themes, particularly horror and science fiction, from an early age, and recalls devising childhood schemes to convince his parents to allow him to watch late night horror movies. He was fascinated with both classic representations of horror such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and more modern examples including "short stories in the form of Weird Tales magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, and the '' Pan Book of Horror Stories''". He produced fiction pieces in response to English writing assignments that were far more extensive, elaborate and inventive that expected, and always of a fantastic nature. His teachers made attempts to steer him towards writing in a more naturalistic style, but he eventually won them over with his persistence and inventiveness. After reading H.G. Wells's ''The War of the Worlds'' he became an avid reader of science fiction, but took an interest in a wide range of literary forms.

He commenced study in English Literature at Macquarie University in 1970. His thesis for MA (hons) analysed monster imagery in the works of William Blake.

While at Macquarie University, he wrote 'Caesar or Nothing', a story about a madman taking over the world. With the encouragement of Thea Astley, his tutor, he submitted the piece to ABC Radio and it became his first professional sale, being broadcast on 28 February 1975. In the same year he won the ''Canberra Times'' National Short Story competition. However it was another decade before he wrote and sold stories on a regular basis.

After completing his studies, Hood entered the teaching profession, including teaching English at Elderslie High School and in the following ten years wrote on an irregular basis and submitted stories only sporadically, making some sales in literary journals. He saw little wider success until he left teaching - which he found a demanding profession leaving him little energy for writing - and began a regular writing regime and became persistent in submitting his work. He was also involved for some time with musical and theatre pursuits - the drummer for ''Solstice'' and ''Knee Deep'' and as a member of the Nexus Theatre Company.

In the late 1980s he wrote a general fiction piece and under advice from a member of a writing group he was involved in, reworked the structure to create piece with a greater sense of temporal discontinuity and a more bizarre leaning. Concurrently he decided to transform the story into a crime tale story, after his realisation that the presence of a corpse in the story might make it suitable for that market. The resulting tale "Dead End", became his most republished piece and after submitting the tale to a crime competition and winning, gave him contacts that were significant in launching his writing career.

He has otherwise worked in a variety of fields including welding, catering and in a bookshop. He worked as a journalist for the Sydney suburban ''Liverpool Leader'' local newspaper and also drew an editorial cartoon on a weekly basis for the publication for close to a decade. Additionally he has worked a research assistant in Australian political history and as a comedy writer for a 2SM breakfast show.

His first wife was poet Margaret J. Curtis, with whom he worked in the Nexus Theatre Co. His second wife was poet Deb Westbury. He currently lives in the ACT with his partner—writer, designer and Agog! Press editor Cat Sparks and was Graphic Design & Editorial Officer for the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong until retiring in July 2015 to write full-time.

Writing career

Short fiction

He has published over 120 short works of fiction in Australia and overseas and his work has been included in anthologies and major magazines. His short fiction has spanned a number of genres, including horror, science fiction and crime and he has also published mainstream stories in Australian Literary Journals.

His first published story was "Caesar or Nothing", performed on ABC radio in 1975, Hood won the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition with "Orientation" the same year. One of Hood's most notorious horror tales is the tightly written "Autopsy" ('' Bloodsongs'', January 1994) about a killer's insane quest for the essence of life; it is reputed to have contributed to the magazine in which it appeared being banned in Queensland, something Hood, while aware of the apparent shocking implications of this possibility, views with humorous pride.

In 2007 Hood, a long time Doctor Who fan, who grew up watching the series, published a Doctor Who story set in Prague as part of the Big Finish Short Trips Anthologies. The Prague anthology also featured a number of other Australian authors. He wrote a tale featuring the Sixth Doctor (played by Colin Baker) and his American companion Peri. While Baker may have been considered one of the most unpopular doctors, Hood was attracted to the intense and unpredictable nature of this incarnation of the character.

Other franchise writing by Hood includes the novella "Soul Killer" in ''Zombies vs Robots: Diplomacy'' (IDW Publishing, 2013) within the Zombies vs. Robots GN universe.

Short Fiction Collections

''Daydreaming on Company Time'' (1988)

A collection of horror, fantasy and crime fiction. It was a runner up for best single author collection in the 1990 Readercon Imaginative Fiction Awards.

''Immaterial'' (2002)

This collection presents a selection of Hood's ghost stories, representing a range of his characteristic non-conventional takes on the theme, with little evidence of the traditional 'sheet and chain' wielding phantasms familiar from traditional expectations. It covers a considerable variety of style and variance of genre, including tales with a science fiction element. The stories vary from deeply emotional pieces to epics with a cinematic scope and tales where a supernatural origin for a haunting remains uncertain. The anthology is concluded with an interview with Hood, conducted by Kyla Ward.

The story "Number 7", about a couple on holiday coming across a legend suggesting Rudolf Hess survived and his double perished in Spandau prison, received an honourable mention in the 2003 Aurealis awards.

''Creeping in Reptile Flesh'' (2008)

Hood's most recent collection includes one novella and 13 short stories with a cover created by his partner Cat Sparks. It reprints a number of stories first published in US magazines or small press outlets, that have been difficult to obtain since original publication. It also includes three new stories 'Creeping in Reptile Flesh', 'Unravelling' and 'Getting Rid of Mother'. The stories are centred around themes suggested by the titular novella which headlines the volume.

Hood conceived the collection as a follow up to his 2002 ghost-centered collection ''Immaterial'', in this case collecting some of the best of his non-ghost-related horror stories. The title was inspired by William Blake, whose monstrous imagery was the focus of Hood's MA (Hons) thesis and was intended to be viewed metaphorically, as relating to the feral, monstrous nature hidden within human beings.

The collection was nominated for the 2009 Aurealis for Best Collection and the 2009 Ditmar for Best Collected Work and the title story was nominated for the 2009 Ditmar for Best Australian Novella or Novelette. A revised and expanded edition of this collection was issued by Morrigan Press in 2011.

''Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories'' (2015)

This collection brings together all Hood's 44 ghost stories, published from 1986 to 2015, three of them written especially for the book: "After Image", "Double Speak" and a 22,000-word novella, "The Whimper". Seen by the publisher as a "reference collection", the volume includes an introduction by World Fantasy Award-winning editor, Danel Olson, notes by the author and a bibliography that lists complete publication details, awards and commendations for each story. With the publication of this book, the publisher announced that ''Peripheral Visions'' would be the first in a new series of quality dark fiction works under the imprint Dark Phases.

The book won the Australian Shadows Award for Best Collected Work of 2015. The Awards stated: "Peripheral Visions is an ambitious project, a veritable door-stopper of a hardback comprising nearly 800 pages and 29 years of published work. Author Robert Hood demonstrates a dazzling breadth of treatments united under the overarching ghost story theme, writing with intelligence and insight".

Novels

''Backstreets'' (1999)

A horrific car accident leaves Kel in a coma, and Bryce, his lifelong friend dead. When Kel awakens he cannot believe his friend is truly gone, and is wracked with guilt, fear and feelings of deep loss. When he begins to experience strange dreams and catch sight of shadowy figures, he comes to believe that Bryce is lost rather than no longer alive.

His journey towards confronting his grief becomes a descent into an often nightmarish world, as he roams the streets of his city home, searching for his friend and encountering a reality beyond everyday society, of the homeless and violence that seemingly echoes his inner trauma.''Magpies Magazine'', October 2000. Prior to writing the novel, Hood had experienced the tragedy of the sudden death of his stepson - who was of similar age to Bryce - in an accident. While the novel is not directly autobiographical, aspects of Hood's experiences in the aftermath of the tragedy and those of others around him, were significant in forming the emotional foundations of the piece.

While the setting of novel was based on Sydney, Hood left the exact location ambiguous, referring to it as only 'The City'; his publisher had reservations about a specific Sydney setting, but Hood also wanted to be free to adjust the geography to suit the unfolding narrative.

''Shades'' series (2001)

The Shades series is a quartet of young adult novels all published in 2001. Consecutive books in the series finish with the first chapter of the following novel. The series comprises ''Shadow Dance'', ''Night Beast'', ''Ancient Light'' and ''Black Sun Rising''. The novels feature teenagers who have been drawn into a shadow world feared by ordinary humans.

The first three books are set in a cliffside community based on Hood's Wollongong home, while the fourth book is set in Egypt. The genesis for the Shades series came from a serendipitous encounter with an acquisitions editor at the book launch of Hood's novel ''Backstreets'', who had already worked with Hood on that novel and some of his children's fiction. While viewing a poster for Animorphs at the event, the editor expressed an interest in seeing a proposal for a young adult horror series. Hood formulated this and sent it to her. Receiving the proposal favourably, she assisted Hood in preparing the pitch for her marketing department and the contract was offered solely on the basis on this conceptual material.

Hood's original idea for the series came from a desire to explore a supernatural concept differing from familiar and frequently used tropes such as vampires and the undead. While he started with ideas relating to ghosts and the dead that are not quite dead, further work lead to him envisaging a realm of shadows, reflecting concepts more familiar to science fiction, such as alternative dimensions and dark matter. He then created an original mythology based on these ideas, although he also drew upon aspects of ancient Egyptian, Knights Templar and other mythologies. This connected with the publisher's desire to avoid an obviously horror-based scenario. He was nominated for a 2002 Ditmar for Professional Achievement for the Shades series.

''Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead'' (2013)

In 2013 Borgo/Wildside Press published Hood's dark epic fantasy novel ''Fragments of a Broken Land: Valarl Undead''. The novel won the 2014 Ditmar Award for Best Novel.

Children's fiction

Hood has written fifteen children's books. His ''Creepers'' series of horror tales for children, written in collaboration with Bill Condon, ran to nine volumes and was published in Australia from 1996-97 by Hodder Headline. The series includes: Ghoul Man, FreakOut!, Loco-Zombies, Slime Zone, Bone Screamers, Rat Heads, Brain Sucker (written entirely by Condon), Humungoid, and Feeding Frenzy. UK editions were published by Wolfhound Press, Dublin in 1998.

Non-fiction

Hood has also written authoritative articles on the zombie theme in cinema, on the history of Australian horror films (to 1990), and on giant monster films. One of the latter, "Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla" (which he wrote for a book on the 1933 film ''King Kong'' -- ''King Kong Is Back!'' edited by David Brin