Rob Hood
Encyclopedia
Robert Hood (born 24 July 1951) is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers. He has published five young adult novels, three collections of his short fiction, fifteen children's books and over 100 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 been nominated for three Aurealis Award
s and eight Ditmars
. In 2006 Hood won a Ditmar Award for Best Collection for Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales
(edited with Robin Pen) and another in 2009 for his film review and commentary website, Undead Backbrain.
suburb of Parramatta. At the age of nine he moved with his family to Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches of Sydney. 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 anthologies
and the Pan Book of Horror Stories
.” He also 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 persistance and inventiveness. After reading HG Wells's War of the Worlds he became an avid reader of science fiction, but also 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 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. 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 Wollongong with his partner—writer, designer and Agog! Press
editor Cat Sparks and is Graphic Design & Editorial Officer for the Economics Faculty at the University of Wollongong
.
His first published story was "Caeser or Nothing", performed on ABC radio in 1975 and he won the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition with "Orientation" in the same year.
One of Hood’s most notorious horror tales is the tightly-written "Autopsy" (Bloodsongs
, Jan 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.
He has been nominated for the Aurealis Award
for Best horror short story on two occasions, in 2001 for “That Old Black Graffiti” and in 2002 for “Rotten Times”. He has received six Ditmar nominations for his short fiction: “Ground Underfoot” and “Primal Etiquette” for Short Fiction in 2000; “That Old Black Graffiti” for Short Story in 2001; “Rotten Times” for Short Fiction in 2002; “Moments of Dying” for Short Story in 2009 and “Creeping in Reptile Flesh” for Australian Novella or Novelette in 2009.
He has published three anthologies of his short fiction:
The anthology 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.
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.
The novels feature teenagers who have been drawn into a shadow world feared by ordinary humans. Existing more in this mysterious realm than that of their former lives, they have extraordinary abilities but must remain in the shadows, as light can diminish and even permanently banish them from interaction with the ordinary world. Across the four novels the characters discover more about this shadow realm and its inhabitants, discover a conspiracy to bring eternal darkness to the world of light and must confront the evil behind the conspiracy.
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 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 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 also connected with the publishers desire to avoid an obviously horror based scenario.
He was nominated for a 2002 Ditmar for Professional Achievement for the Shades series.
His Creepers series of horror tales for children, written in collaboration with Bill Condon, ran to nine volumes and was published 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.
-- King Kong Is Back! edited by David Brin
(BenBella Books, 2005) -- won the 2006 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review
. His essay "Man and Super-Monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents", published in Borderlands #7, was nominated for the 2007 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism
. He won the 2008 Best Fan Writer Ditmar award for film reviews on his website, the 2009 Ditmar Award for Best Fan writer for his blog Undead Backbrain and also was nominated for the 2009 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism for his essay "George A. Romero: Master of the Living Dead."
) which were variously performed and published; several include supernatural elements (e.g. On Getting to the Heart of the Monster, Or the Reviewers Revenge, first performed 1983). Hood has also written textbooks, an opera libretto, and poetry.
) also contributes to his stories a sophisticated sense of the closeness of life and death.
and feels that Blake’s ideas and images have affected his world view and are often reflected in his writing. He also cites film as a major influence, in particular the late night horror films of his youth which led him to read classics such as Frankenstein
, Dracula
and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He feels that these works and their film versions, together with classic Universal and Hammer Horror films had left him with an enduring gothic sensibility in his outlook.
and is also involved in Agog! Press
with his Partner, Cat Sparks.
He has published five fiction anthologies as co-editor, including three collections of 'Daikaiju' giant monster tales.
, the anthology was the first Australian annual collection of horror stories, showcasing ten horror tales published during 1995, together with a history of Australian horror and a recommended reading list. The collection includes horror tales by Australian writers typically known for their genre fiction such as Stephen Dedman
and Leanne Frahm
, and those known for their literary fiction, such as Carmel Bird
and Garry Disher
. It also included one of Hood stories, "Dead in the Glamour of Moonlight".
and King Kong
. The volumes are co-edited with Robin Pen and comprising Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales (2004), Daikaiju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters (2007), Daikaiju!3: Giant Monsters vs the World (2007). All three are published by Agog! Press
.
The first of the three anthologies was awarded the Ditmar for best collection in 2006. Two stories from the collection "The Greater Death of Saito Saku" by Richard Harland
and "Once Giants Roamed the Earth" by Rosaleen Love
were joint winners of the Fantasy Short Story category in the 2006 Aurealis Awards.
While the Daikaiju genre had previously been well represented in film and comics, it was not well established as a literary genre and there had been few examples published prior to Hood’s anthologies. A call for stories on the theme brought a surprising number and range of tales from around the world and tapped a vein of enthusiasm among writers who had been waiting for such an opportunity. Submissions included stories that invoked the essence of the genre but also those that envisioned new and original ideas drawn from its sensibilities.
A number of short listed stories were unable to be included in the first volume due to size constraints. Hood had originally intended to publish these in an e-publication, as anthologies on daikaiju are infrequently published and the stories might find difficulty finding a market elsewhere. However a relationship between Agog! and Prime Books in the US, the development of low costs print on demand technology and Prime’s support in getting Agog! books on Amazon.com made it more cost effective to produce further volumes.
A full list of Hood's short stories is available on his website
Aurealis Award
Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.-History:...
s and eight Ditmars
Ditmar Award
The Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
. In 2006 Hood won a Ditmar Award for Best Collection for Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales
Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales
Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales is a 2005 speculative fiction anthology edited by Robert Hood and Robin Pen.-Background:Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales was first published in Australia in 2005 by Agog! Press in hardback format. It won the 2006 Ditmar Award for best collected work. Daikaiju! Giant...
(edited with Robin Pen) and another in 2009 for his film review and commentary website, Undead Backbrain.
Biography
Robert Hood was born in 1951 in the SydneySydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
suburb of Parramatta. At the age of nine he moved with his family to Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches of Sydney. 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
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
, Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and more modern examples including “short stories in the form of Weird Tales
Weird Tales
Weird Tales is an American fantasy and horror fiction pulp magazine first published in March 1923. It ceased its original run in September 1954, after 279 issues, but has since been revived. The magazine was set up in Chicago by J. C. Henneberger, an ex-journalist with a taste for the macabre....
magazine, Alfred Hitchcock anthologies
Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology
Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology was a seasonally printed collection of suspenseful and thrilling short stories from Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Starting in 1976 and going as far as 1989, the anthology contains stories from authors such as: Patricia Highsmith, Robert Bloch, Bill Pronzini,...
and the Pan Book of Horror Stories
Pan Book of Horror
The Pan Book of Horror Stories was a paperback series of short horror story anthologies published by Pan Books Ltd. The series ran to thirty volumes, the first published in 1959.The series was initially collected and edited by Herbert Van Thal...
.” He also 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 persistance and inventiveness. After reading HG Wells's War of the Worlds he became an avid reader of science fiction, but also took an interest in a wide range of literary forms.
He commenced study in English Literature at Macquarie University
Macquarie University
Macquarie University is an Australian public teaching and research university located in Sydney, with its main campus situated in Macquarie Park. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the metropolitan area of Sydney...
in 1970. His thesis for MA (hons) analysed monster imagery in the works of William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
. While at Macquarie University, he wrote ‘Caesar or Nothing’, a story about a madman taking over the world. With the encouragement of Thea Astley
Thea Astley
Thea Astley was an Australian novelist and short story writer. She was a prolific writer who was published for over 40 years from 1958. At the time of her death, she had won more Miles Franklin Awards, Australia's major literary award, than any other writer...
, 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 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. 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 Wollongong with his partner—writer, designer and Agog! Press
Agog! Press
Agog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
editor Cat Sparks and is Graphic Design & Editorial Officer for the Economics Faculty at the University of Wollongong
University of Wollongong
The University of Wollongong is a public university located in the coastal city of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia, approximately 80 kilometres south of Sydney...
.
Short fiction
He has published over 100 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 "Caeser or Nothing", performed on ABC radio in 1975 and he won the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition with "Orientation" in the same year.
One of Hood’s most notorious horror tales is the tightly-written "Autopsy" (Bloodsongs
Bloodsongs
Bloodsongs magazine was created by Steve Proposch and Chris A. Masters in 1993 as a vehicle for original horror fiction. It was published by Bambada Press in Melbourne Australia from 1993 to 1997....
, Jan 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
Queensland
Queensland is a state of Australia, occupying the north-eastern section of the mainland continent. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Australia and New South Wales to the west, south-west and south respectively. To the east, Queensland is bordered by the Coral Sea and Pacific Ocean...
, something Hood, while aware of the apparent shocking implications of this possibility, views with humorous pride.
In 2007 Hood, a long time Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
fan, who grew up watching the series, published a Doctor Who story
Short Trips: Destination Prague
Short Trips: Destination Prague is a Big Finish original anthology edited by Steven Savile and based on the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. The collection features stories set in the future of Prague.-Stories:...
set in Prague as part of the Big Finish Short Trips Anthologies
Big Finish Short Trips
The Big Finish Short Trips are a collection of short story anthologies published by Big Finish Productions based on the BBC Television series Doctor Who, beginning with the collection Short Trips: Zodiac in December 2002 and ending with the loss of their license in 2009...
. The Prague anthology also featured a number of other Australian authors. He wrote a tale featuring the Sixth Doctor (played by Colin Baker
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
) 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.
He has been nominated for the Aurealis Award
Aurealis Award
Aurealis Award for Excellence in Speculative Fiction is an annual literary award for Australian science fiction, fantasy and horror fiction. Only Australians are eligible for the award.-History:...
for Best horror short story on two occasions, in 2001 for “That Old Black Graffiti” and in 2002 for “Rotten Times”. He has received six Ditmar nominations for his short fiction: “Ground Underfoot” and “Primal Etiquette” for Short Fiction in 2000; “That Old Black Graffiti” for Short Story in 2001; “Rotten Times” for Short Fiction in 2002; “Moments of Dying” for Short Story in 2009 and “Creeping in Reptile Flesh” for Australian Novella or Novelette in 2009.
He has published three anthologies of his short fiction:
Daydreaming on Company Time (1988)
An anthology 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)
The anthology 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 anthology 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 his MA thesis and was intended to be viewed metaphorically, as relating to the feral, monstrous nature hidden within human beings.The anthology 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.
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 be believe 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.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
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
, 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. Consescutive 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. Existing more in this mysterious realm than that of their former lives, they have extraordinary abilities but must remain in the shadows, as light can diminish and even permanently banish them from interaction with the ordinary world. Across the four novels the characters discover more about this shadow realm and its inhabitants, discover a conspiracy to bring eternal darkness to the world of light and must confront the evil behind the conspiracy.
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
Animorphs
Animorphs is an English language science fiction series of young adult books written by K. A. Applegate and published by Scholastic. Five humans, Jake, Marco, Cassie, Rachel, and Tobias, and one alien, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill , obtain the ability to morph into any animal they touch. They name...
at the event, the editor expressed an interest in seeing 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 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
Knights Templar
The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...
and other mythologies. This also connected with the publishers desire to avoid an obviously horror based scenario.
He was nominated for a 2002 Ditmar for Professional Achievement for the Shades series.
Robot War Espresso (2011)
Hood's sixth young adult novel is due to be published by Twelfth Planet Press in 2011. The novel focuses on a 16 year-old girl who has been in a wheelchair since her early years as the result of a crippling accident and dreams of alternative lives. Set in the future, it includes robots, adventure in virtual reality and some exploration of attitudes to artificial life. Hood describes the novel as being Slipstream in character rather than straight science fiction.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 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.
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 KongKing Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
-- King Kong Is Back! edited by David Brin
David Brin
Glen David Brin, Ph.D. is an American scientist and award-winning author of science fiction. He has received the Hugo, Locus, Campbell and Nebula Awards.-Biography:...
(BenBella Books, 2005) -- won the 2006 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review
William Atheling Jr. Award
The William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review are a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in science fiction and speculative criticism, and were named for the pseudonym used by James Blish for his critical...
. His essay "Man and Super-Monster: A History of Daikaiju Eiga and its Metaphorical Undercurrents", published in Borderlands #7, was nominated for the 2007 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism
William Atheling Jr. Award
The William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review are a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in science fiction and speculative criticism, and were named for the pseudonym used by James Blish for his critical...
. He won the 2008 Best Fan Writer Ditmar award for film reviews on his website, the 2009 Ditmar Award for Best Fan writer for his blog Undead Backbrain and also was nominated for the 2009 William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism for his essay "George A. Romero: Master of the Living Dead."
Other writing
Between 1983 and 1990 Hood's output included eight plays (two co-written with children's writer Bill CondonBill Condon
William "Bill" Condon is an American screenwriter and director. Condon is best known for directing and writing the critically acclaimed films Gods and Monsters, Chicago, Kinsey, and Dreamgirls. In 1998, Condon debuted as a screenwriter in Gods and Monsters, which won him his first Academy Award....
) which were variously performed and published; several include supernatural elements (e.g. On Getting to the Heart of the Monster, Or the Reviewers Revenge, first performed 1983). Hood has also written textbooks, an opera libretto, and poetry.
Genre
He is recognised as a prominent Australian horror writer, but his work is not constrained by boundaries of genre. Many of his stories contain elements of science fiction or fantasy and can be a mixture of several genres with an apparently playful sense of experimenting with typical conventions and expectations. He has extended this sensibility into his editorial work, co-editing Crosstown Traffic, an anthology collecting stories that purposely mix crime with a number of other genres. He has also written crime and mainstream fiction.Style
Hood's stories characteristically mix crime, horror and sometimes sf elements; blurring genre boundaries seems to come naturally to him. His work is marked by a deceptively straightforward style and by an intense sense of humanity (and, at times, humour) underlying his often-bizarre horror scenarios. Hood's awareness of metaphysics (instanced in his MA (Hons) thesis on monster imagery in the works of William BlakeWilliam Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
) also contributes to his stories a sophisticated sense of the closeness of life and death.
Influences
He has suggested that his initial passion for genre writing was sparked by the works of HG Wells, whose mixture of optimism and pessimism for the future he believes poignantly captures the dilemma of human existence. He was also greatly influenced by the writings of English romantic poet William BlakeWilliam Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
and feels that Blake’s ideas and images have affected his world view and are often reflected in his writing. He also cites film as a major influence, in particular the late night horror films of his youth which led him to read classics such as Frankenstein
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is a novel about a failed experiment that produced a monster, written by Mary Shelley, with inserts of poems by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Shelley started writing the story when she was eighteen, and the novel was published when she was twenty-one. The first...
, Dracula
Dracula
Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker.Famous for introducing the character of the vampire Count Dracula, the novel tells the story of Dracula's attempt to relocate from Transylvania to England, and the battle between Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Professor...
and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. He feels that these works and their film versions, together with classic Universal and Hammer Horror films had left him with an enduring gothic sensibility in his outlook.
Editorial work
He was co-founder, with Bill Congrieve of MirrorDanse BooksMirrorDanse Books
MirrorDanse Books , founded in 1994, is one of Australia's longest running independent book publishers of science fiction and horror.MirrorDanse Books publishes the The Year's Best Australian SF & Fantasy anthology series, edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt...
and is also involved in Agog! Press
Agog! Press
Agog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
with his Partner, Cat Sparks.
He has published five fiction anthologies as co-editor, including three collections of 'Daikaiju' giant monster tales.
Crosstown Traffic (1993)
The anthology blurs the traditional boundaries of genre expectations by commissioning twelve crime stories from Australian writers, in each case challenging the writer to produce a story that also worked with the conventions of another genre; examples include the western, romance, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Many of the tales have a bizarre or horror leaning giving the collection a dark fantasy sensibility. It is co-edited with Stuart Coupe and Julie Ogden who were editors of the Mean Streets crime fiction magazine, and includes stories by Jean Bedford, Dominic Cadden, Bill Congreve, Peter Corris, Marele Day, Garry Disher, Terry Dowling, Kerry Greenwood, Robert Hood, Jan McKemmish, Robert Wallace and Steve Wright.Bonescribes: Year’s Best Australian Horror 1995 (1996)
Co-edited with Bill CongreveBill Congreve
-Biography:Congreve's first work was published in 1987 with his short story "Collector" which was featured in the Summer 1986/1987 edition of Aphelion Science Fiction Magazine. In 1992 Congreve's first edited anthology was released by Five Islands Press, featuring a short story and introduction by...
, the anthology was the first Australian annual collection of horror stories, showcasing ten horror tales published during 1995, together with a history of Australian horror and a recommended reading list. The collection includes horror tales by Australian writers typically known for their genre fiction such as Stephen Dedman
Stephen Dedman
Stephen Dedman is an Australian author of dark fantasy and science fiction stories and novels.-Biography:...
and Leanne Frahm
Leanne Frahm
Leanne Frahm is an Australian writer of speculative short fiction.-Biography:Frahm was born in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in 1946. She received her first nomination for her work in 1978 when she was a finalist for the 1979 Ditmar Award for best fan writer. The following year she won the best...
, and those known for their literary fiction, such as Carmel Bird
Carmel Bird
-Life:Carmel Bird is an Australian novelist. She lives in Central Victoria, having grown up in Tasmania.She has written nine literary novels and six collections of short fiction. She has also written three...
and Garry Disher
Garry Disher
Garry Disher is an Australian author of crime fiction and children's literature.- Awards :*Ned Kelly Awards for Crime Writing, Best Novel, 2007: winner for Chain of Evidence...
. It also included one of Hood stories, "Dead in the Glamour of Moonlight".
Daikaiju anthologies
A series of three anthologies of stories about giant monsters, known as 'Daikaiju' in Japanese and familiar through examples such as GodzillaGodzilla
is a daikaijū, a Japanese movie monster, first appearing in Ishirō Honda's 1954 film Godzilla. Since then, Godzilla has gone on to become a worldwide pop culture icon starring in 28 films produced by Toho Co., Ltd. The monster has appeared in numerous other media incarnations including video games,...
and King Kong
King Kong
King Kong is a fictional character, a giant movie monster resembling a gorilla, that has appeared in several movies since 1933. These include the groundbreaking 1933 movie, the film remakes of 1976 and 2005, as well as various sequels of the first two films...
. The volumes are co-edited with Robin Pen and comprising Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales (2004), Daikaiju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters (2007), Daikaiju!3: Giant Monsters vs the World (2007). All three are published by Agog! Press
Agog! Press
Agog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
.
The first of the three anthologies was awarded the Ditmar for best collection in 2006. Two stories from the collection "The Greater Death of Saito Saku" by Richard Harland
Richard Harland
Richard Harland Richard Harland Richard Harland (born 15 January 1947 in Yorkshire is an English fantasy and science fiction writer, living in New South Wales, Australia. He was born in 1947 in Huddersfield, United Kingdom and migrated to Australia in 1970...
and "Once Giants Roamed the Earth" by Rosaleen Love
Rosaleen Love
Rosaleen Love is an Australian science journalist and writer. She has a PhD in the history and philosophy of science from the University of Melbourne. She has written works on the Great Barrier Reef and other science or conservation topics. She has also written science fiction, which has been...
were joint winners of the Fantasy Short Story category in the 2006 Aurealis Awards.
While the Daikaiju genre had previously been well represented in film and comics, it was not well established as a literary genre and there had been few examples published prior to Hood’s anthologies. A call for stories on the theme brought a surprising number and range of tales from around the world and tapped a vein of enthusiasm among writers who had been waiting for such an opportunity. Submissions included stories that invoked the essence of the genre but also those that envisioned new and original ideas drawn from its sensibilities.
A number of short listed stories were unable to be included in the first volume due to size constraints. Hood had originally intended to publish these in an e-publication, as anthologies on daikaiju are infrequently published and the stories might find difficulty finding a market elsewhere. However a relationship between Agog! and Prime Books in the US, the development of low costs print on demand technology and Prime’s support in getting Agog! books on Amazon.com made it more cost effective to produce further volumes.
Awards
- He is the recipient of the Ditmar AwardDitmar AwardThe Ditmar Award has been awarded annually since 1969 at the Australian National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Australian science fiction and science fiction fandom...
on three occasions:- For Collected Work: Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales (editor with Robin Penn) (2006)
- Fan Writer (2007): For film reviews published on his website
- Fan Writer (2009): For his blog Undead Backbrain
- The William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or ReviewWilliam Atheling Jr. AwardThe William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review are a Special Category under the Ditmar Awards. "The Athelings", as they are known for short, are awarded for excellence in science fiction and speculative criticism, and were named for the pseudonym used by James Blish for his critical...
:- For review of The Weight of WaterThe Weight of WaterThe Weight of Water is a 1997 bestselling novel by Anita Shreve. Half of the novel is historical fiction that speculates about the true events of the Smuttynose Island murders of 1873.-Plot summary:...
at Hood Reviews, posing the question "is this film a ghost story?") (2005 - Tie with Jason NahrungJason NahrungJason Nahrung is an Australian horror author and journalist who lives in Melbourne, Victoria with his partner Kirstyn McDermott. Nahrung has previously written for The Courier-Mail newspaper in Queensland, with a special interest in speculative fiction and horror-related topics. He was co-winner...
) - For "Divided Kingdom: King Kong vs Godzilla" (2006)
- For review of The Weight of Water
- The Australian Golden Dagger Award for Mystery Stories for short story "Dead End" (1988)
Collections
- Daydreaming on Company TimeDaydreaming on Company TimeDaydreaming on Company Time was the first collection of stories by Australian horror writer Rob Hood. The volume includes fantasy tales like the title story and crime tales as well as horror tales of dislocated psyches, all told with a quirky black sense of humour...
(Five Islands Press, 1988) - Immaterial (MirrorDanse BooksMirrorDanse BooksMirrorDanse Books , founded in 1994, is one of Australia's longest running independent book publishers of science fiction and horror.MirrorDanse Books publishes the The Year's Best Australian SF & Fantasy anthology series, edited by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt...
, 2002) - Creeping in Reptile Flesh (Altair Australia Books, 2008)
Novels
- BackstreetsBackstreets (novel)Backstreets is a novel by Australian horror writer Rob Hood . It is effectively an urban ghost story, its plot centering on a young man Kel who wakes from a coma to find that his friend Bryce is dead, and is thereafter plagued by strange dreams, which draw him to the city’s backstreets...
(Hodder Headline, 1999) - ShadesShades seriesThe Shades series is a series of young adult horror novels written by Australian horror writer Rob Hood. The four-volume series includes: Shadow Dance, Night Beast, Ancient Light and Black Sun Rising....
series. (Hodder Headline, 2001) - Robot War Espresso (Twelfth Planet Press, forthcoming 2011)
Children's books
- Bad Boy Bunyip Goes Nuts (Ferrero, 1995)
- Creepers seriesCreepers seriesThe Creepers series is a sequence of young-adult horror novels written by Australian horror writer Rob Hood, with Australian YA and children's writer Bill Condon...
. Nine novels of which eight were written in collaboration with Bill Condon. (Condon wrote Brain Sucker on his own and Hood wrote Rat Heads on his own). (Hodder Headline, 1996–97) - Pests, Trends series, edited by Meredith Costain (Longman, 1999)
- The Monster Sale, Trends series, edited by Meredith Costain (Longman, 2001)
- The Beast of Dymple Heights, Awesome! Series 1, edited by Meredith Costain (Longman, 2002)
- The Monster War, Just Kids series 5 (Longman, 2002)
- Olivia Adams, Private Eye, Just Kids series 4 (Longman, 2002)
- Hard Rock Rodney, Awesome! Series 2, edited by Meredith Costain (Longman, 2003)
Works edited
- Crosstown Traffic (Five Islands Press, 1993) (with Stuart Coupe and Julie Ogden)
- Bonescribes: Year’s Best Australian Horror 1995 (Mirrordanse, 1996) (with Bill CongreveBill Congreve-Biography:Congreve's first work was published in 1987 with his short story "Collector" which was featured in the Summer 1986/1987 edition of Aphelion Science Fiction Magazine. In 1992 Congreve's first edited anthology was released by Five Islands Press, featuring a short story and introduction by...
) - Daikaiju! Giant Monster TalesDaikaiju! Giant Monster TalesDaikaiju! Giant Monster Tales is a 2005 speculative fiction anthology edited by Robert Hood and Robin Pen.-Background:Daikaiju! Giant Monster Tales was first published in Australia in 2005 by Agog! Press in hardback format. It won the 2006 Ditmar Award for best collected work. Daikaiju! Giant...
(Agog! PressAgog! PressAgog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
, 2004) (with Robin Pen) - Daikaiju!2: Revenge of the Giant Monsters (Agog! PressAgog! PressAgog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
, 2007) (with Robin Pen) - Daikaiju!3: Giant Monsters vs the World (Agog! PressAgog! PressAgog! Press is an independent Australian book publisher, specializing in speculative fiction short story collections. It was founded in 2002 by Cat Sparks....
, 2007) (with Robin Pen)
Short stories
- "Tamed" (1998) in Dreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-UnderDreaming Down-Under is a 1998 speculative fiction anthology edited by Jack Dann and Janeen Webb-Background:Dreaming Down-Under was first published in Australia in November 1998 by Voyager Books in trade paperback format....
(ed. Jack DannJack DannJack Dann is an American writer best known for his science fiction, an editor and a writing teacher, who has lived in Australia since 1994. He has published over seventy books, in the majority of cases as editor or co-editor of story anthologies in the science fiction, fantasy and horror genres...
, Janeen WebbJaneen WebbJaneen Webb is an Australian writer, critic, and editor working mainly in the field of science fiction and fantasy.-Biography:...
) - "That Old Black Graffiti" (2000) in Tales from the Wasteland (ed. Paul CollinsPaul Collins (fantasy writer)Paul Collins is an Australian writer and editor who specializes in science fiction and fantasy.Collins has written many books for younger readers...
) - "Rotten Times" (2001) in AurealisAurealisAurealis is a Australian speculative fiction magazine published by Chimaera Publications. The magazine was launched in September 1990 to provide a market for speculative fiction writers, with a particular emphasis on raising the profile of Australian authors.In 1995 the magazine instituted the...
#27/28 (ed. Dirk Strasser, Stephen Higgins) - "Beware! The Pincushionman" (2003) in Southern Blood: New Australian Tales of the SupernaturalSouthern Blood: New Australian Tales of the SupernaturalSouthern Blood: New Australian Tales of the Supernatural is a 2003 speculative fiction anthology edited by Bill Congreve-Background:Southern Blood was first published in Australia in June 2003 by Sandglass Enterprises in trade paperback format...
(ed. Bill CongreveBill Congreve-Biography:Congreve's first work was published in 1987 with his short story "Collector" which was featured in the Summer 1986/1987 edition of Aphelion Science Fiction Magazine. In 1992 Congreve's first edited anthology was released by Five Islands Press, featuring a short story and introduction by...
) - "Regolith" (2004) in Agog! Smashing StoriesAgog! Smashing StoriesAgog! Smashing Stories is a 2004 speculative fiction anthology edited by Cat Sparks.-Background:Agog! Smashing Stories was first published in Australia in 2004 by Agog! Press in trade paperback format. It was a short-list nominee for best collected work at the 2005 Ditmar Awards but lost to Black...
(ed. Cat Sparks)
A full list of Hood's short stories is available on his website