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Official Welcome

Terry extends a warm welcome to all visitors to his homepage and web domain. Special thanks to Wolfgang Bylsma at Anima Creative for the page design and other invaluable assistance with the creation and maintenance of this site.

Special Terry Dowling Issue of Science Fiction Available

The latest double issue of Science Fiction: A Review of Speculative Literature, 51+52, Volume 20, Numbers 1+2, 2019 (Published 2021) is devoted to "The Early Work of Terry Dowling" prior to his first professional story sale in 1982. As well as reprinting Terry’s earliest stories from Enigma and Science Fiction, it features poetry, song lyrics and artwork from his early notebooks and his time in the Army, a previously unpublished 1977 story “All My Friends Have Gone Ashore”, and a major interview about those formative years. Copies can be obtained for $35 (AUS) (overseas orders $55) direct from editor Van Ikin at van@ikin.net

The Complete Rynosseros available from PS Publishing

Terry’s celebrated “magnus opus”, The Complete Rynosseros, is now available from PS Publishing in the UK (www.pspublishing.co.uk) as both a deluxe, limited, slipcased, three-volume, hard-cover set and as a classy three-volume trade paperback edition, featuring striking cover artwork and interiors by Nick Stathopoulos. All forty-five Tom Rynosseros stories can be found in Volumes 1 and 2 (from the four original Tom collections Rynosseros, Blue Tyson, Twilight Beach and Rynemonn, including “Marmordesse”, “The Library” and “Down Flowers” plus a brand-new commemorative story, “Calling Down the Sun”, written exclusively for this milestone event). Volume 3 consists of Songs from the Inland Sea, a major memoir also produced exclusively for this edition concerning the writing of the stories, with relevant appendices and ancillary material. For those new to the saga, the Australian SF Reader in October 2007 called it: “The best and most ambitious Australian science fiction series ever written, and one of the best, ever, period.”

"Terry Dowling: Poet of Shadows" in Firsts, September/October 2019

The lead article in the September/October issue of Firsts magazine in the US is a major piece on Terry's dark fantasy by American scholar and book collector Boyd White. In White's view, it's "a singularly distinct body of work that is one of the most remarkable achievements in contemporary fantastic fiction."

The Night Shop published by Cemetery Dance, October 2017

Terry’s latest collection, The Night Shop: Tales for the Lonely Hours, was published by Cemetery Dance Publications in the US as a signed limited edition hardcover in October 2017, with a wonderfully atmospheric cover and interiors by Nick Stathopoulos. It features eighteen of Terry’s dark fantasy and horror stories in a companion volume to his International Horror Guild Award-winning Basic Black from 2006, and includes three new tales of appropriate fear: “No Nets Can Catch,” “Still Life, With Stranging Glass” and “The Other Séance at Kenmyre.” The collection has a fine introduction by Danel Olson and a splendid endorsement from Ellen Datlow. An e-book edition is also available.

"The Five Sisters" in Professor Charlatan Bardot's Travel Anthology

Terry’s latest Dan Truswell story “The Five Sisters” can be found in Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology to the Most (Fictional) Haunted Buildings in the Weird, Wild World, edited by Charlatan Bardot and Eric J. Guignard for Dark Moon Books, 2021.

"The Key to Mabella" in Horror Library Volume 7

Terry’s tale of a most intriguing discovery at a local cemetery can be found in Horror Library Volume 7, edited by Eric J. Guignard, published by Dark Moon Books in March 2022.

Cemetery Dance Select: Terry Dowling available

The Cemetery Dance Select series presents authors’-choice mini-collections in an e-book format direct from the publisher at www.cemeterydance.com. Featured writers have chosen short fiction from their award-winners, stories considered their best or having the most impact on their careers, even neglected favourites they felt deserved a second look. Each single-author title has an Afterword giving the reasoning behind the stories and insights into their creation. Terry’s choices are: “The Daemon Street Ghost-Trap,” “The Saltimbanques,” “Stitch” and “One Thing About the Night.” A deluxe signed hardcover is scheduled to appear at a later date.

"The Tryal Attract" in The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea

Terry’s spooky nautical tale “The Tryal Attract” can be found in Ellen Datlow’s 2018 anthology The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea from Night Shade Books. It concerns a man who spends a night with a whispering skull and learns a terrible secret about one of Australia’s earliest maritime tragedies.

"The Unwrapping" in Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories

Terry's story "The Unwrapping" appears in Ellen Datlow's Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, from Simon & Schuster's Saga Press imprint. It concerns a rather special mummy unwrapping held near one of Sydney's northern beaches. The story has been called "a delightful 'what if?'" by Locus magazine.

“The Madlock Chair” in Aurealis 100

To help celebrate its 100th issue in 2017, Aurealis magazine featured Terry’s SF story “The Madlock Chair,” a follow-up to his acclaimed 2003 tale “Flashmen.” Editor Dirk Strasser found this latest instalment to be “mind-blowingly original.”.

“Come Home” in Extrasolar

Terry’s latest SF story, "Come Home," can be found in Extrasolar, Nick Gever's excellent 2017 anthology from PS Publishing.

“Midnight in the Graffiti Tunnel” in Dreaming in the Dark

Another of Terry's tales of appropriate fear, "Midnight in the Graffiti Tunnel," appears in Jack Dann's 2016 anthology Dreaming in the Dark, the debut title from the new PS Australia imprint.

“The Shaddowes Box” in The Mammoth Book of the Mummy

Terry’s 2011 “wonderfully ghoulish” steampunk mummy story “The Shaddowwes Box” appears in Paula Guran’s 2017 anthology The Mammoth Book of the Mummy, published by both Robinson in the UK and Prime Books in the US.

“Jenny Come to Play” in The Monstrous

Terry’s chilling 1997 Aurealis Award-winning story “Jenny Come to Play” can be found in Ellen Datlow's anthology The Monstrous from Tachyon Publications. It is one of Terry's most reprinted stories.

“Corpse Rose” in Nightmare Carnival

Terry's distinctly Aussie take on the dark carnival story, "Corpse Rose," features in Ellen Datlow's acclaimed theme anthology Nightmare Carnival, published by Dark Horse Books in October 2014. It was also picked for The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2014, edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene, Ticonderoga Publications, 2015.

“The Four Darks” in Fearful Symmetries

A new Blackwater Days Dan Truswell story "The Four Darks" can be found in Fearful Symmetries, Ellen Datlow’s kickstarter anthology of all-original terror and supernatural fiction from ChiZine Publications, published in May 2014. The story has also been translated into French for its appearance as “Les quatre ombres” in Ténèbres 2016, May 2016, edited by Benoît Domis.

“Intervention at Quissirio Landing” in Cosmos

Terry’s “Intervention at Quissirio Landing” appears in Issue 53 of Cosmos magazine for October/November 2013, and may well prove to be a contender for the ultimate terraforming Mars story.

“The Sleepover” in Exotic Gothic 5

Terry delivers a riff on one the best-loved horror themes with "The Sleepover" in Exotic Gothic 5, edited by Danel Olson, available from PS Publishing in the UK. It also appears in The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2013, edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene, Ticonderoga Publications, 2014. The story notes describe it as a tale of “family secrets, sinister schemes, rampant paraphilia and darkest purpose, complete with a dash of premature burial for good measure.”

“Nightside Eye” in Three Year's Bests!

Terry’s disturbing Hydro-Majestic tale "Nightside Eye" appears in three Year’s Bests – Stephen Jones’s Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24, Paula Guran’s Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013, and in Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene’s The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2012. An excellent reading of the story by Graeme Dunlop as Pseudopod-387 can be found at http://pseudopod.org/2014/05/22/pseudopod-387-nightside-eye/

"Mariners' Round" in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Five

Terry’s haunted merry-go-round story "Mariners' Round" from Exotic Gothic 4 appears in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Five from Night Shade Books, and features an opening based on an actual event in the author’s teen years growing up in Sydney.. It can also be found in Nightmare! (Issue 71), August 2018, http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/mariners-round/

"Dancing with Scheherazade” in Parabolas of Science Fiction

Terry’s intriguing and revealing examination of his writing process, "Dancing with Scheherazade: Some Reflections in the Djinni’s Glass," can be found in Parabolas of Science Fiction, edited by Brian Attebery and Veronica Hollinger, published in the US by Wesleyan University Press in 2013. It focuses largely on the Tom Rynosseros series.

Read This Article

“Nightside Eye” and Major Interview in Cemetery Dance #66

Terry’s unforgettable Hydro Majestic story “Nightside Eye” is a special cover feature item for Cemetery Dance #66 (see http://www.cemeterydance.com) accompanied by a major interview: “Making Strange: A Gothic Conversation with Terry Dowling” conducted by acclaimed US editor and academic Danel Olson.

Read This Interview

International Praise for TD in Cemetery Dance #66

International praise for Terry’s special brand of dark fantasy continues in Cemetery Dance #66, which calls him “Australia’s most acclaimed writer of the dark fantastic.” (43) and “Australia’s Premier Writer of the Imagination.” (28)

“Mariners’ Round” in Exotic Gothic 4,
edited by Danel Olson

Terry’s story about a haunted Charles Carmel carousel can be found in Exotic Gothic 4 from PS Publishing(http://www.pspublishing.co.uk) the latest in the fascinating Exotic Gothic series edited by Danel Olson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exotic_Gothic)

“The Fooly” in Hauntings

Terry’s 2008 ghost story “The Fooly” appears in Ellen Datlow’s Hauntings, her 2013 anthology from Tachyon Publications featuring ghost stories from the past 25 years, and a companion volume to 2010’s Darkness. The US magazine Locus (July 2008) called Terry’s tale “a brilliant ghost story…The concept is superb, the punchline delivered immaculately.”

Fiction Round-up: “The Shaddowwes Box,” “Dark Me, Night You” and “The Way the Red Clown Hunts You”

Recent TD story appearances include “The Shaddowwes Box” (Locus Recommended Reading List 2012) in Ghosts by Gaslight: Stories of Steampunk and Supernatural Suspense, 2011, “Dark Me, Night You” in Midnight Echo 5 (reprinted in The Year's Best Australian Fantasy and Horror 2011) and “The Way the Red Clown Hunts You” (Subterranean, Winter 2012)

Clowns at Midnight in 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000

Terry’s 2010 debut novel has received a major entry in 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000, edited by Danel Olson:  Leigh Blackmore’s insightful and intelligent essay, “Marvels and Horrors: Terry Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight.”

Clowns at Midnight available from PS Publishing

Terry’s disquieting debut novel Clowns at Midnight appeared from PS Publishing in October 2010 and concerns family secrets in present-day Australia, ancient rituals and a very special kind of clown. It can be ordered in either hard-copy or e-book format at http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/index.asp?function=search

“With its acute observations of a parched landscape, its blending of the everyday and the forces of myth, Clowns at Midnight is an exceptional work that bears comparison to John Fowles's The Magus.”
- The Guardian, October 2010

“Make no mistake about it: this is smart person's horror, an unerringly rich and intelligent account that encompasses clown-phobia and the true origins of western religion.”
- Fright Site Reviews and Commentary 18 October 2010 http://www.fright.com/edge/ClownsAtMidnight.htm

“If you wish to fall into another world for a time—of shifting masks, beautiful bodies and terrible fears, of mystic philosophy and living labyrinths (with the human heart at their centre)—you have found your book…Mr. Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight is the stuff of magic.”
- Danel Olson, editor of Exotic Gothic I, II, III, and 21st  Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000

“Clowns at Midnight is a masterpiece of suspense – a suspense that is multiplied, rendered all the more terrifying, by the brilliantly constructed ambiguity of the plot. This is the territory of John Fowles’s great novels, The Magus and A Maggot: a psychological landscape in which the reliability of perception, of memory, and of narration is interrogated to its uttermost limits. And Terry Dowling’s fine prose is quite the equal of Fowles’s in the bargain.”
- Nick Gevers, editor of Postscripts, Extraordinary Engines, Other Earths, Infinity Plus

“Clowns at Midnight plays with a grand spectrum of emotions…At novel length, Dowling can work his peculiar magics in an almost symphonic form. The result is a memorable addition to the Tales of Appropriate Fear.”
- Faren Miller, Locus, August 2010 (20)

“Suffice to say, readers familiar with other dark fantasies concerned with the survival of ancient traditions and beliefs into the present – John Fowles’ The Magus, Thomas Tryson’s Harvest Home, Donna Tarrt’s The Secret History, Graham Joyce’s The House of Lost Dreams – will have an inkling of where Dowling is leading them. Clowns at Midnight deserves to be mentioned in the company of these superb tales not because it echoes them but because it takes the premise underlying them all in a refreshingly original direction.”
- Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus, October 2010 (27)

“[A] particularly interesting writer…Dowling manages to pull off a clever technical trick in putting this book together.…That he manages to create a real and mounting sense of menace is a tribute to an excellent storyteller on top form.”
- David Marshall / November 22, 2010 http://opionator.wordpress.com/2010/11/22/clowns-at-midnight-by-terry-dowling/

Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder from Subterranean Press

Terry’s collection Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder appeared from Subterranean Press in June 2010 and earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly. It features an Introduction by long-time Dowling friend Jack Vance and includes such acclaimed stories as "The Lagan Fishers," "Flashmen," "Toother" and "The Suits at Auderlene" as well as Terry’s major 2009 Tom Rynosseros adventure "The Library."

Amberjack: Tales of Fear & Wonder
Terry Dowling, Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com), $40 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59606-293-1
“Dowling's newest collection…highlights his rich and complex sideways storytelling with 12 stories that run the speculative fiction gamut. ‘The Magikkers’ gently explores the lives of the fortunate few who possess a small spark of magic in a mundane world. In ‘Flashmen,’ competing rescue teams risk annihilation in a savage landscape. ‘Toother’ and ‘The Suits at Auderlene’ are creepy and cruel, but ‘Truth Window,’ set in the universe of the Wormwood story cycle, finds humanity shining even in slavery. Dowling's terse and enigmatic style is subtle and brain stretching, enticing readers with fully realized worlds that clearly extend far beyond each story's boundaries. Insightful afterwords complete the sensation of being transported someplace truly alien by Dowling's intelligent and thoughtful work.” (Starred Review)
- Publishers Weekly, July 2010.

“Two Steps Along the Road” in Best New Horror 21 and Lethal Legends

As well as being chosen by editor Stephen Jones for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 21 in 2010, Terry’s chilling 2009 Vietnam ghost story “Two Steps Along the Road” is featured with stories by Michael Kelly, Simon Kurt Unsworth and Mark Valentine in the special e-book title: Lethal Legends: Four Short Stories.

“Stitch” in Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror / TD Most Chosen Author!

In her preface to Terry’s story “Stitch” in the major US horror retrospective Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror, editor Ellen Datlow says: “I fell in love with [Terry’s] consistently disturbing supernatural and psychological horror fiction. In fact, more of his horror stories appeared in The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror during its twenty-one year run than any other writer.”

TD selections featured in this important, long-running series are: “The Daemon Street Ghost-Trap,” “Scaring the Train,” “Beckoning Nightframe,” “Jenny Come to Play,” “Basic Black,” “The Saltimbanques,” “Stitch,” “Clownette,” “La Profonde” and “Toother.”

“The Maze Man” in Best of the Best

Acclaimed Australian editor Barry Oakley chose "The Maze Man" for Best of the Best, his 2009 anthology from The Five Mile Press featuring Oakley’s top picks from his six previous Five Mile anthologies.

“Toother” in four Year’s Bests!

Terry’s story “Toother” was selected for four Year’s Best collections: by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz for Horror: The Best of the Year 2008, by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt for Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy 4, and by Ellen Datlow for the 2008 edition of The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 20. It is Terry’s tenth appearance in the important YBFH annual anthology series. Previous selections have been: “The Daemon Street Ghost-Trap,” “Scaring the Train,” “Beckoning Nightframe,” “Jenny Come to Play,” “Basic Black,” “The Saltimbanques,” “Stitch,” “Clownette” and “La Profonde.” The story has also appeared in the inaugural volume of Award Winning Australian Writing 2008, edited by David Tenenbaum, and was called “The gem of the collection” by the Sydney Morning Herald, 11 October 2008.

“Toother” Wins 2007 Australian Shadows Award

Terry’s 2007 story “Toother” from Eclipse One: New Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Strahan, won the Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story in April 2008. In the words of Guest Judge Richard Harland: “Terry Dowling’s story is a conscious extension of Poe’s ‘Berenice’…whilst also drawing on some fascinating research into a very murky corner of history. The psychic angle of the investigation is far more real and plausible than the standard psychic investigations of TV series…This is a story that does everything right.”

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