Thirteen O’Clock

‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ So begins 1984, one of the best known and bleakest dystopian novels of the last hundred years.

But sometimes clocks striking thirteen is a reason to celebrate! Spot the seemless segue and welcome the latest, darkest webzine to the internet. Thirteen O’Clock fills a wide gap left by the departure of Horrorscope and features news and reviews of all things horrific.

Thirteen O’Clock is the brainchild of a triumvirate of well known local spec fic authors: Alan Baxter, Felicity Dowker and Andrew McKiernan. Here’s the 13 O’Clock manifesto in their own words -

Thirteen O’Clock is a weblog dedicated to sharing horror and dark fiction news and reviews. The site has an Australian bent, but we also enjoy and discuss work from around the world. Whether you get your kicks from short stories, magazines, poetry, novels, movies, games, or anything else – if it’s dark and weird, you’ll find it at Thirteen O’Clock.

“As a writer of dark fiction, I’m aware of the value of sites which get the word about our work out to the greater community,” says Baxter. “And as a reader, I want to help publicise the work of others. You can never have too many venues to provide news and reviews relevant to fans of dark fiction, so I’m really happy to be a part of this venture.”

Dowker adds: “We’re very excited about this project, and we’ve worked hard to make it happen. We really hope genre enthusiasts will warm to the site, and that we’ll attract some great contributors to join our team. We aim to give back to the local scene and to become the premier Australian source for dark fiction news and reviews.”

“Having been one of the founding reviewers for HorrorScope, I’ve always seen its untimely demise as leaving an enormous hole in the Australian dark fiction landscape,” McKiernan says. “Thirteen O’Clock aims to help fill that hole. Dark and weird fiction in Australia has never been better, and I’m very excited to be part of a project that hopes to bring those works and their authors to a wider readership.”

So head on over and bookmark the Thirteen O’Clock webpage.