By Callum Ludwig
Wesburn horror author and comic creator David Schembri has been picked up again by a publisher, with a new novella set to come out later this year.
It is set to be his first published venture in a longer format, having previously published two collections of short stories and a collection of comics.
Mr Schembri said he’s been writing horror fiction since about 2002.
“That was when I started seriously submitting work to an array of publications internationally, and since then I’ve been published in many anthologies and magazines and a lot of online publications,” he said.
“2014 was when my first book came out, I’d put together a collection called Unearthly Fables, and that was picked up by a small publishing outfit called The Writing Show in California.”
After a few more years, where he picked up horror poetry as part of his repertoire, Mr Schembri gathered another collection of short stories called ‘Beneath the Ferny Tree’, which was picked up by a small press publisher in Melbourne called Close Up Books in 2019.
Mr Schembri said this was a bit more of an expanded book with greater meaning, longer stories and that was a bit more experimental.
“I got a nomination for an Australian Shadow Award for that book, held by the Australasian Horror Writers Association, our region’s community association for all writers of the genre in this part of the world,” he said.
“There’s a lot of visual descriptions in my work, I really like to throw the reader into the worlds that I’m writing about and play on the senses. My first editor Paula said I ‘paint with my words’ which I thought was a nice way to describe it.”
Odyssey Books are the publisher who has taken on Mr Schembri’s 25,000 word novella.
Mr Schembri cannot share the title of the book just yet but said readers can expect a prominent world-building and supernatural theme filled with sensory detail.
“With every story that I write that ends up going into the fantasy realm, or even in science fiction, I tend to really love really giving the imagery and getting the reader to step into those worlds, I put a lot of emphasis on the place where the characters to give the reader a sense of what’s happening,” he said.
“It tends to be quite effective and gives people an unsettling feeling when they’re reading that in a horror story.”
A graphic designer by trade, Mr Schembri has also put his illustration skills to the test with his collection of horror-comedy comics ‘Splitting Sides’ featuring two tales ‘Day of the Vorcha’ and ‘The Date-Night Dead.’
Mr Schembri said his advice to any aspiring local writers is to keep working their writing muscles.
“You just keep getting better at it if keep drafting and editing and finding people you feel can give you an unbiased opinion of your work,” he said.
“Reading the genres that you like to work in is very important as well, pick up a variety of different books in the genre to get a feel and a flavour for how other authors are approaching their work.”
More information about Mr Schembri and his collection of books can be found by searching ‘David Schembri’ on Amazon.com.au. He will also be featured this year in the ‘The Black Beacon Book of Horror’, released by Black Beacon Books.
