Bryce J. Stevens

Bryce John Stevens (born 1957) is a horror writer/artist.

Between 1987 and 1992 he co-edited (with Chris G.C. Sequeira and Leigh Blackmore), Terror Australis: The Australian Horror and Fantasy Magazine (1987–92). A column by Stevens, "Every Time the Candle Burns", appeared in Issues 1 and 3 of Terror Australis, and he reviewed books under both his own name and the pseudonym of David Kuraria for the magazine's "In the Bad Books" column. Stevens was the basis for the character 'Doc Martin' as drawn and photographed in various of Christopher Sequeira's occult detective graphic novel series, Deadlocke and Doc Martin (in Pulse of Darkness and elsewhere).

In the mid-1990s he moved to Melbourne where he was a key figure (with Steven Proposch and Chris A. Masters) in the Melbourne Horror Society (later known as The Australian Horror Writers) - a forerunner to the Australian Horror Writers Association). From 1996 through 1998, Stevens was President of the Australian Horror Writers. He edited issues 5-11 of its official newsletter Severed Head^[1] Stevens also helped produce Bloodsongs (1994–95) magazine. In 1999 he held his solo art show, the "Screw the Millennium Bug Exhibition".

He produced several issues of a personal zine, Choking Dog Gazette. Originally a hardcopy zine, the title was revived in 2012 as an online zine.

Stevens has published several small press collections of horror stories (see below).

His short stories have also appeared in Black Moon, Bloodsongs, Cold Cuts, Dead By Dawn, E.O.D, Forbidden Tomes, Cthulhu and the Co-Eds: Kids & Squids, Misanthrope, Octavia, Outside, and Terror Australis. Stevens is noted for his hard-edged and uncompromising horror content; however he often delves into black humour and amongst his most reprinted stories are a Lovecraftian parody called "The Diary of Howard Clark Long Phillips"and "Payday" . Some of his horror stories show a black humour reminiscent of a cross between Ben Elton and Joe R. Lansdale. One of his most acclaimed stories is "Sisters of the Moss", most recently reprinted in Orb No 8 (The Best of Orb 1-7).

Stevens lived again in Sydney from 2004 to 2008. He relocated to Johns River City of Greater Taree NSW in 2009. He continues to draw and paint, and holds regular exhibitions of his work in different cities in Australia. He has controversially used his own blood in some of his paintings which he refers to as "blood works". His novel in progress is The Malign Comedy and his latest published short story is "And They Shall Suffer for Their Art" (Midnight Echo No 5).

Collections

• Pale Flesh (Borderlands Press, 1989)
• Visions of Torment (Spine Publications, 1993)
• Skin Tight (Bambada Press, 1995)
• Stalking the Demon: Tales of Sex and Insanity (Jacobyte Books, 2002)

Uncollected works

• The Lord of Lewd: Clark Ashton Smith and the Fiction of Fornication. Mantichore 2, No 1 (Dec 2006). [Parody].
• Of Caves, Dark Holes and Vaginas: The Pornographic Prose of the Providence Poet. Mantichore 2, No 1 (Dec 2006) [Parody re H.P. Lovecraft.)
• Two Acrostics on H.P. Lovecraft. Mantichore 2, No 2 (March 2007). [Poetry].

Magazines edited or co-edited

• Terror Australis (1988–92)(with Leigh Blackmore and Chris G.C. Sequeira)
• Bloodsongs (1993–98). (with Steven Proposch and Chris A. Masters) See: http://www.chrisamasters.com/bloodsongs/bloodsongs.html
• Severed Head: Newsletter of the Horror Writers of Australia (1994–96)

Other works

• As editor/compiler. The Australian H.P. Lovecraft Centenary Calendar 1990-1991. Sydney: Terror Australis, 1990.^[2]
• As editor/compiler. The Fear Codex: The Australian Encyclopedia of Dark Fantasy and Horror (2001)(CD-ROM)
• Strange Vistas (1991) Artwork.

References

• Mike Ashley & William G. Contento. The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird and Horror Anthologies. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995, p. 523
• Donna Maree Hanson. Australian Speculative Fiction: A Genre Overview. Canberra: Australian Speculative Fiction, 2005, p. 115
• Paul Collins (ed). The Melbourne University Press Encyclopedia of Australian Science Fiction and Fantasy. Melbourne, Vic: Melbourne University Press, 1998, p. 162.

External links

• Official website
• B. J. Stevens at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database