Cirrus@Austlit

'Boundaries blur. The skin of the world spirals out of control, bringing distant myths to fresh, vivid life. There are no maps. Expect the unexpected-truths as slippery as blood and as sharp as bone. If it can be imagined in the heart or in the mind of even one human being, then it is happening now, in the dark where no one can see... From the razor-sharp imaginations of the best genre writers in Australia comes this new collection of the gothic and the supernatural. Moving, surprising, erotic, unsettling and unrelenting in the desire to entertain, Southern Blood is the state of the art of horror in this country' (Publisher's blurb).

'One name springs to mind when we think of classic suspense films; Alfred Hitchcock. His silhouette is instantly recognisable as no one else has quite the same pouty lips and round, chubby face. The way he posed for photographs and his penchant for making cameo appearances in his films bear witness to his larger-than-life personality, but it was his ability to tell a spellbinding tale coupled with his technical brilliance that earned him the epithet of "Master of Suspense". His groundbreaking use of camera movement and the way he framed shots to maximise anxiety and fear place films like "Vertigo" among the very finest examples of creative achievement ever produced within the seventh art. In "Rear Window", he builds edge-of-your-seat tension by placing us in James Stewart's wheelchair and making us watch events unroll through his eyes, and the use of cutting-edge special effects in "The Birds" is almost as impressive as the fact that more than three thousand birds were trained for the film. What else do these three films mentioned have in common, along with "Psycho" and "Rebecca" and so many others? That's right...they were based on novels or short stories; the written word. In "A Hint of Hitchcock", we turn our attention back from the screen to the page, and bring you, the avid suspense reader, modern tales that chill and surprise, all inspired by the work of the master of suspense.' (Publication summary)