J. Ashley-Smith
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spooktapes.bsky.social
J. Ashley-Smith
@spooktapes.bsky.social
490 followers 240 following 70 posts
Author of dark fiction. Shirley Jackson Award winner. Co-host of the Let The Cat In podcast. Also: father, insomniac, moth dust gatherer. he/him. spooktapes.net
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spooktapes.bsky.social
Privileged AF to get my grubby mitts on an ARC of this near-future fever dream. Avail yourselves of a copy - and a pair of knee-high railroad spike boots - the split second it drops!

@kkoja.bsky.social @meerkatpress.bsky.social

meerkatpress.com/books/dark-m...
J. Ashley-Smith holds up a copy of Kathe Koja's new novel Dark Matter.
September 18, 2025 at 12:47 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
This David Lynch episode of Sesame Street is the worst.
Scene from Twin Peaks - The Return. An enormous black kettle spewing steam, and the numbers 4, 8, 5, 5 and 1.
August 6, 2025 at 5:21 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Separated at birth?
A five thousand year old megalith poses beside author J. Ashley-Smith (who is almost as old).
July 15, 2025 at 10:47 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Life goals
Mary Gaitskill quote: "I would sometimes get five rejection letters in my mailbox at once. The main thing editors would write was that the characters were too hapless, and it was all too depressing."
May 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Delighted to learn my tragic, magic realist magpie love story – The Beautiful Thing You Once Were – has been shortlisted for an Aurealis Award. Some stories you just love irrationally, and this one broke my heart over and over as I wrote it... 1/3

Ping: @bourbonpenn.bsky.social
Street mural of a magpie speaking with an old lady with green skin who may or may not be a witch (she has a pointy nose)
April 16, 2025 at 1:42 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the Czech playwright Václav Havel, who became President of the Czech Republic after the Velvet Revolution. Despite Soviet oppression, Havel continued to write in spite of the dangers, hiding his growing manuscript in a hole in a tree.
Playwright Václav Havel
March 2, 2025 at 12:03 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Poor Google is a tad unsettled by my current research...
Google telling me that 'Help is available' and sharing the number of Lifeline Australia.
February 27, 2025 at 10:51 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Fungal content.
Two puffball-like fungi, one of which has exploded. A puffball like fungus that looks a bit like a sourdough loaf.
February 14, 2025 at 9:01 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
When you leave your 15yo alone at the beach for an hour…
Sand sculpture of a naked man with his head covered in sand. Sand sculpture of a naked man with his head covered in sand.
January 26, 2025 at 11:54 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
From the vault! @malskene just uncovered a lost video (c/o @alskene) of my first gig with Superfine, circa 1995. Lambchops, Lennons, and a naked chin. Thirty fucken years, man... (Time has not been kind to that ponytail.)
Superfine on stage at the Hallamshire Hotel, circa 1995. Steve Pih and Mal Skene on Guitar. J. Ashley-Smith on bass guitar. J. Ashley-Smith on bass, age 19. (With a notable – and disturbing – absence of facial hair.)
January 19, 2025 at 11:58 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Saturday morning, the kids led a family conversation about who was our GOAT. When they asked me, I had no idea (I always falter when someone asks me my favourite anything). Then I opened the paper and saw that David Lynch was dead, which answered the question for me.
Patricia Arquette in a black limo - scene from David Lynch’s Lost Highway Dennis Hopper and Isabella Rossellini in a scene from David Lynch’s Blue Velvet. Naomi Watts and Laura Harring in a scene from David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive The giant and Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks
January 19, 2025 at 10:25 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
The male line.
J. Ashley-Smith with father and two sons in the Australian bush.
December 30, 2024 at 10:37 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
How it started. How it’s going.
Vangelis recording the Blade Runner soundtrack. MacReady with ice in his beard and a flaming bundle of dynamite.
November 13, 2023 at 9:05 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
My 9yo knowing the lyrics to The Spice Girls’ ‘Wannabe’ is, it turns out, equivalent time-wise to me at his age knowing the lyrics to ‘All Shook Up.’

And if that doesn’t make you feel like a crusty old fucker then I don’t know what will!
November 9, 2023 at 5:59 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
The mighty @meerkatpress.bsky.social are now on BlueSky! Give them a follow, then grab yourself some books with this awesome Halloween deal.

meerkat-press-shop.fourthwall.com
Meerkat Press Halloween Sale – All books 20% off with code HR23SCARE. meerkat-press-shop.fourthwall.com
October 25, 2023 at 9:32 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Been in that post book-launch slump for a while now, so am stoked to see The Measure of Sorrow getting some love. Absolutely floored by these words from Aussie horror legend @alanbaxter.bsky.social (which features way less cursing than the DM he sent me after throwing the book across the room).
October 16, 2023 at 7:19 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Au train.
Deer skull in foreground and converted train carriage in the background, Australian bush.
September 24, 2023 at 8:49 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
I stumbled across a fantastic (and appropriately grim) review of #TheMeasureOfSorrow in issue 90 of ASIM...

“J. Ashley-Smith deals in a specific kind of pitch blackness... He allows his characters to be their flawed, hideous selves while keeping heroism like a bauble, forever out of their reach..."
Cover of The Measure Of Sorrow by J. Ashley-Smith
September 22, 2023 at 1:30 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
“Australian gothic with a good dose of cosmic horror… these stories are poignant reflections on broken relationships and the insurmountable distances between us.”

Wonderfully insightful (and generous) review of #TheMeasureOfSorrow

www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
September 20, 2023 at 11:25 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
First stab at nikujaga, and… yum!
Blue bowl of Japanese beef and potato stew. Chopsticks and a bottle of Sapporo.
September 15, 2023 at 10:14 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Not at all creepy way to start an unsolicited email...
Screenshot of an email with the text "Dear Madam/Sir, We have been paying attention to you for a period of time..."
September 12, 2023 at 7:12 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Channeling those Amish hitman vibes…
September 3, 2023 at 2:42 AM
spooktapes.bsky.social
“A man has been watching me… for a long time. He’s after me. He’s been watching me from that cabinet. He frightens me.”
A cabinet door slides open. There’s a man in the cabinet.
August 25, 2023 at 12:44 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Good morning…
Sun through clouds. Spider web on tree branch, hung with moisture.
August 24, 2023 at 11:08 PM
spooktapes.bsky.social
Thanks to the HWA for including me in their International Interview Series... Cambridge's mean streets; writing horror as Zen practice; the tyranny of distance; plus a little rant about why @kaaronwarren.bsky.social's Slights is one of the best Aussie horror novels of all time...

bit.ly/hwajas
August 20, 2023 at 9:17 PM