Happy spooky season! It’s the most wonderful time of the year for our horror writers, our pumpkin enthusiasts, and our black cat owners. This month saw the ritual sacrifice of the previous committee to summon forth a new one! (Don’t worry, the old committee are mostly fine–you can still find them haunting bookshops all over the city. This coming month, we look forward to new beginnings, even as we reach the end of the year, thinking about all the exciting and terrifying things to come.

Outgoing President’s Update

I was in Canada for the 2023 CSFG AGM. It was around 2am Vancouver time when I dialled in. I have absolutely no memory of who nominated me for the presidency, who seconded that nomination, or how those reprobates justified themselves, but I was groggy enough to accept the nomination and was promptly made president. In 2024, I walked into the AGM fifteen minutes late with Starbucks and discovered that I’d already been elected president again.

It’s been a wild ride over the past two years as your tyrannical overlord. We live in an age where little things like a stoned billionaire’s ill-advised tweet can domino into completely shattering the way creatives and fans connect online. Many in-person events are still struggling to find their feet in the post-pandemic world. Generative AI gives consumers never-before-seen mental disorders and capitalists new ways to avoid paying creatives for our work, without even the figleaf of telling us we’re doing it for the exposure!

But through it all, CSFG has been chugging away. Over the past two years, I’ve watched you make friends, try new things, and write literally millions of words collectively. At no point has CSFG let the state of the world outside stop it from making cool stuff, and I couldn’t be prouder of you all.

I want to thank you all for putting your faith in me twice, and thank you even more for letting me hand the job off to someone else! I’m not going to miss you, because I’m not going far. Besides, I’m leaving you in very safe hands.

Cheers,

Tacks

President’s Update

Greetings my fellow WERDS™ (Writing Nerds – I swear it’s catching on!)

It’s the time of year when much of the spec-fic community breaks out of the chrysalis of introversion, emerges as a beautiful butterfly, and immediately crawls back into a shell so they can write in peace. As the year winds down and the holidays pick up, many writers will challenge themselves to get a large number of words written in a finite amount of time. For those of you who are about to draft, we salute you.

I would like to take this moment to salute the outgoing CSFG committee members who have made this past year as enjoyable as it was. Thank you again for a great year! And to our new and returning committee members: welcome, and thank you for keeping the ship running.

As the new CSFG President, I have taken my lead from our glorious leader, C.Z. Tacks, and plan to continue to promote and engage with the CSFG community so that we can keep the momentum going for all our members. For any member who wants to be more involved or needs to talk to us, please feel free to reach out to myself or any of the committee. We want you to feel like this is an inclusive, safe, and above all enjoyable space for your writing journey.

We’ve got some fun events coming up with the launch of our new anthology next month, our presence at the Geek Markets, and our end of year get-together in December. It should be a most excellent time!

To paraphrase a fictional, shoeless police officer who was just trying to enjoy himself at a party when Alan Rickman decided go truly bad guy after he found out the Wizarding World he was a part of was pretty problematic (I think that’s how the movie went, I may be misremembering it);

Welcome to the party, pals!

Americo Alvarenga

CSFG Anthology Never Say Die launch event

CSFG are excited to announce that our latest Anthology Never Say Die will be launching at Smiths Alternative on Monday 10 November at 5:30pm! Conflux attendees already got a sneak peak of the cover, but at the launch, we’ll finally get to share the stories and art with you.

Featuring work by new and established authors, this anthology dares to question what life and death actually mean. We’ll be introducing it to the world in style, with readings, author Q&As, and merch! The event is completely free, no tickets required. See you there!

CSFG 2025 Annual General Meeting

The CSFG Annual General Meeting was held on 15 October. Thank you to those who turned up to make your voice heard! We had some great suggestions and we’re excited for what we can do for you in 2026. You can see the minutes for the AGM here: 2025 CSFG Annual General Meeting – Minutes

Our new committee is:

  • Americo Alvarenga (he/him) – El Nagual Presidente (President)
  • A.D. “Addie” Ellicott (she/her) – Fiscal Dragon Tamer (Treasurer)
  • Fionn MacPherson (she/they) – Master Scribe (Secretary)
  • Richard Niven – Knight of Compliance (Public Officer)
  • Alis Franklin – Digital Bog Witch (Webmaster)
  • Lee “Vella” Cope (It/its)  – Cyber Skald (Discord Admin & Code of Conduct Contact Officer)
  • Victor Yii (he/him) – Keeper of Scrolls (Book Club Organiser & Code of Conduct Contact Officer)
  • G. Lucian Lax (he/him) – Retainment Retainer (General Officer)
  • C.Z. Tacks (they/him) – Dark Lord of the Syntax (Craft & Critique Facilitator)

Our November meeting will be a special general meeting for about five minutes so we can sign off on our annual paperwork, followed by a regular monthly meeting with a guest to be announced.

Member News

STRANGE CREATIONS

Love bizarre and beautiful art? We’ve got a night of strange creations for you! Come along and hear stories of bioluminescent canines, shadow flowers, monsters beyond the garden and much more. There will be haunting, emo-country inspired music. And the macabre, spring time birth of Lost Souls Magazine Issue 2!

Entry is $10 or $25 (entry fee + copy of Lost Souls Issue 2) via Humanitix.

Featuring: Dr Cobi Calyx (writer), Fionn MacPherson (writer, editor), S.R. Underschultz (writer), Imogen Wall (writer, artist), Brendan Vincent (singer, musician)

Get awed and get mesmerized at Gang Gang cafe at 6:30pm on Wednesday 19 November 2025!

Bookings coming online soon.

Member publication: Page to Pulse by Monica Carroll

A Guide to Mass Hysteria for Writers of Horror, Dark Fantasy, & the Weird

A groundbreaking guide that teaches writers how to harness the terrifying power of mass hysteria in their fiction. Drawing from historical outbreaks like the Salem Witch Trials and the Dancing Plague of 1518, this book reveals the mechanics behind collective madness and shows writers how to weaponise these patterns on the page.

Written in an innovative poetic form that mirrors the fractured nature of panic itself, this guide explores how fear spreads through communities, how rational people become irrational together, and how modern life, with its digital networks, isolated spaces, and constant anxiety, has created the perfect conditions for hysteria to flourish.

Find it at Dark Cave Press: https://darkcavepress.com.au/writing-guides-notebooks/

Conflux Speculative Fiction Convention

It was great to have so many Guild members at Conflux this year. Welcome to those who joined us or signed up to our newsletter at the event – it’s great to have you!

Several members of the CSFG committee recently attended the Conflux AGM to talk about how our organisations can support each other and continue to create thriving speculative fiction spaces in Canberra. This is an ongoing discussion, but we hope to have more to tell you in early 2026!

(right) C.Z. Tacks and Americo Alvarenga revealing the cover art for Never Say Die at Conflux 2025 (image credit: Cat Sparks 2025, see her whole album here.)

Book Club

The votes are in, and the winner is Kindred by Octavia E. Butler! Book club is on Tuesday 18 November at 7:15 pm, and we look forward to seeing you there. We’re also going to be taking suggestions for what to read in 2026 – if you know about any Aussie speculative authors with books coming out, tell us so we can read them!

For members who use (or would like to use) Storygraph, Tacks has set up a buddy read of Kindred here. We’re testing out this feature to see whether it would be fun to use in future, so make sure to let us know what you think of it!

[Your Picture Here]

CSFG is home to many wonderful artists, and it just so happens that once a month we are looking for a header image for our newsletter. If you are an artist, and would like your work showcased as part of our news, then let us know! Full credit given at the bottom of the page, and we can link to any shop/website that you use as well. Reach out to [email protected] if you are interested!

November Calendar

Wednesday 5th – Short Story Critique Group: 7pm (online) (stories due the Sunday before)

Saturday 8th – Scribbles and Nibbles: 10am, National Library of Australia, Parkes (in person)

Wednesday 12th – Novel Critique Group: 7:30pm (online)

Tuesday 18th – Book club: 7:15pm (online)

Wednesday 19th – Monthly Meeting: 7:30pm, Burns Club, 28 Kett St, Kambah (hybrid)

Saturday 22nd – Scribbles and Nibbles: 10am, National Library of Australia, Parkes (in person)

Wednesday 26th – Short Story Critique Group: 7pm (online) (stories due the Sunday before)

Friday 28th – Movie Night: 8pm (online)

For information about any of these events or activities, reach out to us at [email protected] or message a committee member on Discord.

Note: links to join hybrid meetings online are shared through csfg.groups.io and the CSFG Discord server.

This month’s feature image is the rear cover art of Never Say Die by Madison Lee. See more of her work at maddogink.com.au