Rob Hood

Robert Maxwell Hood (born 24 July 1951) is an Australian writer and editor recognised as one of Australia's leading horror writers, although his work frequently crosses genre boundaries into science fiction, fantasy and crime.

He has published five young adult novels, four collections of his short fiction, an adult epic fantasy novel, fifteen children's books and over 120 short stories in anthologies and magazines in Australia and overseas.

He has also written plays, academic articles and poetry and co-edited anthologies of horror and crime.

He has won seven Ditmars out of twenty nominations, and been nominated for six Aurealis Awards.

Hood was born in 1951 in Parramatta, New South Wales.

At the age of nine he moved with his family to Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches of Sydney.

His initial experiments in writing began in primary school, where he produced short "flash fiction" style pieces.

He continued to write fiction throughout his teens, and in first year of high school commenced his first full-length piece, which he later described with retrospective humour as "a bad Dr Who-type scifi novel", featuring an eccentric professor with a beautiful daughter combating alien invaders and carnivorous plants.

He wrote in school exercise books, and not infrequently during his mathematics lessons.

He was interested in fantastic themes, particularly horror and science fiction, from an early age, and recalls devising childhood schemes to convince his parents to allow him to watch late night horror movies.

He was fascinated with both classic representations of horror such as Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and more modern examples including "short stories in the form of Weird Tales magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Anthology, and the Pan Book of Horror Stories".

He produced fiction pieces in response to English writing assignments that were far more extensive, elaborate and inventive that expected, and always of a fantastic nature.

His teachers made attempts to steer him towards writing in a more naturalistic style, but he eventually won them over with his persistence and inventiveness.

After reading H.G. Wells's The War of the Worlds he became an avid reader of science fiction, but took an interest in a wide range of literary forms.

He commenced study in English Literature at Macquarie University in 1970.

His thesis for MA (hons) analysed monster imagery in the works of William Blake.

While at Macquarie University, he wrote 'Caesar or Nothing', a story about a madman taking over the world.

With the encouragement of Thea Astley, his tutor, he submitted the piece to ABC Radio and it became his first professional sale, being broadcast on 28 February 1975.

In the same year he won the Canberra Times National Short Story competition.

However it was another decade before he wrote and sold stories on a regular basis.

After completing his studies, Hood entered the teaching profession, including teaching English at Elderslie High School and in the following ten years wrote on an irregular basis and submitted stories only sporadically, making some sales in literary journals.

He saw little wider success until he left teaching - which he found a demanding profession leaving him little energy for writing - and began a regular writing regime and became persistent in submitting his work.

He was also involved for some time with musical and theatre pursuits - the drummer for Solstice and Knee Deep and as a member of the Nexus Theatre Company.

His first published story was "Caesar or Nothing", performed on ABC radio in 1975, Hood won the Canberra Times National Short Story Competition with "Orientation" the same year.

In the late 1980s he wrote a general fiction piece and under advice from a member of a writing group he was involved in, reworked the structure to create piece with a greater sense of temporal discontinuity and a more bizarre leaning.

Concurrently he decided to transform the story into a crime tale story, after his realisation that the presence of a corpse in the story might make it suitable for that market.

The resulting tale "Dead End", became his most republished piece and after submitting the tale to a crime competition and winning, gave him contacts that were significant in launching his writing career.

He has otherwise worked in a variety of fields including welding, catering and in a bookshop.

He worked as a journalist for the Sydney suburban Liverpool Leader local newspaper and also drew an editorial cartoon on a weekly basis for the publication for close to a decade.

Additionally he has worked a research assistant in Australian political history and as a comedy writer for a 2SM breakfast show.

His first wife was poet Margaret J. Curtis, with whom he worked in the Nexus Theatre Co. His second wife was poet Deb Westbury.

One of Hood's most notorious horror tales is the tightly written "Autopsy" (Bloodsongs, January 1994) about a killer's insane quest for the essence of life; it is reputed to have contributed to the magazine in which it appeared being banned in Queensland, something Hood, while aware of the apparent shocking implications of this possibility, views with humorous pride.

In 2007 Hood, a long time Doctor Who fan, who grew up watching the series, published a Doctor Who story set in Prague as part of the Big Finish Short Trips Anthologies.

The Prague anthology also featured a number of other Australian authors.

He wrote a tale featuring the Sixth Doctor (played by Colin Baker) and his American companion Peri.

While Baker may have been considered one of the most unpopular doctors, Hood was attracted to the intense and unpredictable nature of this incarnation of the character.

Other franchise writing by Hood includes the novella "Soul Killer" in Zombies vs Robots: Diplomacy (IDW Publishing, 2013) within the Zombies vs. Robots GN universe.

He currently lives in the ACT with his partner—writer, designer and Agog! Press editor Cat Sparks and was Graphic Design & Editorial Officer for the Faculty of Business at the University of Wollongong until retiring in July 2015 to write full-time.

He has published over 120 short works of fiction in Australia and overseas and his work has been included in anthologies and major magazines.

His short fiction has spanned a number of genres, including horror, science fiction and crime and he has also published mainstream stories in Australian Literary Journals.