Novelist, screenwriter, critic, murder-poet.
Hello and welcome to the website of Anthony O’Connor, author. If you’re looking for info on the work of Aussie writer Anthony O’Connor – stuff like Emma After, Straya, Redd Inc. and Angst – congratulations, you’ve come to the right place.
If not, I apologise for the profound sense of crushing disappointment you must now be experiencing.
Emma After is my first YA novel. It tells the tale of 18-year-old Emma Crothers who is bored and frustrated living in her small town. However after dying in her small town, and getting chased by soul-swallowing wraiths called Hollows, Em realises she had it a lot better before.
Fleeing to the Fountaindale Grand Manor, a safe-haven for spirits, Emma meets a colourful community of the deceased, led by the alluring caretaker, Jack. However, just when she starts to adapt to the afterlife, a family of living Breathers invades the Manor, throwing everything into chaos.
Emma must help haunt the Breathers away in order to save her new family from the massing Hollows outside. Which is why it’s extremely less than ideal when she begins to fall for her unreasonably attractive haunting target Andrew.
Emma After is a thrilling adventure, brimming with action, humour, horror and romance, set in an afterlife that’s very different to what you might expect. It has shades of Tim Burton’s Beetlejuice, Stephen King’s The Shining and even a pinch or two of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman. But don’t take my word for it, check out what these much more important people have said:
“Emma After is both thrilling and so very surprising that ‘original’ would be an understatement. It is a rollercoaster ride no one will want to miss.”
Isobelle Carmody (Author The Obernewtyn Chronicles, Greylands)
“Endlessly imaginative and full of heart, Emma After is an absorbing, exciting read I never wanted to put down. In short, it’s utterly dazzling!”
Devin Madson (Author We Ride the Storm, Vengeance Trilogy)
Set in the ruins of Australia, Straya tells the story of Franga, an affable mutant who is forced to care for a bunch of mutie orphans and his increasingly senile friend and mentor, Ken Ages. The story kicks off when Franga accidentally discovers an ancient technology, starting a deadly chain reaction – and unleashing a terrifying creature – that threatens the lives of everyone in New Sydney, maybe all of Straya itself!
Straya is my first original novel. It’s an odd beast, sort of a cross between Mad Max and The Castle, and contains a shitload of imaginative violence, dystopian world building and amateur theatre.
The book is inspired by a lifetime of enjoying the dystopian visions of stuff like Judge Dredd, RoboCop, Mad Max, Fallout, A Boy and His Dog, Soylent Green etc., but with a main character whose skill set could best be described as “staggeringly unsuited to the problem at hand.”
It’s the sort of thing I hope genre fans, dystopia lovers and fellow Australians enjoy, with plenty of gear to make you chuckle, gasp and maybe feel some feelings in your bitter black heart.
After a lifetime of being an obsessive horror fan, worshipping at the altar of gory 80s genre classics with special make-up effects by Tom Savini, I finally got one made. WITH SPECIAL MAKE-UP EFFECTS BY TOM SAVINI!
Redd Inc. is an allegorical slice of office horror, starring Nicholas Hope (Bad Boy Bubby) as Thomas Reddmann, a deranged former regional manager, who chains six office workers to a desk. Redd then assigns his human resources an impossible task: prove his innocence in the Headhunter serial killings or die.
Redd Inc. is a beloved cult classic the world over. Literally. It’s known as Inhuman Resources in the US and UK, Head Hunt in Japan and Germany and Redd Inc. in good ol’ Australia and New Zealand.
Honestly, I have so many good memories of this film. From writing the script with my longtime friend and frequent creative partner, Jonathon Green, to being on set with Nicholas Hope, getting to pump blood with Tom Savini and the MEG team, working with director Dan Krige and the wonderful cast and crew. It’s genuinely one of the most delightful times of my life.
Hey, you know what? You should buy, like, multiple copies or watch it right now on streaming. You can get it from iTunes or the Google Play Store.
THE HUMAN TEACHER
My second original novel, The Human Teacher, is sci fi yarn about a xeno teacher who realises one of her students may be an intergalactic war criminal. It’s tense, quite funny at times and surprisingly horny for robots.
TERRITORY
This one’s a straight up horror novel, set in Western Australia, that asks the question: how much would you sacrifice to live a life of supreme comfort? Supernatural and allegorical, this one gets pretty dark.