AustLit

'In her story "Memory of Breathing," Lyn Battersby posits a future where criminals are executed then reanimated in order to work as slaves. It’s an intriguing blend of modern sci-fi and a more classical conception of zombies, but the story plays out — predictably but poignantly — as a more intimate human drama, in which a hardened death camp commander gradually develops fatherly fondness for a reanimated child-corpse' (Tim Kroenert, Australian Speculative Fiction in Focus).

Australia's longest-running semi-professional science-fiction webzine, TiconderogaOnline was established in 1999 by Russell B. Farr, the founder and editor of Ticonderoga Publications (TP). Farr had founded TP as a traditional publishing house, but saw the potential in online publishing, and subsequently closed down its operations to focus on the webzine. A shortage of time and available funds meant that TiconderogaOnline only published four short stories in its first year. In 2000, Farr published a further two stories before personal circumstances forced him to temporarily suspend the webzine.

In late 2003, a collective comprising Lee Battersby, Liz Grzyb, Lyn Triffitt, and Farr re-established TiconderogaOnline. The revamped website went public in 2004 with a new volume/issue edition format: volume 1, no. 1 was published in March. The website went on to win Best Website at the prestigious Ditmar Awards in 2006, in addition to having one of its authors nominated for Best Short Story. Late the following year, however, the webzine was again temporarily suspended, following a number of incidents, including moving the operations from Bentley to Greenwood, the ill-health of one of the editors, a month's delay in publishing issue #12, and the loss of the entire previous issue (#11) due to technical problems. The site was operating again by February 2008 with the publication of a double issue (to make up for the previous year's lapses). Later that same year, Farr and his editorial team decided to create a fourth incarnation of TiconderogaOnline, relaunching the site with a new name: Ticon4. Problems with maintaining Ticon4 have continued to plague the editors, however, with the site being trashed by a hacker in October 2009. This was followed shortly afterwards by the accidental deletion of the entire site by the webhost. Despite these setbacks, Ticon4 was again operating in early 2010.