“People know that on the one side of things, I run a martial arts academy, and I write this dark horror and fantasy,” he said.

“I’m regularly being told, ‘oh, you’re much nicer than I thought you would be’.

“A friend of mine has a theory that horror writers are among some of the nicest people in society because we get all of our angst and grief out in our stories, and so we’re much more balanced.”

The Jamberoo author was among the recent recipients at Australia’s premier horror awards.

The Shadows Awards, run by the Australian Horror Writers Association, are the country’s only annual awards dedicated solely to horror and dark fiction.

The 2015 winners (for works first published last year) were recently announced.

The ‘Paul Haines Award for Long Fiction’ was given to Baxter’s In Vaulted Halls Entombed.

Baxter, 46, balances his burgeoning writing career with teaching kung fu in Kiama.

He’s the author of several novels and more than 60 short stories and novellas.

In 2014, Baxter landed a publishing deal with Harper Voyager, the science-fiction and fantasy imprint of HarperCollins.

They released the dark urban fantasy Alex Caine trilogy; Bound, Obsidian and Abduction.

The second and third installments of the series have only previously been issued as e-books. 

The series will be re-released in paperback format in June.

Ticonderoga Publications also recently announced the signing of Baxter’s debut short story collection Crow Shine, scheduled for publication in September.

The dark fantasy collection features 19 stories, including two never-before-published tales.

Crow Shine will be available in limited edition hardcover, hardcover, e-book and trade editions. 

Baxter will also be the guest of honour at Conflux, the Canberra science-fiction convention in October.

“It’s a busy year,” Baxter laughed of his upcoming endeavours. 

“That’s the thing about publishing, it’s a bit like buses. There’s nothing for ages, and then like loads come at once.

“I don’t have a huge following, but I am building a bit of a fan-base.”

Even in the era of self-publishing, he believed there was still prestige associated with being signed to a major publisher.

“Traditional publishing is hard; it takes an awful lot of work and a certain amount of luck to be noticed,” he said.

“But I think there is definitely a certain level of validation to what you’re doing… In this day and age, anyone can publish anything, it’s a great renaissance of publishing in that respect.

“But when you’ve got publishing houses making commercial decisions based on your work, there’s a certain level of validation from that third party.

“They’ve got the confidence in what you’re doing.”

Baxter’s advice to aspiring authors was simply to “keep reading, and keep writing”.

“The more you read, the better you understand the process,” he said.

“You learn about story by reading story, (so) just read everything voraciously.

“Then you just keep writing, writing and writing, just keep trying to get better.

“If you keep doing those things, you keep submitting, and if you get a bit of luck, you should be right.”

For more information about Baxter’s works, visit the http://warriorscribe.com website.