NEWS

After the success of last year's NERVOUS? horror convention, RazorBlade Press has announced a follow-up event to be held in Swansea at the Marriott Hotel on Saturday, 16 October 1999. Registration is £15 (£10 before 31 August 1999) from RazorBlade Press, Darren Floyd, 186 Railway Street, Splott, Cardiff CF2 2NH (e-mail: darren.floyd@virgin.net; http://fugazi.net/razor). The organisers will again be offering free stall space to small press publishers upon registration, as well as advertising space in the convention booklet – contact Darren for further details.

The second annual SANTA BARBARA ZINE FEST will take place on Saturday, 5 June 1999 from 11am to 6pm at the Goleta Valley Community Center, 5679 Hollister Avenue, Goleta, CA – just minutes away from downtown Santa Barbara. There will be a zine roundtable, a screening of the animated film Tomorrow Never Knows, a comix workshop, zine raffle/giveaways, and many other surprises. Refreshments will be served. Admission is free. Publishers wanting tables, or interested in sending free stuff for inclusion in grab bags, should contact Lynne Lowe (e-mail: javat@silcom.com or Mike Tolento (e-mail: miketolento@hotmail.com), or write to P.O. Box 20028, Santa Barbara, CA 93120, USA (tel: 805 962-3379).

The HAIKU PRESENCE AWARD offers a £100 1st prize with £25 each for up to four runners-up, with publication of the winning and commended poems in Presence #11. Entries must show honesty, concision, directness, a response to a genuine movement from everyday life, and expression through the senses and the heart rather than the intellect. Principal Judge: Jackie Hardy. Entry Fee: £3 (or $5) for up to 3 haiku, with UK cheques payable to "Haiku Presence"; US$ in loose bills only. Entry Format: two copies of each haiku, with name and address of entrant on one copy only. Closing date: 31 October 1999. Send entries to: Haiku Presence, 12 Grovehall Avenue, Leeds, LS11 7EX, UK. Non-subscribers may order of a copy of the results issue of Presence for £3 (cheques to "Haiku Presence") or $6 in loose bills. Alternatively, for results, enclose an SAE (+IRC from outside UK) with your contest entry.

CHANGES OF ADDRESS

ZIMMERZINE has moved to http://www.nhi.clara.net/zimzine.htm - the pages still in situ at http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/2957/ will remain intact for the foreseeable future but will not be updated. In a related change, Martin Grampound's new e-mail address is grampound@ToughGuy.net.

BLANKSPACE Apr 99, A4, 14pp, IR£1 (free to SFI members) from David Stewart, 43 Eglinton Road, Dublin 4, Ireland (e-mail: dstewart@iol.ie). The newsletter of Science Fiction Ireland, with reviews, news and developments with a particular emphasis on film- and TV-related SF.

ENIGMATIC TALES Spring 1999, A5, 124pp p/b, £3 (4/£10; USA 4/$20) from M. Sims, 1 Gibbs Field, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 4EY (e-mail: michael@micksims.force9.co.uk; http://www.epress.force9.co.uk). Supernatural ghost and horror stories by new and established authors, plus reprints of rare tales from the past. This issue features fiction by Jesse F. Knight, Katherine Haynes, Zita Inez Ponder, Tina Ruth, D.F. Lewis & Gordon Lewis, Paul Marshall, Jules Verne, Paul Walther, Michael Pendragon, Deborah Maudlin, Stuart Young, James Doig, Martin Owton, Peter Wykes, Mark McLaughlin, Rick Kennett & A.F. Kidd, and Cardinal Cox.

FANTASY COMMENTATOR Vol.9 #3 (#51), A4, 76pp, $5 (8/$35; outside USA 8/$41) from A. Langley Searles, 48 Highland Circle, Bronxville, NY 10708-5909, USA. An irregular journal devoted to articles, reviews, checklists and verse in the areas of SF and fantasy. This issue offers further tributes to the late Sam Moskowitz, features on Hugo Gernsback, Lilith Lorraine, and Oswald Train, a wide-ranging interview with veteran SF librarian Neil Barron, and verse by Bruce Boston, Andrew Darlington, Lee Becker, and John Francis Haines.

HANDSHAKE #35, A4, 2pp, free for SAE from J.F. Haines, 5 Cross Farm, Station Road, Padgate, Warrington WA2 0QG. Market information and news of SF-poetry-related events, plus poetry from D.S. Holme, Chris Bull, Richard Lung, Steve Sneyd, A.C. Evans, Neil K. Henderson, and John Light.

KIMOTA #10, A5, 80pp p/b, £2:50 (4/£9) from Graeme Hurry, 52 Cadley Causeway, Preston, Lancs PR2 3RX (e-mail: g.hurry@virgin.net; http://freespace.virgin.net/g.hurry/kimota.htm). Well-rounded selection of SF/F/H from Neal Asher, Craig Jones, Jill McGroarty, Joel Lane, Paul Finch, Peter Tennant, Rafael Kimberley-Bowen, Staurt Young, J. Rogerson, Barbara Davies, and James A. Tucker.

NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #128, A4, 24pp, $3:50 (12/$31; Canada 12/$36; r.o.w. 12/$44) from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA (http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/olp/nyrsf/nyrsf.html). Essays, reviews and topical comment for the SF field from a ten-time Hugo award nominee. This issue includes the judges' comments and shortlist for the 1998 James Tiptree Jr Award, and Robert Borski's search for maternal roots in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun.

NOESIS #2, A4, 40pp, £2:75 (4/£10:50; r.o.w. 4/£12) from Noesis, 61 Pengarth Rise, Falmouth, Cornwall TR11 2RR (e-mail: lesleymiln@aol.com; http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~rwaddling/Noesis/index.html). A promising new magazine of science fiction and science fact, which sees extrapolations of the universe as we know it as the basis for its SF. This issue's fiction is provided by Alan Parfitt, Lannah Battley, Guy Martland, Colin Storer, Simon Morden, and S.J. Martin.

NOT ONE OF US #21, A5, 52pp, $5:50 (3/$13:50) from John Benson, 12 Curtis Road, Natick, MA 01760, USA. Horror and dark fantasy exploring the concept of 'otherness' from every fictional angle with stories by Lachesis January, Patricia Russo, Steve Eller, Gabriele A. Rollé, Brian Maycock, Gary Couzens, Jennifer Rachel Baumer, and Don Webb.

SACKCLOTH & ASHES #3, A5, 72pp p/b, £2:50 from Andrew Busby, 6 Caernarvon Road, Hindley Green, Wigan WN2 4NE. Another fine example of the new wave of British horror magazines, Sackcloth & Ashes sports a no-nonsense but quality presentation combined with computer-enhanced photo illustrations. Fiction is provided by Steve Savile, Paul Ward, D.F. Lewis, Simon Bestwick, Beetleblack, John Barr, Roger Jackson, Hugh Cook, Paul Finch, and Josef L. Riedlowski, with poetry by Nancy Bennett, Mark McLaughlin, and John Galloway.

SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER #182, A5, 28pp, $2:50 (12/$17; Canada 12/$20; r.o.w. air 12/$26; r.o.w. surface 12/$17) from Janet Fox, 519 Ellinwood, Osage City, KS 66523-1329, USA (e-mail: foxscav1@jc.net; http://www.cza.com/scav/index.htm). Monthly newsletter for SF/F/H/mystery writers and artists with an interest in the small press. Market news, letters and reviews from USA, UK and elsewhere, while Donna Farley suggests six ways to "grab 'em by the throat".

THE WHIZZBANGER GUIDE TO ZINE DISTRIBUTORS #3, A4, 30pp side stapled, $3 in US cash only from Shannon Colebank, Whizzbanger Productions, P.O. Box 5591, Portland, OR 97228, USA. Over 200 magazine distributors from 30 countries describe their activities and interests. The emphasis is on punk- and indie music-related material, with additional entries for zine archives, libraries and stores.

UNDERLAY by Andrew McEwan, ISBN 0-7544-0074-3, 226pp p/b, £7:99 from Citron Press, Suite 155, Business Design Centre, 52 Upper Street, Islington Green, London N1 0QH (e-mail: citron@citronpress.co.uk; http://www.citronpress.co.uk). First novel from a new writer which combines political satire, comic fantasy, horror, and the detective novel, and which features confused men, fey women, a child who is fated to replay old records ... and a talking penis.

A REASON FOR STAYING / THIS IS THE END by Steve Sneyd & Andrew Darlington, ISBN 0-9527668-2-5, A5, 24pp, £2:50/$5 from Silver Gull Publishing, West Lodge, Higher Lane, Liverpool L9 7AB. Half-and-half chapbook featuring work by two of Yorkshire's most individual poets. Sneyd's works here highlight his extensive non-genre repertoire, whilst Darlington's characteristic style embraces beat, rock'n'roll, and mortality.