November 1999

Update

NEWS

THE MARCHES LITERARY PRIZE is inviting entries of original poems of not more than 50 lines and short stories of not more than 2,000 words in any genre. Entry costs £3 with the winners in both the short story and poetry classes receiving £200, second place £100, and third place £50. The competition is open until 31 March 2000, and entry forms are available from The Competition Secretary, 48 Erw Wen, Welshpool, Powys SY21 7HL. A booklet of the winning entries will be produced in the summer of 2000, and can be pre-ordered now for £2:50. Cheques should be made payable to 'Marches Literary Prize Group', with all surplus funds supporting the Welsh Marches charity Deaf Children in Powys.

The Science Fiction Poetry Association has presented BRUCE BOSTON with its first Grand Master Poet award for outstanding genre poetry as well as for his accomplishment of winning the most Rhysling Awards from 1985 to the present day, including this year's Long Poem Award for "Confessions of a Body Thief" (Talisman). The 1999 Rhysling Short Poem Award has been won by Laurel Winter for "egg horror poem", first published by Asimov's. For further information about the SFPA, please contact John Nichols, 6075 Bellevue Dr., North Olmstead, OH 44070, USA (e-mail: bejay@worldnet.att.net).


MagazinesReceived

CARPE NOCTEM #15, A4, 84pp, $5 (6/$20; Canada/Mexico 6/$30; r.o.w. 6/$34) from Carpe Noctem, 1093 E. Main St. #518, El Cajon, CA 92021, USA (e-mail: submit@carpenoctem.com; http://www.carpenoctem.com). A slickly-produced exploration of dark culture, including interviews with Elizabeth Massie, Brian Hodge, Joe R. Lansdale, Bryan Talbot, musicians Gitane DeMone, Jarboe and Mors Syphilitica, actor and painter Viggo Mortensen, photographer Stu Williamson, and painter Miran Kim, plus plenty of reviews, and adverts for gothic/necro/S&M-inspired clothing, jewellery, artwork, music and other accessories and esoterica.

DRAGON'S BREATH #60, A4, 2pp, available for one SAE per issue (12/£2:50; Europe 12/£4; r.o.w. 12/£5:50) from Tony Lee, Pigasus Press, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight PO30 3AJ. Capsule reviews of SF/F/H small press and media-related publications from all over the world.

THE DREAM ZONE #4, A5, 80pp, £2:50 (2/£4; USA 2/$8 cash) from Paul Bradshaw, 44 Knowles View, Holmewood Estate, Bradford BD4 9AH (e-mail: paulbradshaw@currantbun.com). A horror and dark fantasy magazine devoted to "stories into which the reader can immerse themselves completely, as if in a dream – or perhaps a nightmare!". Sending you scurrying under the covers in this issue are Simon Logan, Hugh Cook, Paul Lee, Rhys Hughes, D.F. Lewis & Tim Lebbon, Steve Byrne, Paul Edwards, Cathy Wright, Peter Tennant, Mark West, Dianna Hardy, R. David Fulcher, Tamsin Forman, and Michael Pendragon.

ENIGMATIC TALES #6 Autumn 1999, A5, 144pp 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 H.W.F. Tatham, Paul Walther, Peter Tennant, David Christopher, Katherine Haynes, Carole Tyrrell, Paul Finch, Pamela Stuart, John Saxton, Michael Pendragon, Paul Bradshaw, Dale J. Nelson, Francis C. Prevot, Lauren Halkon, and Steve Savile.

NEW YORK REVIEW OF SCIENCE FICTION #134, A4, 24pp, $3:50 (12/$32; Canada 12/$37; r.o.w. 12/$45) from Dragon Press, P.O. Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570, USA (e-mail: info@nyrsf.com; http://www.nyrsf.com). Essays, reviews and topical comment for the SF field from an eleven-time Hugo award nominee. In this issue, Dunja Mohr continues her conversation with Suzy McKee Charnas, Joe Sanders joins in the game of hide and seek in Michael Bishop's No Enemy but Time, and Michael Andre-Driussi unearths the roots of John Crowley's AEgypt.

NOESIS #4, 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). Lively 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 Simon Morden, Rachel Blount, Philippa Lang, Peter Rushton, Terry Griffiths, Dianna Simms, and Neil Pullen.

PENNY DREADFUL #9, A5, 48pp, #10, A5, 56pp, and #11, A5, 72pp, $5 each (3/$12) from M. Scarpa, P.O. Box 719, New York, NY 10101-0719, USA. Literary poetry and short fiction in the tradition of Poe, M.R. James, Shelley and LeFanu, by the likes of Bobbi Sinha-Morey, Dennis Saleh, Scott Thomas, Cathy Buburuz, John B. Ford, Nancy Bennett, Paul Bradshaw, Michael Pendragon (#9), Holly Day, John Light, D.F. Lewis, Charlee Jacob, Lida Broadhurst (#10), and Ann K. Schwader, Giovanni Malito, Bruce Boston, Sean Russell Friend, and Joey Froehlich (#11).

RECYCLED ART #1, A4, 20pp, $4 from Sharon Silverman, Recycled Art, P.O. Box 1212, Haverhill, MA 01831, USA. A showcase magazine for artists, creative writers, photographers and performers of all ages and backgrounds, especially those for whom traditional exposure might not be affordable. To prove the point, this issue juxtaposes the intricately detailed pen-and-ink drawings of Gene Matras with the contemporary sculpture of Bert Snow and Mark Buckley, and the popsicle stick art of Stephanie Ferello with the tattoo art of Mark Herlehy. Recycled Art's all-embracing brief may be seen by some as lacking a necessary focus, but many others may feel this is the magazine's winning feature.

ROADWORKS #6, A5, 112pp p/b, £3 (4/£10; USA 4/$20; r.o.w. 4/£15) from Trevor Denyer, 7 Mountview, Church Lane West, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 3LN (e-mail: roadworks@net.ntl.com; http://www.roadworksweb.free-online.co.uk). Now repackaged in a digest format, the latest issue of this "imaginative fiction" magazine has D.F. Lewis as featured writer, plus stories from Ben Counter, William Meikle, James Ward, Nicholas Royle, Jason Conway, Jon Summers, Martin Owton, Tim Lebbon, Rhys Hughes, and Gary Couzens.

SCAVENGER'S NEWSLETTER #188, A5, 24pp, $2:50 (12/$18; Canada 12/$21; r.o.w. air 12/$27; r.o.w. surface 12/$18) from Janet Fox, 833 Main, Osage City, KS 66523-1241, USA (e-mail: foxscav1@jc.net; http://www.cza.com/scav/index.html). 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, plus an interview with Scorpions Dreams editor Anna Boudreau.

SHOTS Vol.2 #6, A4, 68pp, £3:50 (4/£12; Europe 4/£16; r.o.w. 4/£20) from Shots, 56 Alfred Street, Ripley DE5 3LD (e-mail: sdf@globalnet.co.uk); editorial address: Shots, 189 Snakes Lane East, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 7JH (e-mail: michael@mjstotter.demon.co.uk). Glossy crime and mystery magazine featuring a special pull-out section devoted to Raymond Chandler, featuring appraisals by David Mathew, Bob Cornwall, and John Foster, and fiction by Bill Pronzini, John Foster, Robert J. Randisi, and Mat Coward. The main body of the magazine contains interviews with Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, and P.D. James, a report on Mickey Spillane's recent visit to the UK, plus news, gossip and reviews.

SONGS OF INNOCENCE #1, A5, 56pp, $5 (3/$12) from M. Scarpa, P.O. Box 719, New York, NY 10101-0719, USA. The sister magazine to Penny Dreadful, with poetry, short stories, essays, and artwork which celebrate the nobler aspects of mankind and the human experience, though with a darker feel than the title suggests. Illustrated by Cathy Buburuz, this issue carries work by Michael Pendragon, John B. Ford, Joseph Biddulph, John Light, Nancy Bennett, Judy Klass, Steve Eng and many others.

TOUCHPAPER #13, A4, 2pp, 6/£2 (Europe: 6/£2:65; r.o.w.: 6/£3:50) from Tony Lee, Pigasus Press, 13 Hazely Combe, Arreton, Isle of Wight PO30 3AJ. As well as the usual polemic, comment and reviews, Steven Hampton sounds off at the hype surrounding Star Wars, and Patrick Hudson puts the boot into Red Dwarf.


Author CollectionsReceived

RENOUNCE THE EMERALD PIETY by Lee Ballentine, ISBN 1-938075-76-4, A3 broadsheet folded to A5 in card cover, signed and in a limited edition of 100 copies, $4 from Talisman, Box 565572, Miami, FL 33256, USA. The second in Talisman's 'broadside' series, with a long piece of speculative poetry by the renowned poet and editor of the seminal cross-genre anthology POLY.

ALTERNATE LIVES by Paul Bradshaw (Enigmatic Novellas #5), A5, 64pp, £4 from M. Sims, 1 Gibbs Field, Bishops Stortford, Herts CM23 4EY (e-mail: michael@micksims.force9.co.uk; http://www.epress.force9.co.uk). Two modern tales of mystery and the supernatural. In "The Lonely Ones" we come a little closer to those lost souls who hover just outside our daily lives, while "The Vanishers" sees Bradshaw take us into a parallel world where life is almost as it seems, but not quite what it should be. Illustrated by Gerald Gaubert.

A SKULL FOR BALD EAGLE AND OTHER WRITINGS by Frances Elizabeth Campbell, ISBN 0-905262-23-9, A5, 100pp, £3:99 (USA $8 in cash or stamps of 50¢ or less) from Steve Sneyd, Hilltop Press, 4 Nowell Place, Almondbury, Huddersfield HD5 8PB. A collection of work by an American author and playwright who spent most of her adult life in the UK. Her native Pennsylvania remained the setting for much of her writing, and features prominently in the play which gives this book its title – a tense, compelling family drama of love and jealousy, casting the long shadow of ancient myth across the cosy stabilities of mid-century America. Also included is a short story of small-town betrayal, and a selection of the author's evocative poetry.

SILENT TURMOIL by L.H. Maynard & M.P.N. Sims (Haunted Dreams #1), A5, 48pp, £3:25 (USA $6 cash) from Paul Bradshaw, 44 Knowles View, Holmewood Estate, Bradford BD4 9AH (e-mail: paulbradshaw@currantbun.com). As Maynard and Sims established the present trend of magazines diversifying into novella chapbooks, it's ironic that they should inaugurate Bradshaw's new "Haunted Dreams" series in the same month that his Alternate Lives is published by Enigmatic Press. Here they present two tales of quiet horror, "Coming Home" and "At the End of the Pier".

RED SPIDER WHITE WEB by Misha, ISBN 1-877655-29-5, A5, 236pp p/b, $12 (r.o.w. $14) from Wordcraft of Oregon, P.O. Box 3235, La Grande, OR 97850, USA (e-mail: wordcraft@oregontrail.net). First published in the UK in 1990 by Morrigan, Misha's debut novel went on to be shortlisted for that year's Arthur C. Clarke Award, and to win a 1991 Readercon Award. Described by one critic as 'everything cyberpunk should have been but wasn't', this seminal work has at last been published in the US – some would say that Misha's depiction of a bleak disenfranchised techno-society is still years ahead of its time. The Wordcraft edition retains the original foreword by Brian Aldiss and postscript by James Blaylock, with the addition of a brand new introduction by John Shirley.


ReferenceReceived

AFRICA FILM & TV 1999, A5, 200pp p/b, enquire to Africa Film & TV, P.O. Box 6109, Harare, Zimbabwe (e-mail: film@internet.co.zw; http://www.africafilmtv.com). Providing over 3,600 contacts in the African film and TV industry by country from Algeria to Zimbabwe, this yearbook is a must-have for anyone seeking to forge links in the business. Each country's entry has an overview of the domestic industry, as well as a comprehensive listing of everyone involved in film and TV from animation through directors and distributors to hair stylists, riggers, stunt services and wardrobe design.

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