Black Static #23 Horror Magazine

BLACK STATIC

#23

A magazine of horror and dark fantasy.

Cover:

still from the film Agnosia.

Crop from Rik Rawling's art for 'Time Keeping'

Black Static

Issue 23 (JUN–JULY 2011)

Print edition ISSN 1753-0709 © 2011 Black Static and its contributors

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Publisher:

TTA Press on Smashwords EPUB ISBN 978-1-4661-2169-0

First draft v1 Roy Gray

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Website: ttapress.com

Email: [email protected]

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Editor: Andy Cox

Contributing Editors: Peter Tennant, Tony Lee, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Mike O’Driscoll

Podcast: Pete Bullock, transmissionsfrombeyond.com

Twitter + Facebook: Marc-Anthony Taylor, facebook.com/TTAPress

Events/Publicity/E editions: Roy Gray

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Retail Distribution: Pineapple Media, pineapple-media.com; Central Books, centralbooks.com

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Smashwords Edition License Notes

This emagazine is licensed for your personal use/enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this magazine with others please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this magazine and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please go to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the contributors and editors

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Published bimonthly by TTA Press. 5 Martins Lane, Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, United Kingdom

To obtain the print edition of Black Static in Europe or North America where your retailer may not stock it please ask them to order it for you, or buy it from one of several online mail order distributors...or better yet subscribe direct with us!

Subscriptions: Print edition subscriptions available online at ttapress.com/shop

Note we have some illustrations in this edition and you can see these in colour at http://ttapress.com/1086/black-static-23/ (linked in the Endnotes)

Unsolicited submissions of short stories are always welcome. Please follow the contributors’ guidelines on the website.

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CONTENTS

NEWS

EDITORIAL NOTES

WHITE NOISE - compiled by Peter Tennant

COMMENT/COLUMNS

COFFINMAKER'S BLUES - by Stephen Volk

INTERFERENCE - by Christopher Fowler

NIGHT’S PLUTONIAN SHORE - by Mike O’Driscoll

FICTION

TIME KEEPING by V.H. Leslie

...illustrated by Rik Rawling

HAIL by Daniel Kaysen

...illustrated by Rik Rawling

ELECTRIC DREAMS by Carole Johnstone

...illustrated by Richard Wagner

World Horror Convention 2011/Black Static Contest Winner:

THE HARVESTING OF JACKSON CADE by Robert Davies

...illustrated by Mark Pexton

FOR THEIR OWN ENDS by Joel Lane

REVIEWS

CASE NOTES - book reviews by Peter Tennant

books: Looking For a Way Out: Tom Fletcher In depth reviews of The Leaping and The Thing on the Shore, plus author interview and a chance to win a copy of both novels • Dracula: New Blood in Old Skin OUP's new edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula plus five other related novels/anthologies • The New Kid in Town A focus on Chômu Press and three of their latest titles • Mr Barker's Band The Painter, The Creature, and The Father of Lies, a collection of non-fiction and art by Clive Barker • Odds and Sods Stand-alone reviews of various other novels and novellas

BLOOD SPECTRUM - DVD/Blu-ray reviews by Tony Lee

discs: Chatroom, Confessions, Enter the Void, Time Traveller, Salon Kitty, Black Swan, Spartacus: Blood and Sand, Trackman, The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, Fertile Ground, Red Canyon, Stanley Kubrick: Visionary Filmmaker Collection, Agnosia, Fading of the Cries, 5150 Elm's Way, Psalm 21, Seconds Apart, Zombie Undead, Cross, Cross of Iron, Apocalypse Now, Demons Rising, Eaters, Red Hill, Needle, Trail of the Screaming Forehead, Witchfinder General, Savage Streets, Neighbor, The New York Ripper

ENDNOTES – links etc.

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EDITORIAL NOTES –

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Congratulations to Robert Davies for winning the World Horror Convention/ Black Static Short Story Contest with ‘The Harvesting of Jackson Cade’, published this issue.

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Congratulations also to Richard Butner, whose novelette ‘Holderhaven’ from Crimewave 11: Ghosts has been shortlisted for a Shirley Jackson Award for outstanding achievement in the literature of psychological suspense, horror, and the dark fantastic.

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Pete Tennant is reviewing every Black Static story on his personal blog Trumpetville (trumpetville.wordpress.com).

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Submissions of short stories are always welcome, but please follow the guidelines on the website.

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E-Edition (An Apology): The next Black Static print issue, #24, came out in August, with new stories by Simon Bestwick, Carole Johnstone and others. Normally an e book version of each new issue of Black Static (and sister magazine Interzone) is uploaded soon after the print issues are published.. Unfortunately we have failed to keep this process up to date and are now, despite recent efforts, several months behind. If this has affected you please accept our apologies and reassurances that we are trying to fix the problem. Keep checking Smashwords for new issues. Thanks for your patience! Print issue 26 –DEC 2011 – Jan 2012 is due out as this issue is readied for uploading. Thank you for your continued support.

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WHITE NOISE #22

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KILLER MOVE

It’s the title of the latest novel by Michael Marshall, the author of The Straw Men and Bad Things, who some readers may know as Michael Marshall Smith and who was featured in the Case Notes section of the very first issue of this magazine. It’s also the story of Bill Moore who ‘finds out, in the most terrifying fashion, that he has become the subject of a dark and deadly game’, and it’s out in hardback and eBook format from Orion in July.

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DO NOT PASS GO

Poetry publisher Nine Arches Press has launched Hotwire, a new imprint which will focus on short fiction pamphlets, and their first release will be a collection of five stories by Joel Lane, including one that previously appeared in our sister publication Crimewave. Do Not Pass Go is available from the 16th of June for the princely sum of £5, and you can find more details at ninearchespress.com

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O MY DAYS

Long time readers of Interzone may recognise the name David Mathew as a one time member of the editorial team of that illustrious publication, and if you’ve been wondering what David’s been doing with himself since leaving, then wonder no more. He’s written a novel called O My Days. It’s a supernatural thriller and will be out in hardback, paperback and various e-formats from New Zealand publisher Triskaideka Books on the 1st of June, which means it’s out already unless you have a time machine. For full details go to omydays.weebly.com

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SPECTRAL/SIMON KURT UNSWORTH

Spectral Press have been letting cats out of bags to reveal some of the chapbook goodness they have in store for readers, and a couple of names that will be familiar to Black Static readers appear in the roster – Paul Finch with King Death and Simon Kurt Unsworth with Rough Music. Looking further ahead, in 2013 Spectral plan to diversify into deluxe limited edition books under the Signature Editions umbrella and the first of these will be a collection of short stories by Simon Kurt Unsworth. In addition to a deluxe limited edition of 100 copies with all the bells on, there’ll also be an even more deluxe and limited edition of 10 copies, each containing a unique, handwritten flash fiction by the author. For full details and to register an interest go to spectralpress.wordpress.com

And if you don’t want to wait until 2013 for your next fix of Simon Kurt Unsworth, then the good news is that you don’t have to, because a new collection from Dark Continents Publishing will be along shortly. Quiet Houses is a portmanteau collection of seven ‘haunted place’ stories, two of which are previously unpublished, plus linking sections, and the plan is to release it in time for a FantasyCon launch. To keep abreast of developments as they develop, please aim your browser at darkcontinents.com

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THE OBVERSE QUARTERLY

This is a new venture launched by Obverse Books, publishing ‘a set of four paperback short story collections, available both by annual subscription and as single volumes, each covering an area of interest to the genre fiction fan’. The first title, Bite Sized Horror, is edited by Johnny Mains and out on the 30th of June, containing stories by Mains, Conrad Williams, Paul Kane, Marie O’Regan and David A. Riley. More details at obversebooks.co.uk

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THE CONCRETE GROVE

Described as ‘a serious, literary and thrilling work of true contemporary horror’, The Concrete Grove is the latest novel by Gary McMahon. It’s released in paperback and e-format by Solaris in the UK on the 7th of July, while lucky readers in the US and Canada get their copy just ahead of us on the 28th of June. For more information check out solarisbooks.com

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NEWS FROM THE EDGE

Back in #21 I reviewed Rigor Amortis, an anthology of flash fiction dealing with zombie erotica, edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt and published by Absolute XPress, and the good news is that in the Fall the title is being reissued by Edge Fantasy and Science Fiction Publishing. Meanwhile the editing team of Gates and Holt are hard at work on a new anthology of stories, this time set in the 1920's and called Broken Time Blues. Also scheduled for a Fall release from Edge is Evolve Two: Vampire Stories of the Future Undead, edited by Nancy Kilpatrick, and featuring the work of Tanith Lee, John Shirley, Tom Roche, Kelley Armstrong and many others. For all the latest go to edgewebsite.com

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NEWS FROM CHOMU PRESS

Chomu Press continue to be one of the most industrious small presses on the UK scene, with two more titles slated for release in the near future. Described as ‘a novel like the spiralling pattern of a magic carpet’, Nemonymous Night is the first novel length work to see print from that indefatigable spinner of tales D. F. Lewis, and it’s out on the 15th of June. Jumping forward to the 20th of July, we should see the appearance of Jeanette by Joe Simpson Walker. According to the publisher’s blurb it’s ‘Family mystery. Black farce. Hallucinatory psychodrama. Kinky love story.’ But don’t take my word for it. Visit chomupress.com

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THE RANDOM ROUND UP

All details correct at time of checking on Amazon, and all paperback unless otherwise stated. On the 21st of June, Hodder & Stoughton will release the mass market edition of Outpost by Adam Baker (reviewed in the current issue of Interzone), while on the 24th Titan reissue John Dies at the End by David Wong. On the 28th Ballantine publish The Ghost of Greenwich Village by Lorna Graham, which looks like the sort of thing fans of Thorne Smith’s Topper or The Ghost and Mrs Muir might get a kick out of. Also on the 28th there’ll be Supernatural Noir from Dark Horse, edited by Ellen Datlow and featuring a wealth of talent, including Nate Southard, Lucius Shepard and Laird Barron. Hammer get July off to a fine start with reissues of two Graham Masterton novels, The Pariah and Mirror while St Martin’s Griffin are also in the reissue business with a new edition of Dan Simmons’ 1991 novel Summer of Night. From Profile Books on the 7th we have The Small Hand by Susan Hill, while Tor Books kick off Rhianon Frater’s apocalyptic series As the World Dies with The First Days. Another reissue on the 11th with To the Devil – a Diva! By Paul Magrs from Allison & Busby, while on the 21st Gollancz give us Eldritch Tales: A Miscellany of the Macabre in both hardback and paperback, a tombstone sized volume containing all the H. P. Lovecraft fiction that didn’t make it into 2008’s Necronomicon, with an afterword by Stephen Jones and artwork by Les Edwards. Graham Masterton is back on the 28th with Petrified in hardback from Severn House, while the day after Titan issue Undead containing screenwriter John Russo’s novelisations of his scripts for Night of the Living Dead and the unfilmed Return of the Living Dead. August opens with Pariah by Thomas Emson from Snowbooks and Dark Rising by Greig Beck from St Martin’s Press. On the 4th we get the Penguin Deluxe Classics Edition of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and with an introduction by Elizabeth Kostova. Last but not least on the 18th we have Nocturne by Syrie James from CDS and The Third Section from Bantam Press, the third volume in Jasper Kent’s Danilov Quintet.

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COMPILED BY AND © 2011 PETER TENNANT • SEND YOUR NEWS TO [email protected].

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COFFINMAKER'S BLUES

by Stephen Volk

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MONSTERS IN THE HEART

There is a fondness, an obsession, we horror aficionados have for the famous monsters and fright night fiends created by other writers before us. Who knows why they appeal to us in that special way, but they do: the white zombies, graveyard ghouls and ravaged phantoms often portrayed by outstanding actors from Chaney Sr to Peter Cushing, re-lived, re-imagined and carried by us avid fans of the genre into adulthood.

These are the villains and heroes who made our childhoods what they were. Frightening, yes. Terrifying, yes. But also full of a sense of special wonder that kept the ghosts at bay. Sometimes, at least. For many of us these were formative influences, and they’ll never die. Others had Bobby Moore or Elvis. We had Christopher Lee and Quatermass. We had monsters in our hearts forever. Characters with an evil streak or deeply aberrant nature, the supernaturally powerful, or those who are simply physically wrong.

Monsters are ambivalent. Ambiguous. Shape shifters. No question. Our closest friends (Fred and Rose West, Peter Sutcliffe) can be monsters. And, paradoxically, monsters (Dracula, Frankenstein, the animated beasts of Harryhausen) can sometimes feel like our dearest and oldest friends.

They can also be, I strongly believe, what keeps us in touch with the magical. As Peter (Jaws) Benchley said so well, We’re not just afraid of predators, we’re transfixed by them, prone to weave stories and fables and chatter endlessly about them, because fascination creates preparedness, and preparedness, survival. In a deeply tribal sense, we love our monsters.

They don’t all have to wear black T-shirts, but we recognise friends. Fellow outsiders. Those who hear the beat of a different drum. Who walk out of step, with a limp or a lope. And we walk this way with Ygor because there’s no place we’d rather be than the safe, unsafe Transylvania that was never really real except in our open, eager minds.

Wasn’t Karloff’s creature just looking for a best buddy with the blind man? Come to that, wasn’t Dennis Nielson doing the same when he cut up those pick-ups from gay clubs in Crouch End (so memorably captured recently in the underrated, low-budget British serial killer film Tony)?

On a panel at FantasyCon last year I remember saying to the audience that I found lately a lot of my stories were about love. No, really. I said I found a horror idea about love much more interesting than, say, a horror idea about horror. (Maybe that’s because I often think horror is a means to an end, not the end itself. But I digress.) I’ve thought of other examples. Twilight, obviously. And Dracula before it. Silence of the Lambs is a perverse love story, clearly. The old Wolf Man is about the love of father and son. As is Conrad Williams’ harrowing novel One. Myself, I’ve written two stories back-to-back about the distortion of love, where I want the reader to empathise with a character who steps beyond the norm and commits terrible acts, but is nevertheless deeply human, as a way of asking the age-old question, namely: what is evil, exactly?

But maybe all Horror is about love. Robert McKee instructs that one should seek the negation of the negation in a story, right? So if the theme of Horror is typically fear, loss, destruction, annihilation of the self, the negation must be living – but the negation of the negation is surely love: what makes living worthwhile.

Let me return to the subject of empathy.

Growing up with his father’s tales of Nazis making Jews into lampshades and soap, Simon Baron-Cohen was bewildered from an early age by human beings’ capacity for cruelty. He was told the story of a woman who had her hands severed by Nazi doctors and then sewn back on opposite wrists so the