Black Static #24 Horror Magazine

By TTA Press

Black Static is the successor to The Third Alternative magazine, which was founded in 1994. When TTA Press acquired Interzone in 2005 it was no longer necessary to publish science fiction and fantasy in The Third Alternative. So its replacement was retitled Black Static and now its contents are original horror/dark fantasy fiction and illustrations plus related news and reviews of books, movies and DVDs. It is not celebrity oriented. This edition has the text of the print edition but some illustrations, graphics and advertisements are not present.

The title and strapline reference 'electronic voice phenomenon' (EVP), the noise found on recordings which some people interpret as the voices of ghosts. The film White Noise, starring Michael Keaton, could more accurately be called Black Static. What makes the title even more suitable is that 'Black Static' is also Paul Meloy's British Fantasy Award winning story from The Third Alternative.

The Third Alternative was never afraid to push the envelope, and nothing has changed in that regard. Black Static has earned much praise for its style, bravery, editorial and fiction content. Its stories are innovative and daring, never afraid to shock or disturb, yet always entertain.

The magazine publishes some of the finest Horror writers working today: Christopher Fowler, Afterlife creator/writer Stephen Volk, Lisa Tuttle, Nicholas Royle, Conrad Williams, Tony Richards, Scott Nicholson, Steve Rasnic Tem, Cody Goodfellow, Mélanie Fazi, Matthew Holness (creator and star of TV’s Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace), Michael Marshall Smith, Simon Clark, Graham Joyce, Gary McMahon, Alexander Glass, Joel Lane, to name just a few. Alongside these is a dazzling array of new talent such as Aliette de Bodard, Daniel Kaysen, Shannon Page, Roz Clarke, Ray Cluley, Sarah Totton, James Cooper, Nina Allan, Eric Gregory and many more.

A unique fiction magazine requires unique presentation and Black Static delivers on this front too, thanks to the extraordinary original artwork of artist like David Gentry and Ben Baldwin along with a design that delights in breaking rules.

Every issue contains a striking news feature called White Noise, compiled by Peter Tennant. Pete also supplies all the magazine's book reviews in his Case Notes column which runs to at least fourteen pages and includes interviews, sidebars and factoids. Tony Lee reviews the latest DVD/Blu-ray releases in his Blood Spectrum Column. Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk and Mike O'Driscoll supply thought-provoking comment columns, and every issue gives away lots of free stuff.

Black Static is published bimonthly, in alternate months to Interzone (we offer a discounted joint subscription to both print magazines). You can subscribe to the print version using the TTA Press website's shop.

• Language: English
• Publisher: TTA Press
• Release date: Dec 27, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465959232

TTA Press

TTA Press is the publisher of the magazines Interzone (science fiction/fantasy) and Black Static (horror/dark fantasy), the Crimewave anthology series, TTA Novellas, plus the occasional story collection and novel.

Book preview

BLACK STATIC

#24

A magazine of horror and dark fantasy.

Cover:

Crop from Ben Baldwin's art for 'Recently Used'.

Black Static

Issue 24 (AUG–SEPT 2011)

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

Published bimonthly by TTA Press

TTA Press, 5 Martins Lane Witcham, Ely, Cambs CB6 2LB, United Kingdom

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Website: ttapress.com

Email: [e-mail]

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TTA Press on Smashwords EPUB ISBN 978-1-4659-5923-2

First draft v1 Roy Gray

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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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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/1113/black-static-24/

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

DERMOT by Simon Bestwick

illustrated by Dan Henk

A SUMMER'S DAY by K. Harding Stalter

illustrated by Paul Milne

RECENTLY USED by Ramsey Campbell

illustrated by Ben Baldwin

STILL LIFE by Simon McCaffery

illustrated by David Gentry

HOW THE SIXTIES ENDED by Tim Lees

REVIEWS

CASE NOTES - book reviews by Peter Tennant

books: Tony Richards: Midnight's Angels + Our Lady of the Shadows • Terry Grimwood: Bloody War + The Places Between • David Wellington: Cursed + 13 Bullets • Livia Llewellyn: Engines of Desire • Ralph Robert Moore: I Smell Blood • Conrad Williams: Blonde on a Stick + Loss of Separation • Simon Strantzas: Beneath the Surface • Richard Gavin: Charnel Wine • Kaaron Warren: Dead Sea Fruit + Mistification + author interview.

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

discs: The Task, Conan The Barbarian, The Devil's Rock, Giallo, Obsession, Slaughter High, Bane, Mega Shark vs Crocosaurus, Evil Rising, Moby Dick, Scream of the Banshee, The Violent Kind, Hobo With a Shotgun, Limitless, Super, The Silent House, Almighty Thor, The Lost Bladesman, The Rig, Sucker Punch, The Witches of Oz, Twin Daggers, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Second Coming, Quarantine 2: Terminal, Uninhabited, Wasted on the Young, Waterborne, Iron & Blood, Scream 4, Red Riding Hood, Beastly, Atrocious, Attack the Block, Yu Gi Oh, Shikabane: Corpse Princess, Black Butler, Sekirei, High School of the Dead, Nabari no Ou.

ENDNOTES – links etc.

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EDITORIAL NOTES –

Return to Contents

We have introduced lifetime subscriptions to the print editions of Black Static, sister magazine Interzone, and both magazines combined. More details below and on the website shop. Such long term subscriptions are of great benefit and support to the magazine, so many thanks in advance to those of you who take up the offer.

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LIFETIME SUBSCRIPTIONS

If you can afford to do so, why not consider supporting our magazines Black Static and Interzone by taking out a very long-term subscription to the print edition?

A lifetime subscription is defined as one lasting either the lifetime of the subscriber or the lifetime of the magazine

The cost of such a subscription is based on ten years at the current print edition rate: £210 UK • £240 Europe • £270 USA/RoW

There is also the option to take a slightly cheaper joint lifetime subscription to the print editions of both magazines

Lifetime print edition subscriptions have now been added to the online shop (ttapress.com/shop)

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We have made some layout changes to this E book to try to improve the appearance on your reader. We have noticed that unwanted page numbers appear at the end of text lines in the Epub versions so for this upload the page length was set to the maximum possible, in the original Word file, to reduce this effect. That did not work and the change has now been reversed. If you think of another way to remove these please let us know. Also there are extra lines separating each feature. If these are a nuisance please let us know.

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Congratulations to Mercurio D. Rivera, whose story from Black Static #18, ‘Tu Sufrimiento Shall Protect Us’ (illustrated by Joachim Luetke) was shortlisted for a World Fantasy Award. Unfortunately Mercurio did not win at the San Diego convention. http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/

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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, #25, came out in October 2011, with new stories by Alison Littlewood, Christopher Fowler, Ray Cluley, Barbara A. Barnett and Nathaniel Tapley.

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 our 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!

Black Static 26 is on sale as this issue (24) is readied for E editions.

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WHITE NOISE

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Return to Contents

THE BRITISH FANTASY AWARDS & FANTASYCON

As of 5th August the latest round of voting in the 2011 British Fantasy Awards is on, but will be over by the time you read this, unless you’re the Black Static proof-reader that is. TTA Press is nominated in the Best Small Press category and Black Static itself is up for Best Magazine. Lots of past and present contributors are contending in various categories, including Vincent Chong, Ben Baldwin and Daniele Serra in Best Artist, Simon Clark and Paul Finch (twice) in Best Collection, Nicholas Royle in Best Short Story, Clark and Finch again in Best Novella, and last, but not least, Gary McMahon is up for Best Novel. Hearty congratulations to all the nominees, whether connected to TTA or not, and the winners will be announced at FantasyCon 2011, which is taking place over the weekend of 30th September to 2nd October 2011 at the Royal Albion Hotel, Brighton. For full details on that check out the website at fantasycon2011.org or purchase Black Static #25.

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CHOMU PRESS LATEST

News reaches us of two new releases from the good people at Chômu. The Orphan Palace is by Joseph S. Pulver and should be out in October, just in time for Halloween. According to the publisher, ‘Pulver takes the ‘weird fiction’ mythologies of Robert Chambers, Frank Belknap Long and H.P. Lovecraft, melts them in the crucible of his own unique noir poetry and cooks up a hallucinatory road-trip that is utterly unexpected.’ And if that doesn’t appeal, then in November Chômu release Here Comes the Nice by Jeremy Reed, a writer J. G. Ballard described as ‘Rimbaud reconfigured as the Man Who Fell to Earth, a visitor from deep space whose time machine was designed by Lautreamont and de Sade and powered by the most exotic fuels imagination has ever devised.’ I think that means he liked him. More information at chomupress.com

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ATOMIC FEZ LATEST

The Canadian publisher has two new titles vying for your attention and hard earned cash. Dirk Danger Loves Life, described as the ‘comedic tale of a sad little man who cannot function in any self-sufficient capacity’, is the debut novel from Chris Rothe. It doesn’t sound like horror, but you might wish to check it out anyway. More our cup of gore is Terribilis by Carol Weekes, ‘an uncomfortable journey into a 21st century heart of darkness.’ It’s about frogs and a serial killer. Both books are out now in e-format, with paperbacks scheduled for November release, while the Weekes will also be available in hardback in October. More details at atomicfez.com

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FANTASYCON LAUNCHES – PS PUBLISHING

As ever, many publishers are planning to launch their wares on a receptive public at FantasyCon, and leading the charge are PS Publishing with a total of ten books slated for release, at least eight of which will be of interest to horror readers. First up, from Ramsey Campbell there’s a reprint of his first published book, the 1964 collection The Inhabitant of the Lake and Other Unwelcome Tenants, and also the new novel Ghosts Know. Moving quickly on we have Red Gloves, a collection from Black Static columnist Christopher Fowler, The Butterfly Man by Paul Kane, Rotten Row, a novella by Chaz Brenchley, Long Shadows, Nightmare Light, a collection by Mark Morris, and Dark Dreams, Pale Horses, a PS Showcase collection from Rio Youers. Lastly there’s Gutshot, an anthology of ‘Weird West’ tales that marks Conrad Williams debut as an editor, with a ToC that includes such worthies as Paul Meloy, Joel Lane, Gary McMahon, Christopher Fowler, Simon Bestwick, Stephen Volk, Sarah Langan and Gemma Files, to name just a few. More information on all of these at pspublishing.co.uk

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STEPHEN JONES – NEW TITLES

Award winning editor Stephen Jones has three new releases in the coming months that will be of interest. Mid-September marks the appearance of ghost story collection Haunts: Reliquaries of the Dead in paperback from Ulysses Press, with twenty five stories and a ToC that contains work by Christopher Fowler, Lisa Tuttle, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Conrad Williams and Sarah Pinborough, among others. A Book of Horrors is published in hardback by Quercus and will be launched in September at FantasyCon. It will contain fourteen all new tales, and the line-up includes work from Stephen King, Lisa Tuttle, Elizabeth Hand, Reggie Oliver, Michael Marshall Smith, Dennis Etchison and John Ajvide Lindqvist. Following that in October we have The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #22 from Robinson Publishing, with twenty three of the finest stories from 2010, including tales from Joel Lane, Simon Kurt Unsworth, Christopher Fowler, Joe R. Lansdale and Angela Slatter. For more details on these, and a lot else besides, keep an eye on stephenjoneseditor.com

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PARAXIS

As well as helping Andy edit our companion magazine Interzone, Andy Hedgecock is helming an online magazine of speculative fiction with Lancashire writer and poet Claire Massey. The first issue, Paraxis 01, can be found now at paraxis.org and, as well as an introduction by Michael Moorcock, contains stories on the theme of power by, among others, Conrad Williams, Nicholas Royle, Alan Wall and Nina Allan. Check it out.

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DEATH RATTLES

Death Rattles was a notorious UK horror show that aired on Channel 4 back in the mid-80s and ran for only a few episodes, a programme that seems to have been forgotten by everyone except for half a dozen writers, who are happy to share their memories with the rest of us by means of a book with the same title, and out now in paperback from Gray Friar Press. The concerned parties are John Llewellyn Probert, Thana Niveau, Gary Fry, Paul Finch, Simon Bestwick and Gary McMahon, and Black Static columnist Stephen Volk writes the introduction. For more details visit grayfriarpress.com

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THE HA OF HA

The Horror Anthology of Horror Anthologies, or The HA of HA as it’s affectionately known, contains twenty stories all written on the theme of horror anthologies. Contributors with a TTA connection include Joel Lane, Rosanne Rabinowitz, Mike O’Driscoll and David Mathew. The book is edited by Nemonymous mastermind D. F. Lewis and out now in paperback from Megazanthus Press. For further information direct your browser at horroranthology.wordpress.com

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FANTASYCON – PENDRAGON PRESS LAUNCHES

All going to plan, Welsh publisher Pendragon should launch Visions Fading Fast (Volume One), an anthology edited by Gary McMahon and with contributions from Kaaron Warren (this issue’s Case Notes featured author), Joel Lane, Paul Meloy, Reggie Oliver and Nathan Ballingrud, with Volume Two to follow later in the year. There’s also the possibility that they could have available copies of The Joy of Technology, a new chapbook from TTA’s own Roy Gray, who just happens to be a fine writer as well as an excellent PR man. Further details can be found at pendragonpress.net

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SPECTRAL PRESS – FORTHCOMING

Spectral Press have announced their chapbook line-up through to the end of 2013. In September of this year there’s Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner, which has already sold out, followed by Paul Finch’s King Death in December. For 2012, quarterly and starting in March, they have Rough Music by Simon Kurt Unsworth, The Eyes of Water by Alison J. Littlewood, What Gets Left Behind by Mark West and an as yet untitled release from Wayne Simmons. Confirmed for 2013 are Creakers by Paul Kane, Cold Havens by Simon Bestwick, Soul Masque by Terry Grimwood and a title from Thana Niveau whose title has yet to be confirmed. Full details are waiting for you at spectralpress.wordpress.com and don’t forget you can take out subscriptions.

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DELIRIUM NOVELLA SERIES

Delirium Books are in the middle of an ambitious novella publishing programme, with two releases per month throughout 2011, the titles available in either limited edition collectable hardback format or as digital downloads. Authors on the roster for what remains of 2011 include Lee Thompson, Maurice Broaddus, Greg F. Gifune and Cate Gardner, and if you’re a writer it may be of interest to know that Delirium are now taking submissions for 2012. Check it out at deliriumbooks.com

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THE REGICIDE

Described as ‘a powerful story set in a nightmarish otherworld of fathers and sons, hopes and dreams, love and death’, The Regicide is the new novel from Black Static favourite Nicholas Royle. It’s released in paperback from Solaris on the 14th of September and you can learn more at solarisbooks.com

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CHRISTOPHER FOWLER NEWS

Black Static columnist Christopher Fowler has been particularly busy. Not only is there the collection from PS Publishing we’ve mentioned elsewhere on this page, but in December his novel Hell Train will be out in paperback from Solaris, while before that in September we have Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood, the ninth