Short Stories

BFS Journal, Summer 2011

/ Clint Smith / Leave a comment

Summer screaming reading program

Well, friends, it’s here:  The BFS Journal, summer 2011 edition—a darkly diverse collection of voices, each an envoy for their literary fields of fantasy, science fiction and horror (yours truly representing the latter).  Echoing chairman David Howe’s sentiments in his introduction, the intent of this installment is to provide “some entertainment, some laughs, and some chills for the Summer months.”

Tomislav Tikulin

The vivid cover artwork was the eerie brainchild of Tomislav Tikulin, a Croatian digital illustrator whose creations have been featured on numerous magazines and novels.

Edited by Peter Coleborn, Andrew Hook, Ian Hunter, and David A. Riley, the BFS Journal is a triumvirate of Prism, New Horizons, and Dark Horizons.  Here’s the lineup:

Prism

  • Editorial by David A. Riley
  • Ramsey’s Rant by Ramsey Campbell
  • Book Reviews edited by Jan Edwards and Craig Lockley
  • Graphicky Quality edited by Jay Eales
  • Media Reviews edited by Mathew F. Riley
  • “The Mark of Fear” by Mark Morris
  • “Profondo Probert Column 5” by John Llewellyn Probert
  • Mary Danby Interviewed by Lou Morgan

New Horizons

  • “In The House of Answers” by Allen Ashley
  • “Grey Magic For Cat Lovers” by Jan Edwards
  • “The Sound Down By The Shore” by Douglas J. Ogurek
  • “Beached” by Eric Boman
  • “The Hawthorne Effect” by Adrian Stumpp

Dark Horizons

  • “Heaven & Helvetica” by Gavin B. Nash
  • “Late in the Day” by Adam Walter
  • Mostly in Shadow: Lesser-known Writers of Weird Fiction, Part 2 by Mike Barrett
  • “Ten Things We’re Going to Have to Live Without After the Apocalypse” by Allen Ashley
  • “The Pet Peeve” by Rick Kleffel
  • “Cellar” by J.R. Salling
  • “Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite” by Clint Smith
  • “A Guttering of Flickers” by Michael Kelly
  • “The Secret in the Village of Dragonsbreath” by Annie Neugebauer
  • “The Last Dance of Humphrey Bear” by James Brogden

It’s humbling to be in such good company with writers like Ramsey Campbell, Rick Kleffel (The Agony Column), and Michael Kelly (editor, Shadows and Tall Trees).  “Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite” was a short story whose nascent draft was something I concocted back in 2006.  I’ve been searching for a home (haunted or otherwise) for this story for a few years now, and I’m honored to have found that home alongside my fellow contributors in the BFS Journal.

Stay tuned for some “wicked” news out of South Africa later this summer.  Until then:  ‘night ‘night…sleep tight…

Weird Fiction Review, Issue 1

/ Clint Smith / Leave a comment

No foolin’—this is out today

It’s like the arguments of some ardent audiophiles, those enthusiast that (in the digital age of aimlessly yanking a song or two from some disreputable source, absently arranging them in some arbitrary order) maintain that vinyl is the only way to go:  The listener forfeits the essence of the album—the liner notes, the song-to-song sequence, the warmth of the music.  Same could be said for downloading a book or short story.  Easy? Sure.  Convenient? Without doubt.  But think about what you’re missing out on—the art, the weight, the feel of the book.

Okay—yes, so I own a Kindle; but stay with me.  There are some publications which still honor a bygone era of storytelling, aesthetically impressive journals whose sole purpose is to appeal to both our sense of tactility and our imagination.

The Weird Fiction Review, Issue I, is a piece of publishing artwork—a glossy, flap-cover paperback containing 225 pages and a sixteen-page, full color gallery of David Ho’s vibrantly lurid images.  “The Weird Fiction Review is designed to promote serious scholarship in weird and supernatural fiction from the Gothic novels to the present day,” writes S.T. Joshi in his opening editorial, “with an emphasis on the literature of the late nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries.

Fiction contributors include Michaels Aronovitz, Cody Goodfellow, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Mare Laidlow, Jason C. Eckhardt, along with yours truly.  There are also eight essays (the focuses of which include Lovecraft, Poe, Blackwood, Stoker, and Gaiman, to name a few), and five poets offering weird work.

Leviathan by David Ho

In the spirit of bygone journals and (sadly) defunct periodicals which prided themselves on promoting the tradition of supernatural tales, S.T. Joshi’s Weird Fiction Review provides a darkly disturbing glimpse at the past, present, and future of dark fiction.

Follow this link to Centipede Press:  www.centipedepress.com

Or check out Amazon.com:  www.amazon.com

And follow this link to David Ho’s website:  www.davidho.com

As always:  thanks for reading, and thank you for your support.