Dark Horizons 57

[Stephen Theaker]

Dark Horizons 57 will be out at the beginning of September. If you'd like to advertise in this issue, the cost is:

- £20 for full page
- £12 for half-page
- £7.50 for quarter-page
- £35 back page

I'm afraid the back cover of this issue has already been taken, but for now there is plenty of space inside. The deadlines are July 1 for booking and payment, and August 1 for delivering the advert to me.

The pages are A5. Interior adverts will appear in black & white, and can be supplied in pretty much any format, though a jpg is probably most convenient. I'm willing to do a small amount of typesetting of adverts if you need the help, though it won't be anything fancy.

By the way, thanks to everyone who has submitted work for this issue. I'm currently reading all the submissions and should get back to you within the next few weeks. I'm short an article or two if anyone has any ideas...

[Stephen Theaker]

The new issue of Dark Horizons arrived from the printers last week and should be on its way out to members and contributors fairly soon. I'm very pleased with this one…

It features fiction:

- Colonies, Jim Steel
- Moonlight on the Northern Seas, Malcolm Laughton
- The Other Side of Silence, Stephen Bacon
- The Apocalypse Has Been Good to Us, Charlotte Bond
- Resistance: a Love Story, Zachary Jernigan

And articles:

- Mark Charan Newton, interviewed by Louise Morgan
- The Sign of the Unicorn’s Head: the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series, Mike Barrett
- Aliette de Bodard, interviewed by Jenny Barber
- Catastrophia: Allen Ashley, interviewed by Stephen Theaker

And poetry:

- TWTMC, Allen Ashley
- Pretty Little Things, and Blood Pearls, J.R. Salling
- Folded in Darkness, Graylin Fox
- Circe Poisoning the Sea, Sarah Doyle
- The Giftshop Off the Multiverse, Ian Hunter
- Younger Gods, Roy Gray
- Witnessing’s End, Alessio Zanelli
- Addendum, Rick Coonrod

And illustrations - more original illustrations than ever before, in fact:

- Martin Hanford (who provides the stunning cover)
- John Shanks
- Inna Hansen
- Alf Klosterman
- David Bezzina
- and Les Edwards (whose cover artwork for Catastrophia is included).

It's Christmas, your birthday and the time you found a ten pound note on the street, all wrapped up in one hundred and twelve pages…

[Jim Steel]

 

[Roy]

and me...

[Stephen Theaker]

A word for all our lovely advertisers. The magazine would be shorter without them:

Eibonvale Press, advertising Ultrameta by Douglas Thompson (and all their other lovely books).

Inkermen Press, advertising Pieces for Puppets and Other Cadavers, by D.P. Watt, and Weirdtongue, by D.F. Lewis (much missed from this forum).

The Birmingham Science Fiction Group, advertising the upcoming appearances of Adam Roberts (October 5) and Charles Stross (November 5) at their events.

Never Again, advertising the upcoming book edited by Allyson Bird and Joel Lane.

The A-Men, advertising the novel by John Trevillian.

Mutation Press, advertising Music for Another World, a collection featuring disreputable types such as Mr Jim Steel and Mr Andrew Hook.

The back cover too features Andrew's work, as Atomic Fez advertise his Ponthe Oldenguine.

Thanks to them all.

[Jen]

Wow, now that's one glorious DH! 
Loved 'The Apocalypse Has Been Good To Us'.  (Haven't read the other stories yet.)
Also, is there an Allen Ashley expansion pack going because I'd be interested to see his thoughts on the age issue in the genre. 

[Stephen Theaker]

He said he might write an article about it, and he's sent me an article to look at for next time, but I haven't read it yet so I'm not sure yet if he's following up on those comments.

Looking at the accounts now: we sold £206 worth of advertising in Dark Horizons this year.

[Peter Coleborn]

Looking at the accounts now: we sold £206 worth of advertising in Dark Horizons this year.

That's very good, Stephen. Now, if there was a committee person who could co-ordinate advertising across all BFS platforms and publications, it might be nearer £2060.

[David A. Riley]

I don't even know what the advertising rates are for Prism for that matter, though we could do with pricing this up. And advertising them in the bulletin and elsewhere. There was some advertising in Prism earlier this year but I had nothing to do with arranging it.  Now that it's been printed more cheaply, the rates should be quite attractive.

[Stephen Theaker]

They're up here, David:

http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/index.php/advertising

Feel free to copy, paste and adapt the first post in this thread - posting something like that on Shocklines might get the odd nibble. It's a long, slow process getting advertisers, but it's worth it in the end. They'll usually book the ads long before they're ready to supply them, so be sure to set a date in your diary for following up.

[David A. Riley]

Thanks for that, Stephen. I shall start to spread that information around. See if I can drum up some takers. 

[Stephen Theaker]

Well, I didn't know it at the time, but this was my final issue of Dark Horizons, so thanks to all the contributors who made it such a good one!

Thanks also to everyone who contributed to previous issues, and for that matter to every single person who submitted a story. I'm sorry I had to reject any of them!

I've had a brilliant time as Dark Horizons editor. Thanks to Marie O'Regan and the 2007-8 committee for giving me the post, and to everyone since then who has offered advice and support.

[Jim Steel]

No-o-o-o! Who's going to publish me now?

But thank you, Stephen. It's been a pleasure working with you and I'm already looking forward to the next TQF.

[Stephen Theaker]

Don't worry, Jim, I'm sure whoever edits the Dark Horizons section in the new journal will be as charmed by your work as I was!

David did ask me to take on that role, but I didn't fancy it.

[Stephen Theaker]

When I stepped down from Dark Horizons in 2010, one job was left hanging around on my tasklist - to create the ebook version of this issue. Finally found the time to do that today, and I'll include it in the next Shelflings email.