There was no Black Static published in June 2012. Issue 29 will instead become the July-August issue and mail out at the same time as Interzone issue 241. The magazines will continue on that schedule, sharing the same dateline and mailings. This makes much more sense after the recent Royal Mail changes. They are both due out this week.

TTA Press have taken this opportunity to make a couple of design changes too. Black Static magazine will lose 36mm off its height and 30mm off its width, which will allow printing of more pages (issue 29 will be 96 pages instead of the usual 64). There is the very real prospect of increasing to 128 pages in the future. The new size will use a thicker uncoated paper and a thicker cover, which will be laminated. So it’ll have a spine. The point size of the fiction will be slightly bigger. This will all add up to a better reading and handling experience, and a format that better suits the content.

Baph Tripp, soon to have a his story Chodpa published in Black Static #29 (July 2012), was originally Louis Tripp who starred in the Canadian movies The Gate and Gate II: Trespassers, aka Gate II: Return to the Nightmare, in 1987 and 1990 respectively. He is now a musician creating underground industrial music as x.a.o.s in Australia, but will become a new author this summer when his first published fiction appears in Black Static. His story Chodpa is “a dark, unsettling meditation on alienation, blighted hope, and the uselessness of human consciousness. And insects.”

For new authors, an appearance in Black Static brings international recognition in horror and dark fantasy fiction, but Baph has had plenty of experience of that from an early age. Baph has a convoluted history in terms of names, locations and artforms. He was born Louis Tripp, and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada and was a movie star in his early teens playing the role of Terry in the 1980s cult horror films The Gate and Gate II. At age 20, he changed his name to Twelve Twenty and as 12:20 he created confrontational, experimental music and engaged in the type of performance art activities that, on occasion, resulted in his involvement with the humane society and the police. At 30, the by then somewhat notorious 12:20 became Baph Tripp and began to create underground industrial music as x.a.o.s with releases in 2001, 2007 and 2009. He now lives in New South Wales, Australia.

He wrote the 8,100 word short story Chodpa in 2011 but spent time on extensive editing and re-writes before submitting it for publication in April 2012. Its acceptance for Black Static has fuelled his ambition to write more dark fiction.

A couple of horror-centred websites have published “Where is Louis Tripp?” articles in the last few years  …

You can now try an issue of Black Static free, or you can pay for it – you decide. TTA Press have reset the price for Black Static Issue 19 (October 2010) on Smashwords so that you can get it for free or select a price you consider worthwhile. Try it, and if you feel it’s worth it, download it again and pay then. They trust you!

The free issue contains a mammoth book reviews section from Peter Tennant, an interview with Stephen Jones, and fiction from Steve Rasnic Tem, Ray Cluley, Joel Lane, Simon Clark and Lavie Tidhar.

Click here to try it for free now!

Issue 28 of award-winning horror/dark fiction magazine Black Static is now available, containing new fiction by Carole Johnstone, Jon Ingold, Priya Sharma, Joel Lane and Daniel Kaysen, along with the usual mix of news, comment and reviews.

For full information see the TTA Press website HERE

Priya Sharma is a new author with several short stories to her name who is delighted that her latest story will appear in the April issue of Britain’s premier horror fiction magazine, Black Static, from TTA Press. An appearance there brings international recognition in horror and dark fantasy fiction.

Priya’s inspiration for her story, The Ballad of Boomtown, stemmed from reading about Ireland’s problem of empty and semi-occupied housing estates following the demise of the ‘Celtic Tiger’. She explores the effects of recession and clashes between modern times and Ireland’s ancient past for a woman left alone in a decaying estate while obsessing over the tragedy that caused her lover to desert her.

Priya is a GP who spends most of her spare time writing. She is making her name internationally via short stories but a historical fantasy novel set in Wales is her newest project. Two of Priya’s stories will be reprinted in ‘Year’s Best’ collections where her name will appear alongside the likes of Stephen King and Tim Powers.

Black Static 28 will be in newsagents, and some bookshops, from mid-April. So, with that issue, Priya joins Black Static authors such as Ramsey Campbell, Alison Littlewood and Christopher Fowler, along with others like Conrad Williams and Justina Robson who began their writing careers in its pages or in the pages of its predecessor, The Third Alternative.

Black Static #27 is now available from TTA Press. Stories as follows:

Empty of Words, the Page by Gord Sellar
illustrated by David Gentry

The Little Things by Jacob Ruby
illustrated by George Cotronis

Cuckoo Spit by Stephen Bacon
illustrated by Mark Pexton

The Churn by Simon Bestwick
illustrated by Dave Senecal

Family Tree by V.H. Leslie
illustrated by Rik Rawling

Plus the usual mix of news, reviews and non-fiction articles.

Details HERE

Black Static #26 is now on sale, contents as follows:

Fiction:
I Have Heard the Mermaids Singing by Ray Cluley, illustrated by Ben Baldwin
The Demon Laplace by Mark Rigney, illustrated by Rik Rawling
Remains by Gary McMahon, illustrated by Mark Pexton
Dizzy Land by Andrew Hook, illustrated by Paul Milne
The Monster of Venice by Carole Johnstone

Features:
White Noise: Horror News compiled by Peter Tennant
Coffinmaker’s Blues by Stephen Volk
Interference by Christopher Fowler
Night’s Plutonian Shore by Mike O’Driscoll
Case Notes: Book Reviews by Peter Tennant
Blood Spectrum: DVD/Blu-ray Reviews by Tony Lee

The original art on the cover is taken from Rik Rawling’s illustration for The Demon Laplace and Mark Pexton’s illustration for Remains.

Full details HERE

Black Static #25 is now available, containing fiction by Alison Littlewood, Ray Cluley, Christopher Fowler, Barbara A. Barnett and Nathaniel Tapley, along with its regular horror news and features.

For information and purchase details please visit the TTA Press website

At a glittering ceremony in Brighton on 2 October 2011 the following were announced as winners of the British Fantasy Awards 2011:

KARL EDWARD WAGNER SPECIAL AWARD: Terry Pratchett

BEST NOVEL: Demon Dance, Sam Stone (House of Murky Depths)

BEST NOVELLA: Humpty’s Bones, Simon Clark (Telos)

BEST SHORT STORY: “Fool’s Gold”, Sam Stone, from The Bitten Word, ed. Ian
Whates (NewCon Press)

BEST ANTHOLOGY: Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror
Stories, Johnny Mains (ed.) (Noose & Gibbet)

BEST COLLECTION: Full Dark, No Stars, Stephen King (Hodder & Stoughton)

BEST NON-FICTION: Altered Visions: The Art of Vincent Chong (Telos)

BEST ARTIST: Vincent Chong

BEST COMIC/GRAPHIC NOVEL: At the Mountains of Madness: a Graphic Novel, Ian Culbard (Selfmadehero)

BEST MAGAZINE/PERIODICAL: Black Static, Andy Cox (ed.) (TTA Press)

BEST SMALL PRESS: Telos Publishing

BEST FILM: Inception

BEST TELEVISION: Sherlock

SYDNEY J. BOUNDS AWARD FOR BEST NEWCOMER: Robert Jackson Bennet, for Mr Shivers (Orbit)