2007 Short Story Conference

* ‘The Story Shall Be Changed’: Tales and Re-tellings in the Short Story
* Saturday 21st July 2007, Edge Hill University

The short story is a protean form, encompassing myth, fable, anecdote, tall tales, yarns and literary experimentation. Rooted in oral tradition, storytelling has a special affinity with popular genres such as science fiction and tales of the supernatural.

In this second one-day conference on the short story at Edge Hill, we focus on this multiplicity of forms and genres. We also consider the re-imagining of familiar narratives, themes and imagery; and the invention of new ones. How is the short story being transformed in the twenty-first century?

The conference is linked with the inaugural presentation of the Edge Hill Prize, for a published single author collection from the British Isles. The winner will be announced on the eve of the conference, and it is hoped that writers from the shortlist (announced May 2007) will take part in the conference reading.

Confirmed speakers include:

* Professor Alan Wall (Richard Dadd in Bedlam and Other Stories)
* Andy Sawyer (Science Fiction Foundation, University of Liverpool)
* Cecilia Morreau (Leaf Books)

Call for Papers

Proposals for 20 minute papers are invited from all those writing and researching the short story, whether as practitioners or literary scholars (or both). Practice-based presentations are welcome. Suggested topics:

* Genre and sub-genre – crime – horror – the ghost story – fantasy – science fiction – gothic – erotica – autobiography – online writing – multi-media – hybrid genres.
* Intertextuality – myth and symbolism – image-based fiction – the epiphany – adaptation - oral storytelling - modernism and postmodernism.
* Individual authors – re-readings and reworkings – writing in translation - postcolonial fiction – experiment and innovation – novellas – story sequences – flash fiction – anthologies.
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Interzone : Britain’s Longest Running Scifi / Fantasy Magazine

Interzone 211 (July/Aug 2007)
Cover Art: Interzone’s striking new cover design starts with Richard Marchand’s ‘Lunar Flare’ and leads with news that Interzone 211 is a special edition featuring Michael Moorcock, the writer described by the late Angela Carter as “a lord of misrule, whose work is the nearest thing we have in English to a never-ending carnival.”

Contents
Moorcock’s name will trigger a host of associations for SF and other readers. In his half century spanning career he has given us the albino warrior Elric of Melniboné; the multiverse-traversing trickster-victim Jerry Cornelius; the genre-bending voyages of the Von Bek dynasty; a masterful secret history of the twentieth century related by the self-deceiving Colonel Pyat; an unforgettable examination of the impulses for faith and martyrdom in Behold the Man; the exploits of steampunk time traveller Oswald Bastable; and the book IZ co-editor Andy Hedgecock would take to a desert island if Kirsty Young allowed him just one – Mother London, the magnificently mythic, affecting and optimistic celebration of life in the city.

Unmentioned as yet: the Hawkmoon books, the Dancers at the End of Time cycle or his, partly satirical, response to the works of J.R.R. Tolkein, The Chronicles of Corum.

And, as editor of New Worlds (1964 - 1971), Moorcock strove to encourage sf with greater narrative and linguistic complexity and to shift its focus towards the way we were living at the end of the twentieth century – towards an examination of our morality, our psychology and our sexuality.

A never-ending carnival indeed. But there’s a lot more to Michael Moorcock’s work than its variety. And while David Pringle, Interzone’s former editor, was spot-on in calling Moorcock “the consummate professional entertainer”, what makes Moorock unique is his ability to combine dazzling, compelling and accessible storytelling with relentlessly challenging moral exploration.

In 1999, Alan Warner (Morvern Callar and These Demented Lands) chose Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius Quartet as one of his ‘essential classics for the next 100 years’, saying: “… no other contemporary English writer seems to capture the moral dilemmas around us with such wry good humour, vigour and style in such a richly modernist way.”

The moral focus Warner talks about has always been a defining aspect of Moorcock’s work, but it has become more concentrated, more intense as he has honed his craft over the years. In 1982, as Interzone began publication, Moorcock was entering a new phase of moral engagement with his searing examination of sexual obsession, escapism and alienation, The Brothel in Rosenstrasse. Since then we’ve had the final three quarters of the Pyat quartet; the wonderful ‘Mother London’, an angry but hilarious outing for Jerry Cornelius in ‘The Alchemist’s Question’; the savagely satirical fable King of the City; and an underrated but, for some, hugely influential polemic, The Retreat from Liberty.

Talking of polemics, read Michael Moorcock’s Guest Editorial, ‘The March of the Whiteshirts’. It’s a fascinating dissection of the deadening effect of cultural stasis and conformity over the past four decades, and a plea for a vibrant counterculture to challenge the domination of the ‘Whiteshirts’. It makes an inspiring start to a cracking Moorcock special:

Michael Moorcock:
Guest Editorial: The March of the Whiteshirts
The Affair of the Bassin les Hivers (short story)
Lovers: A Memoir of Mervyn and Maeve Peake (extract from work in progress)
London, My Life! or The Sedentary Jew (extract from novel in progress)
Interviewed by Andrew Hedgecock: Staring Down the Witches (with unpublished photos)

In the rest of Interzone 211:
Original Fiction
Exvisible by Carlos Hernandez
illustrated by Fraser Warwick-Coombe
Deer Flight by Aliette de Bodard
illustrated by Stefan Olsen
Elevator Episodes in Seven Genres by Ahmed A. Khan
Knowledge by Grace Dugan
illustrated by David Gentry

Non Fiction
25 IZ: Celebrating 25 Years of Interzone, with contributions from John Picacio, Jason Stoddard, Paul Di Filippo, Eric Brown, Gwyneth Jones, Jamie Barras, Peter F. Hamilton, Ian R. MacLeod, Stephen Baxter.
Ansible Link by David Langford: news and gossip.
Mutant Popcorn by Nick Lowe: film reviews
Laser Fodder @ 500 RPM by Tony Lee: DVD reviews (NEW!)
Scores by John Clute: book reviews
Interview Richard Morgan on Black Man/Thirteen, by Andrew Hedgecock

Bookzone: more book reviews
Mangazone by Sarah Ash: manga reviews
Coming soon with double page spreads, and… for subscribers only, a bookmark!

Overall, 4 more pages than usual, at 68, matt art paper, plus gloss sealed cover and printed in full colour throughout.

Oh blimey, that artwork and font is cool!

25th Anniversary OFFER FOR SCIFI UK REVIEW Readers!

Running through the whole of 2007 SCIFI UK REVIEW readers can obtain 25% extra issues on a 12-issue subscription (that’s six months worth) from the Interzone Subscription Site. (That’s three whole issues, free!)

Remember to include ’scifi.uk’ as your Shopper’s Reference so they know to include your extra free issues!

The Official Interzone Site.

The INTERACTION Interzone / TTA Press Forum.

Read past reviews and articles on Interzone, it will give you an idea of the content and how it has transformed into the sensewunda it is today.

2K Games To Publish The Darkness, A Console Game Based On Renowned Comic Book Franchise

The Darkness Videogame to Feature First-person Action in Gritty,Urban New York Environments and Dark Otherworld

2K Games, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), announced today that it will publish and distribute The Darkness, a premier videogame based on the popular comic book franchise. The Darkness is currently in development for next generation console systems and will be released on 29th June.

Under development by renowned Swedish developer Starbreeze Studios, The Darkness is based on the best-selling comic book series from Top Cow Productions and utilises an internally developed next-generation game engine. The Darkness will feature a distinct blend of dark modern crime drama and supernatural horror with intense first-person non-linear gameplay.

“The Darkness videogame is a dynamic first-person shooter that will allow players to call upon the forces of the evil underworld as they fight in gritty, urban environments armed with an arsenal of guns, demonic creatures and supernatural powers.” said Christoph Hartmann, Managing Director of 2K Games. “The dark and dynamic comic book storyline that fans love will translate well into first-person action.”
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Book 1: Cassandra Peel And The Wild Gods Of Cyberspace

J. Robert Maze has, in Cassandra Peel Series, woven together contemporary life and technology, with classical Greek mythology.

In the first book, Cassandra Peel And The Wild Gods Of Cyberspace (WGOCS), Cassandra, working on her computer, accidentally accesses Greek goddess Athena in cyberspace. School friend Giorgio, an internet technobuff, develops a Virtual Reality helmet, and Hephaistos, craftsman god well advanced in electronics, secretly incorporates in it a mechanism which converts Virtual Reality into Bodily Reality.

Hephaistos and Aphrodite use this to spirit Cassandra bodily away into Greek cyberspace, allegedly to assist them to undo war-god Ares’ machinations. Ares is fomenting religious hatred between two tribes in a remote eastern European mountain village. Beneath this village is a vast reserve of oil, coveted by two opposed Axes of oil-consuming nations, who will seize any opportunity to intervene and take over. Our heroes, with the help of Hephaistos, his beautiful robot maid-servant Eliza, and the complex Indian goddess Durga who comes to the aid of another school friend Parvati, foil this plot.

Aphrodite is revealed as a secret devotee and accomplice of Ares, her former lover, whom she praises on Network Olympia as a Man of Peace through War.

The characters from Homer’s Iliad and from Indian mythology live riotously in cyberspace in present time, treasuring up loves and hates that began three thousand or so years ago. Each of the gods represents some universal human passion. These passions are alive still, operating in present day affairs. One of the premises of the novel series is that the ancient deities’ interactions offer an analogue for today’s social and international undercurrents. Since the deities possess mythical being, and the myths are extant in mass entertainment, it is imaginable those old gods still exist and follow their favourite amusement of interfering in mortal affairs.

The three novels can be appreciated by readers of different levels of maturity, and are especially for mature teenage and older readers, aged 15+ years. They can be read as adventure stories incorporating interesting characters from classical mythology, as parables of contemporary history and society, or as explorations of core psychological themes of conscious and unconscious origin.

Cassandra and her friends make great reading. I found myself immersed in the book following their antics and liking the interaction between the real world and the virtual worlds. It has a very strong message to give out which mirrors today’s society, with the oil and war.

I am not really into Greek Mythology and don’t really know a lot about it (apart from Xena The Princess Warrior), but that doesn’t affect the readability - seeing the ‘gods’ come to life on the page is enjoyable, seeing them interact, help each other, even crack a joke or two, is enjoyable. The logic being different bits of technology the kids use is spot on, and adds to its ’scifi realism’. Again, it’s a bunch of kids saving the world (from World War III), but it’s almost tongue in cheek, but with a serious message.

That said, I’d prefer to call Cassandra Peel And The Wild Gods Of Cyberspace predominantly ‘life-fi’, as you almost forget they’re teleporting in and out of virtual realiy, it just becomes ‘normal’ and you concentrate on the gods and people’s interaction.

For all you saturated Harry Potter fans to get your teeth into. And even if you’re not, it’s a great read, thoroughly recommended.

The fourth Cassandra Peel novel is due out by the middle of 2007.

Show All Review Of The Cassandra Series.

The Sticky Rock Cafe : Dekaydence, Teabags, GeeZers And Haggoids

One thing that stands out, even only after reading the back cover is the number of fuzzzywuzzy, cutesey names which most of the characters are blessed with. The GeeZers are a group of teenage eco-warriors fighting to save the dying planet Earth. The King and The Prime Minister, on the other hand, create Stick Rock Cafes, developed by the Company Of Dekaydence, to take the GeeZers’ minds off the environmental stuggle. The Cafes are places where young people can go to drink cappuccinos and listen to (manufactured) rock songs. Will, the King’s nephew, secretly supports the GeeZers. Ruby Q Cooper is a want to be journalist, looking for her mother, who abandoned her as a child. Piccolo wants to be become a musician.

All three of them embark on an adventure which takes them through the mysterious, hi-tech world of Dekaydence, meeting Tartan Guards, wild haggoids, Eye-Spies, a composer knighted for his services to loud music, and missing decorators.

Being a fananatical tea-drinker, this book has to have one of the best opening lines I’ve ever read: ”I blame the teabag for the collapse of civilisation,”.

The Sticky Rock Cafe has so much going for it, bright characters, weird creatures (which would do well to scare people into helping to save our planet today). Unfortunately, there is too much going on at any one time, with seperate stories and more than a handful of characters; it would have been better if it had been lengthened slightly to allow breathing space, as at time it’s claustrophobic. There is a Dramatis Personae at the beginning which lists the majority of the characters and their roles, which is a good idea.

The characters are believable, with Piccolo (the want to be musician) and Taylor (the just want to be famous, probably an actress) coming across as most realistic. It makes a refreshing change to see a group of teenagers help to save a close-to-home world, rather than a totally fantasy one. There are some truly funny scenes, but these are sparse, with the action seeming to revolve around a lot of running and ‘right place at the right time’ narrative. This works well for younger readers (which appears to be its audience).

The story also disturbed me in a way too; it seems to echo something which is quite plausable, an entity setup by the ‘powers that be’ to curtain people’s thinking and actions.

Definitely a fantasy for the younger readers amongst us.

Susie Cornfield was given a typewriter when she was seven years old and can’t remember a time when she didn’t want to be a writer. She trained as a journalist on a local newspaper before joining The Sunday Times. She went on to be a columnist on The Sunday Telegraph Magazine while working as a documentary writer for BBC TV. She has written for a variety of newspapers and magazines and was a TV presenter/producer for United Artists.

She works from a garret on a hill in south London, emerging sometimes to spend time with her family, friends and cat, BB Edwards, play tennis with a group of retrobates, The Racqueteers, listen to or play music, and read.

Read Chapter One
http://www.garretbooks.com/srctext1.html

Listen To Martin Jarvis Read Chapter One
http://www.garretbooks.com/srcmj.html

View Page Design
http://www.garretbooks.com/srcspread.html

The Sticky Rock Cafe by Susie Cornfield (Garret Books, £6.99) is available nationwide from all good bookshops including Waterstones and your local independent bookshop, as well as on-line.

ISBN: 0955227909 or 9 780955 227905