BFS Journal

The latest issue of the BFS Journal should be out in the post shortly. This will be the last one in which I'll be editing Prism.

BFS Journal - September issue

This will be my last one as editor of Prism, as I'm stepping down after this, having done two years in the job.

This is the cover, the work of Clive Barker.

Prism

Nearly got caught out last night. I'd forgotten or missed seeing his earlier email, but David Howe, chairman of the BFS, reminded me that he needed all the material for the next Prism by the end of this month. I thought I had at least another week or so longer than that.

Still, everything seems to be in hand and this shouldn't be a problem.

I wrote back to David to let him know that this will probably be my last Prism as editor as, after two years, I wish to stand down, at least when someone else can be found to take my place, which shouldn't take long. As any regular readers of this blog will know I wasn't happy at combining Prism in with Dark Horizons and New Horizons to form the new BFS Journal. I enjoyed and found doing the layout for Prism extremely satisfying and have missed, ever since the new Journal started, that this creative side of the magazine is no longer in my hands. It has taken a lot of the interest and enjoyment in producing it away from me. The changes may have meant a lot less work, but I'm now little more than a middle man collecting together the regular features and all the reviews sent in by the review editors.

Don't get me wrong. The new BFS Journal has proven to be a magnificent publication and certainly does the society proud. But, from my position as Prism's editor, I feel my job has shrunk to insignificance, certainly compared to what it was, when I controlled the look of the publication and its printing.

Anyway, two years is perhaps a fair innings for the job, and I'm sure someone else will be only too glad to take it on. And good luck to them. I'm sure, whoever it is, will do a fine job.

For me it's time to concentrate on other things, especially writing. And maybe even a review or two.

BFS Journal

This is the cover for the next issue of the BFS Journal I think this is my favourire cover for it so far.

BFS Journal

The next issue of the BFS Journal will be out shortly (it's at the printers now). This, of course, includes Prism as well as Dark Horizons and New Horizons. It has a pretty brilliant cover by Daniele Sierra.

Prism - Spring Issue

Finally got the disc for the next issue of Prism in the post today to the next person on the "assembly line" for putting the BFS Journal together.

It's probably not the best issue so far, but I must admit some of the zim has gone since I, along with the editors of Dark Horizons and New Horizons, lost control of doing the layout. I was a tad disappointed with how the journal was laid out last time. It was pedestrian at best, a bit sloppy at worst. For example, one picture was positioned two lines before the bottom right hand corner of a page. Why two lines? Why not nice and neat at the exact bottom, without two lines underneath it?  Some of the pictures were not much bigger than postage stamps, which seems nonsensical to me. They should have been much bigger. Nor did I really care for the over-fancy thin fonts used for the headings. And all my suggestions about using two columns for certain sections were ignored. I suppose it's all a matter of taste, but I do miss having total control of the magazine and what it looked like. I feel less like an editor and more like someone who just gathers stuff together and sends it off to the real editors - the people who decide what the damned thing will look like.

Now, after one issue of the Journal as a hardback, future issues will be downgraded to paperbacks for reasons of cost. So consistency has gone from the word go. As, quite obviously, has cost control. Before I produced the first Prism I made sure I got a number of quotes from various printers and went with the cheapest. That's what I would have expected for the Journal. Obviously not.

A shame. It would have been better to have started off as we meant to go on.

Personally I would, of course, prefer to go back to all three publications being published individually. Maybe that will happen. I don't know. The push for them to be produced as some "much more professional looking publication" was hammered at the last BFS AGM by the likes of Steve Jones, though why a society with fewer than 300 members should try to emulate the professional look of publications produced by genuinely  professional organisations with paid, indeed highly paid staff, I really don't know. I think people join the BFS, not because it has pretensions of professionalism (whatever that word really means) but because they are interested in the genres we share a love for and because we produce interesting publications about them. I'm not for one minute saying we should go back to the bad old days of mimeographed sheets of A4 paper stapled down the edges - those days have gone, thank God - but we really don't need to aim towards emulating the style and quality in printing terms of SFX, etc., not unless we had a membership that would be prepared to hand over a lot more money than they pay at the moment for their annual subs. I believe the existing publications already looked professional enough. I was impressed with them long before I again took up editorship of Prism. I never heard any moans about them - other than from certain people at the last AGM. who I'm certain made them more because they wanted to make an impression than because they genuinely felt the BFS needed this kind of change. It certainly seems to have created more problems - and time consuming tasks at that  - than it has saved. Which is a bad thing for an organisation which, unlike the professional organisations we are suppoed to ape, relies on unpaid voluntary work from people who have other jobs and things to do besides doing what they do for the BFS.

I have every respect for the new BFS chairman, David Howe, but I do think the last AGM gave him a poisoned chalice with the BFS Journal.  I am sure he would have been happier if he had been left free from all the complications this has presented and been able to get on with looking at special publications, which is something I fear will go by the wayside as a result. Which is a waste as, with his vaste experience in running Telos Publications, he would have been an ideal man for the task.

Nuff said.

Prism - Spring Edition

Spent quite a few hours this weekend putting all the material I have been emailed for the next issue together in a standardised format, ready to be sent off. It seems to be shaping up well, with a better balance of reviews this time, and a long but very interesting interview and the usual excellent columns from Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris and John Probert.  I've only done one review this time - Reggie Oliver's The Dracula Papers, Book One: The Scholar's Tale, which Chomu Press sent me a month or so back. I really enjoyed this book, which is in the pure tradition of the Gothic novel. A long novel, but an enjoyable read every page of the way.

By Tuesday I expect to be able to put Prism to disc and send it off.

Prism - Spring Edition

I spent a lot of time today putting together marterial sent in for the next issue of Prism. It's a bit of a grind getting all the different fonts and styles sent into me changed into one harmonious whole. Not to mention getting images for all the books, films, etc.

I think this will be one of the slimmer issues, so it's probably as well it's buried away inside the BFS Journal. Ha ha. There really is a shortage of reviewers. I'll enter something on the BFS Forum about this. We do need more.

Getting Back To Writing

I haven't done any writing at all this year so far. This is because of a combination of having flu at the start of the year, which I'm only just getting over now, and having too many other things to do. One was getting a part in the Oswaldtwistle Players' production of The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui, albeit only a small one, but there are rehearsals twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays. The other is getting the next issue of Prism ready - this has to be off next week.

Perhaps another reason is being a bit jaded over how long it's taking for my collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss, to be published by Midnight House. John Pelan's website has been down for over two months now and I really am beginning to wonder whether the collection will ever appear. Yet another is the fact I have a novel off with a publisher who liked the opening chapters enough to ask for the rest of it. I've been told it could be April at the earliest, though, before I'll hear anything. Waiting is the hardest thing. With the short story collection the other thing is whether I should start to look elsewhere for a possible publisher. Several years have gone by since John said he would like to publish it and I have already turned down one publisher who offered to do it instead. Time's going on and, with more than enough stories for a second collection already, I have been speculating whether I wouldn't be better calling it a day. The only thing holding me back is a feeling of loyalty for John, who I know would do a brilliant job of publishing the collection if he's ever in a position to do it.

Anyway, all this to one side, I am at last starting to feel the itch to write again, and one or two ideas have already been floating about inside my head over the past week. Which can't be bad.

My review

Okay, I'll do it. This is what I wrote about Wine and Rank Poison, before I decided not to use it.

Bull Running for Girls won accolades and a BFA. In many quarters a second collection from Allyson Bird was looked forward to with some eagerness.

Now I don’t know how long Allyson spent writing the stories in her first collection. Several years I presume. There was definitely an impression some time had been spent writing and rewriting them till they had been honed as good as the author could make them.

The stories in this slim volume, bulked up by a big extract from her soon to be published novel, Isis Unbound, have a raw, unfinished feel about them, of having been rushed. The writing is minimalist at times and awkward at others, with characters that are barely sketched in, who rarely, if ever, come alive. Which is a shame, as some of the stories, given more work, had potential. As it is, apart from the overlong, oddly-written opening story set in Russia during the early years of Communism, they barely gripped this reader’s attention and I had to struggle with most of them. Perhaps, in all fairness, she was set a tight schedule to have this collection ready, hence the use of twenty-odd pages of Isis Unbound to pad it out. I don’t know. Perhaps with no back catalogue to draw from for this second volume, and with a novel to be finished, it would have been better to have left this collection till such time as the stories in it had been made ready for publication. As it is, I don’t think this has done anything to help Allyson Bird’s reputation. If you haven’t read any of her stories yet, seek out Bull Running for Girls first. It’s a much better book.

BFS Journal - Prism

The BFS Journal is the title for the new hardback quarterly publication from the BFS which will include Dark Horizons, New Horizons and Prism. It was hoped that the first issue would be out for Christmas but unfortunately it won't be ready now from the printers till early in the New Year. As a result I am posting out to all new members who should have received this a copy of the September issue of Prism as a form of apology, together with a letter explaining what has happened.

I think members will like the new publication. It will certainly look impressive and is substantial in size. I just hope that it works out financially compatible with the society's income. I don't know what the printing costs are yet, nor how much it will cost to post, but these are the vital figures. Time will tell.

In the meantime a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes to make sure that a schedule is worked out, together with coordinated formatting work on what we, the editors of the three publications that make up the new Journal, send in, to make sure things flow smoothly and future issues come out like clockwork. An ambitious plan, but one which we can succeed with if we all pull together.

Prism - December 2010

Was emailed a pdf of the new BFS Journal, which is now a hardbound book incorporating Dark Horizons, New Horizons and Prism.

This is a copy of the outside covers:

It will be interesting to see how this goes down with members, though I expect most will be happy enough with the changes. Having got used to doing the layout myself for Prism for the past three issues I do miss not having that kind of control anymore. There are numerous things I would have done differently, from the size and positioning of various photos, to the use of single and double columns and the choice of font for the headings. Personally, I would prefer it if the three periodicals included in the journal were layed out by their own editors, as in the past, which would give each section its own distinctive identity.

Prism - December 2010

Finally got it sorted out with David Howe after a bit of a kafuffle, mainly over the pictures going in it. I can't say I'm still happy about having the layout taken from my hands, but I'll wait to see what the end result looks like before I comment more on that issue. The next Prism will come out as part of one hardbound volume along with Dark Horizons. It remains to be seen whether this proves an economic way for the BFS to do it. My main worry is the amount of dependency this new setup will place on the BFS with PS Publishing. Pete Crowther may well be an all round good guy, but I still feel wary about placing the society under too much reliance on the goodwill of any outside commercial concern. Still, if things fail to work out Prism can still be published as it was before at the drop of a hat. No problem so far as I'm concerned. I'm sure the same applies to Dark Horizons, at least under its new editer, Peter Coleburn.

One or two items in the next Prism may raise a few eyebrows, but I'll say nothing about them here.

Prism - December Issue

Finished the next issue last night and it's off in the post today by disc to David Howe, who is arranging for it to be printed in book form along with the next issue of Dark Horizons. It will be interesting to see how this new format works out, though personally I would have preferred to have kept it as a separate publication. How successful this is, of course, will depend on the reaction of BFS members. They may well prefer to have one substantial hardcover publication rather than two soft cover ones.

There are far fewer book reviews this time simply because I haven't been sent any by the Book Reviews Editor, only by the Indie Books Reviews Editor, so the only books covered are from the small press. We have more interviews than usual, though, and a couple of extra articles, which may well make up. Hope so.

Halifax Ghost Story Festival - Halloween

It's only a few day away before we're off to Halifax for a weekend of ghosts and ghouls at Dean Clough.

The Halifax Ghost Story Festival.

I'll be posting pictures and a write-up of the event as soon as we get back, and do a piece about it for the next issue of Prism.

Prism - December Issue

I don't know what it is but since it was decided by the new BFS chairman, David Howe, that Dark Horizons/New Horizons and Prism would be put together in one publication, I have lost a lot of my former enthusiams for editing Prism. I think a lot of this is because now I won't be required to design the layout of Prism for the printer. All that will be done by someone else, possibly someone connected with PS Publishing, who seem to be taking over more and more of the production side of BFS publications under the new regime.

I must admit that designing the layout for Prism was always one of the aspects of editing it which I enjoyed the most and from which I gained most of my job satisfaction. To have all this handed over to some anonymous person who will decide all this above my head, leaves me completely underwhelmed.

I wonder if this is how the editors for Dark Horizons/New Horizons feel. Stephen Theaker, of course, who was editor for DH, has since stepped down and I have no idea who the new editor will be.

How well all this will work out I'm far from sure. The plan is, instead of having separate soft cover publications, to combine them all into one bumper hardback. To be honest, this all sounds very risky financially, and already there is talk of increasing the society's subs.

I'll give the new setup a try for the next few months, then consider my position. It will depend for a large part on how well it all works out - and just what the finished product looks like. Though there are other aspects too, which I don't want to go into yet.

Prism - December Issue

I've started work on the next issue of Prism. The deadline for this is a bit earlier after all the changes that have taken place over its production. Normally I would have sent it off to the printers around the 18th November. Now, because someone else will be doing the layout, it needs to be off to the BFS chairman by the end of this month, three weeks earlier.

It's also strange not to be doing the layout, because that's something I would be doing as an ongoing task while setting everything out. Just saving everything on separate files, ie cover, inside front cover, editorial, each column, such as Ramsey Campbell's, John Probert's, Mark Morris's etc., film reviews, book reviews, etc, etc., then saving each picture under a separate name to be inserted by someone else, all this feels odd, and a bit of a separation for me from the finished product. I must admit I would prefer to continue doing the layout myself. But it remains to be seen what the finished product looks like under this new arrangement. I certainly don't want to be seen as a Luddite, even though I do prefer a full hands-on approach to this myself rather than rely upon someone else to decide upon its final appearance.

Prism - an update

It looks as though my concerns for the future of the BFS Newsletter, Prism, were perhaps unfounded. After discussing things with the new BFS chairman, David Howe, I certainly feel better about the journal's future.

What I have decided to do is take a new look at its role within the BFS. Without the news and reviews sections, there are the regular columns by Ramsey Campbell, Mark Morris and John Probert. On top of these I aim to have at least two in-depth interviews per issue, plus articles on various aspects of the genre. I also intend to do regular columns covering as many of the professional magazines being published in the fantasy, SF, horror genres, something that has only ever received meagre attention before to my knowledge. There are a lot of small presses around today, and it would be interesting to have articles about these, discussing how they were set up, what their ambitions are and the kinds of books they publish. I would also like to cover something of the vast array of websites that specialise in these genres. With the space left vacant by the reviews section, there's scope for all of this. There will still be some reviews, but probably of books or writers that will not date. It would be interesting to see people discuss various writers or artists from the past, covering their lives and works in detail and perhaps controversially too.

These are all possibilities.

And there'll be more.

My task now will be to see how I can develop a revamped Prism and make sure it is as interesting and valuable to BFS members as possible.

Prism's Days Look Numbered

Ever since the BFS AGM there has been discussion about the future for the society's regular publications, Dark Horizons, New Horizons and Prism.

Under the society's new chairman, David Howe, it looks as if it's certain now that Prism, the BFS Newsletter will be merged into the other publications. The likely result will be, I think, that the reviews will go, for the most part, online on the BFS website, and the articles will end up inside DH and NH.

Although it is suggested that these will go in as a supplement, since both publications already do articles and interviews, I can't see why there is any need for these to appear as a "supplement" at all, rather than just merged in as part and parcel of the publication. In which case, really, Prism as such will disappear.

I can't say I'm not disappointed at this as I have enjoyed my brief time as Prism's editor and did hope to make it a periodical members would look forward to getting through the post. But financial considerations do seem to make this the only alternative - and reviews online will appear much quicker than they could in a quarterly publication.

Oddly enough, I was there at the very beginning in the early seventies when the bulletin went from being a mimeographed sheet into a proper, substantial litho-printed publication for the first time, and it seems as if I'll now see out its demise.

Whether there will be a December issue of Prism I am not sure. If it is, that will probably be the final one.

After that, I suppose, I'll be back to being an ordinary member of the BFS again.

BFS Publications: advertising rates

The BFS produces three publications:

Prism, the quarterly newsletter, which has reviews, articles and interviews.

Dark Horizons, a half-yearly magazine specialising in fiction, poetry, articles and interviews.

New Horizons, a half-yearly magazine specialising in fiction, poetry, articles and interviews.

Advertising rates are very reasonable:

£20 for full page

£12 for half-page

£7.50 for quarter-page

£35 back cover
 
Anyone interested should follow this link.