The New Magic

Magic(al) Realism is described here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism

Fiction that creates fiction from reality, e.g. 'Shalimar the Clown' by Salman Rushdie.

I think my division between this and Magic(al) Fiction (coined in this context?) has not been stated before. Fiction that creates reality from fiction.

My earlier experimental thoughts into this are shown here: http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2006/04/fiction.html

1st July: More brainstorming on this topic here: http://www.ligotti.net/viewtopic.php?p=4801


I intend to write an essay (or book!) about this division - concentrating on the work of Thomas Ligotti, Salman Rushdie, Susanna Clarke, HPL, Elizabeth Bowen, Anita Brookner, Rhys Hughes, Mark Samuels, Jeff VanderMeer, Jonathan Swift, Marcel Proust, William Blake, Charles Dickens...

But I need some brainstorming feedback first.
des



^^^
He had left no crumbs. In fact, he had no crumbs to leave.
^^^
The paradise garden is a magical place. We can only dream when there, but we cannot dream of it.
^^^






=======================================

important


=======================================

The candlemass stories (2006)

=============================


THE VISITOR (1974)

===============================

Nemonymous Six

NEMO SIX
Bearing in mind its past themes and actual 'happenings' within its pages over the years, I suppose Nemonymous is the only on-going publication with the hinterland, authority, credentials, chutzpah, excuse & plausibility to have a blank (or invisible) edition to fill a necessary hiatus in its schedule! However, to request reviews of Nemo Six (as I do now) may be pushing it a bit - but any reviews I receive will be posted.

The submission guidelines for the non-blank Nemo Seven will be posted in November this year.


=======================================

The candlemass stories (2006)

=============================


THE VISITOR (1974)

===============================

Twisted

Another in the series of contents lists:





TWISTED #6 horror & fantasy

Summer/Fall 1991 Issue 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS



fiction

THE CULT OF PUKE by Miroslaw Lipinski

GOO by Jacques Servin

LOT’S DAUGHTERS by Marcelle Thiebaux

WAMPUS by Mark Rainey

THE MORNING OF THE WITHERED ROSE by Lenora K. Rogers

THE IDOL by Bentley Little

MODEL WIFE by Anke Kriske

STILL LIFE WITH SKULLS by Charles Gramlich

MOMMA by Thomas Neveu

NORMA’S AFFLICTION by D. Eden Bergis

HEADCOUNT by DF Lewis

THE PITCHER PLANT by Steven Neal Schaffer

A SHOT RANG OUT TO SEA by Bobby G. Warner

ALL THE NEWS NOT FIT TO PRINT by Ralph Rainwater, Jr.

THE TIN MAN by J. L. Comeau

THE LAST LOVER by Mary Ann Mitchell

ANTICIPATION by Octavio Ramos, Jr

DOMINOES by Barry Hoffman

LISZT CONCERTO by George Egon Hatvary

DOODY’S DILEMMA by Albert J. Manachino

THE LAP POOL by R. L. Brockett

SHE COLLECTS... by Spott D. Yost

RETREAT by George W. Smyth

I SMILE FOR YOU, MY LOVE by Yvonne Navarro

PETALS by Roger Dale Trexler

UNCLE JIM by Thomas O’Connor

THE PELOPONNESIAN PRESCRIPTION by Brian Adams

THE ELECTRIC CRESCENDO by Solomon Pogarsky

PlNATA by L David Gibeau

A PREY RARE AND ELUSIVE by Steven M. Oberbeck

NETWORKINGby Stefan Jackson



poetry

HUNTER AND HUNTED by Lisa Lepovetsky

NECRO LOVER by John B. Rosenman

DARK RENAISSANCE by Thomas Zimmerman

UNTITLED by Linda Bornstein

ON THE HALF SHELL by Sheryl L. Nelms

PET OF THE MONTH by Jacie Ragan

CASKET MAKER by Robert Baldwin

DES PLAINES: SUMMER OF 1985 by Jeffery Lewis

THE LOVE OF FLIES by Brian E. Drake

I AM A LIZARD by Joey Froehlich

TAKE A GOOD LOOK by C. Darren Butler

OLD CUTS by Bobby G. Warner

SEASON OF THE POCKET MIRROR by Eryc Bourland

STARVATION GAMES AT THE BUZZARD REUNION by Joey Froehlich

SECRET by Geri Eileen Davis

PREFERENCES by Jana Hakes

ENTERTAINING THE NIGHT FRAMED by Robert Haase

GRANDPA AND GRANDMA AT HOME by Holly Day

PAGE by Robert Baldwin

THE COLD MAN by Michael A. Arnzen

OF MORTAL CREATION by C. S. Fuqua

WATER DAMAGE by Ann K. Schwader

IN THE GAME by Dwight E. Humphries

MARKED DOWN by Wayne Edwards

GOD’S LAKE by Jeffery Lewis

POETICJUSTICE by Ann K. Schwader

AUGUST VAMPIRE by Lisa Lepovetsky

BLADE by Lisa Lepovetsky

MIDNIGHT LOVE by Holly Day

UNTITLED by Linda Bornstein

COMMEMORATION byWilliam E. Passera

CHANGING CHANNELERS by Michael A. Arnzen

EAGLE EYE by Jacie Ragan

SUITE 101: THE DEMOLISHED MAN by Carl Buchanan

DON’T YA TELL ME I KICKED YOU TEERE by Joey Froehlich

OCTOPUS by Sheryl L. Nelms

CANCER by Reta Taylor

FEEDING THE G0LEM by Eryc Bourland

FXUAL by Jana Hakes

WHEN HELL FREEZES OVER by Geri Eileen Davis

PULP by Robert Baldwin

JOHN GREY IN RIPPERLAND by John Grey



features

TOD BROWNING: FRIEND OF THE OUTCAST by Lawrence McCallum

JOHN CARPENTER: THE MAN BEHIND THE MASKS by David Bruce



photo

SISTERS by Robert H. Bradford



illustrations

Allen Koszowski - front cover

Jon Bush - inside front cover

Doom - inside back cover

Randy Moore - back cover



Ray Basham Mark Bell Cathy Buburuz Jon Bush Doom
Christopher Friend Jim Garrison Belinda Jones Allen Koszowski Randy Moore Marge B. Simon



original logo design - Ronald Barre

editor & publisher Christine B. Hoard

co-publisher Ronald Barre

assistant editor - Nancy E. Olshausen



TWISTED #6 All rights reserved by the individual contributors. Published by Christine Hoard. Single copies are $6. All inquiries should be directed to Christine Hoard. TWISTED is a member and supporter of SPWAO (Small Press Writers & Artists Organization).



OUT OF OUR MINDS Here we are again with a strange mix of erotic horror, weird fantasy and generally scary stuff. Special thanks this issue to Nancy Olshausen for her excellent typesetting and Ron Barre for financial support. Due to the size of this issue, we had to drop your letters, Jean Claxton reviews, along with several stories we had hoped to include. Next issue, we’ll offer fiction from David Bruce, Kathleen Jurgens, Jeffery Lewis, John Maclay and much more. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this issue and tell us what you think. For the time being, we are still the first house on the left.

Nemonymous Honours

Could you please tell any BFS members you know that I am offering Nemo 5 ITSELF free and freely delivered to any BFS member who needs to read it before voting. Not a Word Doc, but the magazine itself. All they need do is contact me at nemonymous@hotmail.com

Anyone at all who earlier *bought* a Nemo 5 will be able to claim both Nemo 6 & 7 for free.

The complete list for nemonymous five is as follows:

BFS story recommendations:
THE SCARIEST STORY I KNOW by Scott Edelman
DRIVING IN CIRCLES by Iain Rowan
WELL TEMPERED by Neil Williamson
HUNTIN' SEASON by Monica O'Rourke

Another BFS recommendation:
Best Small Press: NEMONYMOUS


Ellen Datlow Honourable Mentions for Year's Best Fantasy & Horror:
DRIVING IN CIRCLES - Iain Rowan
WELL TEMPERED - Neil Williamson
SOUL STAINS - Robyn Alezanders
NEW SCIENCE - Gary McMahon
=========================================

Missing Arrow

The Piano

===========================

Tales After Dark

Another in the series of contents lists from Small Press fiction publications of 1985-1999. Please forgive the fact that a story by DFL appears in most of these contents lists as I do have a LOT of contributor's copies!

===========================================
Tales After Dark (2) (1986)
Edited and published in the UK by Garrie Hall (Garrie, where are you now?)
The front cover has a delightful goggle-eyed octopoid monster clambering over a Lovecraftian city of non-Euclidean propensities. The pages haven't been cut terribly well but the overall amateurdom is filtered through a professional dream of something quite beyond its own face value.

Into The Darkness (Editorial) - Garrie Hall

Fiction
A Darker Shade Of White - Carl T Ford
Blood Atonement - Robert M Price
The Secret Of The Stanley House - John A Crow
The Last Supper - Donald R Burleson
Padgett Weggs - DF Lewis
Bearing With The Strain - Roger Johnson

Poetry
Survivors - Brian Lumley
The Traveller's Tale - Roger Johnson
The Inmate - Brian Lumley
How Came The Demon? - Robert Longmuir

Non-Fiction
Why The Mythos? - Peter Jeffery
Gruesome Grimoires - Garrie Hall

Artwork: Allen Koszowski, Bill Jones, Stella Hender, Stephen Skwarek, Steve Hatherley.

========================

The Stygian Dreamhouse &c.

================================

The first in a series of contents lists in landmark Small Press magazines of the eighties and nineties:


In 1988, Mark Samuels edited and published a wonderful magazine entitled: THE STYGIAN DREAMHOUSE.

Its contents were original publications of these stories:
Metempsychosis – Mark Samuels
Connections – DF Lewis
Howls From A Blinding Curve – Simon Clark
The Dirty Picture – Peter F Jeffery
Before God – Steven Samuels

As well as an editorial by Mark, there was some amazing artwork by Desmond Knight and Steven Samuels.

Mark Samuels website: HERE.

==========================
The amazing NEMONYMOUS ARK speeches: HERE.

===========================
DFL's 1974 novel THE VISITOR is being presented HERE.

===========================
PF Jeffery's developmentally sensitive and significant speculative novel OF BONDLINGS AND BLESH (written during the eighties and nineties and now being rewritten in 2006) is presented HERE.

===========================

The Core Mythos &c.

========================================

I have now reached part 10 of 'publishing' my novel THE VISITOR on the internet: HERE.


This comprises the first embodied set of the then contemporary epistolary comments upon the novel by PF Jeffery (whom I first met in 1966 at Lancaster University after which we have been regularly letter-corresponding to the present date). These comments seem to prove that the novel was written in 1974, not 1973! They also refer to my then 'core mythos' which, in retrospect (I suppose), is central to my brand new trilogy of novels (THE TENACITY OF FEATHERS: The Hawler, Klaxon City & The Angel Megazanthus) which can be read for free from here: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_hawler.htm.


PF Jeffery (inter alia, the Red Brain in the much acclaimed and late-lamented DAGON magazine) is himself in the process of 'publishing' a currently re-written version of his novel THE SLAVE-GIRL OF SURREY (now entitled OF BONDLINGS AND BLESH) which, I feel, develops into a very sensitive and significant literary work of modern times, scandalously little read ... until now: http://www.bondlings.blogspot.com/.


===========================================

Classical Music

I feel that Classical Music - in all its forms and times - is fiction injected straight into the vein.

For much music bracketed under the term, 'Classical' is not really the right word.

I know nothing about it technically but it is a continuous comfort and non-definable inspiration to me and my work.

This is an article I wrote about six years ago: HERE.

My favourite composers (among many) include: Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler, Shostakovich, Philip Glass and, in particular, any number of modern composers to whose music I acclimatise myself by repeated listenings.

My personal definition of Classical Music:
A formless area (defaulting towards an aspirationally cultural & predominantly exact art form) within the universal, uncompartmentalised, wholly accessible language of sound commonly known as music: encouraging spirituality and/or various permutations of all human emotions -- centring on and radiating from the serious deployment of an ostensibly organised pattern of acoustic sounds as produced by orchestral instruments and voices (performed normally by established or qualified interpreters/musicians, from one to very many). The question of taste and the unknowable relativities of disharmony and harmony are no part of this description, because such affective considerations differ from individual to individual. I shall tailgate any preconceptions...

IMPORTANT

Important

The post-Nemo bios will now continue on another site, starting here with Rhys Hughes & Daniel Pearlman:
HERE

This blog will now return to my daily musings and some recent ones you may have read or want to re-read:
CLARITY OF SIGHT: HERE
THE RED BRAIN: HERE
TRANSNEMONISATION: HERE
NEMONYMOUS AGAIN: HERE
WEIRDMONGER WHEEL SELECTION: HERE
NEMONYMOUS SEVEN: HERE
GRUESOME: HERE
OLD FAMILIAR PLACES: HERE
DOES AN AUTHOR EVER KNOW: HERE
BIRD FLU: HERE
DIFFICULTY: HERE
FICTIPATHY: HERE
OBSCURANTISM / NORRELL: HERE
PUBLISHING / INTERNET PROMOTION: HERE
LADIES: HERE
RHYS HUGHES: HERE
FREE FICTION: HERE
STYLE IN FICTION: HERE
SELBICUDDERI: HERE
CHASING THE NOUMENON: HERE
PUBLICATION-ON-READING: HERE
WORDY WEIRD: HERE
NEW DFL FICTION: HERE
FREE GIFT: HERE
TAMAR YELLIN: HERE
DFL OBITUARY: HERE
SMALL PRESS: HERE
HORROR FICTION: HERE
STEFAN GRABINSKI: HERE
NON FICTION: HERE
FICTION AS MAGIC: HERE
THE NEMO: HERE
CARRYING HIS OWN SKIN: HERE
LIFE ON MARS: HERE
FOR EASTER: HERE
YELLOW PATCH ON THE WALL: HERE
THE FALLS: HERE
IRREDUCIBLES: HERE
ANONYMITY: HERE
CLASSICAL MUSIC: HERE
THE CORE MYTHOS: HERE
THE STYGIAN DREAMHOUSE: HERE
TALES AFTER DARK: HERE
TWISTED: HERE
NEMONYMOUS SIX: HERE
THE NEW MAGIC: HERE
WORLD CUP / DR WHO / BIG BROTHER: HERE
THE EGNISOMICON (1967): HERE
THE SELF-MYTHOLOGISER: HERE
MODERN ART / WORLD CUP: HERE
REVISITING THE VISITOR: HERE
MODERN ART / WORDY WEIRD HERE
THE (NEO)-OMINOUS IMAGINATION: HERE
THE MISSING VISITOR: HERE
MAGIC FICTION (CONTINUED): HERE
PROUST AND MAGIC FICTION: HERE
THE NEMOPHILE: HERE
EXTREMITY IN FICTION & PREJUDICES: HERE
MISCELLANEOUS ON THIS PAGE: HERE and HERE and HERE

==============================================
DFL's new novel THE HAWLER still starts for free: HERE

One of my favourite fiction writers, Brent Zirnheld, has just said this about it:
It's just impossible to write a review of such a unique experience. It's really the only book I've ever read that totally defies a rating on a five star scale. It's good, it's sometimes great, it's baffling, it's thought-provoking, it's infuriating, it's a bundle of emotion that leaves you thinking for quite some time afterward. It will never be published in the so-called "mainstream" press because it is so inaccessible for those who are used to linear narratives...or even experimentally non-linear narratives that wrap up by book's end. It's a gutsy performance that at times reads as though it was all made up as you went along, but then at other times feels like it has an impeccable internal logic that I was *this* close to deciphering if only I'd paid a bit more attention. In short, I enjoyed this baffling piece of work.

=====================================================
At present, DFL is laboriously typing out his 1973 novel THE VISITOR: HERE


=====================================================

Eric Schaller / JaNell Golden

===================================================


ERIC SCHALLER

The Assistant to Doctor Jacob (Nemo 2)

Being published in Nemonymous convinced me to return to writing fiction, having taken a happy detour into illustration work for several years with little writing produced during that time. TATDJ had been languishing in a virtual drawer after collecting a few rejections, but I blew the bytes off the story and submitted it to Nemo, hoping that it might fit into Des’s vision for the magazine. When the story was accepted and came out in Nemo #2, it looked so damn good in its final form — a tribute to the professionalism of Nemo — that I almost didn’t care about the story any more just the beauty of words that I had ordered tumbling like acrobats down the page. The on-line discussion of the issue and its anonymous authors was eye-opening, and to me was the true benefit of nemonymity. Then, getting word that TATDJ had been chosen by Ellen Datlow for The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, sealed the deal. I wanted to get more stories out there. Since then I‘ve published stories in Sci Fiction, Polyphony, and Lady’s Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, with one forthcoming in The New Book of Masks.

===================================================


JANELL GOLDEN

Gold coin picture on front cover (Nemo 3)


My essay on VIOLENT CASES, "Pay Attention: There May Or May Not Be A Man Behind The Curtain", will be in The Neil Gaiman Reader this fall (it's available for pre-order at Amazon now). If you want to know more
about the book (and get a web scoop on the contents because I rock like that), go to http://www.squidoo.com/neilgaimanreader.

Let's see, I've been working on my store at CafePress, JaZilla:
http://www.cafepress.com/jazilla?pid=80428.

I've also been selling microstock photography, raising kids, serving coffee at my favorite coffee shop, and had my appendix burst on my 40th birthday.

JaNell, soon to be the answer to life, the universe, & everything.


===================================================

Scott Tullis / Gary Couzens

================================================

SCOTT TULLIS

The Death Knell (Nemo 4)
The Hills Are Alive (nemo 5)

In the scant few years since my two appearances in Nemonymous (I'm a relative newbie, having appeared at the tail end of the burgeoning Neumonemon) I've written mucho but published zippo. No excuses, really, other than the fact that I got married, bought a house, and am currently in the process of renovating portions of it (the house, not the marriage). I have a piece of fiction due out around the end of the year from Ash Tree Press, but let's face it: who doesn't? Am I right? Huh, kids? Upon publication of that piece I intend to begin shopping around my first short story collection, which I hope to name after one of my two Nemonymous contributions.

What difference has appearing in Nemonymous made? A huge personal one, considering that I've been an enormous fan of DF Lewis ever since reading "My Giddy Aunt" in a beat-up paperback copy of Year's Best Horror Stories many moons ago in a local used book store in Indianapolis, Indiana. Now that's one mighty tentacle across the Atlantic! The mind numbs. Since that day I set about collecting everything of his I could find, which was next to impossible, considering that the bulk of his output existed only in the UK small press (and this was in the days before
widespread personal computing, when the Net was still a fledgling, squishy little thing). But, I was resourceful, and persistent, and after spending many hundreds of dollars in shipping costs, I soon had a vast quantity of small press publications with which to fill my closet. It was like, heaven in a closet or something.

And then DF Lewis decides to publish everything he's ever written on the Internet for free. So there you go.

Des' note: Sorry, Scott! Still, I shall probably be deleting all the blogs before long - as a happening!

==============================================


GARY COUZENS

"A Smile in the Sky" (Nemonymous #1)
It's always an honour to have the opening story in the first issue of any magazine, let alone one as well presented as Nemonymous and with as consistently high a quality of fiction contained in its pages. I can't pretend that "A Smile in the Sky" is at all typical of my work - at 900 words it's the shortest story I've ever had published, shorter even than my contribution to the Thackery Lambshead Disease Guide anthology.

I'd like to be upbeat and say that my writing has gone from strength to strength since "Smile" appeared in 2001, but that wouldn't be true. I think I'm certainly writing better than before - well, anyone would, as all writers worth their salt are still learning until the day they stop. However, productivity has been hit; add the fact that certain stories that have originated in the 20th century ("Smile" among them) have finally found homes in the 21st, and the number of stories available to send out is countable on one hand - until I write some more! This is partly due to other interests, such as being the Chairman of the British Fantasy Society for three years, and the Awards Administrator for four. I've also written a large number of DVD, film and book reviews for various venues. But no excuses.

However, I'm nearing the end of the first draft of the first novel-length work I've completed since 1992 (and the first story since 1994 over 20,000 words). I was proud to have a short-story collection published in 2003 by Elastic Press that was well received, and I've just completed editing an anthology for the same publisher, Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music, which is due to be published in November.

So I'm still active, and I do intend to write more. Part of this is due to passing the "landmark" age of 40 and deciding what's important and what's less so. So let's draw a line over the last half-decade and move on.

I still live in Aldershot and work for a major telecommunications company. When relaxing, I'm teaching myself to play the bass guitar.

================================================

Jorge Candeias / Iain Rowan

=================================================

JORGE CANDEIAS

The Place Where Lost Things Go (Nemo 3)

After having had a story accepted to Nemo 3, I lost my job as a journalist and became part of the unemployed world. The story was actually published already during my... hm... labour break. Since I had lots of free time, in the beginning of 2003 I wrote a novel that was rejected when I tried to publish it (not really hard: I only tried one publisher), and went on writing a few short stories (a couple of them in english) until the harsh realities of life settled in. If you think the Brits are world experts in quiet desperation, try being unemployed in the poorest country of Western Europe in the middle of an economic recession. Anyway, eventually I ceased writing altogether, focusing my energy in survival, although some of the stories I had written before eventually got published here and there, mostly in electronic media but also in some magazines - I had a few jobs and took some time to earn some money in professional formation, nothing worth mentioning, really. Now I'm translating. I translated a few Howard short stories (Conan and the Puritan), a novel by James Runcie and I'm now working on an alternate history novel. So I'm back writing... sort of. And to be completely faithful to truth, I did write some very short (and very unsophisticated) stories during my recess.

Regarding the influence Nemo had in my career, since I don't quite have a career at the moment, the question isn't applicable. I got to have my name in Wikipedia and a number of English-speaking SF&F databases, though, and had my story read by a number of influential people, so one never knows what the future might bring. At least my name isn't equal to absolute zero in the English-speaking world anymore. It's close, but not quite absolute. It's worth, say, half a degree Kelvin...


===============================================

IAIN ROWAN

Ice Age (Nemo 2)
Driving In Circles (Nemo 5)

How Am I Getting On?
I've published a fair few stories in various places since Ice Age, such as Postscripts, Polyphony, Black Gate, Ellery Queen's, and Alfred Hitchcock's. My writing's always split between weird fiction and crime fiction, and in the last year or two the latter's taken the upper hand.

I'm now concentrating on longer fiction: I've just finished the revisions to a YA novel, 'Sea Change', and my novel in progress, 'One of Us', has been shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Debut Dagger.

What difference Nemo made:
Ice Age was the first story that anybody paid me money for. The thought that someone considered that my writing was worth that, was a real boost when I was getting started. Somebody believed. And that helped me believe.

I remember talking with Des when Nemo was just a gleam in his eye; it was great to see it become (sur)real, and I was proud that my stories appeared in it. While one of the good things about Nemo was that the anonymity focussed your attention on the stories themselves, there's an irony in that one of the things about it that I loved most was Nemo as an artifact. Beautifully designed and printed, it was nice just as an object. I'm shallow that way.

=====================================================

Joel Lane / Antony Mann

===============================================

JOEL LANE

'The Drowned', Nemonymous 2



What's happened since? Leaving aside some difficult years in my life, there's been:

+ a second novel, The Blue Mask (Serpent's Tail, 2003), in which the protagonist changes his name and identity;

+ a Lane-edited anthology, Beneath the Ground (The Alchemy Press, 2003), featuring a story by the mighty Captain Nemo himself;

+ a new collection of poems, Trouble in the Heartland (Arc Publications, 2004), including a poem lamenting the closure of Andromeda Bookshop;

+ a new collection of supernatural horror stories, The Lost District and other stories (Night Shade Books, 2006), including a de facto denemonised reprint of 'The Drowned'.


What has Nemonymous done for me? Reminded me that, like a love letter on a whitewashed wall, fiction is about getting your message across - not about attaching your name to some words. As Scott Walker said:

Extensions through dimensions
Leave you feeling cold and lame
Boy child mustn't tremble
Because he came without a name


================================================

ANTONY MANN

Mighty Fine Days (Nemo 2)

It was great to see Mighty Fine Days appear in Nemonymous - as a story about losing one's identity, it seemed very apt. My short fiction has appeared in other places since - Crimewave, Interzone, Ellery Queen's, Poe's Progeny - and in 2003 Andy Hook of Elastic Press fame very kindly published my first collection, Milo & I. I've been working on drama since then. My short film Billy's Day Out won at Edinburgh in 2004, and last year I was commissioned to write an adaptation of the Peter Grimes story. My current project is a black comedy called Friends Like These, being developed through Screen South's Good Foundations Plus programme.

Jay Lake / Tamar Yellin

===================================================

JAY LAKE

Past Nemo writer Jay Lake ("Apologising to the Concrete", Nemonymous 4) is pleased to report that words continue to flow. Of late he has sold novels to Night Shade Books and Tor, whilst his Nemo story has just been translated into Esperanto. He also reports loose marmosets in the bathroom, but this should probably be discounted.


===================================================

TAMAR YELLIN

The Unmiraculous Life Of Jackie Mendoza (Nemo 1)
Genie (Nemo 3)
In The Steam Room (Nemo 3)


My novel 'The Genizah at the House of Shepher' was published last year by The Toby Press and was shortlisted for this year's Wingate Prize. My collection, 'Kafka in Brontëland and other stories' appeared from Toby in April and has been longlisted for the Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award. Stories have appeared in 'The Nine Muses' (Wheatlands Press) and the journal 'Maggid' and in the forthcoming 'New Book of Masks.'

Appearing in 'Nemo' was an aesthetically satisfying and also a very interesting experience. The contents were more widely and no doubt more honestly reviewed than any other magazine I've been part of (most magazines I've appeared in don't get reviewed at all!). Nemonymous is a unique and landmark publication and in the long term scheme of things, whatever Des says, not a failure in the least. I've no doubt its five+ issues will become collector's items, not to mention Issue Six, which future bibliomaniacs will surely seek endlessly to their own madness.

=================================================

Lavie Tidhar / Monica O'Rourke

===============================================

LAVIE TIDHAR

The Ballerina (Nemo 3)
Grandma's Two Watches (Nemo 5)


My story in Nemonymous #3 was my first proper sale, and it made a big difference. Since then I've sold stories to Sci Fiction (sadly, the last one published before it folded last year) and to two other Ellen Datlow-edited anthologies (look out for my story, "My Travels with Al-Qaeda" in Salon Fantastique – co-edited by Datlow and Terry Windling – towards the end of the year), to Strange Horizons, Postscripts, and a fair number of others. My novella "An Occupation of Angels", was published in paperback in the UK by Pendragon Press, and I was a finalist for Writers of the Future last year. I've also been making a documentary film about SF which is currently in pre-editing – it will take some time to be finished! – and I keep being published semi-regularly in countries such as Greece, China and Poland, with some new French translations coming soon.

My story in Nemonymous #5, "Grandma's Two Watches", has a particular meaning for me, both for being a very personal story, and for being my first Hebrew story to be published in an English translation – I don't write many stories in Hebrew, and I'm delighted that they seem to do as well as the ones written in English – Ellen Datlow is taking another one for a new SF anthology from St. Martin's.

I enjoyed my "Nemonymous Experience", the beautiful production of the books, the high quality of the stories, Des' more-than-occasional ramblings, and the whole debate it sometimes stirred across the Internet. I also loved making up user-names to send Des stories with. CaptainNemo101 and Nemo Nymous and all the rest of the crew. It's been fun! And I'm delighted Des is re-launching Nemo – may it live long, and prosper.

==================================================

MONICA O'ROURKE

The Rest Of Larry (Nemo 3)
Huntin' Season (Nemo 5)

How Am I Getting On?
Well, Just last month I won the Nobel Prize for my discovery of how malaria enters an organism. I also would have won the National Book Award, but they told me you actually have to have a book published currently for that to happen. Dammit. I studied Mermaids in Calcutta, which wasn't easy, believe me. They were damned hard to find. Other than that, same old, same old.

What difference Nemo made:
What do you mean? Was I in Nemonymous???

The Visitor 1973

Just to announce that the complete novel I wrote in 1973 entitled:
THE VISITOR
is about to be blogged. Watch this space.
Never submitted anywhere and, so far, only read by two people.

Meanwhile, please have a go at reading my latest novel THE HAWLER (2005) that is now achieving more and more positive feedback: HERE.

===========================
STOP PRESS (3 June 2006):
Prologue of The Visitor here:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_visitor.htm

Neil Williamson / Brendan Connell

=================================================

NEIL WILLIAMSON:

"Well Tempered" (Nemo 5)

How I am getting on:
Things are going well. Those who enjoyed 'Well Tempered' can find it, and others like it, in my collection, "The Ephemera", which was published by Elastic Press on May 1st (and those who weren't so keen on 'Well Tempered' can also find lots of stories that aren't like it at all in the same collection). Currently I'm putting the last coups de grace to a novel that has put up a hell of a fight, but I think I've pretty much got it tamed now.

What difference (if any) Nemo made :
Every story publication makes a difference, I suppose, but what was different about Nemo? I suppose those readers that like playing the game of who wrote what might have guessed that any number of authors wrote 'Well Tempered' (and it'd be interesting to know what their guesses were - although I'm pretty sure none of them would have guessed right!). Perhaps, then, Nemo readers pay more attention to the author names when they are finally revealed?
All that aside though, the whole process was FUN!


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BRENDAN CONNELL

Sirens (Nemo 3)
Maledict Michela (Nemo 4)

How am I getting on?
Well, since my last appearance in Nemonymous, I have had a couple of books published: "The Translation of Father Torturo" (Prime), and "Dr. Black and the Guerrillia" (Grafitisk). I have also had a number of short stories published in some good places, including 'McSweeney’s' and 'Adbusters'. Other than that, finishing up a couple of new novels and collections. Also, my story "Maledict Michela", which appeared in Nemo 4, is due to be translated into Portuguese in a magazine called 'Phantastes', and into Greek in a magazine called 'Universe Pathways'.

What difference Nemo made:
I don’t know. Two of my stories were published in the magazine, so surely it has made some difference, for the better. But I will leave it to greater minds than my own to calculate what the difference
has been.

Adrian Fry / D Harlan Wilson

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DESLY PREAMBLE

Every writer's life is either pre-Nemo or post-Nemo.


Nemo's Ark

For those appearing here in pairs as the current post-Nemo Bios, I'm suggesting that each pair (as shown already or in the future) write a story collaboration! As Tony Mileman was the first bio in, his prize is collaborating with me! :-)

Not a commission, but a suggestion!

Actually, the pairings happen purely on the timing of the bios appearing in my in-box. So they are random.
Interesting exercise? Maybe. But no pressure, of course!

Random literary catalysms?

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ADRIAN FRY

Determining The Extent (Nemo 4)

The Nemonymous experience was a good one for me. I had several positive reactions to DETERMINING THE EXTENT by email and some perplexed reactions from friends who felt the story didn't seem like mine at all. Though I continue to have occasional competition pieces published in The Spectator, New Statesman and The Oldie, my 'serious' output has entirely dried as I squander my time watching Quizmania and thinking about death.


Additional note from Des:
'Determining The Extent' is an all time favourite of mine in or out
of Nemo.


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D HARLAN WILSON

Since my Nemo publications, "Digging for Adults" (Nemo 3) & "The Rorschach Interpreter" (Nemo 4), I have continued to publish short stories regularly; I published a book, "Pseudo-City" (Raw Dog Screaming Press 2005), I have another book coming out, my first novel, "Dr. Identity" (RDSP 2007); my first book, "The Kafka Effekt" (Eraserhead Press 2001), is currently being translated into Spanish by a Mexican publisher; I took over as editor-in-chief of 'The Dream People: A Journal of Bizarro Literature' (http://www.dreampeople.org); I graduated with my Ph.D. in English from Michigan State University (2005); I have a number of critical literary essays coming out on films such as 'Vanilla Sky', 'Dark City' and 'Army of Darkness'; I may be publishing a book of literary theory, "Technologized Desire", based on my dissertation; I landed a tenure-track position teaching literature and writing at Wright State University-Lake Campus in Ohio; and I got married! That's me in a nutshell over the past 2 years ...
http://www.dharlanwilson.com

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Andrew Hook / Richard Gavin

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ANDREW HOOK

Vole Mountain (Nemo 4)
Like A Slow Motion War (a collaboration with Allen Ashley in Nemo 4)

How am I getting on.
This year is looking good with autumn seeing the publication of "Residue", a collection of some of my non-genre stories from HalfCut Publications, and "Slow Motion Wars", a collection of collaborative stories written with Allen Ashley appearing from Bradan Press. I'm still looking for that elusive major novel sale, however, although short stories remain my true love. My web address is http://www.andrew-hook.com.

What difference (if any) Nemo made?
The main difference was in my approach to anonymity. When Nemo first arrived it seemed little more than a gimmick, but getting into such a lovely-looking (and even lovelier paying) publication changed my view. It was exciting to know that my work had been chosen without any preconceptions, and interesting to see reviews formed on the same basis. My writing "career" continues to trundle on regardless, however being published in Nemo was rather special and a feeling that I hope to replicate at some point in the not too distant future!

Note from Des: Andrew is also founder of the very successful fiction publisher: Elastic Press.

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RICHARD GAVIN

Berenice's Journal (Nemo 2)

In many ways my 2002 appearance in 'Nemo' marked the beginnings of an upwards trajectory with my writing.

Since then I have had a full-length book of horror tales, CHARNEL WINE, published by Rainfall Books, to much critical acclaim, (even garnering a preliminary recommendation for the British Fantasy Society Award). Another collection, OMENS, is currently poised for release by Mythos Books. I've also written an on-line illustrated narrative, PALACE OF SHADOWS. My short stories have earned Honorable Mentions in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR series and continue to appear in various anthologies; POE'S PROGENY (Gray Friar Press) and HORRORS BEYOND (Elder Signs Press) among the more recent. I've recently completed a novella of supernatural horror that is under consideration by a U.S. publisher. In addition, I am a frequent contributor of articles and book reviews to 'Rue Morgue' magazine and am currently working on a novel of psychological horror.

Last but not least: in 2004 I had the distinct pleasure of collaborating with our noble Nemo Czar, (a.k.a. Des Lewis) on a tale of Lovecraftian musical mutation, 'Variations on the Vile.'*

My appearance in 'Nemonymous' was helpful in the sense that it proved to me that small-press publications can demonstrate the highest artistry, both in production value and content. 'Berenice's Journal' remains a favourite of mine and is thus far the only tale I've written where other authors have, of their own accord, penned a sequel.


*Note from Des: This was published in "Book Of Dark Wisdom"

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