Whispers of Wickedness Still Lives

The ISP is obviously having trouble getting a clean head shot.

Whispers of Wickedness Stories (archived)

The Future Fire has now archived many of the Whispers of Wickedness stories. This includes The Fog Catcher, although the inverted commas seem to be missing at the moment. That’ll get fixed sometime soon, I’m sure.

A big thanks goes out to Djibril at The Future Fire for saving all of this stuff from oblivion.

Last Chance To Catch…

… the Whispers of Wickedness website as it is closing down on 4th May. That’ll probably be sometime tomorrow, depending on datelines and stuff like that. The main site had over 96,000 views during its lifetime. The Myspace site will still be there, and the last issue of the magazine is due to be published in a week or two, and many of the reviews, interviews and fiction are being archived by The Future Fire and the British Fantasy Society. The ghost will remain.

The Cave of Little Beasties  thread (over 4000 views, pop-pickers!) on the WoW forums will be going. It was the predecessor of The Cave of Doom so most of its later content was published here anyway. But I’m really, really going to miss the rest of the forums. They were inhabited by a fun crowd.

Can I give the Roy Batty speech now? “I have seen writers in flame, etc.”

Six Little Words

There’s been  a debate at the Whispers of Wickedness forums over a way to mark its demise on the 4th of May, and it’s been decided to create a final collaborative short story. Sneakily, it starts at the end to avoid any disappointment. I hope someone remembers to save it - one of the Christmas tales from 2007 was pretty good, if I recall correctly. Dozens weren’t, though.

And, curiously, it’s mostly editors who have taken part so far. Do you think that’s something to do with having to adhere to a strick word-count?

Miaow.

Whispers of Wickedness Interviews (archived)

Most of the Whispers of Wickedness interviews have now been archived by The Future Fire. I was one of the crowd who hurled questions at Ian Redman.

Whispers of Wickedness Reviews (Archived)

The Future Fire has archived nearly all of the Whispers of Wickedness reviews here. This means that there’s no proseless death when Whispers of Wickedness closes on 4th May.  For the record, my reviews are of Polluto 2, Andrew Humphrey’s Alison, Charles Urban’s Brutal Spirits, Tiny Terrors 2, New Writings in the Fantastic, Triangulation, Cemetery Dance 57, Triquorum 2, Zencore, Sein und Werden 4, Jupiter 16, Apex Digest 8, and Neil Davies’ The Midnight Hour.

The Future Fire is also going to archive some of the WoW fiction, so maybe The Fog Catcher can creep in as well when no-one’s looking.

Zencore

My review of Zencore, from Whispers of Wickedness, is now in the British Fantasy Society Webzine.

BFS Webzine

As well as the Whispers of Wickedness reviews, the British Fantasy Society is republishing its own nonfiction on its Webzine. If you’ve written a review, article or interview for the BFS during the past forty years, get in touch with Stephen Theaker and give him your permission to put it on the site. Otherwise it’ll merely gather dust in a box somewhere and that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?

Future Fantasy Whispers

The Whispers of Wickedness website is being switched off on the 9th of May. Sadly this means that we’ll lose the fiction and forums, but now it looks as if the reviews might be saved. The Future Fire and the British Fantasy Society have offered to archive them, so they will be appearing in one or the other. Or both. A big thanks goes out to Djibril and Stephen Theaker for stepping forward.

Now I don’t need to work my way down my reviews page deleting half of the items. I still don’t trust the longevity of stuff on this interweb thing, though. Give me ink and paper every time. He says. On his blog.

Editors & Preditors Results

… can be found here. Their numbering system is a bit unusual, but for Interzone, Warwick Fraser-Coombe’s Greenland is 17th in Best Artwork, Andy Cox is 30th for Best Book Editor and 22nd for Best Zine Editor, TTA Press is 32nd in Best E-Book Publisher, Interzone is 22nd in Best Fictionzine, Nick Lowe’s Mutant Popcorn is 11th in Best Non-Fiction, Jason Sanford’s The Ships Like Clouds, Risen in Their Rain is 26th in Best SF Short Story.

From the GSFWC, Hal Duncan is 4oth in Best Author, and his Escape From Hell! came 29th in Best Horror Novel and 32nd in Best SF Novel, Ian Hunter came 15th in Best Poet, and his A Little Piece of Your Life came 20th in Best Poem.

Vector is 15th in Best Nonfictionzine, Dark Horizons is 12th in Best Poetryzine, The Fix is 22nd in Best Reviewsite, and Whispers of Wickedness is 19th in Best Writers Forum.

Who have I missed out?

The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2008

It was The Fog Catcher from Whispers of Wickedness 14 that got an honourable mention in The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 21.  Another four stories from WoW and three from Interzone also get honourable mentions.

Portrait of the Artist as a Good Host by R.J. Barker (WoW 15)

Ding-Dong-Ditch by Charles A. Muir (WoW 15)

The Negotiators by Darren McCormick (WoW website)

The View From Mrs Mote by Dan McNeil (WoW 15)

Islington Crocodiles by Paul Meloy (Interzone 208)

Toke by Tim Akers (Interzone 210)

The Good Detective by M. John Harrison (Interzone 209)

The two stories from other GSFWC members mentioned previously are:

Isle of The Pirate Gods by Hal Duncan (Postscripts 13)

The Woman with the Hair by Ian Hunter (Dark Horizons 50)

Have I told you that I got one…?

WoW Wins BFS Award

The Whispers of Wickedness Review Section has won The British Fantasy Non-Fiction Award for 2008. Congratulations go especially to editor Pete Tennant. Whispers of Wickedness is going to be missed when it closes next year.

The rest of the winners can be found here.