This is Issue 11.

There are dark times ahead.

Welcome back to Dark Fiction Magazine! In this, our first issue of 2012, we have a handful of excellent science-fiction stories for you; we will show you futures both distant and close, but all uncertain.

In Gareth L. Powell’s poignant Sunsets and Hamburgers we find a universe gradually moving towards a cold and inert end, while a resurrected couple desperately cling to what it means to be human. Erich Bergmeier’s The Miracle Cure and Matt Moore’s The Machinery of Government tell us chilling tales of technology and the questions we may have to ask ourselves in the not too distant future, while A Study in Flesh and Mind by Liz Argall explores the gruelling consequences of telepathy.

Big thanks as ever to everyone involved in this episode, and we hope to see you back here next time for a collection of dark and horrific tales.

Written by Gareth L. Powell

Narrated by Marty Perrett

Written by Erich William Bergmeier

Narrated by Kate Sherrod

Written by Liz Argall

Narrated by Emma Newman

Artist: Sunila Sen Gupta

Written by Matt Moore

Narrated by Danny Davies

Artist: Shock The Badger

by Ramsey Campbell

Read by Ramsey Campbell

by James Morris

Read by Danny Davis

recorded in a secret location with an anonymous group of UrbExers.

by Scott Robinson

Read by Sam Moffat

It has been a year since we launched Dark Fiction Magazine. During this crazy period we have done some awesome stuff that we are very proud of. It has been a lot of work, but worth every second. We even made the shortlist for the highly acclaimed Parsec award.

So as a special gift to help you celebrate this Halloween we have another 3 stories for you and a special piece on Urban Exploring. Enjoy and help yourself to some pumpkin birthday cake.

The Guide by Ramsey Campbell

The Cat the Rat & the Beetle by Scott Robinson

The Fools by James Morris

Discussion: The perils of Urban Exploring

by Kev Clark

Read by Charles Hunt

Third place in our Epic Flash Fiction Competition

by Andrew Reid

Read by David Moore

Second place in our Epic Flash Fiction Competition

by Kev Clark

Read by Tony Gallichan

First place in our Epic Flash Fiction Competition

by Aliette de Bodard

Read by Kate Sherrod

by Juliet E McKenna

Read by Danny Davies

by James Barclay

Read by Marty Perrett

Welcome back to Dark Fiction Magazine. This month we did something rather special for you. Not only do we have fantastical stories from three great fantasy authors, but we also have the winners of our epic flash fiction competition.

So without further ado, put on those headphones, turn up the volume and enjoy our fables of heroics:

Twain by James Barclay

Why The Pied Crow Always Sounds Disappointed – Juliet E McKenna

As The Wheel Turns by Aliette de Bodard

Flash fiction winners:

Snakebite by Kev Clark

The Rise of The Huntress by Andrew Reid

Musings from Atop a Mountain of Skulls by Kev Clark

We are very pleased to announce the winners of our Epic Flash Fiction competition:

1st place: Snakebite by Kev Clark
Judge’s comment: “This is a well-observed story with a neat premise, a very good character and lovely flashes of humour within a tragic (and unfair!) situation. The ending is just right and I found myself imagining the reactions of those who find the body and read the tale of his death. The author resists the temptation to have his hero survive and that is to his great credit.”

2nd place: Rise of the Huntress by Andrew Reid
Judge’s comment: “Very well-crafted story with proper characters brought to life by tight dialogue and efficient use of physical description and emotional reaction. The suddenness of death is well-written and the ending is very satisfying.”

3rd place – Musings from atop a mountain of skulls by Kev Clark
Judge’s comment: “Another excellent entry from this author. A really original take on the actions of a merciless tyrant. It is written with good pace, in a style that is very readable. The matter-of-fact noting of atrocities is lovely.”

Congratulations to the winners. We would also like to express our gratitude to our special guest judge James Barclay who has done a stellar job on the difficult task of judging the very high quality shortlist.

We are busy producing the audio of the winning stories and hope to have them online within the next day or so.

Wow! We are so pleased with the overwhelming response to our Epic Flash Fiction competition.

You lot have certainly kept us busy late into the night(s), reading and rereading your stories. We are also really impressed with the quality of the stories. Capturing the spirit of epic fantasy in under 1,000 words is not easy.

So without further ado, it gives us great pleasure to announce the short-list:

(in no particular order)

The Will to Live by Ro Smith

Musings from atop a Mountain of Skulls by Kev Clarke

Snakebite by Kev Clarke

Rise of the Huntress by Andrew Reid

Dark Dealings by Eric Edwards

Awakening by Lisa Pearson

The Noble Death by Kai Savage

These 7 great stories will go through to the next round of judging. Our very special guest judge James Barclay now has the rather daunting task of choosing the winning three stories.

We would like to personally thanks everyone who has entered and offer condolences to those who did not make the short-list. Do not let this put you off. Keep writing and keep submitting.

Good luck to the short-listed.

by Alasdair Stuart

by Lee Harris

Narrated by David Moore

by Scott Harrison

Narrated by David Moore

by Paul Cornell

Narrated by Marty Perrett

Sharpen your swords, conjure intoxicating brews, and get ready to tame your dragons. We are on the hunt for flash fiction at its most epic and inviting submissions of original and previously unpublished high fantasy stories of up to 1000 words.

First Prize: Your story will be published and narrated in September’s edition of Dark Fiction Magazine. Prize Money: £25.00 Yes, that’s Twenty Five Whole English Pounds.

Second Prize: Your story will be published and narrated in September’s edition of Dark Fiction Magazine. Prize Money: £15.00 Yes, that’s Fifteen Whole English Pounds.

Third Prize: Your story will be published and narrated in September’s edition of Dark Fiction Magazine. Prize Money: £10.00 Yes…well, you get the point..

A shortlist will be drawn up from entries received. We are delighted to announce the winning entries will selected from the shortlist by our very special guest judge James Barclay.

The closing date for submissions is Midnight on Wednesday 31st August 2011.

The shortlist will be announced on Wednesday 7th September 2011, with winning stories announced and published in Dark Fiction Magazine on Wednesday 14th September 2011.

• Submit stories via the ‘Submission Form‘ .
• You may enter as many times as you like, but each entry must be submitted separately.
• All entrants will need a paypal account in order receive prize money in the event of winning.

Battles on windswept plains, dark wizards, knights in gilded armour, spirited princesses, peasant boys destined to be king…magic us inside the world of Epic Fantasy with the very best flash-fiction you can conjure and we’ll pray we live to tell the tale!

by Jaine Fenn

Read by Emma Newman
File size: 36mb
Duration 38:00

by Mark Chadbourn

Read by Marty Perrett
File size: 36mb
Duration 38:00

by Liz Williams

Read by Kim Lakin-Smith
File size: 26mb
Duration 27:37

by Graham Joyce

Read by Danny Davies
File size: 36mb
Duration 38:00

by Lucius Shepard

Read by David Moore
File size: 37mb
Duration 39:18

About Lucius Shepard

by Maura McHugh

Read by Kim Lakin-Smith
File size: 29mb
Duration 30:21
‘Vic’ was originally published in Black Static issue 10 and reprinted in the Year’s Best Dark Horror and Fantasy 2010 edited by Paula Guran.

About Maura McHugh

by Damien G. Walter

Read by Sam Moffat
File size: 35mb
Duration 36:24

About Damien G. Walter

Price: 1.00 GBP

by Simon Bestwick

Read by Simon Bestwick
File size: 28mb
Duration 14:38

About Simon Bestwick

Simon Bestwick lives in mournfully resigned bachelorhood (or more precisely, Lancashire) and is the author of two short story collections, A Hazy Shade Of Winter and Pictures Of The Dark, and a novel, Tide Of Souls. His novella The Narrows was shortlisted for the 2009 British Fantasy Award and reprinted in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror Of The Year. His most recent publication is a chapbook, Angels Of The Silences, from Pendragon Press, and his new novel will be published by Solaris Books in 2012. When not pursuing the delights of wine (well, single malt whisky), women and song, he can be found disporting himself as a scriptwriter and actor with Dark Smile Productions (www.darksmile.co.uk.), with whose help ‘The Loving Of Ghosts’ was recorded.

by Paul Finch

Read by Marty Perrett
File size: 31mb
Duration 44:13

About Paul Finch

http://paulfinch-writer.blogspot.com/

by Tracie McBride

Read by Alasdair Stuart
File size: 18mb
Duration 7.26

About Tracie McBride

Tracie McBride is a New Zealander who lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in over 50 print and electronic publications, including Horror Library Vol 4, Coyote Wild, Abyss and Apex, Space & Time, Sniplits and Electric Velocipede. She won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best New Talent for 2007. She is an active member of the HWA, an associate editor for horror magazine Dark Moon Digest and vice president of the writer’s co-operative Dark Continents Publishing. Her blog can be found at http://traciemcbridewriter.wordpress.com

by David Howe

Read by David Moore
File size: 18mb
Duration 19:37

About David Howe

David J Howe has been involved with Doctor Who research and writing
for over thirty years. He has been consultant to a large number of
publishers and manufacturers for their Doctor Who lines, and is author
or co-author of over thirty factual titles associated with the show.
He also has one of the largest collections of Doctor Who merchandise
in the world. David was contributing editor to Starburst Magazine for
seventeen years from 1984 – 2001. Since 1994 he was book reviews
editor for Shivers Magazine until it ceased publication in 2008. In
addition he has written articles, interviews and reviews for a wide
number of publications, including Fear, Dreamwatch, Infinity, Stage
and Television Today, The Dark Side, Doctor Who Magazine, The
Guardian, Film Review, SFX, Sci-Fi Entertainment, Collectors’ Gazette,
Deathray and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

He edited the bi-monthly newsletter of the British Fantasy Society
from 1992 to 1995, and also edited and published several books for
them, including the British and World Fantasy Award shortlisted
Manitou Man, a limited edition hardback and paperback collection of
short fiction by horror author Graham Masterton. He is currently Chair
of the Society.

He wrote the book Reflections: The Fantasy Art of Stephen Bradbury for
Dragon’s World Publishers and has contributed short fiction to Peeping
Tom, Dark Asylum, Decalog, Dark Horizons, Kimota, Perfect Timing,
Perfect Timing II, Missing Pieces, Shrouded by Darkness and Murky
Depths, and factual articles to James Herbert: By Horror Haunted and
The Radio Times Guide to Science Fiction. He wrote the screenplay for
Daemos Rising, a film released on DVD by Reeltime Pictures in 2004.

He is currently Editorial Director of Telos Publishing Ltd, a UK based
independent press specialising in horror/science fiction Novellas,
crime novels, and guides to a variety of film and TV shows. In 2006
the company won the World Fantasy Award for their publishing work.

by Liam Sharp

Read by Marty Perrett
File size: 21mb
Duration 22:28

About Liam Sharp

Liam Sharp is a British comic book artist, writer and publisher working mostly in the US marketplace.

Liam made his debut in the late 1980s drawing Judge Dredd for 2000ad. He later moved to Marvel UK, where he drew the best-selling Marvel UK title ever, Death’s Head II. Thereafter he began working mainly in the United States on books as diverse as the X-Men, the Hulk, Spider-Man, Venom, Man-Thing (for Marvel Comics), Superman, Batman, and The Possessed (for DC Comics and Wildstorm), Spawn: The Dark Ages (for Todd McFarlane and Image) and Red Sonja for Dynamite comics.

Liam has also worked on more mature themed books for Verotik, drawing Frank Frazetta’s The Death Dealer, and a strip originated by Stan Winston called Realm of the Claw.

In 2004 Sharp set up his own publishing company, MamTor™ Publishing, with wife Christina. This saw the launch of the critically acclaimed and award-winning anthology Event Horizon, and the prestigious collaboration with Mother (London) Advertising, Four Feet From a Rat, which appears as a quarterly comic in Time Out magazine.

Liam recently finished the controversial DC Vertigo title Testament with best-selling novelist and media commentator Douglas Rushkoff, the comic adaptation of the seminal XBox game Gears of War, and the Aliens graphic novella Aliens: Fast Track to Heaven for Dark Horse. He is currently working on an epic personal project that he is co-writing with wife Christina McCormack called Captain Stone is Missing.

Liam also worked on designs for the movies Lost in Space, Small Soldiers and the animated series Batman Beyond.

Liam’s critically acclaimed first novel GOD KILLERS: MACHIVARIUS POINT & OTHER TALES was published in 2008 with a second edition in 2009.

Website: Liam Sharp

by Gwyneth Jones

Read by Donna Scott
File size: 35mb
Duration 36:36

About Gwyneth Jones

Gwyneth Jones was born in Manchester on 14th February 1952. She’s the author of more than twenty novels for teenagers, mostly using the name Ann Halam, and several highly regarded sf novels for adults. She’s won two World Fantasy awards, the Arthur C. Clarke award, the British Science Fiction Association short story award, the Dracula Society’s Children of the Night award, the P.K.Dick award, and shared the first Tiptree award, in 1992, with Eleanor Arnason. She lives in Brighton, UK, with her husband and son; a Tonkinese cat called Ginger and her young friend Milo. She’s done some extreme tourism in her time, still likes travelling but has given up on air transport. Likes going to the movies & playing with her websites. She’s a member of the Soil Association, the Sussex Wildlife Trust; and an Amnesty International volunteer.

Website: Gwyneth Jones
Books: Amazon

by Adam Christopher

Read by: Emma Newman
First appeared in: Pantechnicon

Episodes:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Original Release schedule:
Episode 1: 17th Jan 2011 8pm (GMT)
Episode 2: 18th Jan 2011 8pm (GMT)
Episode 3: 19th Jan 2011 8pm (GMT)
Episode 4: 20th Jan 2011 8pm (GMT)
Episode 5: 21th Jan 2011 8pm (GMT)

About Adam Christopher
Adam Christopher is a steampunk, SF and superhero fiction writer born in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2006, he moved to the sunny North West of England, where he lives in domestic bliss with wife and cat in a house next to a canal. Adam’s short fiction has appeared in Pantechnicon and Hub magazine and various places online. He is currently working on his fifth novel.

When not writing Adam can be found drinking tea and obsessing over Dark Shadows, DC Comics, and 60s Doctor Who. Adam is also very bad at épée but knows that Thibault cancels out Capa Ferro, unless the enemy has studied his Agrippa. Which he has.

Adam’s website is adamchristopher.co.uk, and he can be found loitering on Twitter as @ghostfinder (http://twitter.com/ghostfinder).

About Emma Newman
Emma drinks too much tea, has too many ideas and writes too many stories. Only one of these is true. Her debut novel ’20 Years Later’ will be published in 2011 by Dystopia Press. She blogs and gets up to all kinds of writing mischief at www.enewman.co.uk.

Emma fell in love with audio book narration when podcasting ’20 Years Later’ prior to her publishing deal. Since then she has recorded audio books for multi-media publisher Big Bad Media and has narrated short stories for fiction podcasts. To find out more about her voice work go to www.enewman.co.uk/voice where you can also listen to a couple of quirky flash stories written by emerging writers. Emma loves recording speculative fiction, science fiction and steampunk.

Emma’s first short story anthology ‘From Dark Places’ has recently been acquired by another publisher and is slated for release in early 2011. If you like dark short stories, join Em’s Short Story Club (www.enewman.co.uk/sign-up-for-free-stories) to get an original short story for free in your inbox every month.

Emma can be found on Twitter as @emapocalyptic (http://twitter.com/emapocalyptic).

2010 is dead. Long live 2011.

Happy New Year, listeners, and welcome to Brave New World. This is Dark Fiction Magazine’s third monthly episode and we’re very pleased to be celebrating the New Year by bringing you stories from Cory Doctorow, Lauren Beukes, Ian Whates and Stephen Volk.

This month’s episode brings the total of released stories to twenty-seven since the magazine’s launch two months ago. And we’re only just getting started. You can expect to hear a lot more from Dark Fiction Magazine in 2011 as we continue our themed monthly episodes, release special episodes and exclusives, and bring you the best short fiction from both established genre writers and the brightest of new talent in science-fiction, fantasy and horror.

Keep an eye out for us at genre conventions and book events around the country as well. We aim to attend as many as possible, recording on the move, and seeking out new stories wherever we can. If you spot us, come and say hello; we’d love to meet you.

Artwork: Brave New World by Obrotowy.