Non-Fiction

interview by Joe Vaz

I was interested in the idea of making a murder mystery that crossed the boundary between physical reality and virtual reality, and came up with the plot of "Alpha & Omega". The title, I hope, works in a number of different ways. McHaffey being a priest as well as a policeman, there are some obvious religious connotations.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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interview by Joe Vaz

We didn't really know each other, we're completely different people. So we thought we'd do a zombie versus vampire book. And then [Louis] took me to this mall and I was just so scared, it was horrible, I had a panic attack, and we thought fuck the zombies and the vampires, lets set it in a shopping mall.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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interview by Joe Vaz

I've written about 8 short stories set in that world, which is really a medieval, zoomorphized (I borrowed that word from a critic), slightly steam-punkish fantasy city. There's not exactly magic in play, but there are plenty of surreal things going on, lots of dark and chaotic mystery, with deep and vast undercurrents of mythic legend bubbling underneath.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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Mark Sykes's Sixth Sense Of Humour

THE THING ABOUT BLOOD-spattered machetes and rusty straight razors is, at least they’re unambiguous. You know they’re bad, bad things, and you know it’s not personal. But the distinction between friendly things and evil things isn’t always that neat. It’s pretty safe to assume that the guy with the hockey mask and the machete is probably not chasing you down for a romantic sushi dinner, but you’re safe with that cuddly little teddy bear with the cute little button eyes. He’s your bestest bedtime buddy. Right?.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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interview by Joe Vaz

Writing starts with a thought, and this particular thought was a recollection of making stuffed bears when I was a kid. My mother used to sew, and my sister, brother and I would take scraps and make bears to play with in forts we’d create around the house. It was sort of like the Care Bears, but we’d come up with designs using various materials, and we’d draw pictures on their stomachs and give them unique names.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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by Ivor Hartmann

IN TODAY'S MODERN SOCIETY, Artificial Intelligences are nearly all-pervasive. The odds are that you personally interact daily with some form of AI, be it a call centre program, automatic car transmission, video game, Google search, email spam filter, or a computer of any type - are pretty high. However, the realisation of a true AI, in terms of matching, and exceeding, human intelligence and characteristics such as emotion, creativity, and social intelligence, etc., would seem to be as far away as we are to living on another planet.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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interview by Joe Vaz

The ideas were something that I’d been wondering about for a while and then we were required to write a short sci-fi piece for university. I hit on the sentence “I dreamed of a green place where I could no longer go” and the story grew naturally around that.The ideas were something that I’d been wondering about for a while and then we were required to write a short sci-fi piece for university. I hit on the sentence “I dreamed of a green place where I could no longer go” and the story grew naturally around that.

Cover Art by 

Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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by Joe Vaz

We start the issue off with “The Silver City and The Green Place”, by Abi Godsell, which tells the tale of a breakthrough scientific experiment in artificial intelligence. Next up is “Unstitched Love” by Michael Bailey, which is all about a little girl making a teddy bear for her rather annoying sister, needless to say things don’t quite turn out as planned. “Sky Painter”, by Michael John Grist is an epic fable about a fallen king and the love he left behind, and we close of the issue with a virtual reality noir murder mystery entitled Alpha & Omega by “Paul Marlowe”. Our feature interview for this month is with SL Grey, who is actually the pseudonym of Louis Greenberg and Sarah Lotz (remember Sarah? She won our debut issue Short Story Competition). Cover Art by Vincent Sammy From Issue 11 (July 2011)
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