Jesca Marisa
The biggest thing for any artist, musician or writer is to develop a style that's identifiable as one's own. My most obvious influence is manga and comic book art, but over the years all my references and inspirations have blended together to form a style that's uniquely my own - or at least that's the hope :). I am always thrilled when people are able to identify my work just based on style of drawing. By day I work for advertising, but by night I don tights and cape (read: fluffy duvet) to work on my graphic novels. I enjoy the freedom of writing and illustrating my own stories - it feeds a deep emotional need to create.
Read more »by Joe Vaz
| Let me get going with the Nov issue; our first story this month comes from Lynne Jamneck and it’s a journey into “darkest Africa” at the turn of the last century, where a small group of adventurers go in search of answers in “Into The Black Abyss”. Next up is “Scission” which is about an epic battle between good and evil by Domenico Pisanti as both forces meet for a showdown… over lunch. Our third story for the month is “Mindflow” by Cedar Sanderson, in which a generation ship carries its crew in search of a habitable planet, and we close of the issue with a story of possession and exorcism in “What is Evil, What is Not” by Sylvia Hiven. Our feature interview for the month is with author Steven Amsterdam and we review his book, Things We Didn’t See Coming. Our non-fiction piece for this month takes a look at the South African genre scene written by SL Grey, as well as our usual madness and nonsense in Mark Sykes’s Sixth Sense of Humour, which this month is an homage to homages. | 
From Issue 15 (Nov 2011) |
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From Issue 15 (Nov 2011)by Joe Vaz
When I was born, in the early 70’s, man was still travelling to the moon. In fact I was 4 months and 13 days old when the crew of Apollo 17 touched down on the lunar surface, and four days later, Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt were the last human beings to set foot there. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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interview by Joe Vaz
Engaging the Idrl was inspired by the story of a specialist truck driver in the British Territorial Army who tragically committed suicide in August of 2004 after returning from the Iraq war. The gentleman in question experienced first-hand the horrifying incident of the chocolate bar described in the story. I was so moved (and disturbed) by it that I had to respond by committing my feelings to print. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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Posted in Interviews, Non-Fiction | 
Tags: Davin Ireland, Interview, Issue 14, Joe Vaz, Writers Cornered | 
Comments Closed
by Davin Ireland
The desert here is pink and rocky and shrouded in darkness for much of the day. The excavation site is slashed with grey spills of rubble that could be collapsed towers or random seams of granite. To the east, great clouds of mortar dust boil across the plains, scouring the arid landscape, depriving it of fresh growth. Only the Idrl remain. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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review by Sarah Lotz
| Published by Generation Next Publications PB 258 pages RRP R150 (Kindle £2.14) My father's funeral had been that morning, and Kevin thought a night out would be the best way to take my mind off how he'd died. It hadn't helped. All I could think about was that I hadn't been able to say good-bye or tell him that I loved him. I couldn't even get drunk and forget about it. I couldn't pretend that I was okay and put on a happy face for the sake of Kevin and his friends. As a result we cut the night short, which irritated Kevin's friends and I was once again the party pooper. Kevin had been gone for what seemed like a few seconds when everything that I knew and trusted in my life changed forever. | 
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
interview by Joe Vaz
There were times when I was writing it, when I'd look at what I'd just written and think: I can't believe I just wrote that. They're going to crucify me for this. You're not supposed to say things like this, let alone write them. But then I realised that if I did tone it down or censor it that I would be a coward and that I would be cheating the story. I think that it's important to be true to the story and that as a writer, it's my job to push boundaries and explore those taboo subjects. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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Posted in Interviews, Non-Fiction | Tags: Interview, Issue 14, Joan De La Haye, Joe Vaz | Comments Closed
interview by Joe Vaz
Driving from Glacier National Park, Montana to Chicago takes a long time (1,500 miles). In the ebb and flow of the road, a writer has an opportunity to brainstorm. I was listening to the Art Bell radio program (a special about ghosts) when the idea came to me. I was pumped on four cups of McDonald’s coffee, listening to these callers share their real life ghost stories, and it all seemed so sad. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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Posted in Interviews, Non-Fiction | Tags: Interview, Issue 14, Joe Vaz, Michael Hodges, Writers Cornered | 1 Comment »
by Michael Hodges
I eat words. I don’t know why. I hang in the corners of this old and meticulous house by unseen hooks or latches. The words come to me from the mouths of the family and their visitors. The words of the adults come out grey, brown and black; the words of the young rise to me in reds, greens and blues. I swallow them all, and each time I do, something inside me grows. I know not what it is, only that I receive energy from this action. |
From Issue 14 (Oct 2011) |
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