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?. |
 From Issue 11 (July
2011) |
  |
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. |
From Issue 11 (July
2011) |
|
Posted in Interviews, Non-Fiction | 
Tags: Interview, Issue 11, Joe Vaz, Michael Bailey, Writers Cornered | 
Comments Closed
by Michael Bailey
She had saved his eyes for last. A glimpse of their emptiness before inverting the skin, filling his insides, and stitching together the open gap between his legs. As if confused about why Sally insisted on poking a needle through his hollow head, the incomplete stuffed bear twisted in her hands. Aren’t you finished with me yet? Sunlight from the morning sky beamed through the blinds in parallel rays; dancing life reflected on its button eyes. |
From Issue 11 (July
2011) |
|
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. |
From Issue 11 (July
2011) |
|
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. |
From Issue 11 (July
2011) |
|
Posted in Interviews, Non-Fiction | Tags: Abi Godsell, Interview, Issue 11, Joe Vaz, Writers Cornered | Comments Closed
by Abi Godsell
The doctor is small and grey-haired. He talks rapidly and jumps between subjects. It's hard to believe that this abrupt little man headed up the team that implanted the world's most advanced artificial intelligence into the body of a brain-dead teenager. My editor is going to have a field day. "It worked out well though. Her parents had given up, they were looking for a reason to pull the plug. Donating the body to science must have seemed easier.". |
From Issue 11 (July 2011) |
|
Posted in Fiction, Podcasts | Tags: Abi Godsell, Fiction, Issue 11, Joe Vaz, Mark Sykes, SF, Vincent Sammy | 2 Comments »
Vincent Sammy
Creating a cover-piece usually depends on whether I have a story to work from, or whether I am given free reign in deciding what content can go on the cover. Both are challenging in there own way as the one limits you to the subject matter and you need to try an establish the best possible visual angle from the story, while the other has the challenge of trying to come up with an image that is as new and fresh as possible.
Read more »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). | From Issue 11 (July 2011) |
|
Flamedrop Productions
present
CELLUDROID
Sci-Fi / Anime / Fantasy Film Festival
5 – 14 July 2011
The Labia Theatre, 68 Orange Street, Cape Town, ZA
By Ace Cornelius
He looked away at the cliff. The radiation from the cliffs was starting to warm the back of my neck, so I turned to them, and looked for the way I came down, an instinctive look to find the path down, to escape if necessary. There was no danger here, but I felt a significant threat, maybe some creature might lurch out of the sea. I took a step back. “These cliffs are almost high enough to be impressive,” Raiken spoke without smiling, and this was ominous. “I do like that point. I feel that something could gather speed on the flat table top.” This statement seemed to cancel out his earlier concern, and he smiled again, that broad smile. Then he grew serious again. “The goats could gallop there.” He turned again and smiled. It was the smile that had endeared him to his fellow boys and teachers all those years ago. The shock of black hair was gone. Mostly grey, not much of it left. But the smile was still there and it still seemed to work. “Look now,” he said his smile widening to wonderment. |
|
Posted in Fiction | Tags: Ace Cornelius, Fiction, Hendrik Gericke, Horror, SW Issue 10 | 2 Comments »