BFS Short Story Competition

Also announced at Fantasycon last weekend were the results of the annual British Fantasy Society short story competition...

The lucky winner was Patrick Whittaker with his story Dead Astronauts. Patrick receives £50, a year's membership of the BFS (which includes eight magazines and at least one book), and will be published in a forthcoming BFS journal.

Second place went to Elana Gomel with In the Moment, who will receive £25 and will be published in a forthcoming journal.

Third place (alas, with no prize attached), went to Charlotte Bond with The Apocalypse Has Been Good to Us. (A story that is this reader's favourite!)

Alchemy members Jan Coleborn-Edwards, Pat Barber and Jenny Barber were on the reading panel along with Chris Teague (of Pendragon Press) and Ranjina Theaker.
The panel of celebrity judges for the final round of reading consisted of Rhys Hughes, Sarah Pinborough and Chaz Brenchley.

The BFS has announced that next year's competition will be open to entries from 1st January 2010 so stay tuned for more news!

BFS Awards

The annual British Fantasy Awards were announced last weekend at Fantasycon on the night of Saturday 19th September. And the winners were:

Best Novel (The August Derleth Fantasy Award)
Memoirs of a Master Forger by William Heaney aka Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Anthology
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 ed. Stephen Jones (Constable & Robinson)

Best Collection
Bull Running for Girls by Allyson Bird (Screaming Dreams)

Best Non-Fiction
Basil Copper: A Life in Books by Basil Copper ed. Stephen Jones (PS Publishing)

Best Novella
The Reach of Children by Tim Lebbon (Humdrumming)

Best Short Fiction
"Do You See" by Sarah Pinborough from Myth-Understandings ed. by Ian Whates (Newcon Press)

Best Magazine/Periodical
Postscripts ed. Peter Crowther and Nick Gevers (PS Publishing)

Best Artist
Vincent Chong

The PS Publishing Best Small Press Award
Elastic Press (Andrew Hook)

Best Comic/Graphic Novel
Locke and Key by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez (IDW Publishing)

Best Televison
Doctor Who (Russell T. Davies, BBC Wales)

Best Film
The Dark Knight directed by Christopher Nolan (Warner Brothers)

The Karl Edward Wagner Award (the Special Award)
Hayao Miyazaki

The Sydney J. Bounds Award for Best Newcomer
Joseph D'Lacey for Meat (Bloody Books)

Fantasy Magazine Needs Slush Readers

The very fabulous Fantasy Magazine is in need of some slush readers. If you can spare 5 - 10 hours a month and want to find out more, check out their website for more details,

All about Mike

It's almost time for Dark Horizons #55 to hit the streets and not only is our Mike's story: Sailors of the Skies in it, but it's the cover story! Behold, Arthur Wang's view into young Mr Chinn's mind...



Mike talks about the return of Damian Paladin on his blog here.

And if, like any sane person in the universe, you can't wait to get yourself some Paladin goodness, there's an extract of Mike's story Ace in the Hole here.