by Kim Newman
Visit Kim Newman’s website at http://www.johnnyalucard.com.
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Scorpius Digital Publishing Titles
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After the Vikings, by G. David Nordley — Interwoven Stories of a Future Mars
The Algis Budrys Omnibus, Volume One — Some Will Not Die and selected short fiction
Ariel, by Steven R. Boyett — A magical adventure through a world where fantasy and reality have collided, by the author of
Dark Corners, by Barry B. Longyear — A master of science fiction takes you to the darkest places in the human soul
Dreamlode, by John Meaney — Short fiction from the BSFA Award-nominated author of To Hold Infinity, Paradox, and Context
Fine Cuts, by Dennis Etchison — View the bright lights of Hollywood through the dark lens of Dennis Etchison’s imagination
Flesh Wounds, by Brian A. Hopkins — 30 subtle and disturbing stories by the Stoker Award winner and author of The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club
Ghostland -Three haunting novellas by the Nebula Award-winning master of the modern ghost story, author of Street and The Well
The Goddess Letters — A timeless myth made new again by the Western States Book Award winner and author of The Hedge, the Ribbon
Hardwired, by Walter Jon Williams — The science fiction cult classic reissued with sequel novella “Solip:System”
The Hedge, the Ribbon, by Carol Orlock — A storyteller, a hedge, and a ribbon weave a magical spell into the everyday reality of a small town. Winner of the Western States Book Award, by the author of The Goddess Letters
Hemogoblins, Stories to Chill the Blood, by Alan M. Clark and Friends — Stories to astound, startle, and amuse, illustrated with paintings by award-winning illustrator Alan M. Clark
Hong on the Range, by William F. Wu — Louie Hong’s adventures through a New West of cyber-enhanced cowboys and mechanized singing steers, by the author of A Temple of Forgotten Spirits
Hours of Darkness — 21 of the 21st century’s best horror writers spin tales about what happens in the dark
Immortal Khan, by H. Doug Matsuoka — IEB Award finalist — A tale of taoist masters, love, and laundromats, told in screenplay form by the author of Living Midnight
Living Midnight, by H. Doug Matsuoka — A dark future tale of mystery, music, and murder from the IEB Award finalist, author of Immortal Khan
Mars Dust and Magic Shows, by Mark Bourne — Unforgettable Stories from “science fiction’s best-kept secret”
Meridian Days, by Eric Brown — A novel of wounded lives and deadly intrigues on the planet called Meridian. By the British Fantasy Award-winning author of A Writer’s Life
Mobius Highway, by Howard V. Hendrix — Science fiction stories from the brilliant and daring author of Empty Cities of the Full Moon
Naming of Parts, by Tim Lebbon — Winner of the British Fantasy Award
Nearly People, by Conrad Williams — The British Fantasy Award and International Horror Guild Award-nominated novella
Orphans, by Steven R. Boyett — The best short fiction from the author of Ariel
Pieces of the Sky, by Marina Fitch — Tales of love, loss, laughter, and yes, lust, from a rising star of sf and fantasy
Rags and Old Iron, by Lorelei Shannon — A novel of childhood betrayed, love lost, and secrets rediscovered, by the author of Vermifuge
The Schemes of Dragons, Book Two of War of the Dragons, by Dave Smeds — Another cornucopia of swords, magic, and brave men and women caught between awesome forces, by the Nebula Award finalist and author of The Sorcery Within
Something Rich and Strange, by Carrie Richerson — Extraordinary Tales of Fantasy from the Campbell Award finalist
The Sorcery Within, Book One of War of the Dragons, by Dave Smeds — A novel of magic, new worlds, and high adventure by the Nebula Award finalist and author of The Schemes of Dragons
Street, by Jack Cady — A novel about horror and heroes, by the Nebula Award winner and author of Street and Ghostland
Tales for the Long Rains, by Kij Johnson — Beautiful and enchanting short fiction by the Sturgeon Award-winning author of The Fox Woman
Talking to Shadows, by Phoebe Reeves — A story about murder, art, and transformation, from the Stoker Award nominee
A Temple of Forgotten Spirits, by William F. Wu — Jack Hong’s adventures in the world of spirits and the world of men, following the kei-lin, by the author of Hong on the Range
Triad, by Sheila Finch — A Novel of Alien Contact by the Nebula Award winner
Vermifuge, and Other Toxic Cocktails, by Lorelei Shannon — Stories to make you shudder, weep, and laugh out loud, by one of today’s best new talents, and the author of Rags and Old Iron
The Well, by Jack Cady — A classic of modern horror by the Nebula Award-winning author of Street and Ghostland
Wildest Dreams, by Norman Partridge — A novel of death, deliverance, and the Devil in California by the Stoker Award winner
A Writer’s Life, by Eric Brown, winner of the BSFA Award — A tale of literary obsession and haunting discoveries by the author of Meridian Days
For more quality eBooks, visit these publishers:
New Albion Press — A fine selection of books for discerning readers of fiction and nonfiction, and
Crow Street Press — eBooks for Book Lovers
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Crow Street Press Titles
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15 Minutes a Day to Tarot, by Mary M. Cowan - A no-nonsense approach to learning and reading the Tarot. Includes a six-week study plan and 14 card layouts, 9 exclusive to this book.
A Haunting in Tennessee: Three Historical Accounts of the Bell Witch Phenomenon, with an introduction by Alan M. Clark and John Davis - North America's most-investigated, best-documented, and most disturbing haunting.
The Hedge, the Ribbon, by Carol Orlock - Where do stories come from? What do they mean to the storyteller, the listener, the people inside the story? The Magical Winner of the Western States Book Award
Life’s Lottery, by Kim Newman - “My friend, you have a choice. Of course you have a choice..." Happiness, misery, wealth, poverty, madness -- it all depends on the choices you make. A "choose-your-own-adventure" novel for grownups.
The Paranormal, by Stan Gooch - Do psychic phenomena really exist? A psychologist investigates the psychic universe in this fascinating and clearly-written volume.
Street, by Jack Cady - In the dark heart of a city sits a cathedral. Its walls are sanctuary to an actor, a nun, a war hero, a poet, and a knight-errant. Outside, a killer stalks young girls who won’t be missed by any but friends and family just as invisible as they are. A Novel by the Nebula Award-winning author of The Well and The Jonah Watch.
Cities of Dreams, by Stan Gooch - Stan Gooch reveals, in fascinating detail and with painstaking scholarship, how the highly-evolved culture of the Neanderthals has survived through the ages in all corners of the world; even, and most amazingly, our own.
Total Man: An Evolutionary Theory of Personality, by Stan Gooch - A psychologist investigates history, mythology, linguistics, and human physiology for clues to the secrets of the evolution of the human personality.
Generations of Betrayal: The Media and the Mideast, by Gerald Pearce - Gerald Pearce shows, with careful scholarship and clear insight, how much of the western world’s negative image of the Arab world, its culture, and its goals, has been shaped by 60 years of media manipulation. A timely and important volume for understanding today’s world.
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For more quality eBooks, visit New Albion Press, A Special Selection of Books for Discerning Readers, and
Scorpius Digital Publishing, Specializing in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror.
high-street
A main thoroughfare in a town or city, in the commercial area. The expression ‘high-street bank’ or ‘high-street shop’ indicates a familiar business name or franchise.
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sp; The Light Programme
In 1959, BBC Radio broadcast three main channels within the United Kingdom: the Home Service, the Light Programme and the Third Programme. The Light Programme eventually became the channels that are now Radio One and Radio Two, the BBC’s pop music stations. The Third Programme became Radio Three, which puts out serious music and drama.
C of E
Church of England. While the American Constitution insists on a separation between church and state, the United Kingdom has no written constitition and the ritual and legal apparatus of the state is inextricably bound up with the Anglican Church. The reason this hasn’t led to anything like the Inquisition or witch-burning in the last few hundred years is that Anglicanism has become the mildest, most decaffeinated church on the block. The C of E certainly asserts far less influence on the country – for instance, in terms of pushing through laws or criticising government sponsorship of the arts — than the religious right does in the United States. When I was asked at school to state my religion and I claimed ‘agnostic’, I was aptly told ‘that’s C of E then’.
The National Health/National Insurance Number
In Great Britain, universal health-care is provided by the State, supported by a tax called National Insurance commonly deducted at source from a person’s wages. Britons can choose to take out private health-care insurance on the American system, but they still have to pay National Insurance. Just as all Americans have a Social Security number, all Britons have a National Insurance Number.
Daleks
Trundling, squawking cyborg fascist alien villains from the long-running BBC-TV series Doctor Who, the Daleks first appeared in the second Who serial in 1963 and were an instant success, spawning a ton of various merchandising. They returned many times to the TV series and appeared in two spin-off theatrical films, Dr Who and the Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD.
Teddy Bear Coalman
‘A story for the very young’, written and illustrated by Phoebe and Selby Worthington (1948), common in the 1950s and ’60s and in print as recently as 1985. In the Newman household, wicked childish amusement was found in interpreting the hand gesture of the woman who wanted two bags of coal as the irreverent two-finger sign equivalent to the American single digit salute.
Upside-Down Gonk’s Circus
Gonks were a 1960s toy fad: big Humpty Dumpty-shaped heads with tiny vestigial arms and legs, often caricatures of famous persons or specific types (cowboy, spaceman, schoolgirl, etc). They feature in the film Gonks Go Beat. Roughly equivalent to trolls or Cabbage Patch Dolls. Upside-Down Gonk’s Circus was the most intriguing-sounding of the slim children’s books published to go with the craze, or at least so I thought when I pestered my father to buy it. It has stuck in my memory probably because of the odd disappointment of finding that the cover had been mistakenly bound onto another, less-interesting gonk adventure. The Newman copy of Teddy Bear Coalman has survived (my sister recently read it to my nephew), but that doubtless-priceless collector’s item misprint gonk book disappeared long long ago.
Little Noddy Goes to Toyland
By Enid Blyton, illustrated by Harmsen van der Beel (1949); the actual title is Noddy Goes to Toyland, but I copied an error from David Pringle’s Imaginary People. First of a series of books featuring a wooden gnome called Noddy, these were amazingly popular for decades but have suffered from a backlash thanks to Blyton’s use of racial caricature ‘gollywogs’ as supporting characters, not to mention elements common to children’s books in more innocent times like Noddy and his male best friend Big Ears sleeping together and the hero’s tendency to get in trouble with Mr Plod the policeman. The term ‘Plod’ or ‘Mr Plod’ is still in use as a demeaning term for police officer, equivalent to the American ‘pig’. The reference is here to prevent the book becoming autobiographical – I found Blyton twee and dull as a child and didn’t read her much.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
By C.S. Lewis (1950); first of the ‘Narnia’ series.
Winnie the Pooh
By A.A. Milne, illustrated by E.H. Shepherd (1926). In the 1960s, Winnie hadn’t been bought outright by Disney and so retained an English accent.
Enid Blyton’s Famous Five books
Five in Treasure Island (1942) introduces the series heroes, four middle-class children (siblings Julian, Dick and Anne, tomboy George) and their dog Timmy. Like Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, they solve mild mysteries, unmasking an endless succession of smugglers and other rogues.
Tintin
Reporter hero of a series of comic-strip albums by the Belgian cartoonist Hergé.
http://www.tintin.com/
The Big Book of Riddles
There are several books with this title or something close like The Mighty Big Book of Riddles. The ‘big red rock-eater’ riddle is from the one we had in our house, but the ‘Letsbe Avenue’ riddle is here as a tribute to Paul J. McAuley, who still laughs when he tells it. ‘Why do firemen wear red braces?’ is another from the original.
The Buccaneers Annual
The Buccaneers was an ambitious British television series originally broadcast in 1956, starring Robert Shaw as Captain Dan Tempest. Because of the pirate theme that runs through Life’s Lottery, I invented the annual and its contents – though I later found out that the show spun off at least one such tie-in and saw a copy in the collection of the Museum of the Moving Image. Annuals were (and are) a British form of children’s publishing, large-format illustrated hardbacks combining text and comic-strip stories with factual articles, puzzles and the like, associated with a popular character (Popeye), TV series (Danger Man) or weekly comic (the Beano).
http://www.televisionheaven.co.uk/overview2.htm#buc
The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure
A single comic strip adventure for Hergé’s intrepid reporter hero Tintin, published as two large-format albums.
http://www.tintin.com/
Doctor Who
Long-running UK television serial, premiered November 23, 1963.
http://www.gallifreyone.com/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/doctorwho/
William Hartnell
The first Doctor Who (1963-66)
Patrick Troughton
The second Doctor Who (1966-69)
Jon Pertwee
The third Doctor Who (1970-74)
Tom Baker
The fourth Doctor Who (1974-81)
TARDIS
Dr Who’s time machine; supposedly able to impersonate anything, its ‘chameleon circuit’ is broken so it always looks like a blue police telephone box. Even in 1963, these phone boxes were disappearing from the landscape as radio-communication between beat officers and patrol cars became more common (another seminal ’60s TV show, Z Cars, was even about this new form of policing). Eventually, the BBC bought up copyright on the police box design.
Labour and Tory
The two main political parties in Great Britain. The Labour Party (now New Labour) grows out of the Trades Union movement and supposedly represents the interests of working people, while the Conservative (or Tory) Party supposedly represents the interests of the middle and upper classes. The Labour Party eclipsed the Liberal Party in the de facto two-party system of the UK; the Liberal Party, evolved from the 19th Century Whigs, were marginalised in the 1960s but joined with elements estranged from Labour in the 1980s to form what is now the Liberal Democrat Party (Lib-Dems), a major force in local government if still perennially in third-place in general elections.
Peter Cook
Comedian, humorous writer and media personality (1937-95). In the UK, best-remembered for innovative stage and television work in partnership with Dudley Moore. Like Moore, he shouldn’t be judged on the low quality of the Hollywood films he made (cf: Supergirl).
