Theaker's Quarterly Fiction #31

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If you've had a good Christmas, it's about to get better! If you've had a bad one, here is its saving grace! Theaker's 31 is here for your pleasure! We've got eight terrific stories and nineteen reviews. We have fantasy from Zachary Jernigan and Heather Anastasiu, horror from Alex Smith and David M. Kinne, science fiction from Alison J. Littlewood, David Tallerman, Glynn Barrass and John Greenwood, though as ever these labels are applied somewhat loosely! The marvellous cover is by Howard Watts, while Douglas Ogurek and Rafe McGregor supply reviews.

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Merry Christmas!

Welcome to issue 31 of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction. I hope you think that this is an issue worth waiting for! We’ve got eight of our best ever stories, plus nineteen reviews. Hope you’ve all had a lovely Christmas!

Gone Google

We’ve pretty much gone completely Google here at Silver Age Books. We’re using Gmail for our email, Chrome for browsing, Docs for writing reviews, and we’re working on a new version of our website in Google Sites. We’d use Wave for collaborating if we could persuade everyone else to sign up! Not everyone is so happy with them, though: The Guardian reports that Ursula K. LeGuin has resigned from the Authors Guild in protest at their deal with Google Books.

Lateness

Sorry that this issue is a couple of months late, especially to our contributors, who have been exceptionally patient! I took on quite a bit of freelance work over the last couple of months, meaning TQF fell to the bottom of the pile for a while. We’re still thinking about the best approach to take next year, but we’ll let you know as soon as we know. One way or another the magazine will continue!

Robert Holdstock

Robert Holdstock, who died on November 29, was, like J.G. Ballard or James Ellroy, an author I’d enjoyed and massively admired, but always meant to read more of. I loved his Elite novella, The Dark Wheel, when I was a kid, and later thoroughly enjoyed his Night Hunter series (written under the name Robert Faulcon), and of course his most famous novel, Mythago Wood. I was thrilled last year to be able to publish an interview with him in Dark Horizons. He’ll be much missed.

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Editorial

• Merry Christmas! Stephen Theaker

• Contributors

Fantasy

• All My Ghosts, Zachary Jernigan

• Under the Blighted Tree, Heather Anastasiu

Horror

• Little Yellow Bird, Alex Smith

• Street Lights, David M. Kinne

Science Fiction

• Day of the Bromeliads, Alison J. Littlewood

• Friendly, David Tallerman

• Nu-Topia: Before the Fall, Glynn Barrass

• Newton Braddell and His Inconclusive Researches into the Unknown: Some Observations on the Natural History of Kadaloor, John Greenwood

The Quarterly Review

Books

• Bad Karma

• Contagious

• Different Skins

• Forever Twilight, Vol. 1: Darkness Darkness

• Frenzy

• Gilbert and Edgar on Mars

• The Magicians

• Mister Gum

• The Nyctalope on Mars

• Queen Victoria: Demon Hunter

• Starfall

• Ultrameta: a Fractal Novel

Comics

• The Girly Comic Book 1

Movies

• The Machine Girl

• Paranormal Activity

• Zombie Virus on Mulberry Street

Radio

• ElvenQuest

Television

• Kröd Mändoon and the Flaming Sword of Fire

• Warehouse 13

Also Received

• But Not Yet Reviewed

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Here are the people who cracked the eggs to make this omelette…

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Heather Anastasiu lives just south of Austin, Texas. She has a Bachelor’s in Theology and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Literature at Texas State University. She has work forthcoming in the literary review Mud Luscious.

Glynn Barrass information can be found in his dread domain, Stranger Aeons. His previous work can be found in publications such as The Yellow Sign, Tales of the Talisman and Curious Tales of Books Gone Bad.

John Greenwood, both gentle man and gentleman, is the co-editor of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction and long-time chronicler of Newton Braddell’s adventures.

Zachary Jernigan is an MFA candidate in University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast program. He writes mostly science fiction, and once ate 80 chicken wings in a single sitting. His turn-ons include: white knee socks, ’90s alternative rock, the Oregon coast, and the smell of used bookstores. Tell him he stinks at facebook.com/zachary.jernigan.

David M. Kinne is a podgy American ambling aimlessly somewhere under the milky, overcast skies of Missouri. Presumed harmless.

Alison J. Littlewood has contributed to Dark Horizons, Read by Dawn 3, Black Static, Aoife’s Kiss and the Potter’s Field 3 anthology. She lives in West Yorkshire, England, where she spends far too much time dreaming and writing strange notes to herself on scraps of paper. See her website at www.alisonlittlewood.co.uk.

Alex Smith is the editor of Dick Pig Review and Red China Magazine.

David Tallerman can be found online at https://www.davidtallerman.co.uk/blog. His fiction has appeared in Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Pseudopod, Hub and Dark Horizons.

Stephen Theaker is the eponymous editor of Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction. He wrote most of this issue’s reviews. He is also the editor of Dark Horizons, the journal of the British Fantasy Society.

Howard Watts is an artist from Brighton. He has previously supplied covers for Pantechnicon magazine.

Douglas Ogurek and Rafe McGregor (www.rafemcgregor.co.uk) contribute reviews to this issue.