Something for the weekend...

Two very interesting and innovative sites have launched recently in the UK.

Dark Fiction Magazine is now on Issue 2 with the theme Dystopian Desires. This site presents audio short fiction, often read by the author themselves. The current issue contains the following:

• Story: The Crack Angel by Jon Courtenay Grimwood (read by David Moore)
• Story: The Killing Fields by Kim Lakin-Smith (read by Kim Lakin-Smith)
• Story: What Would Nicolas Cage Have Done? by Gareth L Powell (read by Gareth L Powell)
• Story: On the Last Wave by Jennifer Williams (read by Jennifer Williams)

This is a very professional site, with very cool graphics and clear navigation and instructions. You can download the stories either as audio files or an ebook, or do as I do and listen online through the built-in player. The first issue, The Darkness Descends, was launched at Halloween with a fanfare of well deserved praise.

There are also regular episodes of single short stories released in between issues. Follow their blog to keep updated on releases and general news. Personally I am looking forward to the Twelve Days Anthology due for release on the winter solstice (21st December 2010): all 12 stories were submitted for a competition, and the winners are listed here: Twelve Days Anthology: winners
Twitter: @DarkFicMagazine
Facebook: DarkFictionMagazine

Un:Bound Video Editions was launched on 6th December 2010 and it is a 4-part video magazine. the intro trailer below gives a very good overview of what to expect.



This first issue includes:

• inteviews with authors Tony Ballantyne (Twisted Metal, Blood and Iron, Recursion); Mark Charan Newton (Nights of Villjamur, City of Ruin), Adrian Tchaikovsky (Shadows of the Apt series) and Peter F Hamilton (Pandora's Star, The Reality Dysfunction, The Dreaming Void) when they appeared at the Other Worlds con in Sepetember 2010
• an in depth tour of Tor UK publishing house, including Julia Crisp (the woman with the best job in the UK!)
• advice from Angry Robot editor Lee Harris
• news from Alasdair Stuart
• Great Cthulhu, inhuman correspondent

Un:Bound Video Editions has got off to a very promising start. The author discussions were interesting and insightful but I particularly enjoyed the visit to Tor UK where a variety of aspects of publishing were explored, including artwork and marketing plus there were lots of shiny new books on view, including a tantalising glimpse of a China Miéville novel due out next year...

For lovers of Speculative Fiction, Un:Bound Video Editions should be high on your favourites list so visit regularly to see what interesting snippets they post in between their monthly full editions.