Macabre was made possible thanks to a Christchurch Creative Communities grant. It will provide a space for locally grown genre fiction and general strangeness not widely available elsewhere. We're after short stories and comic strips. Anything from straight ahead sci-fi and horror, to genre bending slipstream, to gritty pulp nastiness and unrestrained psychedelic head blowouts are welcome to grace the pages of this upcoming publication.

As well as fiction, Macabre would also like to publish articles related to the paranormal, weird science and activities from the lunatic fringe. As we like to say at Macabre, it's a big bag of strange baby. So maybe one of your relatives has just joined a sinister cult, or you've been abducted by aliens. Perhaps your garden gnomes have come alive and eaten all the goldfish, or you know someone who can lift up housebricks with their extremities. If so don't hesitate to write down your experiences/ swamp gas induced hallucinations and send them on in.

We're also looking for reviews of DVDs, books, movies, games, and suchlike that are of the genres represented in Macabre.

Contributions, along with a brief contributors note, artwork and bizarre rants scrawled in green crayon can be sent to -

Macabre: PO Box 2685 Christchurch, New Zealand, Earth.

If you're sending artwork or comics, please make sure they're in greyscale and preferably of A4 size, or the editor will cry and hide in the hot water cupboard, and last time he did that he didn't come out again for three weeks.

* Stories or articles written in biro. Aaaaargh! Please type it up on a word processor. I'll love you forever.

* Not leaving spaces between paragraphs. It's good to leave spaces between paragraphs. It makes things easier to read, especially if there is a lot of text.

* Not sending a Stamped Self Addressed Envelope. This is an abominable crime, and offenders will be put in stocks to be jeered at by small children and pelted with rotten vegetables by angry townsfolk.

* Spellcheckers are good. They were sent down unto us like a gift from the Heavens, and to neglect to check your spelling with one of these wondrous devices is to invite the wrath of the Gods themselves.

* Fan fiction. OK, I'll admit it. I have read some fan fiction and enjoyed it, but there'll be none of that round here, you mark my words, etc. I beg of you not to send me your Star Trek Deepspace Nine/ Shortland Street crossover, even if it's a masterpiece.

* People who leave the newspaper in a disorganised mess in cafes or down the pub. Completely unrelated to Macabre, it just really burns my cookies.

If you can deal with that, so can I.

Cheers,

Andy T Coombs, editor monkey

grohanthizar@yahoo.com

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/macabrenz/