DANGEROUS VISIONS

THE JOURNAL THAT LEANED BACK TOWARDS A SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY ANTHOLOGY

Last year I announced my intention to make a WRONG NUMBER journal. The original model was based upon SF&F anthologies and literary journals, the driving force being fiction. However, the thought processes that transformed it from something I intended doing to something I was doing very much took into account my past experience on music magazines. Adding fuel to this was my indulgence in hauntology around that time, which gave certain genre elements more prominence with me than they normally have. I thought it prudent to involve some music writers that I knew, and in an attempt to get them on board I pitched a greater number of music pieces than I intended to include in the journal. I think that actually backfired. That and the early over-focus on horror. What it did was provide a false impression of what the WRONG NUMBER journal was about. I had to go back to the drawing board.

That's not to say that my initial blog pitch was way off. It just started to go that way soon after. Core ideas do remain from that pitch. The dangerous fictions of Christopher Priest had blasted my mind into action and I knew I wanted to try and get an interview with him to launch WRONG NUMBER in its physical form. Let's just say that that impulse certainly remains. 

It was therefore more a case of recalibration that needed to be carried out. This mainly equated to stripping out some horror stuff and gutting the music. I wanted the genre stuff to be more naturally balanced to what I'm into. Horror will sit beside SF and Fantasy, but not be allowed to scare the others into submission. Music is not something that will be covered in the pages of WRONG NUMBER. I was done with covering music years ago and have no interest in going back. That's not to say that music doesn't exert an influence on me or my writing - my most recent short story Leaving This Island samples the Pastels song of the same name - but I'm not approaching it on its own. So that was all really about dealing with the non-fiction aspects of the journal. I was all too aware that WRONG NUMBER had tilted in favour of non-fiction over fiction though, which I saw as a problem. What I wanted originally was to put out an anthology of sorts. 

An anthology suggested a one-time deal. That struck a chord. Here was me busy considering second and third issues, when I should have put everything into the one. Okay, no issue number. I would aim to get everything in that I wanted, no hanging around. And, vitally, I would need to go on the hunt for new fiction. I've got some great people writing stories for me as we speak, but I need to widen that net. Which is what I'm about to do. So this is me reaching out - any writerly types out there, tell me your stories!

No issue number, but the theme remains in place. It was only communicated to contributors previously, but the doors are wide open now. So, for those who don't already know, the theme is FAKERS AND FAKERY. You can thank Orson Welles for that. Think of him science fictionalised in Mark Gatiss's fantastic Invaders from Mars audio drama for Big Finish. 

Of course it doesn't take Professor Brian Cox to explain that since the universe of WRONG NUMBER is expanding, then it will take more time to pull it all back together. Rather than rushing matters, I'm pretty much giving the journal 2013 in entirety. As pieces are submitted throughout the year I can get them edited. This approach means that I can also focus on my own book writing activities. 

What I will say is that although there have been changes along the way and deadlines have gone the way of the big bang, WRONG NUMBER in physical form will happen. It will be a book of sorts, and you will be able to pick it up and read it. This is not going the way of Harlan Ellison's never-to-appear but never-actually-aborted The Last Dangerous Visions anthology. Christopher Priest will not be writing an exploration of its non-appearance. WRONG NUMBER will appear and at precisely the right time. 


"IT DOESN'T MATTER. I HAVE BOOKS, NEW BOOKS, AND I CAN BEAR ANYTHING AS LONG AS THERE ARE BOOKS."

That's a quotation from the magnificent, life alteringly brilliant Among Others by Jo Walton, which has basically taken every award in the field. Its references to classic SF novels from the 1970s and earlier will have you rummaging through your bookshelves after finally putting it down. Dig out that James Tiptree, Jnr. collection you've been meaning to get to (I did, and I've learned what others have been saying for years: James Tiptree/Alice Sheldon was one of the greatest writers ever to have lived); hunt high and low for that Samuel R. Delany two-novels-in-one-paperback you picked up in Aberdeen ages ago; finally arrive at Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Then you will want to order up another Roger Zelazny, buy a couple of Larry Nivens and get on that Robert Silverberg tip. 

With that in mind, I'll pass along a few words on Walton and Tiptree, courtesy of me on Goodreads. 


AMONG OTHERS 
By JO WALTON

"There are some awful things in the world, it's true, but there are also some great books." So Mori tells her diary - and us - early on in Jo Walton's miraculous novel. It's an idea that will resonate with anyone who loves books more than others would lead you to believe is healthy. Among Others speaks to those of us who filter much of our lives through what we read. More than mere enjoyment, it gets right under your skin, burrowing into your very soul.

I deeply, deeply love this book about books. The Fantasy narrative runs throughout, but acts as a framing device for the real. Jo Walton has lived these words and can communicate what that means to the reader. Mori is the most voracious of readers and her constant mention of particular SF and Fantasy books she is buying and reading is the furthest it could be from window dressing. These stories are figurative crutches she uses to understand the world around her - despite real magic being nothing like it is in the stories.

One of the finest novels of recent years and an instant classic, in the truest possible sense.

I could go on for days without getting to the heart of what makes this book so completely special. Among Others is waiting for you. Go and get lost in it.


HER SMOKE ROSE UP FOREVER 
By JAMES TIPTREE, JNR. 

An astonishing collection of cutting edge 1970s science fiction that loses none of its power when read today. James Tiptree, Jnr's explorations of gender and the failures of the human race may be bleak, but absolutely get to the core of us. That James Tiptree, Jnr was in fact Alice Sheldon only deepens her brilliance, highlighting certain depths within her stories. And these are stories of the very highest calibre.


THE CITY ON THE EDGE OF FOREVER

Thought I would sign out as I began, on a Harlan Ellison note. I'm really quite delighted with my recently acquired Star Trek TOS tee. Artist Juan Ortiz has designed awesome retro style movie posters for each episode of the original series; welovefine.com have been making them into t-shirts. I had to get one. This is what it has on it.

Somewhere in time, Dr. McCoy has gone insane. 

THE YEAR WITH A CLOCK IN ITS WALLS

The year according to WRONG NUMBER. Although that's never quite true. Because as usual many of the incredible books, films and television shows I encountered hailed from slightly more distant pasts. No room for them on such a list. Instead, here are some highlights from 2012, give or take. 


TELEVISION
I've opted to showcase some particularly outstanding episodes, rather than just listing my favourite shows. 

DOCTOR WHO 

Series 7 episodes

"The Snowmen"

"The Angels Take Manhattan"

"Asylum of the Daleks"

FRINGE

Season 5 episodes

"An Origin Story"

"The Bullet That Saved the World"

"Black Blotter"

SHERLOCK

Series 2 episodes

"The Reichenbach Fall"

"A Scandal in Belgravia"

GAME OF THRONES 

Season 2 episodes

"Valar Morghulis"

"Blackwater"

"Garden of Bones"

MAD MEN

Season 5 episodes

"The Other Woman"

"The Phantom"

"Commissions and Fees"

PARADE'S END

Miniseries

Note that I'm a little behind with BREAKING BAD and COMMUNITY, which is the only reason they do not make an appearance. Catching up on DVD.

BOOKS

I'm including graphic novels and audio dramas. Just because.

LONDON FALLING 

Paul Cornell

THE ISLANDERS 

Christopher Priest

WINTER JOURNAL

Paul Auster

THE TROUPE

Robert Jackson Bennett

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER SEASON 9

FREEFALL (Vol. 1)

Writers: Joss Whedon and Andrew Chambliss Artist: Georges Jeanty

ON YOUR OWN (Vol. 2)

Writers: Andrew Chambliss and Scott Allie Artist: Georges Jeanty

ANGEL & FAITH 

LIVE THROUGH THIS (Vol. 1)

DADDY ISSUES (Vol. 2)

Writer: Christos Gage Artist: Rebekah Isaacs

BONELAND 

Alan Garner

DOCTOR WHO: DARK EYES

An audio drama by Nicholas Briggs

DOCTOR WHO: LOVE AND WAR

An audio drama based on the novel by Paul Cornell

Adapted by Jacqueline Rayner

There remains a stack of 2012-ish books sitting at WRONG NUMBER HQ, begging to be read. Soon my pretties, soon... 

FILM
I used to put way too much effort into producing a top ten movies of the year, but that was back in the pre-fatherhood days when I was a super regular cinemagoer. To be fair, I did get out to the cinema a bit more again this year. Yay for me.

THE CABIN IN THE WOODS

(Dir: Drew Goddard)

BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO

(Dir: Peter Strickland)

SKYFALL

(Dir: Sam Mendes)

ARGO

(Dir: Ben Affleck)

THE AVENGERS

(Dir: Joss Whedon)

THE JOURNAL

PART 1: THOUGHTS TUMBLING OUT OF MY MIND         

“It was a wrong number that started it, the telephone ringing three times in the dead of night, and the voice on the other end asking for someone he was not.”

So begins Paul Auster’s City of Glass. It’s a mystery I still find irresistible, an invitation I can never refuse. I had wanted to use the phrase “Wrong Number” somewhere for quite a few years. Initially it was going to sit behind some film work I was doing, but the words later became the name of an almost imaginary journal. It was with this idea in mind that I finally started my WRONG NUMBER blog. And now it’s time to begin putting together the journal that the blog was designed to support. To make it real.

WRONG NUMBER was going to be an anthology of short stories. To put that in the context of me, I’d moved away from writing about music around 2007. The next few years saw me make a handful of short films. Although artistic failures, those films helped me get into the way of generating story ideas. That led to writing fiction, which had always been my goal; I’d just not been able to do it before. So, I would put out a fiction anthology, featuring my beloved SF&F and horror. Well, no. The more I thought about it, the more the idea didn’t seem the right fit. I know a number of awesome writers (some of you may be reading this right now), but they operate primarily within non-fiction fields, music being the big one. I obviously wanted to get as many of these talented individuals involved as possible, so it made sense to open the doors to include not only fiction, but non-fiction and everything else in between. That’s when the idea really started to take hold for me.

I loved being New Bands editor on Plan B, but eventually got burned out on new music. I retreated into films and books, as I do, then found a new lease of musical life through watching a lot of 1960s and 1970s European cinema. French new wave scores, Jean-Claude Vannier, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders – it all fed back into what I was writing at the time. David Lynch has never been far from the (formica) table for me and the likes of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me has been a staple soundtrack for reading to since the mid-nineties. Without boring you to death here, the point I am trying to make is that I may have stopped writing about music and ceased to make films, but music and films continue to have a massive influence on my writing. That’s the way I like it.

More recently, a growing obsession with classic Doctor Who sent me crashing into Nigel Kneale and Paul Cornell. It helped that weird fiction and H.P. Lovecraft had already been hanging around. I’d been writing to Bernard Herrmann’s scores for Hitchcock and The Twilight Zone, ephemera on Finders Keepers, the ever present Pastelism of Geographic and not forgetting the increasing lure of Shirley Collins and the Albion Band. Having been holed up in a hidden writing bunker, I’d somehow missed Ghost Box records. They were of course an obsession waiting to happen. And I’ve got to thank Joe Stannard for pointing me in the direction of Kemper Norton, Pye Corner Audio and Black Mountain Transmitter: missing sonic links to my reading, watching and writing.

Black Mountain Transmitter’s Black Goat of the Woods is a case in point: a 40-odd minute darkening ode to Lovecraft bookended by John Carpenter-esque excursions. Playing it whilst writing helped channel much of the mood I was after, even if it may appear far from the surface in the finished product. That’s the type of pathway I’d like to suggest for the journal. So, gates open. They need not open onto Hell. But I won’t mind if they do.

WRONG NUMBER will aim to sit on the borderland, like the house that William Hope Hodgson spoke of. Its realities need to be dangerous, its unrealities a little too inviting. It was meant to be another SF&F/horror/weird fiction anthology, but the wrong person picked up its call. Now it will be something else.

PART 2: TUMBLING THOUGHTS MASQUERADING AS INFORMATION

[This section of the document was distributed privately. It was not removed, as some have speculated, by a disillusioned future contributor.]

PART 3: SKETCHES ON THE INSIDE

Thanks for listening. Before you go, here’s an inconclusive list of things not quite mentioned in the above. Things that are on my mind and may relate to what I’m trying to do here.

• The all too real unfictions of Christopher Priest’s The Affirmation and A Dream of Wessex
• Hitchcock’s Vertigo (following Kim Novak down those streets, always)
• Stage magic in Celine and Julie Go Boating
• The Doctor Who of Holmes and Hinchcliffe, The Daemons and The Visitation
• Boards of Canada, Broadcast and Warp
• The Twilight Zone and Richard Matheson
• The Andromeda Strain, Altered States and Last Night (the Canadian end of the world indie from 1998)
• Voice of the Fire by Alan Moore
• Rodinsky’s Room by Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair (not only a real mystery reminiscent of early Auster, but one that centres around an East London street where I used to work)
• Scully’s dead father appearing to her in The X-Files Beyond the Sea
• Island films by Ingmar Bergman
• A mythic Bristol playing out to the sounds of Movietone
• Project Blue Book’s relationship with the Black Lodge
• Ken Russell’s The Devils and Mordant Music’s MisinforMation
• M.R. James, Arthur Machen and Shirley Jackson
• Electric Eden by Rob Young and discovering the house called Fairport near where I live
• Lev Grossman’s excavations of C.S. Lewis in The Magicians and The Magician King
• Watching Bagpuss and reading John Burningham picture books with my daughter
• The Wicker Man / Don’t Look Now 1973 double-bill
• Tarlair, an abandoned 1930s outdoor swimming pool in my hometown Macduff
• A dream of living on the coast of Cornwall… winding away into the future