Nice Guys Finish Last was the title of a story by Gary Jonas, which Barnes & Noble Books cut from the anthology 100 Wicked Little Witch Stories. It was rescued by Oklahoma’s Ozark Triangle Press, who published it in chapbook format. From the same imprint also came Jonas’ Curse of the Magazine Killers, a collection of four stories which were sold to markets which subsequently folded before they could publish them.
Britain’s Enigma Press kicked off its series of Enigmatic Novellas chapbooks with Moths by L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims, followed by The Dark Satanic, a collection of two novellas by Paul Finch, and Candlelight Ghost Stories, two traditional ghost stories by Anthony Morris.
11th Hour Productions launched a series of Twilight Tales chapbooks featuring Chicago-area authors with Tales of Forbidden Passion, Dangerous Dames, Strange Creatures and Winter Tales, all edited by Tina L. Jens.
There was not much horror or dark fantasy in the eleven issues of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction published in 1998 under editor Gordon Van Gelder. Novelettes by Joyce Carol Oates and Tanith Lee were the standouts, and there was also fine fiction from Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Ian MacLeod, Ian Watson, Elizabeth Hand, Howard Waldrop and Phyllis Eisenstein. At least Douglas E. Winter’s occasional book review column kept the flag flying for horror.
Edited by David Pringle, Britain’s monthly Interzone continued to showcase some of the best imaginative fiction available, along with articles and reviews. Among the authors featured were Tanith Lee, Paul J. McAuley, Don Webb, Thomas M. Disch, Ian Watson, Gary Couzens, Michael Bishop, Cherry Wilder, John Whitbourn, Gwyneth Jones, Darrell Schweitzer, Ramsey Campbell and Kim Newman, plus interviews with Whitbourn, Jones, Stephen Gallagher, Sarah Ash, Dennis Etchison, John Shirley and Jack Williamson.
Under new publisher DNA Publications, Worlds of Fantasy & Horror changed its name back again to Weird Tales, but it remained a pale imitation of the legendary pulp magazine under the editorship of Darrell Schweitzer. Tanith Lee, Melanie Tem, Ian Watson, David J. Schow, Brian Stableford and S. P. Somtow were among the authors who contributed to the two over-sized issues published in 1998.
Cemetery Dance edited by Richard T. Chizmar included fiction by Thomas Tessier, Nancy A. Collins, Ed Gorman, Gary Raisor, Chaz Brenchley, Hugh B. Cave, Norman Partridge, Jack Ketchum, Poppy Z. Brite, Dennis Etchison, Douglas Clegg, Joe R. Lansdale and Norman Partridge, plus interviews with Tessier, Cave, Brian Hodge, Michael Marshall Smith, Edward Bryant, David Morrell, David B. Silva and Ramsey Campbell. With the tenth anniversary number, the magazine moved from a quarterly to a bi-monthly schedule and expanded its content per issue.
Andy Cox’s glossy quarterly The Third Alternative included new fiction from Conrad Williams, Jason Gould, Rhys Hughes, Christopher Priest, James Lovegrove, Paul Finch, Joel Lane, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jeff VanderMeer and Tom Piccirilli, plus interviews with Priest, Graham Joyce, Jonathan Coe and Joyce Carol Oates. Odyssey edited by Liz Holliday published three issues with fiction by Darrell Schweitzer, Charles Stross, Richard Parks, Roz Kaveney and Ian Watson, interviews with Stephen Baxter and Tim Powers, and an appreciation of the late George Hay by David Langford.
After disappearing in 1994,Amazing Stories, the oldest of the science fiction magazines (created in 1926), was once again resurrected in July, this time by gaming company Wizards of the Coast. Unfortunately, despite an initial print-run of around 75,000 copies, the new contents were mostly limited to media tie-in fiction (including Star Trek), articles and reviews.
In June, Stephen King had a new short story, “That Feeling, You Can Only Say What it is in French” in the Summer Fiction Double Issue of The New Yorker.
The special S/M issue of Barry Hoffman’s Gauntlet: Exploring the Limits of Free Expression included an interview with Clive Barker by Del Howison and fiction by Poppy Z. Brite. The following number featured Howison’s interview with Richard Christian Matheson, a spoof interview with/by Brite, plus short fiction by Matheson and Richard T. Chizmar, and a novel excerpt from editor Hoffman.
Ténèbres: Toutes les couleurs du Fantastique was a new quarterly magazine launched in France that attempted to provide a professional market for fantastic literature. Edited by Daniel Conrad and Benoit Domis, the first three issues included fiction by Jay R. Bonansinga, Les Daniels, Stephen Dedman, Poppy Z. Brite, Christa Faust, Nancy Kilpatrick, John Brunner, Terry Dowling and Kim Newman, along with interviews with Dan Simmons, Brite, Faust, Kilpatrick and Newman.
Omni Online included a round-robin story written by Elizabeth Hand, John Clute, Kathleen Ann Goonan, Kim Newman and Jonathan Lethem, and another collaboration from Kelley Eskridge, Graham Joyce, Edward Bryant and Kathe Koja before the website was closed down in March, following the death of founder Kathy Keeton in 1997. Four former editors of the site, including Ellen Datlow, subsequently launched the new fiction webzineEvent Horizon (http://www.eventhorizon.com/sfzine) five months later with fiction and columns by Terry Dowling, Pat Cadigan, Lucius Shepard, Jack Womack, Edward Bryant and others. Another round-robin story by Jay Russell, Elizabeth Massie, Roberta Lannes and Brian Hodge appeared over the November and December issues.
The March issue of the Book and Magazine Collector contained an overview of the career of “R. Chetwynd-Hayes: Master of the Macabre” by David Whitehead, along with a very useful bibliography and a guide to the current values of the author’s first editions. The same issue also included articles on “Arthur Conan Doyle and the Paranormal”, “Aubrey Beardsley and The Savoy” and the usual pages of bookseller ads. The annual SF, fantasy and horror issue of AB Bookman’s Weekly in October featured a profile of Lord Dunsany by Henry Wessells, along with reviews and book dealer ads.
Dean Koontz was the featured writer in the December issue of Publisher’s Weekly’s The Author Series twenty-page supplement. During an informative interview with Jeff Zaleski, Koontz revealed that his presidency of the Horror Writers of America would haunt him forever, and that he resigned his office because of excessive political infighting in the organisation, particularly over awards. “I’ve written some horror,” the author also admitted, “but I don’t like horror.”
Edited monthly by Frederick S. Clarke and Steve Biodrowski, the always-excellent Cinefantastique included in-depth features on Tomorrow Never Dies, Blade, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Lost in Space, Species II, The X Files movie, Mulan, Virus, Mighty Joe Young, and double-issues based around The Outer Limits, The X Files and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.