Chills, issue 10

The final Chills, issue 10, edited by Peter Coleborn and Simon MacCulloch, was published by the BFS in 1996 (£3.00/$6.00). The cover illustration depicted a bearded gent reading a tome of some dubious ancient lore. Some people assumed it was a picture of your equally-bearded editor; I assure you it’s not – besides, gent’s nose is too large.

Once again, sadly, we had no artwork illustrating specific stories. In fact, artwork is only represented by the fabulous cover (by Russell Morgan) and one spot piece by Martin McKenna. The contents were:

“How the Buckie Was Saved” by David Sutton
“A Musical Calling” by Raymond Nickford
“Beal’s Scrapyard” by Peter Bayliss
“A Cry For Help” by Martin Plumbridge
“Carousel” by Debbie Bennett
“Someone Else’s Problem” by Michael Marshall Smith
“The Lady With Little Friends in Her Hair” (verse) by Mark McLaughlin

So why did Chills end with its tenth issue? For starters, the ten issues covered a decade, more-or-less, and I felt that it was time to give the magazine a rest, at least for a while; and I wanted to pursue some other activities, including joining the editorial team on the BFS’s elder journal, Dark Horizons. Mike Chinn and I co-edited and co-produced DH with Phil Williams (and with Joel Lane in charge of poetry).

Contributors to Winter Chills/Chills were: Allen Ashley, Clive Barker, Roy Bayfield, Peter Bayliss, Debbie Bennett, Gilles Bergal, David F Bischoff, Sydney J Bounds, Ramsey Campbell, Dave Carson, Alan Casey, R Chetwynd-Hayes, Mike Chinn, Richard Coady, Bob Covington, Ken Cowley, Charles Dougherty, Phil Emery, Frank Forte, Neil Gaiman, Stephen Gallagher, Dallas Goffin, Jim Garrison, Phoenix Hitch, Mark Hockley, Peter A Hough, Tony Hough, Alan Hunter, Ian Hunter, Stephen Jones, Andrew S Jordan, Rick Kennett, Rick Kleffel, Allen Koszowski, Arke Kriske, Joel Lane, Alan W Lear, Ben Leech, DF Lewis, Thomas Ligotti, Steve Lines, Brian Lumley, Martin McKenna, Mark McLaughlin, Brian Maycock, MB, Chris Morgan, Russell Morgan, Russ Nicholson, Raymond Nickford, Jeffrey Osier, Norman Partridge, Nigel Pennington, Jim Pitts, Stephen Player, Martin Plumbridge, Andrew Pye, Mark Rainey, Paul Roland, Nicholas Royle, Jeff Salmon, Guy N Smith, Michael Marshall Smith, Sylvia Starshine, John Stewart, David Sutton, Stephen Skwarek, Steve Rasnic Tem, Tia Travis, Peter Tremayne, Lisa Tuttle, Ian Watson, William Thomas Webb, Conrad Williams … and of course my fellow editor Simon McCulloch. My thanks and appreciation to all of you.

Very quickly BFS and other UK small presses were upping the ante as far as production values are concerned – all down to access to home computers and DTP programs. In comparison, Chills looked a little primitive. But the magazine, along with others in that era, was part of the evolutionary process. Whatever, I look back on it with fond memories.

Glancing through Chills 10, I note that BFS membership was still a mere £15.00 a year. FantasyCon XX was scheduled for 4-6 October 1996, at the International Hotel in London. The guests of honour were Christopher Fowler and Tom Holt, with Kim Newman acting as the master of ceremonies. FCXX was the trial run for the following year’s World Fantasy Convention. The 1997 WFC took place in the same Dockland’s hotel, over the weekend 30 October-2 November. This was the second time the event was held in London.