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News 1995

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Rather than being true news items, these notes were originally part of an SAB Chronology that appeared on the site when it was first created. These four magazines weren't actually published under the name "Silver Age Books" (it was used for the first time in 1998).

New Words #4 Published! (July/August 1995)

Issue 4 of New Words published. By this point the contributions were pouring in.  This issue featured “The Dove” by Sarah Singleton, “Bus” by Steven Gilligan, “Sister Lovers” by Harsh Grewal, “Goat Tale” by Trevor Denyer, “Cleanliness” by John Greenwood and “The Final Throw” by Robert Neilson, a great story of American Football on an alien planet. That year, New Words ranked among the top ten SF fanzines, as voted for by readers of SFX, but the pressures of trying to put a magazine together without a PC finally told, and though a number of stories were ready for issue 5, no-one ever got round to typing them up. For a while, it seemed as if the dream had died.

New Words #3 Published! (May/June 1995)

Issue 3 of New Words published. Subtitle: “No Exit”.  Contributions included: “13 Definitions to Say What You Don’t Mean”, by Lisa Shopland, “Revenge of the Post-Historic Skeletal Polyhedrons” by W D Sparrow, “Glastonbury” by Trevor Denyer, “Car Bomb” by Ben Chadwick, “Something is Always Missing” by Steven Gilligan, “Flying Jim” by Janice Slonezewski, “A Meditation on the Intricacy of Prison Bars” by John Greenwood, and a “Novena to the Sacred Magazine of New Words”.  This issue featured another contribution from Howard Phillips, who probably won’t thank us for reprinting here some of his “SF Poetry”.

“Cordophilia” – Howard Phillips

Cordwainer Smith was a really fine fellow, / Though that was a pseudonym and he was crazy. / He was adviser to the US in the Korean War. / When the defeated Korean soldiers would rather die than give up their arms, / He pointed out that the Chinese words / For love, duty, humanity and virtue, when shouted out loud / Sounded just like the English of “I surrender”. / He saved their lives, and who knows? He might save yours. / Altogether now: Martel was angry. / He did not even adjust his blood away from anger.

New Words #2 Published! (Summer 1995)

Issue 2 of New Words published. Subtitled “Words and Pictures”, this issue featured “Diary Entries and Exits” by John Greenwood, “Cerebomni’s Memorine” by Polly Jebson, “21 Reasons” by Ben Chadwick, “The King George Theatre” by Steven Gilligan, and “The Sad, Sad Story of Henry D– and Edgar C–“ by S W Theaker (generously described in an Interzone review as “average” – the same review went on to describe the magazine as “dog-eared”, presumably a compliment, indicating it had been well-read). It also printed a silly little story from Howard Phillips, “Aproo Stsoori”, which we might as well reprint here in full.

“Approo Ststoori” – Howard Phillips

Long, long ago, in a galaxy quite close by, there lived a dryly humorous young fellow by the name of Marr. He was an alien, and so, of course, his society was quite different from ours. The Archtellians had to spend all their time training to pass the Archtellian Rite of Passage, after which they would become full Archtellian knights – Tturrs. These trainees were called Zells. To pass the rite of passage, the young Zells had to demonstrate a certain amount of stoicity and emotionlessness. The instructors of Marr were happy with many aspects of his training, but they couldn’t bear the constant ironical comments that he would make during the tests. And for this reason, they wouldn’t allow him to become a full Tturr, and he had to spend years and years trying to suppress his dry wit. But eventually there was a change of government, and the new, enlightened leaders decided that they would forgive the Zell his humour in light of his sterling ability in warfare. And so, after a very, very long time, Marr-Zell finally became a wry Tturr.

New Words #1 Published! (Spring 1995)

Issue 1 of New Words published. Subtitled “The Magazine of Fantastic Fiction” (the double meaning being intentional), it featured a number of interesting contributions. From Steven Gilligan came the tale of “Olroch and Raymond’s Sea Journey on Wheels”. Writing under the pseudonym of William Higman, S W Theaker wrote “The First Sally of Klothe and Melenkius; or, How Things Came to Be”. The story was a quickly written Stanislaw Lem knock-off, but the characters would crop up three years later in Professor Challenger in Space. Other contributions included “Frank and the Hermaphrodites” by Jacob Miller, “Blue Jeans and Moonbeams” by Sarah Stone, and a non-fiction piece from Howard Phillips, “Time to Take Stock”.