A sad note that Screenwriter and Director Dan O’Bannon (Alien, Lifeforce, Dark Star, Return of the Living Dead, Total Recall, The Resurrected) passed away on Thursday 12/17/09 in St. John’s hospital in Santa Monica. He had been fighting a 30-year bout with Crohn’s Desease and finally succumbed to complications stemming from it. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Diane and his son Adam.

My co-editor Jason V Brock and his wife Sunni had become very close to Dan over the past few years and were hit pretty hard by the loss. Jason posted about his friendship with Dan on his blog at WordPress (jasunni.wordpress.com) and we’re planning on featuring some tributes to him in an upcoming issue of DD. It was a pleasure for both Jason and I to be able to feature work from O’Bannon in the anthology Bleeding Edge as well as profile him in Dark Discoveries magazine (along with excerpts from his forthcoming Necronomicon and artwork by Dan).

A huge loss of one of the best screenwriters in the science fiction and dark fantasy field. Dan was incredibly smart and talented and walked his own path. He will be missed!

- James R. Beach

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

A review has already surfaced of the new issue of Dark Discoveries – The H.P. Lovecraft Special. Here’s the link to it at She Never Slept : http://sheneverslept.com/newsandreviews/ . (Thanks Sarah!)

The fall Issue (#15) is done and it’s a H.P. Lovecraft special. Featuring HPL, Brian Lumley, H.R. Giger, Dan O’Bannon, S.T. Joshi, Wilum Pugmire, J.K. Potter, David A. Riley, Cody Goodfellow, Allen K and others.

Issue #15 of Dark Discoveries is at the printer now. It’s a special Lovecraft issue featuring HPL, Brian Lumley, H.R. Giger, Dan O’Bannon, Wilum Pugmire, S.T. Joshi, Kris Kuksi, David A. Riley, J.K. Potter, Cody Goodfellow, Allen Koszowski and more! I should have a proof back in a couple of days and if all goes well it will be done before Thanksgiving.

- James R. Beach
Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Dark Discoveries magazine has now opened for submissions. I’ve revamped the guidelines and raised the pay a bit more. There’s a couple of big changes in that I’m not taking simultaneous submissions anymore and we’re getting tougher on proper formatting, etc. I will still be open to reprints, but will mostly be running classic reprints from older authors. If we meet our mark for the subscription drive by the end of the year, then I’ll bump it up to pro rates ($.05 a word). Currently we’re almost halfway there. See the INFO page for guidelines.

- James R. Beach

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

I’ll be a guest this coming weekend at the yearly Cthulhucon in Portland, OR. (http://hplfilmfestival.com) along with William F. Nolan, Dan O’Bannon, Laird Barron, Wilum Pugmire, S.T. Joshi, Robert Price, Cody Goodfellow, Jemiah Jefferson and my DD co-editor, Jason V Brock (who will be showing his Charles Beaumont Documentary for the first time in full). I’ll be doing panels with Nolan and Brock and also Cody Goodfellow and Laird Barron. I’m also running a dealer’s table for Dark Discoveries so if you’re there, drop on by and say hi!

- James R. Beach
Publisher/Editor-in-chief

With issue #14 hitting around the time my wife had a baby I’m a little behind, but wanted to post a quick update on submissions for Dark Discoveries magazine. Please hold off on sending your submissions for just a short bit longer as I am working with my web person, Sunni Brock, on incorporating a submission section into my web server with a dedicated email, an automated receipt response, tracking system, etc. It will be done very soon, and  then we will be officially re-opening for submissions with an increased pay rate, new guidelines, etc. 

I’m launching a subscription drive now as well. I’m going to have to raise the cover price finally starting January 2010, so I want to give people a chance to take advantage of the lower price now before it goes up. My goal is also to be paying professional pay rates ($.05 a word) by the end of this year. I need 75 subscriptions (renewals will count too) to get there. 

Thanks to the help of my new staff (headed up by my managing editor Jason V Brock – www.jasunni.com) we’re on a solid quarterly schedule for Dark Discoveries – having produced 3 issues since December, 2008 – with the fourth (#15) due in October. My commitment to you is we will continue that in the future. Here’s a taste of what we have slated for you in upcoming issues: 

Issue #15: Lovecraft Special – Featuring H.P. Lovecraft, Brian Lumley, H.R. Giger, Dan O’Bannon, S.T. Joshi, Wilum Pugmire, Cody Goodfellow, Allen Koszowski, David A. Riley and more. 

Issue #16: Horror Comics/Pulps Special – William F. Nolan, Frank M. Robinson, Hugh B. Cave, EC Comics, Dark Horse Comics, Weston Ochse, Paul Bens Jr., and more. 

Issue #17: Dark SciFi Special – Dennis Etchison, Joe Lansdale, John Shirley, Philip Jose Farmer, Harlan Ellison, Philip K. Dick and more. 

Current subscribers wishing to renew their subscription, to find out where you stand, or for any other queries, please drop me a line at: darkdiscoveries@msn.com

James Beach

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Dark Discoveries

www.darkdiscoveries.com

The latest issue of Dark Discoveries – The 50th Anniversary Twilight Zone Special – is now done. It features Richard Matheson, George Clayton Johnson, Earl Hamner, William F. Nolan, John Tomerlin, Marc Scott Zicree, Roger Anker, Jason V Brock, Tony Albarella, Christopher Conlon and more!

- James R. Beach
Publisher/Editor-in-chief
Dark Discoveries

We’re getting ready to head to the printer’s very soon, so we’re opening up pre-orders now for just the Deluxe Signed Edition. There will be only 75 copies of this for sale and with advance interest, we anticipate it will sell out very quickly. The Deluxe Edition features a special handmade binding with textured faux leather, foil stamping, a reading ribbon, individual signed colophon author sheets, 7 art inserts, and a color dust jacket.

This anthology features all-new/previously unpublished work from an amazing group of writers. Here’s the lineup:

Cover and interior art by Kris Kuksi
Foreword – S.T. Joshi
Introduction – William F. Nolan and Jason V Brock
“Some Of My Best Friends Are Martians” – Ray Bradbury 
“De Mortuis” – John Tomerlin
“Love & Magick” – James Robert Smith
“Madri-Gall” – Richard Matheson & R.C. Matheson
“Hope and the Maiden” – Nancy Kilpatrick
“The Death and Life of Caesar LaRue” – Earl Hamner
“A Certain Disquieting Darkness” – Gary A Braunbeck
“The Boy Who Became Invisible” – Joe R. Lansdale
“Getting Along Just Fine” – William F. Nolan
“The Grandfather Clock” – George Clayton Johnson
“Triptych: Three Bon Bons” – Christopher Conlon
“The Hand That Feeds” – Kurt Newton
“The Central Coast” – Jason V Brock
“Omnivore” – Dan O’Bannon
“Just A Suggestion” – John Shirley
“I, My Father, and Weird Tales” – Frank M. Robinson
“Silk City” – Lisa Morton
“Red Light” – Steve Rasnic Tem
“How It Feels To Murder” – Norman Corwin
“At The Riding School” – Cody Goodfellow

To order, follow the link to our special page we’ve set up for the book. The Deluxe Edition is on sale for $175.00 (We’re offering $20 off for pre-orders). Shipping will be a flat $15 in the US for Priority Airmail with Insurance and Delivery confirmation. More for overseas.

Here’s the link: http://jasunni.com/shop/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=1

There will also be a trade hardcover retailing for $65 ($55 with newsletter coupon or pre-reserve). These will be unnumbered and 400 copies will be done. These will be signed by the editors William F. Nolan and Jason V Brock. We’re not asking for payments now for these as the number being produced is much larger, but you can drop us a note via email or post to reserve a copy for you (and then you can get the discount for it).

- James R. Beach and Jason V Brock
(Dark Discoveries Pub.)(Cycatrix Press)
www.darkdiscoveries.com
www.jasunni.com

We’re hard at work on getting this all put together now. Look for it in late July/early August. We’re waiting on one last essay, but here’s the bulk of the lineup:

FICTION:
Richard Matheson -”Nightmare At 20,000 Feet”
Jason V Brock – “Black Box” (Sequel to “Nightmare”)
Earl Hamner Jr. – “Reflections”
William F. Nolan – “Free Dirt” (Teleplay based on a Charles Beaumont tale)
Jason Sizemore – “City Hall”

INTERVIEWS:
George Clayton Johnson
Jason Brock (on his Charles Beaumont Documentary)

NONFICTION:

Tony Abarella – article on Rod Serling
Earl Hamner Jr. – Essay on writing for TZ
John Tomerlin – Essay on writing for TZ
Roger Anker – Excerpt from his Charles Beaumont Biography
Jason Brock – Article on the nucleus of “The Group”
Christopher Conlon – Article on Unproduced TZ Scripts
Henry Covert – Column on TZ comics
Bill Gauthier – Column on Beaumont

- James Beach
Publisher/Editor-in-chief
Dark Discoveries