tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195234812011-11-28T02:06:41.842+02:00Mindless ramblings by the editor of a quarterly horror magazineJoehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.comBlogger391100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-3773809172415227712010-07-06T11:51:00.004+02:002010-07-06T11:59:45.926+02:00

Well, with the World Cup almost at a close and South Africans preparing themselves to go back to their boring mundane day-to-day lives, I thought it might be apt for me to go over some of the feelings and emotions experienced over the last three weeks.In so many ways it has been one of the most amazing times of my life. To be in South Africa while we hosted the world cup has been extraordinary.

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-7333228101068129712009-06-02T10:20:00.002+02:002009-06-02T17:41:02.233+02:00

There are few things in this world as wonderful as sitting and writing while listening to music with my gorgeous cat Sam sitting by my side. Sure she is a bit of critic (I don't think she likes Björk) but in general she's the sweetest thing.In case you're wondering, I'm enjoying my first day off in the last two months. That's not entirely true as it isn't exactly a day off. I'm catching up on

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-53199788500144450942009-03-19T06:11:00.005+02:002009-03-19T06:27:47.130+02:00

Short one this time.Just read an article titled "Britons Soak Up Spring Sunshine" - on Yahoo! NewsApparently "London has become warmer than Istanbul...In the capital, office workers were seen sunbathing in parks as temperatures soared to 15C"Now, I may be going insane here, but the word "soared" and 15C shouldn't really ever be in the same sentence.Right now Capetownians are freezing our asses

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-17211201531864050682009-03-18T04:18:00.013+02:002009-03-19T12:32:54.792+02:00

So Vianne and I were catching up on some BSG when she heard some sirens and decided to check out the back door to see if Signal Hill was on fire.She stepped out, looked around and saw nothing and so turned around to come back in at which point I hear - "Joe come here now!".I flew up and out to find out what was going on.This is what we saw:The words that crossed my mind were "The fires of Mount

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-78451051859584880912008-12-12T04:38:00.004+02:002009-01-07T18:43:30.076+02:00

I have to admit - 2008 has been a rough year for many people I know. It hasn't all been daisies and bunnies for me either.But... it has also been one of the most amazing years for me as an actor and for Something Wicked.We started 2008 with no money and pretty much ready to throw in the towel with SW. It was sad and heart-breaking but it had been coming for awhile and I had several contingency

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-63657850666764894082008-10-28T18:36:00.003+02:002008-10-28T18:40:05.293+02:00

Found an online review for this game - it is apparently a motherfucker of a frightfest.For your viewing pleasure below is the trailer.Wow - it looks better than most sci-fi movies.

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-11550325832327125672008-10-24T17:57:00.003+02:002008-10-24T18:44:03.479+02:00

Sometimes I am utterly blown away by where technology is taking us. I love where the world is going.In the last couple of days I have come across some amazing shit.GamesFirstly there is EVE online, a Massively Multi-Player Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG), where I spent sunday morning talking and flying with a good friend of mine in Joburg through the depths of space.I'm the little ship on the

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-10611606006113898842008-10-17T08:28:00.005+02:002008-10-17T08:46:32.833+02:00

Went to see a good friend's album launch last night at the New Space Theatre on Long Street.Awesome venue by the way - very much still in the construction phase, the Space is a four story Art-Deco monstrosity that used to house one of the great theatres of the eighties. It will be re-opening at the end of the year with Sondheim's Assassins musical (which I auditioned for but didn't get in).All of

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-55685236279594793622008-10-09T19:13:00.007+02:002008-10-09T20:16:39.769+02:00

Well here we are.Looking through the last couple of blogs I've written it is becoming apparent to me that the only time I get round to updating this site is when I finish a deadline.Bad Joe! I really must try and write more often in here.The problem, of course, is when you spend every day writing, reading and editing stuff that you have to, you feel kinda pooped out and not really in the mood for

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-89940912372963081822008-06-30T17:43:00.003+02:002008-12-11T23:09:43.634+02:00

GreetingsWhew... I swear these deadlines are getting harder and harder - I'm aging five years every issue and at this rate I'm about 95 years-old today (Happy Birthday me!!).Well SW07 has been signed off and is currently being loaded up and printed. We should get the first copies back by Thursday or Friday and it will then be released to the public on the 11th of July at the ICON Roleplaying Game

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-91644806484834084702008-03-31T13:26:00.004+02:002008-03-31T14:00:56.057+02:00

HellooooooOkay so it's been a while since last I wrote in here but we've been incredibly busy trying to rework and remodel Something Wicked.As you know we came in a little behind schedule with Issue 6 due to late payments but we're setting up new systems that will hopefully allow us to get SW running smoothly from now on.Now the title of this blogpost is Stupid Questions and to be honest I've

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-44779483396977692772007-12-29T15:01:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:43.850+02:00

Well I've just got back from an extremely wonderful Christmas in Joburg.One of the only downsides of living in CT is that most of my childhood friends and family are still up in Joburg, though I am trying to get them to move down here.Trips to Joburg are usually insanely busy running around trying to squeeze in hundreds of meetings and business related crap - but this time around there was

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-40813257415540111972007-11-17T11:33:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:44.730+02:00

Having missed last year's HorrorFest Finale of Terminatryx and Lark's original, live soundtrack to Nosferatu, I made damn sure I didn't miss this year's The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I'd only ever seen snippets of the film on YouTube and, like all 70+ year old black and white silent movies it looks cheesy, corny and quite silly. But all that changed on the 31st of Oct 2007. Watching a classic like

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-62546536715427771662007-11-11T12:06:00.000+02:002007-12-29T15:25:42.735+02:00

For the week ending 18 Nov 20071. Fix/Upgrade and move Forum2. Follow-up on writers who haven't replied to editorial questions3. Pay Artists and Writers for Issue 5 content4. Chase-up outstanding invoices for Issue 4 Ads that have not yet been paid5. Work on story edits6. Update website with Issue 5 Writers and Artists and Issue 4 Artists7. Start reading Issue 6 Stories... needless to say, there

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-67161055875323216302007-11-06T20:44:00.000+02:002007-11-06T20:54:11.873+02:00

Well busy-ness seems to be the theme for now.We've had an incredible 12 days since finishing off the mag.Started by heading straight into the HorrorFest and watching waaaay many horror films and meeting up with fans and stuff.The Halloween night live music performance to Cabinet of Dr. Caligari was spectacular - check back soon I'll upload some short clips from that.But in the meantime came

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-57135193336549625882007-10-27T11:07:00.000+02:002007-10-27T11:09:45.055+02:00

Check it out, the guys from zoopy.com did a quick interview with me at the HorrorFest.

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-43348066237401649412007-10-26T06:45:00.001+02:002007-10-26T07:35:26.669+02:00

I know this is a bit of a detachment from the regular crap on this blog, but bear with me.I read this morning that Patrick Mynhardt died early yesterday.The man was a living legend. An actor through and through and one of the best this country has ever seen. I did not know him personally, though I had the honour of reading opposite him for an audition a few months ago.Many of you might know him

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-41180915402704027142007-10-24T20:23:00.000+02:002007-10-25T10:05:35.441+02:00

So the HorrorFest starts tomorrow and I must admit I am really looking forward to it. Paul's managed to organised some awesome movies this year.Particularly I'm looking forward to watching Alien on the big screen for the first time ever.Many of us have seen the Ridley Scott classic so many times but most of us grew up with it on video. This will be my first time on the big screen.I can't wait.Of

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-68516054678882666022007-10-20T03:24:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:45.104+02:00

Wow...Issue 5 is done and was signed off this morning.It was, without a doubt, the hardest deadline we've pulled to date. A combination of dozens of stories to go through, awesome art to commission and a complete overhaul of the design and layout pushed this one a lot longer than we expected.We were hoping to finish it off by Monday or maybe Tuesday at the latest... I finally delivered the pdfs

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-57730719938924570792007-10-05T10:57:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:45.914+02:00

Wow...it's been an insane couple of weeks.I seem to always start these blogs with those lines...Anyway.We've been travelling again, this time just up to Joburg for 12 days for rAge, the biggest gaming convention in SA, which was held from the 28th to the 30th of September.We had an absolute blast there, though it was utterly exhausting. So many people, so little time.Thanks to our friends at

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-24431728336166630342007-08-28T13:09:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:46.245+02:00

To celebrate our One-Year Anniversary we're holding another Short Story Competition. We're giving away a R1000 cash prize to 1st place as well as great prizes to 2nd and 3rd place.Rules:Stories must be under 2500 words in length and can be about anything as long as they are Science-Fiction and scary, suspenseful, supernatural... etc.Only Email entries will be accepted and all entries should be

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-91069592711870808672007-08-08T13:19:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:47.030+02:00

Where to begin...It's been awhile since I last wrote in here, but rest assured there are good reasons.I guess we should start where we left off.After the book fair we got down to emergency stations to try and get Issue 4 ready on deadline - which we failed, but on the up-side we did get a whole bunch of flyers, business cards and T-Shirts printed up and launched headlong into Icon Role Playing

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-70914854951728753552007-06-19T00:47:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:47.254+02:00

Well...Day 3 and for me the last day.It's been an amazing, and exhausting, experience.It was lovely to meet so many of our readers and fans and also to discover that the name Something Wicked has been reaching out beyond the obvious circles.I joined up with the writing team behind the animated tv-series Pax Afrika, Lauren Beukes (author of Exhibitionist - Issue 3), Sarah Lotz and Sam Wilson again

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-70864698639683487072007-06-18T08:36:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:47.881+02:00

Joe's Book Fair Diary - Day 2, 17 June 2007My feet...oh god, my feet...The day started out way too early as I crawled out of bed at 11am, still recovering from yesterday's ordeals - we of the freelancing fraternity don't do well with early mornings.I rushed down to the Fair to make my 12pm discussion on Pratchett and was quite concerned when at 11:56 I still hadn't spotted my co-speaker,

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-13927600751456107712007-06-16T20:09:00.000+02:002007-10-20T03:58:52.084+02:00

Joe's Book Fair Diary - Day 1, 16 June 2007Well having just barely survived day 1 of the Cape Town Book Fair I returned home heart-warmed and overwhelmed at the day's events.First up I was asked to join a discussion on Fantasy Literature, featuring brand new up-and-coming fantasy author Greg Hamerton, as well as winner of last years Short-Story comp, Sarah Lotz . It turned out to be a huge

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-62432591412306156022007-06-05T17:44:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:48.613+02:00

Well Winter seems to be here for real.We've all had temperatures drop like a stone in SA in the last week but, as South Africans, we always hold on to the belief that it's just a "cold snap" and that everything will be back to normal soon enough.It's a strange quirk of South Africans, we never fully admit that it has gotten cold. Most of us will walk around freezing in T-shirts while refusing to

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-11771568601715594182007-05-17T10:02:00.000+02:002007-05-17T11:31:35.787+02:00

A soothing, quiet early winter seems to have encroached on the Cape. My Mountain has been removed completely and the tree outside my window seems to be buzzing with bird life. A wonderful stillness has come over the place.Am I sounding corny?I don't know, after having lived in the UK for four years I must admit that I am not a huge fan of winter and of being cold, but down here it is just so

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-38457222949615026692007-05-01T02:49:00.000+02:002007-05-01T03:18:55.590+02:00

Well, Issue 3 has hit the shelves and the first few complimentary emails have started to trickle through.I was planning to go into a deep hibernation for a couple of weeks post finishing off Issue 3, to de-stress and calm down to a mild panic after the usual hysteria that is deadline week, (week before going to print).As it turned out, it was not to happen.A good friend and indie-filmmaker

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-55732542511015434372007-04-16T07:13:00.000+02:002007-04-16T07:31:20.579+02:00

If you're looking at the time of this post and thinking, "wow, this guys gets up early!", think again.Due to the insane last minute rush of our print deadline I have become a bit nocturnal over the last few weeks and I've not managed to snap out of it yet.Yes, we have finally finished Issue 3.The proofs have been signed off and we should have them in our paws by Wednesday or Thursday this week,

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-5562586057249678602007-04-07T03:35:00.000+02:002007-04-07T03:55:51.073+02:00

Ok so, not, as some of you may have been hoping for, a Something Wicked related post but another arb peek into my life.I was recently floating around a friends mySpace page and came across a band called Gogol Bordello. A truly multi-national Eastern European band from New York, probably best described by this quote from a review for their album Multi Contra Kulti vs Irony from The London Times."

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-58744474953360942312007-03-31T19:23:00.000+02:002007-03-31T19:39:01.508+02:00

Okay... since some of you have found out that I am a director of short films I have had a number of requests from people wanting to see some of them.So I decided to open up a You Tube account and post one of my films up for all to see.This is Play By Heart, my first film ever.It was shot at Hartebeestpoort Dam in June of 2004 over 7 days.A friend's parents own this holiday cottage there and we

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-82122356140675029312007-03-31T01:20:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:49.263+02:00

Aaargh...tired.Been working all day on finalising layout for Issue 3 and my eyes are getting screwy.Well, I have finally joined the mySpace revolution - if you wanna call it that - and after several hours trying to make the default puke-screen look decent I am finally happy to allow people to have a look at it.Went away last weekend 'cause my best friend who lives in Joburg was "in the

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-81439782317116070092007-03-16T02:16:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:49.589+02:00

Just got back from an on-set visit to director Neil Marshall's (Dog Soldiers, The Descent) new movie Doomsday.A friend is doing some interviews for Fangoria Magazine and took me along to work the camera.You can probably guess from the time this post was made that it was a night shoot, in fact the cast and crew's final night-shoot after 5 weeks straight.What a blast, and I do mean blast, my ears

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-46115678944037583362007-03-07T14:03:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:49.859+02:00

So I just received news that the Something Wicked presents... podcast has been short-listed for Best SA Independent Podcast for 2007. That is pretty cool, no?So what can you do it about it? Click on the Vote For Me Button on the right or you can hop on over to http://2007.sablogawards.com/ and vote for us.Just scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and look for our podcast, make sure

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-86788616550119085102007-03-02T23:42:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:50.648+02:00

For those of you who don't know, I have another, secret, life.When I am not publishing and editing magazines I am an actor and director.I'll tell you more about the directing some other time, for today we're talking acting.I just spent the last two days on set for a UK commercial for a fence sprayer (hey I never said it was glamorous). Below is the previous commercial I shot for this product two

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-70734806753048349462007-02-28T11:38:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:50.811+02:00

Okay so here we are; one week closer to deadline and nowhere near finished.Have no fear. This is normal.Meanwhile I thought I would show you guys what the office looks like, (or at least my desk).If you look carefully you may actually see the covers for the next two issues.It often amazes me about this process how every three months it gets to this point in the process and we are always miles

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-5246816159671115142007-02-21T19:24:00.000+02:002008-12-11T23:09:51.538+02:00

So new year, new headaches.For those of you unaware the above is the name of the quarterly horror fiction magazine I publish.It's been running for 8 months now (2 Issues) has been garnering a great response from the South African creative community.Unfortunately there seems to be little or no financing available for it so the last 8 months have been a constant headache and siphoning of my bank

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-1133554438878196512005-09-20T01:37:00.000+02:002007-02-21T20:19:50.634+02:00

It’s the dreams you don’t lose that hurt the most. They’re the ones that fight back, that plague you in the dark nights, that show up uninvited after that fifth Jack, when you open that second pack.They claw their way into your subconscious mind and hang on, tight. Those are the things you will have to answer for when your time comes, when your day is done. That’s when you’ll have to come to

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19523481.post-1133554268765600212004-11-02T12:12:00.000+02:002005-12-02T22:11:08.773+02:00

A Short Tale:PiningHe found himself wandering through the little antique shops and hidden alleys. He had no idea what he was looking for, nothing probably. Peace of mind, some rest from the constant chatter in his head. His thoughts had begun speaking in her voice lately. He wasn’t sure if he was going mad or just suffering from some temporary “affliction, brought on by a lover’s curse” as Prince

Joehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06779047230651100299noreply@blogger.com0