Magazine freebies

[dem]

Shout Spooky Stories: 13 True Life Experiences (DC Thomson, 1997)

Dreams Told Me Of My Past Life: Jade knew there had to be a meaning to her dreams.
A Ghost Saved My Pet: Elaine had almost given up hope of finding a way to save Fluffy.
I Thought I Was Going To Die: No-one seemed to know the identity of the boy who rescued Carol.
I Was Terrified Of My Best Friend: When Lisa was around, Lindy began to feel an evil presence.
I Had A Vision Of The Missing Boy: When Karen looked into the future she didn't like what she saw.
The Ghost Horse Came to Help Me: Had the accident put Fiona off horse-riding forever?
I Was Controlled By The Charm: Kate thought the charm was just junk from a jumble sale. But she soon found out there was more to it than that.
A Spirit Haunted me: Jenny could sense someone or something was watching her.
A Fortune-Teller Saved My Life: Leanne was shocked when the fortune-teller's predictions came true ...
We Picked Up A Ghostly Hitch-Hiker: Who was the strange hitch-hiker on the lonely country road?
I Saw What Happens When You Die: Emma isn't scared of death because she's been so close to it.
I've Lived Another Life: Michelle's vivid flashbacks showed that she had lived before.
A Ghost Haunted Our Photos: Who was the figure in the photograph and why was she screaming?

Inside cover blurb:

Welcome to the Shout Book of Spooky Stories! Inside you'll find thirteen scary true life experiences of girls just like you! We hope you enjoy reading them and, don't forget, every fortnight you'll find even more true stories in SHOUT magazine!

Blinding Halloween free gift given away with Shout, "the teenage magazine that's something to shout about!"

These are not for the most part,in the least spooky. In fact, it must have been a particularly slow day in the office when the staff sat down to write them. I expected far more from I Was Terrified Of My Best Friend ("When Lisa was around, Lindy began to feel an evil presence") than a straightforward case of one girl copying the way another dresses. Likewise I Saw What Happens When You Die has got nothing whatsoever to do with hanging out in mortuaries hoping for a cheap thrill. And yet ... A Spirit Haunted Me introduces a welcome note of nastiness. Jenny has a sleepover at her friends Carolyn and Jane house. During the night, a boy enters her room, staring at her with "cold glassy eyes .... almost as though he hated me.... It was as though he had brought something evil into the room with him and I could smell a strange musty smell, like damp earth and rotten wood". When she tells her friends of the terrible experience the following morning, they turn on her for repaying their hospitality with such a horrible lie. Their brother, whose room she'd just slept in, had died of a drug overdose five years early. They never speak to her again. Then there's A Ghost Haunted Our Photos: Dad fancies himself as a lens-man and takes his daughter around town to snap some crumbling old buildings. When the photo's are developed, he's mystified to find a woman is clearly visible at an upper window, yet both are agreed they saw no-one. Also, this woman appears to be screaming - surely they'd have heard her? Next week, the same building burns to the ground while a cleaner is going about her work inside ...

[dem]

Encounters Presents: B Movies. The Ultimate Guide To The Ultimate Trash (Richard Forsyth [ed.], Paragon, 1996: Presented free with Encounters #3, Jan. 1996)

Production: Nina Pendred

Richard Forsyth - Introduction: B Movies

Stewart Kendrick - Dolomite
Marcus Walker - Dr Jekyll and Sister Hyde
Andy McDermott - Attack Of The 50ft Woman
Andy McDermott - Them!
Stewart Kendrick - Glen Or Glenda
Andy McDermott - From Hell It Came
Andy McDermott - Life Force
Marcus WalkerEarth Vs The Spider
Andy McDermott - Invasion Of The Saucermen
Andy McDermott - Destroy All Monsters
Stewart Kendrick - It Conquered The World
Andy McDermott - Earth Vs The Flying Saucers
Andy McDermott - Plan 9 From Outer Space
Marcus Walker - It:The Terror From Beyond Space
Andy McDermott - I Married A Monster From Outer Space
Stewart Kendrick - The Crawling Hand
Andy McDermott - The Man With X-Ray Eyes

A slick 68 pager given away free with Encounters for January 1996, an issue notable for it's interview with "Wild Thing turned UFOlogist", Reg Presley of the Troggs. It transpires that Reg, a confirmed believer in flying saucers and C.I.A. cover-ups, was among the first to view the Roswell "autopsy" footage ("My gut feeling is that it's genuine") and was now contemplating - but perhaps not too hard - pumping some of his Love Is All Around royalties into UFO research, provided a serious project presented itself. Other featured articles include Scotland's Haunted Hotels, a Loch Ness Monster fact-file and Alien Big Cats in the UK.

Pulp Idol; SFX Short Story Competition Collection 2006 (Future, 2006: Free with SFX issue 146)

Paul Cemmick

Adam Roberts - Foreword

Colin Harvey - The Stinker
S. J. Hiron - A Ribbon For A Shaman
Gavin Broom - East 77th Street
Paul Daly - Queue
Mark Dunn - Sense And Insensibility
Steve Wilson - The Prefect
Christopher Brosnahan - The Warning
Luke Radcliffe - The White Six
Emily Salter - Unfinished
Paul Doncaster - We Hope They're More Forgiving Than Us
Rob Wickings - Wolves At The Door

We Also Heard From ... : ("Here are 39 other entries that, together with the stories you've already read, make up our top fifty.")
Writing Tips: Part 1 - Starting Out
Writing Tips: Part 2 - Ideas
Writing Tips: Part 3 - Character
Writing Tips: Part 4 - Plot


Blurb:
"Witches... They conjured all manner of visitations. One such visitation was a creature of considerable majesty in the realm of darkness."

In this book are the results of SFX's first ever short story writing competition. At the start of the year we challenged our readers to submit. SF, fantasy and horror tales of 1,000 to 2,000 words. The entries were judged by members of the SFX team, publishing professionals at Gollancz and the SF author Adam Roberts.

"The Stinker" by Colin Harvey was declared the winner, and you're holding that in your hands now, along with the 10 runners-up. If you are one of the new writers featured in this exclusive volume, congratulations!

In these pages, you'll also find a special foreword by Gollancz author Adam Roberts, as well as a selection of writing tips condensed from the pages of SFX, in case you now feel inspired to put pen to paper yourself.

The overall winner, Colin Harvey's The Stinker is a comic horror story (though it's unlikely the Pagan Federation were too amused at the author's equating Wicca with Black Magic). From birth, Tobias Knowlton has been shunned by men and, especially women, on account of the gag-inducing stench emanating from his every pore. Now in his early sixties, Tobias encounters his creepy cousin, Somerset Shaw, at Aunt Mae's funeral. Shaw it is who enlightens him: Tobias stinks like a sewer because he is due to give birth to something nasty any ... second ... now. Christopher Brosnahan's The Warning is a grim affair. Across the world, a hundred psychiatric patients confidently predict that, on November 22nd at precisely 12.45 GMT, Prague will be devastated by an earthquake, fatalities upward of 200, 000. A psychiatrist theories that nature is sending a message to man to stop destroying the planet. His subsequent Save the Earth campaign ends with his own incarceration in a mental institution, but he knows something you don't.

The We Also Heard From... section includes the first lines from the rest of the top fifty, and makes for fascinating reading, There's mystery ("It was once a person. It was barely recognisable as such now. No-one could tell who it had been." - Robert O'Carroll, The Hunt); sensual erotica ("He watched her reflection in the mirror as she pulled a black stocking up her slender leg and attached the top to the suspender-belt around her waist" (Kevin Grover, Marian. If he kept this up for the rest of the story he should've won.); and, of course, SF (""It's an alien invasion, they say.' Stumpy said. 'Is that what they say?' I said cynically, reclining in my horribly uncomfortable chair." - M. P. J. Dillon, The Bunker). Matter of fact, think I might come back to this one.

[dem]

Various ....

Ed Potton & Amber Cowan - Into The Woods; The Definitive Story Of The Blair Witch Project (Screenpress, 2000: Free with The Times, whenever)

Foreword - Rupert Mellor
Into The Woods
Jen Van Mellor - Elly Kedwards Curse (Illustrated by Tommy Lee Edwards)
Appendix: The Blair Witch Mythology

A neat slimline companion to D. A. Stern's The Blair Witch Project: A Dossier, arguably most notable for the neat comic strip/ graphic novel in miniature (take your pick), Elly Kedwards Curse.

In a similar vein:

William Peter Blatty - Before The Exorcist (Screenpress, 1998: Free with The Independent, presumably the same year)

Blurb:
BEFORE THE EXORCIST
WILLIAM PETER BLATTY'S OWN STORY OF TAKING HIS NOVEL TO FILM

"There were so many problems involved in adapting the novel to the screen... I thought it was impossible. And immediately agreed to do it." - William Peter Blatty

Unavailable for over twenty years, this is the fully authorised account of how William Peter Blatty came to write both the novel and screenplay to one of the most unsettling films ever made.

Excited by an article he read as a student, Blatty describes the exhaustive work he put into researching his novel The Exorcist and the subsequent frustrations he encountered in turning the book into an Academy Award winning screenplay.

Blatty's fascination with the subject was born out of an interest in showing that the existence of God, in contemporary America, could be proved. As he says: 'If there were demons, then perhaps there were angels and probably God and a life everlasting'.

His research eventually led him to tracking down priests who had participated in actual exorcisms. In doing so, Blatty gathered enough evidence to write a believable novel that incorporated many of his factual findings.

Fully annotated with extensive footnotes, this book puts The Exorcist into context, from the inception of the novel to the hiring of William Friedkin as Director.

Essential reading for anyone who wants to know the real story of The Exorcist.

'One of the most powerful films ever made' James Ferman, BBFC Director

L. J. Smith - Nightworld (Free with Mizz, Feb. 1997)

On this occasion, i didn't even bother to invent an imaginary friend to blame it upon, just grabbed the mag, paid for it and bombed it out of Sainsburys as fast as decency permitted. All that effort, and am still no more inclined to actually read the bleeder than I was at the time.

One I made earlier.

The Sound Book Of Horror (Free with Sounds, Nov 30th 1985 )

16 pages, written and edited by Sandy Robertson (Sounds regular and Crowley fan), Tony Stewart and illustrator Edwin 'Savage Pencil' Pouncey. Articles on Stephen King's novels at the Movies, Terror's Top Ten (1. King, 2. HPL, 3. MRJ, 4. Bloch, 5. Poe, 6. Stoker, 7. Machen, 8. Straub, 9. Barker, 10. Campbell), a one-page history of horror fiction and four sides wasted on an extract from The Vampire Lestat. Nice still from Return Of The Living Dead on back, accompanied by lyrics to the Cramps' The Surfing Dead.

From the same source, Psycho Killers (Free with Sounds, Feb. 15, 1986)

A celebration of rocks most far-out and dangerous mavericks, some more-so than others. The 'Stereo Nasties' include Roky Erikson, Iggy, Beefheart, The Mothers of Invention, Gun Club, Nick Cave, Lydia Lunch - the usual suspects. Nice topless Throbbing Gristle centerfold!

[sara]

And before there was Mizz... we had the late, great J-17!



The Dark Side
Edited by Jaqui Devoy
Cover photo Megan Hawkins
Illustrations Ivan Allen



Contents:
House of Cards – Jayne Eames
The Haunting – Catherine Young
Reflections – Denise Leppard
The Nanny – Alison James
The Deep – Jenny Stebbings
Truth or Dare – Sarah Rookledge
Ghosts of Summer – Lynette Tamar
Perfume – Mary Ann Ellis
Deja Vu – Charlotte Alexander
Breaking Away – Jade Eves

I don’t read short stories much these days but I remember enjoying most of these; they’re spooky (I’m easily scared though) and all nicely illustrated too.

[dem]

Oh, i'm absolutely green! Splendid cover, too, and i see what you mean about the illustrations. Thanks so much for sharing, Sara.

Edward Grey - Ghost-hunters Guide To Britain (Readers Digest, 1985)

Photo: Tim Woodcock

Nobody's suggesting that this is in the same league as The Dark Side, but from the often unfairly maligned Readers Digest (see their ace Great Ghost Stories anthology if you don't believe me), a handsomely illustrated 52 page gazetteer.

[dem]

Jenny Randales & Peter Hough - 50 Years Of UFO Encounters (Free with Encounters magazine #2, Paragon Publishing, Dec. 1995)

Richard Forsyth - Foreword

1946-1955
1956-1965
1966-1975
1976-1985
1986-1995

Bibliography

Go on. Ask me anything you wanna know about UFO's and I'll tell you, thanks to this super 98 page bluffers guide, came free with issue 2 of Encounters "the Worlds most Paranormal magazine." 50 Years Of UFO Encounters includes entries on instances of alien contact, alleged cover-ups at Pentagon level, Weird Tales/ Not At Night contributor Donald Edward Keyhoe's ground-breaking Flying Saucers Are Real, Mothmania, the wonderfully named 'Project Grudge' and 'Operation Debunk,' crop-circles, the Roswell autopsy footage - even a hoax sighting or two. Not my thing, but I can appreciate a job well done.

The issue itself is something of a bloodsucker special, notable for Jeff Webb's Interviews With The Vampires. Mr. Webb takes his subject, modern day practitioners, as seriously as his sub-editors evidently do not. His first contact, Mick, proves an articulate spokesperson for the then-thriving UK Vampyre clubs, many of which he was on terms with. Mick, a teacher by profession, explains that he likes the image, gets off on the movies and historical case studies, parties with the best of them, but doesn't go in for blood drinking. Unlike many an alarmist of the day, he acknowledges that yes, it goes on, though not within any of the groups the public is likely to have seen on TV. It's not the tales of blood feasting that winds people up anyway, he reckons, but, as is the case with any subculture, "it's our reluctance to conform that worries them. Let them suffer I say!"

Now we move onto the darker content, and this doesn't work quite as well. We meet 'vampire victim', Chris of Dorset, bitten in a Bournemouth nightclub by a woman in a leather jacket that was too small for her. No less spine-chilling, nomadic, proper vampires 'The Vetala', "a clan of eight friends, family members and hangers on," who let Mr. Webb photograph their attic and take turns sucking blood from the pheasant they brought with them for the occasion. Their leader confides that The Vetala also drink from "mortals," though not enough to kill them. That these melodramatic testimonies fail to entirely convince is something the author himself readily admits. This is not to suggest someone isn't telling the truth, just that being bitten by a mad bird isn't really that much to write home about, and the Vetala have their studied politeness and hoary vampirespeak down way too pat. Webb, obviously sincere in his quest to discover conclusive evidence that vampires walk among us, ties everything up neatly to end on a quasi-eerie note. Even the abundance of cleavage and accompanying captions used to illustrate the piece - "The female vampire typically has dark hair and dark eyes and wears mysterious clothes" - fail to put him off his stride. Throw in substantial articles on Ouija boards, the first hand experiences of an Exorcist's Assistant, and Ghost-hunting in Scotland, and the Encounters reader got a decent return on their £2. 99 outlay.

Right. That's enough bloody drivel about vampires for the month.

[dem]

A related item. Teabag freebies. P. G. Tips used to give away picture cards with each packet of tea and I suppose you had to send away for the album? Anyway, i kept two of 'em of Vault interest, the first being Creatures of Legend, edited by an erudite chimp named Kevin and gorgeously illustrated by Mark Longworth. Below, a few sample pages with the cards lovingly prit-sticked into position by bride of dem.

Creatures of Legend: With Kevin Tipps (PG Tips, 1994)

Mark Longworth

Hi there!

Let's all investigate the weird, amazing (and sometimes spooky) creatures of legend. These are creatures of fantasy and imagination which have appeared in stories since storytelling began.

Look into your PG Tips packets for each fantastic creature. There's a whole set of 24 to collect.

Just imagine what would happen if they really existed - Goblins, Dragons and Mermaids. My dad says some amazing things might have existed - like dinosaurs did - and there may be some amazing creatures around today.

Let's investigate together!

Get collecting and stick your cards into the special album. They'll look terrific - or terrifying! - if you cut the white borders off the cards first. But be careful when using scissors.

Let's go.

Kevin Tipps

Pretty, huh?

[dem]

Bob Rickard - Unexplained Mysteries Of The World (PG Tips, 1987)

Tony Blythe

Fascinating glimpses into the Unknown, at the frontiers of knowledge and experience.
Written by Robert J. M. Rickard
Devised & produced by David Leon

Wonder how many kids became developed an interest Forteana via PG's tidy, Bob Rickard edited album? This time, there were a whopping 40 cards to collect ("I'll swop you the Turin Shroud for the Marie Celeste" "Throw in The Loch Ness Monster and you've got yourself a deal", etc.). Some sample pages:

Sir Peter Scott

[dem]

Well, i'm guessing it was a freebie, any roads. Found this morning for 30p in Spitalfields Crypt Charity Shop (Watney Market chapter). A slimline 36p booklet celebrating the reissue ("own it October 2010") of the 1st Pan Book of Horror Stories. Contents: Mr. Mains' introduction and sample story, Seabury Quinn's immortal House Of Horror. Dated 1st October 2010. Where did that four years go, eh?

[helenspromise]

I don't suppose you would know of any books the stories from the PG Tips cards were collected in? I had a book with the article about the Cottingley Glen fairies along with other 'unexplained mysteries'years ago and I've been trying to track it down for ages. I thought it might be a Fortean book but I haven't come across any familiar covers. It was a collection of articles about things like Gloomy Sunday (the Hungarian murder song), ghost hunting and such like. I'm a bit more skeptical nowadays but I read my copy until the spine gave up and the pages fell out and believed every article!

I hope this is the right place to put this, I don't post often although I like to pop in and lurk! Thanks in advance.

[dem]

Feb 5, 2015 20:37:53 GMT helenspromise said:

I don't suppose you would know of any books the stories from the PG Tips cards were collected in? I had a book with the article about the Cottingley Glen fairies along with other 'unexplained mysteries'years ago and I've been trying to track it down for ages. I thought it might be a Fortean book but I haven't come across any familiar covers. It was a collection of articles about things like Gloomy Sunday (the Hungarian murder song), ghost hunting and such like. I'm a bit more skeptical nowadays but I read my copy until the spine gave up and the pages fell out and believed every article!

I hope this is the right place to put this, I don't post often although I like to pop in and lurk! Thanks in advance.

Does this page look familiar (apologies for the wonky scan!). If so, you are looking for one of the several compilations recycled from The Unexplained magazine.

The five Cottingley Fairy articles (written by Joe Cooper, who later expanded them into a book, The Case Of The Cottingley Fairies), are reprinted in Incredible Phenomena (Parragon/ Book Club Associates, 1984) which also includes pieces on Spontaneous Human Combustion, The Hexham Heads, Spring-Heeled Jack, "What Happened at Hanging Rock?," etc, etc, though I've been unable to locate a reference to "Gloomy Sunday."

The following decade, Parragon published Marvels & Mysteries series of oversized paperbacks, all material culled from The Unexplained, which sold in Asda and, possibly, other Supermarket chains. Titles include Ritual And Magic, Mystics & Prophets, Strange Talents, Life After Death, Ghosts, Aliens, UFO's, etc., though I'm not sure which, if any, featured Cottingley.

[helenspromise]

Feb 5, 2015 22:52:53 GMT dem said:

Feb 5, 2015 20:37:53 GMT helenspromise said:

I don't suppose you would know of any books the stories from the PG Tips cards were collected in? I had a book with the article about the Cottingley Glen fairies along with other 'unexplained mysteries'years ago and I've been trying to track it down for ages. I thought it might be a Fortean book but I haven't come across any familiar covers. It was a collection of articles about things like Gloomy Sunday (the Hungarian murder song), ghost hunting and such like. I'm a bit more skeptical nowadays but I read my copy until the spine gave up and the pages fell out and believed every article!

I hope this is the right place to put this, I don't post often although I like to pop in and lurk! Thanks in advance.

Does this page look familiar (apologies for the wonky scan!). If so, you are looking for one of the several compilations recycled from The Unexplained magazine.

The five Cottingley Fairy articles (written by Joe Cooper, who later expanded them into a book, The Case Of The Cottingley Fairies), are reprinted in Incredible Phenomena (Parragon/ Book Club Associates, 1984) which also includes pieces on Spontaneous Human Combustion, The Hexham Heads, Spring-Heeled Jack, "What Happened at Hanging Rock?," etc, etc, though I've been unable to locate a reference to "Gloomy Sunday."

The following decade, Parragon published Marvels & Mysteries series of oversized paperbacks, all material culled from The Unexplained, which sold in Asda and, possibly, other Supermarket chains. Titles include Ritual And Magic, Mystics & Prophets, Strange Talents, Life After Death, Ghosts, Aliens, UFO's, etc., though I'm not sure which, if any, featured Cottingley.

Thanks Demonik! The article does look familiar so I will look into this, although the book I had had black and white plates. As I'm sure you know, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially where there are no scans of front covers or contents pages on so many sites. I will probably just order a few off eBay and hope for the best!

[dem]

Feb 6, 2015 1:05:17 GMT helenspromise said:

Thanks Demonik! The article does look familiar so I will look into this, although the book I had had black and white plates. As I'm sure you know, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially where there are no scans of front covers or contents pages on so many sites. I will probably just order a few off eBay and hope for the best!

Hi Helen. There's a suggested reading list at back of the PG Tips Unexplained Mysteries book which includes both Incredible Phenomena and - I don't have a copy but could this be the one you remember? - Phenomena - A Book of Wonders by Robert Rickard & John Mitchell (Thames & Hudson, 1977).

[helenspromise]

Feb 6, 2015 7:06:38 GMT dem said:

Feb 6, 2015 1:05:17 GMT helenspromise said:

Thanks Demonik! The article does look familiar so I will look into this, although the book I had had black and white plates. As I'm sure you know, it can be like finding a needle in a haystack, especially where there are no scans of front covers or contents pages on so many sites. I will probably just order a few off eBay and hope for the best!

Hi Helen. There's a suggested reading list at back of the PG Tips Unexplained Mysteries book which includes both Incredible Phenomena and - I don't have a copy but could this be the one you remember? - Phenomena - A Book of Wonders by Robert Rickard & John Mitchell (Thames & Hudson, 1977).

I'll have a look when I've got in from work and see if that's the one. I will update if I get hold of it! Thanks again

[dem]

Feb 6, 2015 13:20:00 GMT helenspromise said:

I'll have a look when I've got in from work and see if that's the one. I will update if I get hold of it! Thanks again

I hope it is. The cover features an illustration of fish falling from the heavens above rows of text proclaiming the wonders within.

Did you ever identify that football story you mentioned on this thread? It has defeated me, that's for sure!