Revamping Paranormal magazine
Again I find myself having to apologise for Uncanny UK being neglected. At least I’ve got a good excuse this time. A month ago I suddenly found myself the new editor of Paranormal magazine - tasked with creating effectively a new publication from scratch with no articles, writers or illustrators in four weeks. Yike!
To my amazement, I succeeded and my first issue will hit the newsstands on Friday, July 25. As you can imagine, I had absolutely no time for anything else, including Uncanny UK.
The new Paranormal magazine has little in common with the former incarnation other than its title. The title was acquired by a niche publishing company near Chester, Jazz, whose small stable ranges from design magazines Spaces and Concept for Living through Camper Van and 100% Biker and three publications devoted to tattoos. Jazz Publishing just happens to be the company that employs Robin Parker, the new Uncanny UK webmaster. Robin, along with the rest of the staff, got an email from publisher David Gamble on May 28 announcing that Paranormal had been acquired and did anyone know anyone who might be able to edit it? So, he emailed me and I got straight on the phone. A week later I met with David and MD Stuart Mears and was offered the job. I had a week to wind down my copywriting business and then, on June 18, I was in the editor’s chair - with a new magazine to create by July 16.
Fortunately, I was able to get on board some of the very best writers at short notice. My thanks, in particular to Janet Bord, author of Secret Country, Alien Animals, Modern Mysteries of Britain etc, for helping to make some introductions, as well as writing an interesting piece on cursing wells. In short order I’d commissioned Dr Karl Shuker to write about globsters and giant octopuses; Paul Devereux to expound on strange lights at sacred sites; Lionel Fanthorpe to discuss Voodoo; and Nick Redfern to revisit Tunguska. I had a chat with Jon Downes, of the Centre for Fortean Zoology, who agreed to contribute a comment piece, and Michael Hallowell who provided a strong piece about the particularly nasty South Shields poltergeist. A real stroke of luck was discovering that an excellent writer I know, Phil Rickman, had an unpublished feature on exorcism sitting unused on his computer. It had been commissioned by a Sunday paper but a new editor chose not to use it (although they’d already paid him!). It’s a superb piece of investigative journalism, with genuine ‘deliverance ministers’ telling him about their experiences.
And there’s more, of course, including our old favourite The Beast of Brymbo, who was first announced to the world here on Uncanny UK (but now with a stunning illustration from my friend Anne Elizabeth Robinson). I’ve also been able to indulge my passion for unearthing stories from old magazines: I heartily recommend ‘The Ghost of Leading Road’, a tale of a bizarre bestial spectre which became a sensation in Cleveland, Ohio. The yarn, complete with hugely entertaining original illustrations, has been reproduced verbatim from a 1913 edition of Wide World magazine.
So, all in all, I’m pretty chuffed. It’s been a real challenge but thanks to some great writers (none of whom missed deadline!), my fist edition of Paranormal magazine (it’s actually issue 27) is something to be proud of. Now all I have to do is do it all again for next month!
Tags: Add new tag, Paranormal magazine
