Paul Neads

Photo of Paul Neads

Poetry & short fiction editor; illustrator; jack of all, master of...

Co-author of short story collection Occam's Blunt Instrument  ("Utterly superb!" - Marvin Cheeseman / "Razor sharp" - Salford Advertiser).

Recent illustrations for We Are Poets! by Helên Thomas, How to Dump Your Girlfriend by Julian Daniel & Henry Pumpkin & Chloe Poems's Li'l Book O'Manchester.

Editor of The Ugly Tree poetry magazine; co-editor of Ballista spec lit magazine.

Website : http://www.mucusart.co.uk/press.htm
Email : paul@mucusart.co.uk

Titles by Paul Neads

BALLISTA issue 4 cover image

BALLISTA issue 4

Issue 4 of the northwest’s sharpest magazine dedicated to speculative short fiction is out now and features new tales by new writers exploring modern horror, the paranormal, macabre, mythos, supernatural, science fiction & the downright bizarre. PLUS news of our 2008 Open Short Story Competition judged by the editors and Rosie Garland (aka Rosie Lugosi) - closing date 31 Oct 2008.

This issue features unsettling, twisted, convoluted and unashamedly inspired works by William Meikle, Laura Bickle, Simon Vigneault, Thea Lu, Sophie Bachard, Phill Campbell, Tom Conoboy and Andy Wolverton.

www.mucusart.co.uk/ballista.htm

Returning readers will have noticed the enhanced presentation of this volume, now snugly perfect bound and a lot easier to wipe clean. Worryingly, however, this fourth edition of Ballista comes to you with a grim warning. Following a nasty fracas between the editors and a Wicca Priestess at a comic mart in Littlehampton, a series of events took place which, quite possibly, led to a runic curse being placed upon a single copy. Despite our best efforts, the infected copy has not yet been identified. We therefore ask all readers to take the precaution of carefully checking your magazine and its packaging for slips of paper with funny symbols upon them, shaking thoroughly, please. If you discover any such item, do not contact the editors under any circumstances, but attempt rather to pass it on unnoticed to somebody you don’t like very much, maybe by popping it into their lunch box. Even if no such object emerges from your Ballista, we advise you to look out for the following symptoms of a runic curse; a strange feeling of being watched, especially at night; a growing sense of dread and paranoia; an itching at the back of the neck; and a bloody great demon chasing you down the railway track and crushing you to death under its hairy smoking hoof.
As well as the great stories in this issue, don’t forget to check out our brand new biennial short story competition, giving the magazine a damn good shake as you do so. Enjoy the scary stuff.
Andrew Myers, co-editor

Price £4.00

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THE UGLY TREE poetry magazine cover image

THE UGLY TREE poetry magazine

The Ugly Tree continues to promote the best new work from the northwest and around the world. The new issue includes an interview with, and poetry from, Manchester’s exceptional Mike Garry and features 17 other vibrant poets: Vincent Berquez, Rachel Fox, Simon Rennie, Edward Lee, Paul Robinson, Geoff Stevens, Ken Champion, Lucy Winrow, Michael Lee Johnson, Richard Barrett, Michael Wilson, Sarah L. Dixon, Nigel Humphreys, Lincoln O'Neill, Neil Campbell, Helên Thomas & Natalie Williams.

www.mucusart.co.uk/theuglytree.htm

www.mucusart.co.uk/press.htm

“All other poets could benefit from reading these poems and noting the absence of cliché and bombast,” - #17, James Hartnell, Write Out Loud
“It’s like a big box of poetic Quality Street” - #14, Michael Whalley, Pipeline
“Witty and urbane” - #13, Orbis

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BALLISTA issue 5 cover image

BALLISTA issue 5

Issue 5, Autumn 2008, is published 1 September and features chilling new tales from Alison J. Littlewood, Michael Loken, Caroline Barnard-Smith, J. Michael Shell, Crista Ermiya, Rupert Merkin, Rafe McGregor and David Buchan.

Plus news of our OPEN SHORT STORY COMPETITION with cash prizes - closing date for entries, Hallowe'en 2008.

We hope this latest issue will keep you up at night, grizzling in the darkness of your bedroom and gnawing at your duvet in terror. It includes some real corkers from some of the best exponents of short imaginative fiction around today, combining in a volume which, more than ever, realises our ambition to publish material which is inventive, unique, and downright bed-wettingly discombobulating.

Those of you who regularly peruse our pages will no doubt recall how the task of co-editing this little mag always excites me into a frenzy of wild imagination mixed with a morbid foreboding. Anticipating this, and having just read several marvellous volumes concerning the Bible Code, I launched myself with vigour into the task of uncovering the arcane truths which I was sure, with absolutely certainty, were hidden in the text of Ballista 5. After many, many hours of studying every single word of every story I uncovered strange and deep truths buried in the pages you now read, truths that reveal the dreadful fate of humanity, truths which make the Bible Code seem as profound as The Beano, truths which are too terrible to know and too maddening for me to bear alone.

I can give you only a glimpse of the truth as predicted by the Ballista enigma. Mars Bars are 50% smaller than they used to be; all women will, before the end of 2008, become mortally afraid of the colour yellow; and piranha fish don’t like eggs. Oh, and the world ends next Tuesday teatime.

Enjoy the scary stuff, if you dare.

Andrew Myers, co-editor

Price £4.00

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