CONE ZERO

Cover design: Dean Harkness. Typesetting/Printing: Andrew Hook

CONE ZERO: Purchase: HERE

“Fallow be thy names.” — Matt Cardin

Stories in Cone Zero:

“The Fathomless World” by Colleen Anderson

“The Point of Oswald Masters” by Neil James Hudson

“Cone Zero” (page 23) by Sean Parker

“Cone Zero” (page 33) by Kek-W

“Cone Zero, Sphere Zero” by David M. Fitzpatrick

“An Oddly Quiet Street” by S.D. Tullis

“Always More Than You Know” by John Grant

“Cone Zero” (page 129) by Grant Wamack

“Going Back For What Got Left Behind” by Eric Schaller

“Cone Zero” (page 147) by Stephen Bacon

“The Cone Zero Ultimatum” by Bob Lock

“Angel Zero” by Dominy Clements

“How To Kill An Hour” by A.J. Kirby

“To Let” by Jeff Holland

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LINK (Dec 2008): ”a flawless anthology“

STOP PRESS (4 Oct 09): Ellen Datlow’s Honourable Mentions for ‘Best Horror of Year’ (Night Shade) – shown here: http://www.nightshadebooks.com/discus/messages/233/31565.html?1254591491

Those HMs applicable to ‘Cone Zero’ (Nemonymous Eight):

Clements, Dominy “Angel Zero,”

Kirby, A. J. “How to Kill an Hour,”

Parker, Sean “Cone Zero,”

Schaller, Eric “Going Back For What Got Left Behind,”

Tullis, S.D. “An Oddly Quiet Street,”

Not bad, I feel, as not all the stories in ‘Cone Zero’ were in the Horror genre of literature.

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Video by Yellowish Haze (title: Cone Zero)

Nominated (short-listed) for British Fantasy Awards alongside Dr Who and Battlestar Galactica: http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=sfx_and_doctor_who_nominated

July 2009: Here is an interview with DFL by ten of the authors in CONE ZERO, kindly posted on the TTA website regarding this book’s short-listing for the British Fantasy Award:
http://www.ttapress.com/647/ten-writers-question-their-editor/0/5/

And now Kek-W and Bob Lock have written about that interview. http://kidshirt.blogspot.com/2009/07/cone-zeroview-w-d-f-lewis.html — http://bob-lock.blogspot.com/2009/07/black-static-interview-of-dflewis-and.html

4th JULY 2008: CONE ZERO has arrived. Contributors’ copies and first orders have been despatched.

5 July 2008: First impressions by Cone Zero writer Kek-W.

21 July 2008: First independent comments on the CONE ZERO book: http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2008/07/magazineanthology-review-nemonymous.html – It gives this rating: “Highly recommended and is easily a pioneer of the genre.”

23 July 2008: ‘CONE ZERO’ YOUTUBE: http://www.ligotti.net/showpost.php?p=10904&postcount=51

28 July 2008: **FREE** CONE ZERO CASH COMPETITION

7 August 2008: Cone Zero’s ’prequel’ anthology book: Zencore nominated for BFS Award.

15 August 2008: First full review of ‘Cone Zero’: http://www.magicalrealism.co.uk/view.php?story=89&issue=11 : “Well, I’m usually wary of saying things like this, but I expect to see Cone Zero on the lists of this year’s best anthologies. It will richly deserve any such place.” that was my hundredth published review; I’m glad it was for such a good book.

1 September 2008: Individual’s recommendation of Cone Zero for Nebula Award.

4 September 2008: THE FIX REVIEW: ‘cone zero’ … the transition from reality to something else—fantasy, dreams, maybe madness.

10 September 2008: CERN PROJECT experiment under way – with safeguards provided by Cone Zero: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cone_zero__cern_project.htm

13 September 2008: Impressions by Cone Zero writer Colleen Anderson.

29 September 2008: Guidelines for Cone Zero’s sequel anthology: CERN ZOO issued here:
http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cerne_zoo__guidelines.htm

1 October 2008: SF REVU review here: http://www.sfrevu.com/php/Review-id.php?id=8176 :- “Overall, the stories are well-written and engaging, and the best of them inspire introspective paths of thought, or simply won’t leave your memory once ensconced therein.”

1 November 2008 – Another review at the bottom of the page below. (Despite not liking SF, the reviewer still seems to love a lot of the stories!)
http://www.horrorworld.org/november_2008.htm

4 November 2008: Another review linked from here: http://www.fright.com/edge/cone_zero.htm – “A wildly unexpected, utterly unpredicatable anthology of horror, sci fi and who-knows-what!”

1 December 2008: http://distanceswimmer.livejournal.com/1082.html – REVIEW THAT STARTS: “ConeZero is many things, perhaps first and foremost an anthology of fantastic fiction from the UK, the 8^th in a series, edited anonymously by majordomo Des Lewis, whose claims to fame are also many, including, quite possibly, an utterly unbreakable record for the most short fictions ever published by a single author in the independent press. Add to this his markedly odd vision, akin to a herky-jerky whirling disco mirror ball with distinctly uneven facets alternating flashes of dada, surreal, fabulist and existential light through a churning mist from someplace the other side of the Twilight Zone. And then there is his sense of…what? Purpose? Humor? Identity? Mood? Prankishness? Even the “8” of “Nemonymous 8” is turned on its side, like a faux infinity symbol, yet it is still very much an 8 turned on its side.”

6 December 2008: http://charlesatan.livejournal.com/480332.html – …it features some really cool, off-the-top stories that tingle my sense of wonder and excitement as well as fulfilling my requirements of well-written fiction in the literary sense of the word.

12 December 2008: Future Fire Review:
“a flawless anthology”: http://tinyurl.com/5ovc8v

31 December 2008: http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/2008/12/feature-charless-top-five-for-2008.html – Nemonymous: Cone Zeroedited by D.F. Lewis- One of most refreshing magazine/anthology I’ve read in recent years (of course that could just be due to my ignorance) and each story is distinct and makes an impact. Besides, between the anonymous authors and the “cone zero” concept, how could you fail?

31 December 2008: Theaker’s Quarterly Fiction #23 File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat – View as HTML
For example, the magnificent DF Lewis pays good rates for the contributions to his superb Nemonymous anthologies. …

15 Feb 09 (Link: HERE): “There’s another cool review of Nemonymous 8 : Cone Zero over here on the Dreaming of Babylon site…which reminded me what a terrific antho this is. It’s slowly been soaking up some great reviews over the last few months – if you haven’t got round to buying a copy yet, then you really should do.”

[The full ‘Dreaming of Babylon’ review is currently housed HERE ]

25 February 2009: Cone Zero Review: The Pros of Critical Reading

28 February 2009: A review by a lady called Conda

4 March 2009: Link: Sorting out a few personal favourites from this anthology is more difficult than usual, for more than one reason. First, the standard of writing – of sheer honest-to-God storytelling – is so high. This anthology is a magnificent achievement, with hardly a dull page in it. The second reason is that infuriatingly there are four stories with the same damn title.

5 March 2009: Link: Denemonizations of the Authors !!!

5 March 2009: Author Blogs: John Grant’s Naked Truth – Bob Lock’s Who Was That Masked Man? –http://grantwamack.blogspot.com/2009/03/revelations.html – http://colleenanderson.wordpress.com/2009/03/05/writing-cone-zero-authors-reviews-2/ – (9 Mar 09) http://neilhudson.livejournal.com/94477.html to which another author replies: “Isn’t it a joy that we can now, without shame, step forward and raise our faces to the open sunlight . . .?” – (12 Mar 09) http://stephenbacon.co.uk/2009/03/12/apologies-for-the-indulgence/

3 April 2009: ‘Cone Zero’ has been long-listed on the Voting Form for the British Fantasy Society awards for Best Anthology: http://www.britishfantasysociety.org/images/stories/bfalonglist2009.pdf
Plus Kek-W‘s story and Neil Hudson‘s story in the Best Short Fiction category. Kek-W’s blog: http://kidshirt.blogspot.com/2009/04/cone-zero-british-fantasy-society.html

5 Apr 09: Neil Hudson’s blog: http://neilhudson.livejournal.com/96426.html

27 May 09: Peter Tennant’s Haiku Review: http://ttapress.com/624/cone-zero-the-haiku-review/0/5/

7 June 09: ‘Cone Zero’ short-listed for British Fantasy Society Awards 2009: http://www.sfx.co.uk/page/sfx?entry=sfx_and_doctor_who_nominated

19 June 09: Significant event in the history of Nemonymity: http://www.anonthology.com/ === author blog: http://colleenanderson.wordpress.com/2009/06/18/writing-british-fantasy-awards-stuff/

26 July 09: SFCrowsnest review: http://www.sfcrowsnest.com/articles/books/2009/nz14125.php

29 July 09: Claim that “there is no cone zero”: http://ceramics.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_a_ceramic_cone

The Cern Zoo Page (Cone Zero’s sequel book): http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/the_cern_zoo_page.htm

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Cones in Art & Literature: http://www.ligotti.net/showthread.php?t=1905

More visible cones: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cone_zero_search.htm and http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/more_zeroing_in_on_cones_or_conesindisguise.htm and http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cones_from_a_cone_zeroist.htm

General Nemonymous page: www.nemonymous.com

Past covers: http://www.myspace.com/weirdtongue

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On 14 April 2008, I finally contracted 14 stories and 14 different authors for the CONE ZERO book (Nemonymous 8 ) with about 90,000 words.

I am very excited about the stories with which I have been graced. But disappointed by the inevitable need to reject many other brilliant stories written on this multifaceted theme.

Re the latter, one author with a rejected story wrote to me today (15 April 2008): …but then to be left with a cold dead cone zero in the hand, the centre melting, the cone soggy at the edges, dripping from the bottom… sigh. Perhaps there should be a cone zero graveyard, ghosts of the ‘almost’ stories hovering in their own pixilated purgatory… nemonymously anonymous forever.

There are many worse ways of life than contented failure – Robert Aickman

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Suprematism has extended the apex of the finite visual cone of perspective into infinity. It has broken through the ‘blue lampshade of the heavens’ […] has swept away the illusion of three-dimensional space on a plane, replacing it by the ultimate illusion of irrational space with attributes of infinite extensibility in depth and foreground.

– El Lissitsky (1925) ‘A. and Pangeometry’

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“The ‘wavering Zero’ is the generative core of being and slime.”
–Iain Hamilton Grant from “Being and Slime: The Mathematics of Protoplasm in Lorenz Oken’s ‘Physio-Philosophy’”

I notice a review of COLLAPSE Vol IV (Urbanomic 2008) mentions:
“the nemonymous horror of Ligotti’s fiction“

I intend to adapt this page gradually in the shape of the official CONE ZERO. It will be edited and re-decorated as things progress. It’s not a static blog entry in that sense, although this paragraph will remain untouched (14 April 2008).

comments (10)

1. Weirdmonger left…

Tuesday, 15 April 2008 5:54 pm

I’ve suddenly realised why I’ve been calling the ZENCORE book iCONIC in its advertising campaign since last year. Almost as surprising as realising that CONE ZERO is a near anagram of ZENCORE!

I feel as if I’m broadcasting on a long-lost LOST video…

2. Weirdmonger left…

Wednesday, 14 May 2008 10:53 pm :: http://weirdmonger.blog-city.com/cone_ze

Attempts to find the real Cone Zero start at link above.

3. Weirdmonger left…

Sunday, 8 June 2008 10:55 am

Last night on the Dr Who episode of ‘Silence in the Library’, she whispered his name in his ear.

Nemonymous?

The greatest Who ever!!! And I watched the first episode when first boadcast in the sixties. :-)

4. Weirdmonger left…

Tuesday, 10 June 2008 3:44 pm

There were composite cones and pyramids either alone or surmounting cylinders and cubes or flatter truncated cones and pyramids, and occasional needle-like spires in curious clusters of five. All of these febrile structures seemed knit together by tubular bridges. –H.P. Lovecraft (At The Mountains of Madness)

5. Weirdmonger left…

Monday, 16 June 2008 8:39 am :: http://tinyurl.com/572lhx

New Cone Memorial opened today. See above link.

6. Weirdmonger left…

Saturday, 5 July 2008 5:55 pm

If one reads CZ from beginning to end, you will defeat the Credit Crunch simply by allowing it to be sucked up into Cone Zero.

7. Weirdmonger left…

Thursday, 14 August 2008 7:09 pm

I hope the latest international crisis doesn’t push the whole world into cone zero.

8. Weirdmonger left…

Thursday, 23 April 2009 7:43 pm :: http://www.pcdmisforum.com/showpost.php?

A new ‘cone zero’ has just appeared at link immediately above.