Kimota (it’s ‘Atomik’ backwards, and from memory was the code word of some obscure super-hero, though it sounds more like something out of a Japanese monster movie) was one of the stalwarts of the ‘golden age’ of the UK small press, publishing sixteen issues between 1995 and 2002. The editor was Graeme Hurry and it was published under the auspices of the Preston Speculative Fiction Group, starting life as a publicity vehicle for them.
I had sixteen stories appear in the magazine, which is not quite as impressive as it sounds, as eight of them were published as a couple of flash fiction clusters.
Now editor Graeme Hurry plans to launch Kzine as an e-publication, and to test the water for that he’s issued The Kimota Anthology, a retrospective volume containing some of the best work from the magazine. Three of my stories made the cut – “The Murder Mystery” from #3, “The Earthly Paradise” from #6 and “The Abridged Nostradamus” from #11. There’s also work by a whole galaxy of people who are now a lot more established than they were then, including Mark Morris, Neal Asher, Stephen Gallagher, Stuart Young, Peter Crowther, Stephen Laws and Mark Chadbourn. I don’t get to share a ToC with talent of this stature every day (or any day, really).
You can grab a copy from the Amazon Kindle store. It costs a measly £1.71 and contains something like 400 pages of fiction.
There’s a nostalgic feel for me, looking through the pages of contributors and wondering what happened to some of these people – Caroline Dunford, Trevor Mendham, Joe Rattigan – who used to be regulars on the scene back in the day. Perhaps some of them are looking at my name and wondering what the hell happened to that Tennant guy.
Trumpetville 
Wow, congratulations! That’s brilliant. Am sending a copy Kindlewards.
Well done you! You are a good person, Ms Ali.
And I shall now inform the bear that he can release Mr Craig back into the wild.
Honoured to share a TOC with you Peter (in this new century).
Right backatya, dear lady.
And I know what happened to you post-Kimota 🙂
“There’s a nostalgic feel for me, looking through the pages of contributors and wondering what happened to some of these people – Caroline Dunford, Trevor Mendham, **Joe Rattigan** – who used to be regulars on the scene back in the day. Perhaps some of them are looking at my name and wondering what the hell happened to that Tennant guy.”
I’m still around too, Pete, and now a fellow East Anglian living and working as Joseph Freeman. Not as active on the scene as such, but I’m still knocking out the books and couldn’t imagine ever giving up on horror. They haven’t killed us off yet!
Good to know you’re still around Joe. For horror is the life, or something like that.
Thank you, Pete! Certainly the longer I do it, the less I believe I choose to write horror than it chooses me. Here’s to it – and us!