All the news that’s fit to capsulize!

GEORGE CLOONEY NOT INCLUDED
BL Publishing – the British outfit behind all those New Line House of Horror novels you see us review – is launching a new imprint devoted to new science fiction, fantasy and dark fantasy. Called Solaris Books, it will publish a mix of new and traditional novels in those genres, bridging a gap between large mass-market publishers and the small press in both America and England. Solaris kicks off in February with an anthology, THE SOLARIS BOOK OF NEW SCIENCE FICTION, edited by George Mann, and Gail Martin’s THE SUMMONER. Months to follow in 2007 will see titles from Jeffrey Thomas, Natasha Rhodes, Emily Gee, Ashok Banker, James Maxey and Eric Brown, as well as a second anthology, Mann’s THE SOLARIS BOOK OF NEW FANTASY.

MARSHA MASON NOT INCLUDED
To promote Brad Meltzer’s new thriller THE BOOK OF FATE, Hachette USA has created an online “Guess the Mason” game. If you’ve got a couple minutes to blow from your workday – c’mon, it’s Friday – click on over and guess which historical figures were part of this creepy secret club. Fun!

BAND-AIDS NOT INCLUDED
There’s another new magazine for horror fans: Scars. With the tagline “horror that leaves marks,” Scars is a slick, full-color, 52-page glossy. The first issue covers movie makeup legend Dick Smith, cannibals on film, Wichita’s BTK serial killer, a nudie centerfold and tons of reviews. BOOKGASM’s own Louis Fowler is among the contributors, heaping praise on flicks like SLITHER, ZOMBI: DAWN OF THE DEAD, CANNIBAL HOLOCAUST and HOSTEL. He also discusses the book MAKING FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE LEGEND OF CAMP BLOOD, which you first saw reviewed here. (You did see it, didn’t you?) And while BOOKGASM has absolutely, positively nothing to do with Scars, our own Chris Sharpe is interviewed about his debut film, SEX MACHINE. Check it out at scarsmagazine.com.

COMMENTS NOT INCLUDED
“Hey,” you say (hypothetically), “where’d the ‘leave a comment’ feature go?” We answer: away. Freakin’ spammers ruin all the fun, don’t they, with their “xanax” and “dog sex.” Actually, I’m proud to report no spam comment ever sneaked through our high-tech filtering and moderation system, but weeding through hundreds of them a day in hopes of finding one legit comment is no fun. You know what that means: Discuss it in our forums.

Discuss it in our forums. (Déjá vu!)