Mike Keohane's Home Page: Since there's no way I can top my brother's home page for family unity, I offer you his take on Everything you've ever wanted to know about my clan but had no interest in asking....Striking URL: Noteworthy Web Pages:
In this mind boggling new universe we've created, you're bound to stumble across an address tucked away in the corner of some remote server. In each update of our own little world here, I'll try and give you a new discovery, a look into the creativity, lunacy and recipes of the millions of minds hooked into the web. Don't let the pictures make you think these are advertisements, they're not. I just like to steal their icons to make this page look nicer.
I've broken the links into 2 sections:
Electronic (Internet) Magazines (or Webzines) updated 12/30/98
General Interest Links / People (seriously, though, it's right below)
General (But Interesting) Links:
Mike Keohane's Home Page: Since there's no way I can top my brother's home page for family unity, I offer you his take on Everything you've ever wanted to know about my clan but had no interest in asking....
National Public Radio: NPR is just too cool not to have a great web site.
Aint It Cool News: I heard about this site in Entertainment Weekly. Tom Hanks was talking about. Some guy maintains this site regarding what's going on around Hollywood, etc. I haven't had much chance to check it out, yet.
Yahoo.com, because they are kind enough to list my sight for free, and since do far they're still the best search engine around.
If anyone has a web site they'd like me to check out, please email me at jd@ma.ultranet.com. Thanks. (PS: I really fixed the e-mail [as of 12/30/98] hyperlink so it should work OK now)
Horror Writers Association. Being one of their newest card-carriers, I've been impressed to no end. The newsletter is thrown together, and they bicker a lot among themselves within, but it has more information on the horror writing industry than anything else I've seen.
The Gila Queen's Guide to the Markets. Could Kathryn Ptacek possibly have picked a more complicated URL? But, I suppose, it's not any more complicated than mine. When I started writing pre-hiatus, I'd lug the tome of Writer's Market each year/2 years, and out of a billion pages maybe use information on two. TGQGTTM is published once a month, is less polished, more thrown together, and only 36 pages. In one issue, I've learned more about markets applicable to my genre than in the thousands of pages of WM, and years of subscribing to Writer's Digest for that matter. Ms Ptacek jams the pages in small fonts, full of market listings and guidelines from the markets' editors, news of dead magazines, new addresses, and tons of dark and witty humor. She's a funny woman who knows what writer's need. $36 a year (or something like that), the price of one Writer's Market, you get 12 issues and thousands of dweedles of brain food for the writer's soul. Now, I've mostly seen markets for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and erotica, but that's because my first 2 issues were specially designed towards the SF/F/H markets, and she has an extra issue coming out for erotica so she baited the listings. As I learn more about other genres covered I'll update this. Subscribe, you'd be foolish not to (hand onto the Writer's Market, though, in case a bear attacks and you need a weapon).
Writer's Challenge. Here's an interesting competition: a 500 word short story each month to win a $10 gift certificate to Amazom.com (who sponsors the page). I might give it a shot.
Electronic Magazines (E-zines) have begun to appear all across the Internet. They may be for fun, as this world of mine is, or they may be professional periodicals. Here are some professional e-zines that I think are worthwhile investigating. Note that the magazines listed are FREE, they make their money from advertising. Not bad. If you know of any other magazines you'd like me to link to just drop me a line. One other thing: I stole the logos below. These aren't paid advertisements or anything. I just wanted to liven up the page a little. Just click on the picture.
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Dark Muse: I have to put these folks up here first since they're going to publish one of my stories in their Feb/March issue. This is a new mag, the issue I'll be in only #3. But it looks like a winner, if they keep it up. Some of the stories are good, others, well. We'll see how anyone likes mine. Everything's subjective. This is a non-paying market, but if they hang in there they might get some bigger names to publish. We'll see how they do. Oh, and they don't archive past issues, so if there's anything you want to keep you'd better save it.
Gothic.Net: I have a story submitted to them, but they take a god-awful long time to reply. This is a finely crafted horror zine which like all the others does not require subscriptions to read its content. It is also one of the very few (perhaps only?) professionally paying e-zine. They've recently revamped the look of the magazine, and you have to kind of dig around to find the sections (put you cursor over shapes and on the right the description will come up -- worse case look at the balloon text). They have four new stories each month. From just the last two "issues" three stories have been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for best short horror fiction (I was one of the ones who nominated a story… see "In the Trembling" by Michael Carr -- October issue I believe). Since they pay low but professional rates for stories, you can find stories from some of the best writers in the horror field.
E-Scape: Here's another free e-zine. It pays a little less, but the stories are pretty darn good. They get less big-names only because they pay less, but overall I like their style. It's a bit simpler than Gothic, but sometimes that's good.
FrightNet: This is an online magazine, and is easy to navigate. Looks pretty good. They don't pay, as they're a new market. With so many new e-zines coming and going, who knows if they'll be around later. They have a great logo, however.
[no pic yet] Bad Dreams: I just got into this one real quick. Another non-paying market, but I haven’t had a chance to check out their wares. More on this later. Click on the hypertext to see for yourself.
Printed Magazines with Interesting Web Pages:
Night Terrors: D.E. Davidson, the editor, is a good guy, so I'll give him top billing. Night Terrors, though a non-paying market, is still filled with some cool stories. There has only been 7 issues so far, and already it's getting a good reputation built up. A number of stories from past issues got honorable mentions in Ellen Datlow's Year's Best Horror & Fantasy anthologies. Not all are perfect, a lot of new writer's are published here (I have a story in Davidson's slush pile at the moment, actually) and as such can be a little rough sometimes. But I've read a sample issue (he offers electronically-transmitted subscriptions at a much-reduced price), and found a number of very worthy stories. I even nominated one for a Bram Stoker award (the HWA gives the award, so that's why I can nominate, and the story was excellent). Check out the sight. Donald says he'll be offering one story from each issue to view on-line.
Cemetery Dance: This was the premiere horror magazine a few years back. Because of health reasons, the editor had discontinued publication for a while, but now it's back! They won't be accepting stories (they must have had a backlog, and he probably solicited stories from some bigger names for the comeback, but it always has been a fine horror magazine. As time goes on there could be competition from some of these other, newer mags (and of course from Weird Tales, which has also been resurrected), so we'll see how it goes.
Talebones: updated: This magazine is normally a printed one. They've set up a web page, and it's pretty good. As of December it's a VERY good sight… one of the best I've seen visually and navigation-wise. AND they have some stories available. Overall they have a good selection of stuff, both on-line and printed. I'm guessing that they'll be a full-fledged on-line free e-zine within the year, as long as they can get a revenue stream going.
Vampire Dan's Story Emporium: This is a pretty darn obscure little magainze, very rough around the edges, probably read by a hundred people, but damn if it doesn’t have some really excellent (and sometimes very funny) stories. Dan Medici, the editor, should think about selling electronic versions like Night Terrors, because it's the stories that make this a worthwhile mag. I nominated a story "Zap" by Ken Wisman from Issue #7 for the Bram Stoker. Scared me pretty darn good, while still being a fun story. Check out Vampire Dan's (note: there aren’t any vampire stories here).