Short Thoughts on Short Fiction Vol. 16: New Kids on the Publishing Block

So I’ve taken a week off from old Short Thoughts (and writing in general—sometimes you just need it, folks) to recharge the old batteries and concentrate on a couple of other projects that I’ve become involved in, but now I’m back and raring to write some reviews—almost. Yeah, I’m still feeling a little lazy, so instead of writing reviews for new stories, I thought I’d go with a theme much like my last column, and give a polite nod of the head to some new interwebbie publications that have recently popped up, as well as point out a long-running zine that may have escaped your attention.

I love it when new zines hit the web.

And not just because it’s another market for me to send out to, but because it means there’ll be a new influx of writing rolling in, with new writers making their debuts and good old ones looking to make a splash. The whole problem with a new zine is that if there isn’t enough support or submissions to it, the chances of it drying up and blowing away without so much as sharp gust of wind is pretty high. So after reading the column, make sure to head on over and check out some of the stories.

Okay, first up is The Feral Pages…

FP is looking to establish itself as a cross-genre zine; that’s right, a publication that actually encourages its contributors to send them zombie-P.I.-in outer space style stories, which in my opinion is fucking great. There is always the possibility of this kind of writing edging towards camp and cliché, but if the first issue is any indication of what’s to come for FP, I honestly expect a lot of great stories to come out of it. Issue # 1 features an all too rare appearance by Conversations with the Bookless alumni Patrick Shawn Bagley and an exceptional chiller by horror aficionado Chris Holm. The Feral Pages is set to be a bi-monthly and is also sponsoring a contest called the “Potato Head challenge.” Make sure to check it out.

Next is Disenthralled…

Disenthralled is a WordPress blog zine, and much like The Feral Pages, it appears that it will focus on cross-genre material, but in a far broader sense in that it will be publishing largely flash fiction, poetry, photography, and whatever else catches editor Quin Browne’s eye. This can be both a good and bad thing. Good because the format may challenge authors to attempt a form they’ve never tried in the past; bad because of the same thing. The first issue is a small, interesting mix of all of the above. Editor Quin Browne’s story for the first issue, “Moon’s up, Nights up” is the strongest story of the debut issue. It’ll be interesting to see what’s in store for this zine in the future.

All right, onto our well-established zine.

Yellow Mama has now existed for 16 bi-monthly issues. Much like our two previous entries, Yellow Mama is a cross-genre zine that diffidently specializes in the darker side of fiction and poetry. Number 16 of YM has been a particularly chilling read with new fiction by Josephine Damien, Stephen Rogers, and Alec Kowalczyk; and make sure to check out the archives for classic reads from such writers as David Cranmer, Patti Abbott, Clair Dickson, and Sandra Seamans.

Well, folks, I hope you take the chance to check out these zines and the many others out there on the web, and I wanted to throw this one out there:

What is your favorite current or past zine?

See you next week, folks.

(And I swear I’ll be doing some reviews next time.)