Lords and Ladies of Holy Worlds, from Neil of Erk and Hannah Marie,

The tradition of fiction magazines is long and storied (yes, pun intended). Lately, the e-zine has arisen to usher this tradition into the information age. To this great tradition the leadership of Holy Worlds is proud to add our very own e-magazine, called, ironically enough, Holy Worlds.

The Holy Worlds e-zine will contain short fiction and serial fiction from the genres of fantasy, science, and historical fiction. It will also contain thoughtful non-fiction articles on subjects ranging from famous authors to writing tips to Harry Potter. The picture is filled out with an Artist Feature focused on an artist from Holy Worlds, and beautiful images that will be scattered through the fiction and articles.

But of course, all this isn’t going to magically appear in your mail (although I do know a few leprechauns who offered to do just that). Who’s going to write the fiction, the articles, take the pictures, and draw the art? You are!

This project will truly belong to Holy Worlds, and its content and authorship will reflect that. This is going to be a ministry; another step toward our goal of reclaiming speculative fiction, and doing it unto Christ.

And because we want this to be a big splash, we’ve decided that the First Issue should make a very, very big splash. And to displace that amount of water, it’s going to have to be a pretty big issue.

You see, normally the amount of content and art featured in each issue will be limited to a small quantity. But not this time. This time, we’re going all out.

So, as of now, submissions are officially open.

First, we request a special team of artists, numbering from one to many, who will be dedicated to designing and formatting each issue. We need pen and pencil artists, photographers, photo-manipulators, and graphic designers. Actually, we’ll need just about everything, We also request that any artists who are interested send us any art they would like to see in this issue, even if you aren’t part of the art team.

Next, we need fiction. No particular amount, except that we need a lot. Remember, these will be short stories, and need to be fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction. We’re also requesting serial fiction from dedicated writers willing to go the distance.

Finally, we need some non-fiction. We’re looking for articles about writing, biographies of authors, academic discussion on a specific piece of fantasy, sci-fi, or historical fiction literature, discussions on magic, applying theology, genre conventions, and controversial but important topics in speculative fiction. We’re also asking for brief tips on publishing or getting published. These will need to be from people with experience or maturity when it comes to writing. Tips about self-publishing will be accepted.

Remember, your submissions don’t have to be perfect. Hannah and I will be working with all authors to edit their content. Don’t be shy, and don’t be worried that your writing isn’t good enough. We’re trying to build a ministry, not the perfect magazine.

Send all submissions or offers to join the art team to <[email protected]>.

Most of all, pray. This is an important step for Holy Worlds. Let’s not do this lightly.

Sincerely,
Neil of Erk and Hannah Marie, Editors in Chief

Neil, I have a question. Will this be totally different than the HW newsletter, or are the two combined?

I have a blog post I'm in the middle of writing for the HW blog, and I am also writing up something for the HW newsletter. When I've finished those, though, I will take a look at this.

Totally different. The e-zine will feature no news, for one, and the newsletter is not a fiction magazine, for another.

This reminds me, if you have questions, please go ahead and post them here.

Oh, I've got it. Thank you.

What about drabbles?

I want to help here, what would you need a photographer for? Would you only include stories that haven't been put into the fireside section?

I hadn't thought about drabbles...

Well, for the standard issues, there will be no drabbles. For this issue, there could be a drabble section. Everybody can go ahead and send me their drabbles, and if there are enough, we'll have a section for them.



The photographers will report to Hannah, and she'll have them gather specific images for her to match certain content in the e-zine.

I'll take any stories, even if they're already in the fire-side section. I would like to also get some new stories, however.

Fascinating.

I may have a few things somewhere.

Ok sounds good, so report to Hannah via PM? I also might submit a short story, when is the deadline for submissions?

Yes, report to Hannah. Please also send me your email address, as you will also be part of the art team as a whole. Currently there is not a deadline, I'd like to get at at least some submissions before I set one, and I need to have a full Art team together.

I reported to Hannah as well. However, I don't have my own e-mail address at the moment.

That's alright.

Ok, sounds good!

I'd like to help with photography for this too. *Goes to bob Hannah a PM and send Neil her email address.*

I posted this on the HF forum a couple days ago, but decided the questions might get answered faster over here .

When is this E-zine going out? I would be interested in doing a HF serial, but I do not have it in a somewhat polished state yet. The first draft isn't quite done and it will need some rewriting. If you only want a chapter or two (they are short) for the first draft, I would probably be able to get them polished, but not the whole thing.

I only need the first section of a serial. Nothing more than the first short. So I'd be happy to see what you have now.

I dropped an email

Could there also be occasional world building snippets? Last year I had a lot of fun writing an encyclopedia entry on werewolves. I think it would be neat to have a blurb on a mythical creature every now and again from the perspective of one of our many builders.

I have a couple stories that might work... one in particular I'd like to add, but I submitted it to a magazine a couple of weeks ago and am waiting to hear back from them. So if it gets turned down there, I'll see what y'all think of it, otherwise, I'll go digging for something else.

I sent an email, but I didn't know if I needed to shoot someone a PM on top of that.

You dropped it?? Did it break?

I don't have much of worth to put in an E-zine...but if you're desperate for stuff, I might be able to find a semi-decent poem or something.. *Not sure what ya'll are looking for*

I have nothing worth publishing at the moment, but I'll keep this in mind.

That's fine, Celestria.

Gents, you might think you don't have anything worth publishing, but I'd like to see anything you've got that could work as a short. (I'm not looking for poetry, though, just stories.)

...I can't remember if we're allowed to submit things that are already in the fireside or not. If I can, then I might have something to submit. Otherwise...maybe I will someday.

Neil said:



That should help with your question, Lycanis.

Yeah, I should say it would, thanks Elanor! I'll think about submitting something...

You're welcome. And that would be awesome.

OK. Would you mind if I discussed with you in a PM?

That would be great!

No poems, eh? Hum, you wanting short stories, or pieces of long ones?

No poems, at least not at the moment. And short stories, not cuts from longer stories.

Okay.

What kind of legal issues are there? Will we still have complete control over our stories and art?

That's a good question, it would not be a good thing if I lost the rights to my story...

Neil told me that submitters will not lose any rights to their work or republishment of it.

Ah, well then this sounds like an amazing idea.

Neil, do you know when Hannah will send me the photographs needed list? Thanks!

I sent a PM and an e-mail. I have a story I'd like put in as a serial, and I can do art as well.

This is good to hear. But there's one wrinkle that some might not think of. (I'm not a lawyer, of course, by the way, but this comes up often in legal-issues-for-writers articles and the like, yet seems to be a surprise to most fellow-aspiring-authors I mention it to, so I repeat it here.) Even if this doesn't require us to give up any rights to our work, if something hasn't been published (in the copyright-rights meaning of the term) previously, this will use up the "first publication" and "first electronic publication" rights, and possibly other "first such-and-such publication" rights---this is "publication" "within the meaning of the act," and something can only be published for the first time once.

That's a good point, that could have implications or not quite as much (I think in the case of self-publishing it might not matter as much), thanks for pointing that out Kingjon...I had forgotten about that.

Wait, what's the big deal about first publishing?

Once a piece has been published once (i.e. for the first time) in a given market (the U.S., North America, the English-speaking world, the world, in serial form, in hardcover, electronically, or so on), it can never be published for the first time in that market again; any subsequent publication is a reprint. And most publishers insist on buying "first publication rights"; Analog maazine, for example, famously had (and probably still has) a policy of never accepting "reprints", stories that had been published somewhere else. Similarly, unless a book has already sold tens of thousands of copies, a traditional publisher (in the U.S.---publishers elsewhere in the world might be somewhat more flexible) isn't going to want to buy it if it's been previously published.

Oh oh oh gotcha...

ANNOUNCEMENT

Because I have not received enough submissions, this project will not continue. (See, that shocked face wasn't kidding.) I am grateful to those of you who have submitted either stories or your help, but unfortunately, it takes a lot of material to get something like this up and running.

Fortunately, HW has, and will continue to have, other projects to which you can submit your aid, artwork, or stories.

Oh well. Someday, right?

Sad! I wish it could have happened. Maybe some other day.

I hope so!

Hey, uh, no promises though.

Aw. I was just waiting until I heard back from a magazine about one of my submissions to enter.