A lot has transpired for me personally in many ways since my last post and my disappearance from the Internet. I apologize sincerely for mine and The Chamber’s and RFM’s sudden departure from the Internet so long ago, but it could not be helped. Life intrudes sometimes.
I do not know if I will bring The Chamber back. I loved doing it, but it required a lot of time, and I was not making enough money to justify continuing it considering all the other time commitments I had. Once I retire, maybe I will bring it back. I would love to. It was a wonderful, rewarding time in my life and one of the best things I have ever done. I regret deeply having to shut it and RFM down.
However, once I work out a business plan, I am considering resurrecting RFM. I hope to retire soon, so I will have the time to devote to it. The trick will be to have an effective, efficient business plan. I learned a lot about business in general and about the online magazine business in particular during my days as a publisher. I hope to put those lessons to good use soon and once again venture into publishing.
For now, I am focusing on my own writing. I have not published anything in a while, but I am not determined to finish some novels and plays, one or two of the latter I have recently drafted. That is why I am posting this note now, so that you can keep abreast of my writing as it develops, and I start publishing some serious works soon.
I have been busy establishing The Chamber over the past month or more and my writing has therefore suffered. The beautiful spring weather here in Arkansas seems to have brought in a severe bout of laziness as well.
On a personal note, as of April 3, I have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Nonetheless, I still follow CDC guidelines as regards wearing a mask and, maintaining social distance. The vaccine is 95% effective, so there is a small chance I could catch Covid-19 or one of its mutants anyway. Wearing a light mask and keeping my distance from strangers (who I normally don’t want to be close to anyway) are very small prices to pay to minimize my chances of dying slowly and miserably.
I was working great guns on Shadows and Stars until I started to be overwhelmed with double-checking all the details and was stumped on working in an additional chapter that I wanted but wasn’t certain if it was necessary or if it might be too much. I need to trim the book down anyway. At that time, I started getting a lot of ideas for Lycanthrope and work furiously on it for a while until I started running out of ideas. I still intend to finish both asap though.
At that point, I started getting a lot of ideas for The Chamber Magazine and started working furiously on that. Now, I have it at a good point, so I can now get back to writing on Shadows and Stars for a while.
I have made a lot of format changes (mostly simplifying things) and some behind the scenes mechanical changes as well, fine tuning it to attract a lot more writers as well as readers. I have also had it listed on two submission engines, Duotrope and The Submission Grinder and with Arkansas Writers. I will submit it to others, including the Horror Writers Association soon.
I have also examined the statistics for The Chamber since resurrecting it (it had been a failed project of mine that had been languishing in the background for several years) and wrote up a summary that can be used as something of a media kit to publicize it and to submit it to different organizations for listing. A copy is below for your information and edification.
The Chamber Magazine, an online magazine headquartered near Gillett in Arkansas County and founded by Phil Slattery, is seeking submission of quality short, contemporary dark fiction (of any genre) and dark poetry (of any style) . It can be found at https://thechambermagazine.com.
The Chamber has been operating since December 2020 and has been steadily growing. To date, the website has had 8,083 hits. It has from 15-270+ visitors/week resulting in 100-800+ views/week. Because The Chamber is striving to create a worldwide readership, since our opening we have had visitors from 65 nations.
The Chamber accepts submissions from writers of all experience levels from around the world. Some of its writers have only a few publication credits of short stories while others, such as Niles Reddick and Marcelo Medone, are professional writers with several novels to their credit.
The Chamber is looking for articles, reviews, essays, poems, and short stories of approximately 7,500 words or less including flash, micro fiction, smoke longs, drabbles or of any flavor of short fiction that demonstrates the art of writing dark fiction, whether it be prose, poetry, one-act plays, or any other form of literature. The Chamber wants to showcase the genre in all its subtlety, intelligence, art, horror, terror, suspense, thrill-seeking, and gruesome detail. The Chamber will also accept dark humor provided it follows the guidelines below with regards to content and good taste. At this time, The Chamber is not interested in anything of the erotica or young adult genres. Specifics are available on the submissions page of the website: https://thechambermagazine.com. Visit the website to find out more.
There is no pay for submissions except for a publication credit and exposure to the market. However, the writer keeps all rights to his/her work. Often, The Chamber offers (by invitation only) its more experienced writers the chance to participate in an interview of about fourteen questions.
The Chamber will accept reprints, multiple submissions, and simultaneous submissions.
In light of my most recent post on Dr. Polidori and The Vampyre, here is an interesting article from Live Science via Yahoo News on the discovery of a cemetery of bodies who were apparently suspected of being vampires: “Vampire” Graves Uncovered in Poland.
If you would like a short trip to the weird side of the horror news, follow the link to a law article about a case in Romania in which a couple sued four priests for failing to rid their home of flatulent demons: Romanian Religious Malpractice.
Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher 