Landing in San Francisco

I really like online speculative fiction magazines. They're mostly run by people who are excited about them, and perhaps because they tend to have low overheads, many of them are really innovative. (I estimate that the cost of running an online magazine is about 10% of the cost of a print magazine.) Many of them archive material (with the author's permission), so you can go back and browse. And of course, you can send links to people who you know would just love that story or poem or artwork. Many of them are free, supported by donations.

This is an ongoing list, in no particular order, of some of the electronic spec-fic magazines I read often .

• Strange Horizons carries a new story and a new poem each week. In addition, it has art, reviews, and columns. It's free.

• Ideomancer is a quarterly, carrying typically three stories, three poems, reviews and an interview. It's also free.

• Town Drunk is a monthly, with a light-hearted touch. It publishes stories that are fun to read. Free.

• Clarkesworld, also a monthly, is perhaps the opposite, publishing stories that are often dark and disturbing - and memorable. Free.

• Heliotrope, a quarterly, publishes short stories, poetry, and articles. Free

• Fantasy Magazine is a weekly speculative magazine that carries reviews, articles, and fiction. Free.

• Goblin Fruit is a fantastical poetry magazine published quarterly. It has audio recordings of some poems, read by the poets. Free.

• Big Pulp, a new webzine that plans to add new stories each week in a variety of genres: Romance, mystery, horror, adventure, and of course fantasy and science fiction. It also has reviews of books and manga. Free.

• Lucrezia is an erotic webzine with a feminist slant and a sense of fun. It's published monthly, but updated during the month with art, stories and articles. Free

• Atomjack does science fiction and science fantasy. It's bimonthly and free. You can bypass the annoying Flash cover by clicking a link near the bottom. The link here should hopefully do that anyway.

• Lone Star Stories is another bimonthly for speculative fiction and poetry. Also free.

• Jim Baen's Universe is published six times a year, and costs $30 per year ($6 for only the current issue).

• Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine is an Australian magazine publishing six issues annually. It contains some excellent humor but isn't limited to light pieces. It's not strictly an e-zine; but it has a PDF subscription option at $20 per year. (The print subscription is higher, especially if you don't live in Australia.)

• Shimmer magazine, a quarterly, is available as a download. The electronic edition is available for $14 per year (or $4 for a single issue).

Other Links

The online magazine review site: The Fix 

A useful forum for writers:  Absolutewrite.com

The well-known market trackers and other useful things sites: Ralan.com and Duotrope.com

Of course there's the online critique group, Critters that is open to all writers of spec-fic.

I enjoy Sudoku, and my favorite site is http://www.sudoku.com.au/

This site encourages players to upload their own pictures to its gallery, and several favorites are posted under the "Tough" gallery.