Fiction – Page 17

Site Seeing: e-Fiction Book Club

August 26, 2009 By Mark 2 Comments

The e-Fiction Book Club is a small site that’s only been up for a couple of months, but I found it quite useful. Its mission is much like the WFG: trying to help find and filter examples of e-Fiction on the web:

We review novels, novellas, blog-fics, series and short story collections in all genres except erotica. Our definition of e-fiction is fiction published in its entirety on the internet, whether by a registered e-publisher or by an individual.

Beyond the offerings on the site itself, check out the links page, which includes sites grouped by interest for both readers and writers.

(As if social networking needs any sanctioning by me, I found the e-Fiction Book Club because someone at the site linked to me via Twitter. The interconnectedness of the web still impresses me, but the speed at which useful connections can be and are being made seems to only be accelerating. Good news for a nascent movement like internet fiction.)

Update: e-Fiction Book Club closed in mid-January of 2010. The farewell note read, in part:

The e-Fiction Book Club has closed. Sadly my technical skills are not up to the task of running the site, and I don’t have the time or the cash to resurrect it.

I would like to thank you for your support in the past. I still believe there is a niche out there for a community site dedicated to promoting e-fiction works and authors, to encourage small publishers who are branching out into the medium of the electronic book and the many variations.

Even the right idea at the right time is no guarantee of success. The transition from analog to digital publishing is going to be long and difficult, and I can only hope others will fill this void.

— Mark Barrett

Site Seeing: WebFictionGuide.com

August 20, 2009 By Mark Leave a Comment

If ‘blog fiction’ is an obvious term for fiction on the internet, so is ‘web fiction’ — and that broader term is what I typed in the search bar yesterday for my first formal surfing safari. The top hit for that phrase turned out to be a site called Web Fiction Guide, which describes itself as a “community-run listing of online fiction”. (Sweet!)

As a first stop on an uncertain journey it seemed a welcoming place, and after taking a look around I think it would be worth your time to stop by as well. (Visiting the WFG Forums will give you a sense of the traffic on the site, as well as the vibe of the community.) [ Read more ]

Blog Fiction: the Big Picture

August 19, 2009 By Mark 4 Comments

In what I’m sure is an unflattering admission, my complete unfamiliarity with the subject of fiction on the internet includes the current terminology for the various expressive forms. For example, although I had heard of individual instances of blog fiction, I didn’t know if ‘blog fiction’ was a generally-used term, or even a broadly-used, all-encompassing term.

Well, yesterday I read a short Wikipedia article on Blog Fiction which not only provided a useful overview, but also answered or at least paralleled a number of my own thoughts about the subject. I’m still not sure of the scope of the term, but I now know I’m not alone in that uncertainty. (I encourage you to read the piece when you have a moment.)

Specifically, the article confirmed my belief that there are two big questions facing blog fiction and other types of internet fiction (if such distinctions need to be made):

1) Can old and new storytelling techniques be harnessed into a mature craft which will make internet fiction the emotional and artistic equivalent of more established types of fiction?

2) Will the potential for — and seduction of — authorial ambiguity in blog fiction create useful tension as a technique, or simply confusion on the part of the reader? [ Read more ]