Spotlight on Dark Moon Rising
by Ciara Grey

Dark Moon Rising is a zine that accepts speculative fiction. It is not a paying site at present but they look forward to changing that in the future.

I liked the look of the site since I'm partial to black backgrounds. This zine has no moving graphics or sound to slow the download time and is wonderfully pop-up, under and around free. Navigation is simple and easy.

Note: If you go to the links page and rate a site listed, be aware that if you hit 'Home', it will take you back to the links table of contents. Go to the bottom of the page to get back to the main page.

The writing accepted by this site is of a very good quality. Each story I read kept me interested. There were a few typos, but nothing out of the ordinary. The formatting is clean and all the links work at present. There is an announcement page to announce contests and conventions and other pertinent news. At first glance this page seemed a little complicated to me. There is a side window that has many categories and file folders. Once you try the buttons it is quite easy to find what you are looking for.

The submissions guidelines are spelled out very clearly for fiction, poetry and art. Flash fiction is not accepted. Word limits are 1000 to 7500. Simultaneous submissions are not accepted. The only thing you would want to be very careful about is inserting html tags for bold or italics. If you aren't familiar with html you may want to read up on it. It never hurts to know more about computers and programs these days.

The reply times for submissions are reasonable - six to eight weeks for fiction, two to four weeks for poetry and two to three weeks for art work. These times may be shorter. You must confirm by email to give Dark Moon permission to publish your work. Dark Moon only takes 90day exclusive rights. After the 90 days all rights revert back to the author. If you don't hear from them in the allotted time there is an email address to use to inquire about your submission. Return emails are sent within three days.

All in all this is a very nice site worth looking into. * * * * 1/2 You can view Dark Moon Rising at http://www.darkmoonrising.com/