2.10.06--+ concert announcement +
The SpêkrFrêks Are Performing In The San Francisco Bay Area Coming Soon! See below for concert dates. Send Em a copy of your ticket stub or receipt and you will get a free gift!

February 19th at 10:00pm
2111 Franklin St. in Oakland
At the Bench and Bar nightclub

April 28th at 6:00pm
San Fransisco State University
For the "7 Inch Heels Festival"

1.8.06--In this issue:
1. Notes from the tomb... aka... Em's two cents.
2. New Interview from Samuel Hayne: An Interview With The Band: SpêkrFrêks
3. Poetry Contest Info
4. New writer's links: www.spiderwords.com www.theharrow.com www.writerssuccess.com www.dictionary.com www.darkfiction.org --update on link
5. New rad stuff link: www.gothic-parents.com
6. News: To poetry.com or not to poetry.com? That is the question.
-------------------------------------
NOTES FROM THE TOMB:
Happy New Year!

I know we are all grieving over the passing of our favorite time of year (I mean Halloween, not Yule), but I trust you can pull your heads out of the gloom for just long enough to take a gander at the new items on darklives.com.

We have some great stuff for the New Year! Because of many email inquiries on certain subjects, I’m expanding the writer’s resources to include places where you can submit or read dark fiction, art & poetry. I’ll also answer the ominous question: “To poetry.com or not to poetry.com.”

Hope you enjoy and please let me know if you have any items of interest to add for our staff or readers.

Emerian Mordrige,
Editor in Chief
darklives.com
-----------------------------------
Now available for your reading pleasure on darklives.com:
An Interview With The Band SpêkrFrêks, By Samuel Hayne
Currently SpêkrFrêks is in negotiations with THUMP records out of Los Angeles for a 5 year record contract. Their debut album is scheduled to be released in early 2006. Look for a video on music channels before the end of the year.
To read the interview with this up-and-coming band, visit darklives.com
---------------------------------------
Poetry Contest: Submissions will be accepted from January 2nd, 2006- March 13th, 2006. Theme: “Inner Demons” Winners will be announced by April 13th, 2006. For full submission guidelines, visit darklives.com.
---------------------------------------
New Writer’s Links:
www.spiderwords.com
Accepting and posting some of the best dark poetry on the net. Great for poets to submit work to. They have some strange photos of spiders also.

www.theharrow.com
Accepting and posting original works of fantasy and horror. This site may be hard to please. From feedback from writer’s I’ve received they are very technical and tough. A plus is, if you submit a story and they don’t like it, you will get a full page critique accessible through their website. Their criticism is harsh, but may give you some good ideas on what you can change.

www.writerssuccess.com
A website and newsletter that is for writers who want to write, market and sell their work. It is geared to all writers but has a lot of info on contests, freelance work and feedback from other writers. Excellent source of information and tips on writing. Sign up for their newsletter and you will get emails (I believe every month?).

www.dictionary.com
The best website for checking those words that spell check doesn’t know or for finding out which ware to put where? Another great resource for writers. You need to beef up your lexicon or work on your descriptive skills? Sign up for the Word Of The Day and learn new words everyday that can help in your writing.

www.darkfiction.org
--update on link
Unfortunately this zine will be going offline soon. Editor has a severe stroke and can no longer keep it up. Please visit it soon before it’s gone! No longer accepting submissions, but you can still read the archives.
------------------------------------
New Rad Gear Link:
www.gothic-parents.com
A great place to get info on all stuff for dark parents. Clothing links for goth baby & kids clothes, jokes, parenting resources, etc…
---------------------------------------
News: To poetry.com or not to poetry.com? That is the question.

Unfortunately, this issue has come up again with some new writers that have recently emailed me. I want to address it once more for anyone out there who doesn’t know or has forgotten.

Poetry.com and Noble House of London are somewhat scams. If you submit your poetry and get ‘chosen’ to be in a book, the $40 or so you spend on the book goes to publishing you in a giant volume where your poetry is but a footnote in the giant monstrosity of not-so-good poetry. Some people are ok with that, they just want their poetry in a book so they can leave it on their coffee table with a bookmark placed so that visitors can see the were ‘published’. I don’t have a problem with that, if the author understands what she is spending her $40 on.

The problems that arise are issues I get emailed about at least every month. I will try to answer these as clearly as I can from the information I have received from hundreds of disappointed poets.

Myth: When I submitted a poem online, it got posted on the site right away!
Truth: Yes. It does, and if that is all you wish is to be posted on a site, congratulations, you’ve done it.

Myth: I paid to have a poetry book sent to me. I know there are hundreds of other poets in it, but I wanted my very own published poem in a real book! It has an ISBN, so can’t any of my relatives order it from Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble?
Truth: No. It does have an ISBN, but as far as I know, you cannot order it from anyone but poetry.com. And, poetry.com has claimed to suddenly “go out of print” to some poets who didn’t order the book initially and then tried to order it later. Is this because their poem was left out because they didn’t pay the $40? Or is it because they really did run out of print? When checking with poets who do have the book in possession, the poem was somehow ‘left out’ of the book in question.

Myth: I know it’s a scam, but I paid extra for the ad in the back so I could list my website and get exposure that way. I consider it advertising.
Truth: Doesn’t work. If you list a website in the ‘author’s profile’ in the back of the book, they will not print it. They will happily leave it out.

Myth: After I got published in the first book, poetry.com &/or Noble House of London told me I was a great poet and that they wanted to have me submit a poem for a new book ‘Best Poets of the Year’ (or any other number of titles) where my poem would be on it’s own page and be highlighted by the fact that there were only a few poets selected to be in the book. Should I buy it?
Truth: No. Not unless you are ok with the fact that your poem will only be in the one book that you bought. All other copies of the ‘Best Poets of the Year’ will not have your poem inside. I have run across so many poets with this problem. They will receive their book in the mail and notice that their poem is the very first poem in the book. What an honor! Not only are you in a special book, but your poem was picked to be first! Right? Wrong. After closer inspection of the book, they find that their poem (along with perhaps 10 other pages of poetry) has been pasted into the front of the book after publication. When other people on the web have checked in their ‘Best Poets of the Year’ books, they find that you are not even in their book. If you do not purchase the book, your poem is not even included in one copy of the title, making you the victim of a scam. If you call or email poetry.com regarding the fact that your poem is not in the book they claim it was to be in, they use the excuse that your entry form was never received back to their offices.

If you have submitted poetry to poetry.com, don’t feel bad, it’s happened to the best of us. Just because they accepted your work, doesn’t mean you are a bad poet. They accept everyone, no matter if your work is excellent or pond scum. Consider it a lesson and warn anyone who might be caught in the same trap.

On a lighter note, old victims of the poetry.com scam have rallied together to create fake poets who write awful poetry and submit it to poetry.com, only to receive emails back stating: “You’re a winner!” One such poem that was accepted as a semi-finalist is below, I think you will have a laugh with it:
My Cat Has Fleas (a semi-finalist poem in poetry.com’s contest) My cat is chewing on her butt; It makes me think she is a nut. I try to drown the fleas in spray; They jump and shout and just yell "Hey!" I try to drown the fleas in powder; they eat it like it's fine clam chowder. I try to drown the fleas in gas; that really burned my kitty's a**. –END-

Websites regarding the scam:
http://wockyjivvy.com/poetry/shame/index.html
http://windpub.com/literary.scams/ilp.htm---official mailing list.

If you want to be added to the darklives.com mailing list that receives these updates by email, please let me know by emailing: emerian13@aol.com Please state “DARKLIVES MAILING LIST” in the subject line or it could be deleted.-Emz

Webmistress Emerian13@aol.com