August News Roundup

Some Interesting News Bits happening in the Blog Fiction World. Some old, some recent, all of it was news to me in the last month.

Novelr taking a semi-break
Eli James has let us know of a planned "study break" until December. Unfortunately, that means a lot fewer posts. The online fiction community never seems quite right when we're deprived of Eli's insight.

Pages Unbound is closing down.
In a sad move, Pages Unbound is shutting down. Alexandra Erin didn't have enough time to run the review site and forums. Pages Unbound was a busy, well frequented site, and a great resource for finding quality fiction online. It's absence will leave a huge gap and need. Fortunately, another site has risen to fill that need. Which brings us to the next news bit...

Web Fiction Guide now has forums
In response to the loss of Pages Unbound, the editors at Web Fiction Guide installed a forum. The forum isn't Blog Fiction centric, but covers all online fiction which include Blog Fiction.

Seeing Blog Fiction published
This is really old news, but Undead Man Blogging is working on getting published. Still waiting to hear about Star Islanders being published.

New Blog Fiction
I found 2 new blog fiction sites: Death's Blog which is still active, and BlogPaige which is not.

Unknown Ship, Unknown Planet gone.
Unknown Ship, Unknown Planet has done a disappearing act. One that would make "Life in Bear Country" jealous.

Unannounced Leaves
Unfortunately, there are a lot of blog fiction sites that seem to be taking unannounced leaves.
A while ago, Fleet Commander teased us with a possible comeback. Unfortunately it didn't materialize.
The three Super Hero blogs, of Leroy and Enigma have not had a post since July 8th. Hopefully they weren't defeated by a super villain. Terra is still blogging sporadically.
Peep this Diary also teased us with a comeback. With only 2 posts back in early July and none since, it may have been premature to call it a comeback.

What was news to you this past month?

Fleet Commander is Back!

Doing some research for a future post I was flipping through some of the blog fiction I've found so far. I clicked on over to Fleet Commander and was about to flip through some of the older posts when something caught my eye:

Sunday, January 13, 2008

I did a double take. Last I checked the blog had been abandoned last January. Not only was there a new chapter, but there was a note from the author. He had started his blog as an experiment, but time got tight for him. I can certainly relate. However, as he puts it:

Then something strange happened...

People started reading Scifi Blog: Fleet Commander. People are actually reading my stuff!

He ended with:

I hope people continue to read, leave comments, and email me. A little encouragement goes a long way.

I couldn't have said it better myself. So, let this be a lesson for all of us. If you find a blog fiction that you like and it stops, with a little encouragement the author might pick it up again.

I couldn't be happier about this. This was the first blog fiction that I ever found and enjoyed waiting for the next installment. I've also added the Fleet Commander feed to the list and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment again.