Web Serials?Your Soaps Online!
AUTHOR: Jody Wallace

(these links worked in 2000...)

Whatever you do, if you value your life and your free time, do NOT do a web search on ?online fiction? or ?online serial novel?. Your brain will promptly be eaten by the vicious internet demon otherwise known as ?Too Many Choices.?

When I did a similar piece about choose your own adventures (link), there was quite a variety out there, and I began this article expecting a similar array. Little did I know that every Jack and Jill and their dog Pail O? Water have published their treasured words online, in both serial and non-serial formats, and a great load of it is FREE. Yes, FREE STUFF, another vicious internet demon, has joined with ?Too Many Choices? to provide curious readers with an endless supply of fiction.

Serialized fiction began during the Victorian age as an affordable way for the working class to purchase and enjoy fiction. Many famous authors -- Charles Dickens, George Elliot, William Thackeray, and Anthony Trollope -- contributed to this widespread literary format. Serials were also published as cheap, standalone installments, also easily afforded by the common man (http://www.umd.umich.edu/casl/hum/eng/classes/434/geweb/THEHISTO.htm). In the early twentieth century, serial fiction again enjoyed much popularity in ?pulp? publications like The Argosy, Weird Tales, Detective Stories and Ranch Romances, (http://www.adventurehouse.com/history.htm) as well as the awakening and continuing world of the comic book (http://www.dereksantos.com/comicpage/comicpage3.html).

More recently, in print Rolling Stone magazine published Tom Wolfe?s Bonfire of the Vanities in the 1980?s. As noted in an article about the history of Amazing Stories, ?Serial novels, once the lifeblood of magazines, had long started to fade, even from the regular monthlies, and it was refreshing to see them back? (http://www.wizards.com/amazing/history8.asp). Another article, following on the heels of Stephen King?s publication of The Plant (link) in e-installments, also stated ?that the serial is seeping back into literary life? (www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/02/24/pl4sl.htm). As the medium of the internet lends itself naturally to this literary form, this latest resurgence comes as no surprise.

Serialized fiction on the web is undergoing an explosion, thanks to the ease with which most people can now access the web -- and, what?s more, publish their own fiction on a webpage for all to see. The superb Episodic Online Series Review website (http://www.episodicreview.com/ link), a veritable font of information about online text and video, yes, video, serials, hosts the Eppy Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Fiction, not to be confused with the Eppie Awards for ebooks. Although King?s actions have been the catalyst that inspired all the recent hub-bub, this site if nothing else proves that serials have been online for years.

In the particular area of science fiction romance, Xeno Lambrose, a subscriber at SFR, has published a couple online serials, The Desert Raven, Jinn 93x and The Shadow of the Raven, at http://xenolambrose.tripod.com/index.html. The tales describe the exploits of the heroine, Grant Comber, and her romantic relationship with an alien. Miasma was described as, ?three basic groups of humanity who have survived the 20 day war of 2003. This is not just a survival story but involves complex persons in each group who are faced with emotional and romantic survival, acceptance of other groups, revenge and ultimately forgiveness.?

In fact, as mentioned in last month?s newsletter (link), SFR editor Jennifer Dunne is participating in a round robin serial novel, Serial Living, available in email by sending a blank message to SerialLiving-subscribe@egroups.com. Round robin means that different people are the authors of successive chapters. Jennifer?s installment, Chapter Two, showed up in participants? emailboxes in late September, and chapter three is due in early October. Chapters you might have missed can be found either on the egroups website (link) or on the authors? websites. The other authors, Leta Nolan Childers, Jeff Strand, MaryJanice Davidson and Carol Givner, are all previously published.

Now don?t get all excited and think you?re going to find a slew of highly polished, wonderful, fascinating text just because our editor and one of our subscribers are part of the process. While some online serials are good quality, just as many are not particularly well written or entertaining. Anyone who has a website can publish his or her own online serial, and that should be sufficient warning that not all will be gold or glittery. If I had crouched over the computer non-stop for the past year, I would not have had enough time to do fair reviews on all the choices I am about to offer you, so please note that no lifeguard is on duty and swimming is at your own risk. Nevertheless, here are some links to a fraction of the available online serials:

http://eharlequin.women.com/harl/books/readingroom/index.htm and http://eharlequin.women.com/harl/books/readingroom/daily/20dsac11.htm: Harlequin Online has a couple varieties of serial fiction available, which isn?t a bad place for a romance fan to start testing the serial waters.

http://www.seventhsanctum.com/xai/index.html: How can an SFR subscriber resist Xai, ?the crossroads of alternate Earths [and] an original, continuing science-fiction/paranormal romance story published on the web??

http://www.diskuspublishing.com/serial.html: Noted ebook publisher Diskus Publishing offers a serial fiction mailing list. You can sign up or download installments but you have to download the back issues.

http://www.awe-struck.net/READROOM/readroom.html: Awe-Struck E-Books also offers online short stories, which aren?t exactly the same as serialized novels, but there are several of them available.

http://www.egroups.com/community/C-BoyettCompo: Charlotte Boyett-Compo views serials as a way to boost readership. She says her sales have doubled since she has been emailing out chapters of The Prince of the Wind.

http://www.thetroll.net/troll.htm: This site contains three fantasy serials, one by Sapphire Award Winner Patricia White.

http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Crater/1908/pulpmag/contents.html: If you like your serials speculative, this site features science fiction, horror and fantasy stories.

http://xaa.tripod.com/PopUp.htm This Java-inspired website plays music and says it offers a ?sci-fantasy novel taking place on Oerth, a world populated by animals that walk on their hind legs and talk?. Be patient while this loads because the presentation is worth it, even if I have not tested the fiction itself.

http://www.ongoing-tales.com/SERIALS/SCIFI/index.html: This musical ezine hearkens back to the good old days of pulp magazines. The current ongoing tale is ?Freshmen in Space? by Gary Raab.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/zot/: This comic book is ?a combination of post-modern science fiction, down-to-earth characterization and a constant stream of wild new storytelling inventions.?

http://www.darktales.com/climer.htm: Steven Lee Climer, a horror author with two published novels, is offering a free serial as an email subscription.

http://www.douglasclegg.com/nightmarehouse1.htm: Douglass Clegg, horror author, says he had over 4,000 subscribers for his first serial, Naomi. This is the page for his new serial.

http://www.corpse.org/: This is a professional looking site with lots to offer but seems to focus on artsy, modern writings.

http://500days.com/: The 500 Day Village is a fictional ?attempt to bring together 500 People from around the globe to live together on a small, uninhabited Hawaiian Island.? I guess Survivor was on the web before it was on television.

http://www.looped.org/: This one shows up frequently on the search engines and is described as ?a Dickensian novel about Chicago in the year 2000?.

More lists of available serials:

http://www.episodicreview.com/directory.htm: Mentioned above, the Episodic website even reviews online serials for you!

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Online_Writing/Fiction/Series_Stories/: This list focuses on series stories only.

http://www.bitbooks.com/: When using this huge search engine, choose serials for a list.

http://www.dmoz.org/Arts/Online_Writing/Fiction/Genres/Science_Fiction/: Enough free science fiction online to keep you from the laundry for weeks.

http://directory.google.com/Top/Arts/Online_Writing/Fiction/Genres/Science_Fiction/: Although these two lists contain some duplications, you might not want to wash the dishes for weeks, either.

http://soaps.about.com/tvradio/soaps/cs/websoapsathrue/: For all you soap opera fans, here is a handy About.com page concerning web soaps.

An interesting looking published work for those of you who get really carried away:

Hayward, Jennifer. Consuming Pleasures: Active Audiences and Serial Fictions from Dickens to Soap Opera. University of Kentucky Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8131-2025-X