Rational Magic is dedicated to the electric dissemination of quality fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, especially science fiction, fantasy, and other "spec-fic." I created the site because as I surveyed possible places to submit my work, I was disappointed by the existing fantasy/SF e-zines. Many of them, while enthusiastic and dedicated to their craft, aren't professional in appearance or tone. As a published writer and experienced editor, I don't feel comfortable submitting stories to venues that don't spellcheck, grammar-check, or even sight-check their pages for technical glitches. Also, many e-zines were poorly designed, with ads overshadowing the links to the actual stories or with information hidden under cryptic links.
(I offer these criticisms not as flames but as cautions: the Internet will never be taken seriously as a venue for professional writers until more professionalism goes into the creation and maintenance of e-zines. Believe me, as a voracious reader, I want to see lots of terrific, professional-looking e-zines on the Web so I can stay up and read stories until 2 in the morning.)
Anyway, sitting morosely at my computer, I thought, "Geez, I might as well post stories on my own site."
It took less than a minute to extend that thought into "Geez, I might as well start my own e-zine."
And since I had recently purchased the domain name rationalmagic.com to use for my personal page, it seemed only logical to use "Rational Magic" as the name of this newly fledged e-zine.
So that's the story. Nothing really exciting, though I'm having fun with the whole thing. My ultimate goal for Rational Magic is to turn it into one of the most respected independent e-zines on the Internet. I've got a ways to go to accomplish that, but I think, I hope, I've made a good start. And I hope you feel that way as well!
