Website Review: SFF Chronicles
Writing is a lonely business. In the past, you had to go to conventions and writers' conferences to meet fellow writers, but thanks to the Internet we take it for granted nowadays that you can communicate with like-minded people from the comfort of your own desk - and for free. Whether you want to rave about a favourite book or movie, talk about your work-in-progress with other writers, or get insights from industry insiders like editors and agents, a site exists that caters to your needs. However SFF Chronicles (http://www.sffchronicles.co.uk) is one of the few sites I know of that lets you do all of this in one place.
Now you can probably guess from the name that the site specialises in science fiction and fantasy, so I'm afraid that if you're interested in other genres, you'll need to look elsewhere. It's also a UK-based site, so bear in mind that some of the publishing news and industry discussions are going to be UK-biased. On the other hand, there are plenty of members from around the world - fandom has no borders!
The home page focuses on news, from the major fiction awards through books, films, TV and games. Each topic area has a box on the home page with two or three top stories, and links to more. In addition to news, there are separate sections of the site for book reviews, interviews, and a joint blog with contributions from the site's founders and "senior" members. Each major section has its own RSS feed, so if you're only interested in book reviews, for example, your inbox/rss reader won't be inundated with irrelevant material.
Most useful to writers, however, are the forums. The main sections are: Books & Writing, Film & TV, Science fiction & fantasy, General (off-topic chat), and Discussion (with sub-sections on Science/Nature, History, and so on). For the purposes of this review I'll be focusing on the Books & Writing section, since that's the most relevant to readers of Vision.
As this is a general site for SF&F fans, discussions of published authors' work dominate the forum listings, with dedicated sub-forums for popular writers from Neal Asher to Roger Zelazny. Some threads are naturally busier than others; since the announcement that HBO is filming George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, speculation about the cast has been fevered.
Two other sub-sections here are of particular interest to writers: Aspiring Writers and Publishers & Industry. The former offers some of the same benefits as Forward Motion: it's a place to discuss how your writing is going, get snippets of your work-in-progress critiqued, join in challenges, and so on. I confess that I have not used this section a lot, as I am a regular on Forward Motion already and I don't need more distractions. However, the threads seem to be fairly active, and if the regulars there are anything like the rest of the site, you'll get lots of friendly advice and encouragement.
I've saved the best until last, and that is of course Publishers & Industry. Regular visitors include writer/editor Ian Whates, Roy Gray of TTA Press (Interzone and Black Static magazines), and top UK SF&F agent John Jarrold, who has his own thread where he answers questions. Sadly the sub-forums dedicated to larger publishing houses are badly neglected, but the rest of this section sees plenty of activity.
Within Publishers & Industry, the Conventions & Events sub-forum is a great way to avoid being a "Billy No-Mates" (as we say over here) at the next convention you go to, since there are bound to be a few other Chroniclers going. Pretty much every UK science fiction, fantasy, and horror convention is covered, plus the big international ones like WorldCon.
Overall, SFF Chronicles is a friendly community for any fan of the genre, but if you are based in the UK and want to get started with professional networking, it's a must-have on your browser bookmark list or speed dial.