Note: all links are my endorsement of cool things – no reverse endorsement is implied or has been received.
Writer Conventions
AtomaCon – A delightful small Sci-Fi and Fantasy convention in North Charleston SC.
ConCarolinas – “The Best Sci-Fi Con in the Carolinas” – with a totally awesome writer’s track. For 2023, the writer guest of honor will be Gabino Iglesias and media guest of honor is Ari Lehman.
Con*Gregate – A newer con in High Point, NC. Writer guest of honor for 2023 will be John Scalzi.
RavenCon – Located in Richmond VA, I manage to attend it once and found it a great space to con in.
RetCon – Located in Cary, NC, this baby con was born in 2023. Michael G. Williams was its first guest of honor, so I bought a lifetime membership. Their guest of honor for 2024 is Nicole Givens Kurtz, owner of Mocha Memoirs (see links under publisher) and named by Book Riot as one of the “6 Black SFF Indie Writers You Should be Reading.”
Publishers
Please buy their stuff. I’ve meet all these companies/people at conventions and they are awesome. If you want to submit, please go to their websites and look over the submission and guideline rules and follow them. Thanks!
Amber Cove Publishing – A small-press publisher located in Virginia. Specializes in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Produces an anthology each year as well as novels. Operated by Jim Bernheimer.
eSpec Books – A small-press located in New Jersey, the company hosts a monthly short-story contest which is a nice way to get to know them. Also publishes between a half dozen to a dozen books a year. Operated by Danielle Ackley-McPhaill.
Falstaff Books – A growing small-press publisher located in North Carolina. Specializes in hard to compartmentalize manuscripts – a mix of horror, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery stuff, with a weird romance line added in 2018. Publishes forty or more books a year; I edit for them. Operated by John Hartness.
Mocha Memoirs Press – Specializing in speculative fiction by people of color (authors and main characters), this small press located in North Carolina releases about a half dozens titles a year. Operated by Nicole Givens Kurtz.
Prospective Press – Publishing both fiction and non-fiction, with everything from children’s books to classic horror, this growing press located in North Carolina is crazy active. Operated by Jason Graves.
Zombies Need Brains – Publishing multiple anthologies a year through Kickstarter, this small-press located in upstate New York does some fun stuff. Operated by Joshua Palmatier.
*** Sad to see them go…
Breathless Press – Had a cool blog challenge of Sunday Fun which I participated in 2013 and 2014. The blog is no longer functioning, and, sadly, this small press located in Canada has folded.
Silence in the Library – A small press specializing in using Kickstarter for underwriting initial publication. This Washington DC publisher does several anthologies, plus a few novels each year. Excellent at cross-cultural material. Publishes a mix of Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and YA. Operated by Janine Spendlove.
Three World Productions – I line-edited for this publisher located out of New Jersey until they folded in 2016. Sorry to see them go.
Blogs
Heroic Fantasy – A quarterly magazine publishing Heroic Fantasy, because if you are going to go Fantastic, go big! Includes both prose and poetry. Has publishing online for over 7 years now.
Magical Words – A blog hosted by big-press, small-press, and independent authors; editors of books, anthologies, and genre magazines; producers of web content; and small-ish publishers. Originally formed by a group of diverse genre authors in the Southern states of the East Coast, the group has expanded to international status. If you want to learn about the industry (writing, editing, and publishing), start here. (Note: the blog has been discontinued, but the site hasn’t been taken down as yet. UPDATE 10/16/2023: The blog has finally been taken down.)
We Geek Girls – Two incredibly talented women, one visual-oriented and one verbal-oriented, take on the geeking universe with movie, TV, and book reviews. They go to conventions, follow industry news, and have guest posts.
Artwork Sites
dreamtime.com – Mostly a for-pay site, but it does have a free photos section.
flickr.com – Some of the photographers have placed their photos in public domain, others use Creative Commons licenses of varying levels. Takes some searching to get some photos to use that both match subject and licensing.
si.edu – Smithsonian Open Access. Includes developer tools, 3D content interaction, and what people have done with the materials.
toulouse-lautrec-foundation.org – Henri De Toulouse-Lautrec complete works. Artwork for this site has the Creative Commons license for Attribution, Noncommercial, and No Derivative Works.
unsplash.com – An amazing website providing professional photos under the Creative Commons ZERO license. You can copy, modify, distribute, and use the photos for free without attribution of the photographer or unsplash for commercial and non-profit purposes.
wpclipart.com – Public domain clipart assembled together with the aim to be kid-safe for school projects, as well as other uses. Images may be modified, used for commercial projects and do not require attribution. These are true public domain.
*** Sad to see them go…
freedigitalphotos – My “go-to” art site. Nearly all artwork presently being used on this site comes from freedigitalphotos.net. Please note that this art is NOT public domain. The company has very specific, and generous, copyright of the images.
If you would like resized images I have used, please patronize freedigitalphotos. You can get the image name by right-clicking on the picture and going to properties. The name is the number which can be entered into the freedigitalphotos.net search image.