Welcome to our website. We intend to
present the finest science fiction and fantasy short stories and
serialized fiction we can find. In turn, you expect a
website that is visually pleasing and easy to navigate.
We will try to provide just that. Issue 2, Summer
2011
You may have noticed
changes to the website this issue. Bowing to popular
demand, I have added "hotspots" to the main pages.
Hopefully this will make it easier to navigate the site,
and give it a more intuitive feel.
We have also added illustrations at the beginning of
each story that we hope reflect some aspect of that
story. So far, the reaction from the authors has been
favorable. We would like to hear what you think as well.
Check out the Links page to find out more about or
contact our authors and artists. Links to other websites
we feel would be of interest will be added as we
discover them.
This being the second issue, you might
reasonably expect to see the contents of the first issue
archived under the appropriate category on the Archives
page. I am still trying to figure out how to do this in
a simple, straightforward (for me) way.
Issue 3, Autumn 2011
October1, 2011
Seems like I' m going to have to explain why this
issue is so late. Partly (mostly) my fault, I have to
admit.
Anyway, here goes. I had a medical procedure done
last week just before FenCon, which was a lot of fun, by
the way (FenCon, not the medical procedure). We had
three out of the four authors in this issue present, and
talked to three future authors and one future Guest
Artist.
Inspired by meeting everyone during that hectic
weekend, I managed to load the author's stories on the
Website so they could look at them, minus the
illustrations, before the con was over.
After recovering from FenCon, we worked on the
pen-and-ink illustrations for the four stories in this
issue. I finished getting those ready for publication
Friday night, late.
Saturday I worked on the Guest Artist page, getting
the artwork ready and gathering the descriptive and
biographical information to go along with it.
Saturday night everything went on the website for a
trial run. There are always a few glitches to work out
at the end, so I didn't finish that until late.
The last step was to move the previous issue to the
archive section of the website and set up the writer and
Guest Artist archive links. Time then for a brief moment
savoring the Autumn issue before plunging into the next
one, Issue 4, Winter 2011.
While searching for your favorite authors and artists in the Archives, it is possible to get lost. When this happens, go up to the address line in your browser and backspace until only www.4starstories.com appears. Touch Enter to take you to the
current issue Homepage.
Issue 4, Winter 2011
December 24, 2011
Seems like I'm having to apologize again this issue.
Both Mary and I have been sick the last week or so,
delaying this issue more than we would like. To
compensate, we have four really good stories and a
really great artist to present this issue Putting this
issue together was a little more routine, thankfully. I
don't have the archives updated yet, but we do have all
the stories and the Guest Art section up. Updating the
archives and the Links page will be taken care of
between now and New Years.
Speaking of the New Year, we have some really great
stories waiting in the wings for the Spring issue, so
stay tuned.
Lastly, we are looking forward to seeing everyone at
ConDFW in February of next year.
Issue 5, Spring 2012
March 24, 2012
Here we are in 2012 and at the one-year anniversary
of 4StarStories.com. It's been a wild, exciting ride,
meeting authors and artists and reading some really
great stories. We're looking forward to even more great
things this year, and we hope you will join us.
It was great seeing everyone at ConDFW. Even though
the weather was a challenge, we didn't mind because we
needed the rain. On one panel at ConDFW, we had at least
three 4StarStories authors. All together at ConDFW we
had at least six 4StarStories authors and a couple of
future contributors. While we were there, we distributed
twenty-eight Author's Submission Guidelines to people at
panels and others we met at the con. We are still
committed to presenting the best in science fiction
short stories and guest artists, and we are counting on
you to help us do that.
For those in the Dallas area, we will be attending
FenCon in late September of this year. As always we look
forward to hearing from you and seeing you in person.
April 3, 2012
Some of our regular readers have
commented that when accessing the 4StarStories.com
Website, they encountered the previous issue, rather
than the current issue they were expecting. The problem
is that the browser loads previously accessed web pages
stored in a cache, rather than going out on the Internet
to download the current page. The solution to this
problem is to refresh or reload the page. Although
generally similar, the ways to refresh or reload the
page vary from browser to browser. I have listed
directions for some of the commonly used browsers below.
Internet Explorer
Try using the Refresh button, the
F5 soft key, Control+F5, Ctrl+R, Control+Shift+R, or
holding down the Control key while clicking the Refresh
button.
A more advanced user can press F12
to open the Development Tools, select the Cache menu at
the top and then Always refresh from server to
bypass the cache.
In other words, Press F12 , then
click Cache -> Always Refresh from Server.
The always-refresh option is not a
global option, and it will not hinder overall
performance in Internet Explorer.
Firefox
By default there should be a
reload/refresh button on the toolbar. On the default
theme it looks like a circular arrow to the right of the
address line. You can also press the F5 soft key or
Ctrl+R to reload the page.
Google Chrome
Depending on how the web page was
constructed, you can do one of two things:
Right-click inside the web page and
select Reload from the pop-up window. This works
for many pages.
In the upper right hand corner of
the browser window, select the Wrench icon, then select
Clear browsing data... from the drop-down menu. A
pop-up window appears. Verify that Empty the cache
is checked. If not, click on the empty box. Then select
the Clear Browsing Data button at the bottom of
the pop-up window. This works for all pages.
Issue 6, Summer 2012
July 2, 2012
Here it is Summer again. See the
"In My Opinion" page for our take on Summer.
I'm retaining the Guest Artist
from the last issue temporarily. Rocky is fine with
that. I have some partial solar eclipse and Venus
transit pictures that I took in May that I'm going to
put on the Guest Artist page in a week or so.
Someone suggested that we
register 4StarStories with Duotrope. We did, and now we
are getting a ton of submissions. The first thing we
have to do when we get the Summer issue out is to sift
through those submissions for stories to use in the next
issue. For my part, I am explaining to potential
submitters how to save their Word files as .RTF files.
I asked the Programming Chair
for Fencon if we can have a panel with 4StarStories
writers and Guest Artists at FenCon. Haven't heard back
from her yet, but the writers I talked to who are
attending FenCon in September are very enthusiastic
about the idea. If you are a writer or a Guest Artist
published in 4StarStories and are going to be at Fencon,
let me know. We need a list of people who want to
participate.
July 12, 2012
With the
increased visibility of 4 Star Stories comes an
increased number of submissions, and we are OK with
that. At this point, however, submissions are about
evenly divided between those who follow the suggested
template and those who don't.
Unfortunately
we are reaching the point where I can't take the time to
fix format problems in stories that don't follow the
template.
Of course,
there is always the possibility that the "story of gold"
comes in that we just have to publish because it is so
good, but doesn't follow the template -- at all.
Assuming that does happen at some point, don't be
surprised (or insulted) if you get instruction to
"rewrite the story following the template this time and
resubmit".
If you have
any questions about converting to RTF format, for
example, send me an email at the Webmaster address on
the website.
Issue 7, Autumn 2012
September 27, 2012
Well, here we
are at the Autumn issue. Believe me, it seemed like a
long time coming. Summer seemed to last forever. We've
received a ton of story submissions. Two issues worth,
in fact. We have some really good ones to offer you,
this issue and next.
Time to
reiterate what I said last time. We need people to
follow the Submission Guidelines. Something I haven't
mentioned before, but needs saying is to provide an
accurate word count and signal the end of your story
with "The End", "Finis", or "[30]". We had a story
submitted that was corrupted in transmission, and I
didn't catch it until the author mentioned that the last
1000 words were missing from my copy. If I had noticed
the discrepancy in the word count and the lack of "The
End" at the end of the story, I would have been alerted
to the problem a lot sooner.
A word to the
wise: don't try to put out an issue the weekend of a
Science Fiction Convention. Believe me, it doesn't work.
Just now getting over the effects. Had a great time
seeing everyone, though. Looking forward to ConDFW in
February, 2013. So, until the Winter issue, keep those
submissions coming.
I f you have
submitted a story, but haven't heard back from us, be
patient. Now that this issue is out, we'll be getting in
touch with those we haven't contacted yet.
For technical comments and webmasterly things like
exchanging links, click on
Contact Web_master to send me an email.
We thank you for your support.
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