So, it seems that I have started a literary magazine[1]! I
have thought about it on and off for a few years, but nothing
seemed to really come together. The idea that finally did it
was something that came about after reading one of my wife's
recent stories. It just felt so comfortable and nice and I
felt like I wanted more stories like that in my life. So,
Hearth Stories was born. It has the tagline:

>  A twice yearly speculative fiction magazine
>  exploring connection, family, relationships,
>  comfort, and the natural world. 

It is meant to feature fantasy, sci-fi, hope-punk, and/or
solar-punk... but not the adventures. More the quiet moments.
Slice of life style. Folks caring for each other, or cooking,
or just going about their days. Maybe small adventures, usually
with lower stakes; less drama.

It is a paying market, though at more of a "semi-pro" pay
level (according to Duotrope's system for codifying writing
markets). The magazine will be free to anyone that wants to
read it and will be freely redistributatble (but not remixable,
since the story authors retain copyright it can only be
redistributed as a unit).

So far I have received two submissions. Neither are a good fit,
but they were both enjoyable enough reads. I'm dreading telling
folks that their work isn't a good fit. My wife is a writer
and assures me that they are used to it. Probably true, but it
is still never enjoyable to deliver bad news. I'm really looking
forward to telling someone good news!

Anyway, if you write things that seem like they would be a
good fit: shoot em over. Info is on the website; sadly no gopher
or gemini presence yet. But I can assure you that the website
has no JavaScript on it and it is text only with the exception
of a favicon and a mastodon[2] icon (svg). It is pretty light-weight
and will load fine in any browser, including text based ones). I
only do basic server error logs and do not do any tracking.

Take a look if you like:

  [1] https://hearthstories.org
  [2] https://bookstodon.com/@hearthstories


ps. If you are on a system that does not have TLS (I'm looking
    at you retrocomputing folks), I do not redirect to https,
    so if you change the above URL to http you will be able
    to load the page just fine (assuming you have an otherwise
    functional TCP/IP stack).