About MYTHOLOG

Mission

GENRE: Remain genre and format agnostic with a central theme. The publishing ecosystem was often narrowly focused on genre. MYTHOLOG published literature that is evocative of mythic themes, finding myth in places odd and ordinary. We have published genre and lit-fic of all types, including horror, sci-fi and fantasy, erotica, and non-fiction in a range of mediums from short stories and flash fiction to poetry, essays, interviews, and reviews.

DIGITAL: Produce an entirely digital publication with the same quality as print (in the early days of digital publishing). When we launched in 2002, digital publication was still formative. It was not widely accepted that a quality publication could exist in a purely digital format. Publishers experimented with different models. The first digital magazines were often mere replicas of the print version, just like the first websites were often reproductions of sales brochures. Digitally native publications like MYTHOLOG were still a relative novelty. MYTHOLOG was an early innovator in this field.

STAFF: Bring together a remote, global team for production (in an office-bound era). The idea of a distributed staff, working remotely, was quite new. The physical office was still the anchor of credibility, and it was difficult for people to envision a globally connected team operating without a central physical headquarters. Even with the financial crash at the end of MYTHOLOG's run, it was mainly the digital vagabond and freelancer that led the pack. MYTHOLOG did it before it was cool or widely understood, and long before it became commonplace.

PAYMENT: Become a paying publication on the basis of the work, not the word. At the time (and still), pro-markets were understood as exclusively those that pay by the word. MYTHOLOG bucked this established protocol. Flash fiction had been around since 1992, but twitter didn't launch until 2006 (with 140 character limits). Tight communication in a digital format wasn't yet widely prized. Rather than encourage bloviating by subsidizing higher word counts, MYTHOLOG paid by the piece and had the gall to say we got as good, if not better, outcomes as compared to other emerging digital publications.

VISUAL ART: Publish visual art in the context of a literary publication. The objective was to source art not from hired guns making art to suit rigid publishing specifications but from artists and illustrators with just as much interest in contributing a voice to a literary context as authors and writers.

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About

MYTHOLOG Literature of Mythic Proportions was a quarterly digital publication described as a collection of stories and poems, essays and reviews, writers and editors, illustrations and artists, that found myth in places odd and ordinary. It ran from 2002 to 2007. The publisher and Editor-in-Chief were Asher Black

Genre

MYTHOLOG was agnostic as to genre, provided the material had some connection with mythic (not necessarily mythological) concepts. It published essays such as The Door to the Imaginal Realm by Mary Pat Mann and horror, such as The Cabin at the Top of the World by Mark Allan Gunnells, as well as diverse formats and genres like erotic fiction and religious poetry.

Market Listings

MYTHOLOG was a launchpad for a number of aspiring authors, such as Christie Maurer (1937-2016), and is mentioned in her obituary. It was listed in several magazine market lists, including Ralan, Spicy Green Iguana, Speculative Literature Foundation, and various private collections of ezines, digital publications, and other writer venues. It was included in the book Get Your Articles Published by Lesley Bown and Ann Gawthorpe, McGraw-Hill 2010.

History

Publisher, Asher Black founded MYTHOLOG after his tenure as Managing Editor and Hand Sinister (2001-2003) of The Green Man Review. GMR was in its heyday as the ‘largest’ review magazine of folk music and folk-related literature, and Asher helped grow it to a team of 70. Asher learned enough in that role with one of the earliest full-production digital publications based a similar model to incorporate some of the same processes into the initial experiment of MYTHOLOG.

MYTHOLOG ended its run in 2007 so Asher could focus on novel writing. In March 2024, MYTHOLOG overhauled the website, placing it on a more serviceable platform while retaining the original vibe. The objective was to keep the magazine archives viable with the evolution of the web, including Google's algorithm changes and quality scoring. We addressed mobile responsiveness, explicit privacy policy, hierarchical URL structure, and a content-rich home page (vs. just a cover and links). This should ensure MYTHOLOG is available for years to come. Enjoy.

Notable Authors

A number of authors had early publications in MYTHOLOG, including Bruce Holland Rogers, whose books include: Bedtime Stories to Darken Your Dreams, Word Work: Surviving and Thriving As a Writer, and Flaming Arrows; Marsheila Rockwell, who was nominated for the 2006 Rhysling Award from The Science Fiction Poetry Association (SFPA) for the poem "Fairy Tale Ending" (MYTHOLOG, Vol.3 No.3). She is author of Legacy of WolvesWizards of the Coast, 2007; Danny Adams, who is winner of a place in The 2006 Rhysling Anthology for "Utnapishtim on Friday After Dessert." He is co-author, with Philip Jose Farmer, of the short science fiction novel The City Beyond Play, September 2007; Jacqueline West is author of Cherma, poetry series, published by the University of Wisconsin - Madison's Parallel Press Chapbook Series in 2010. Gerri Leen, whose work appears in anthologies like Sails & Sorcery: Nautical Tales of Fantasy and multiple Star Trek: Strange New Worlds editions; Elizabeth Barrette, who is author of fourteen poems and one story in MYTHOLOG. She received a 2005 Rhysling nomination. She is Assistant Editor of SageWoman. Her work appears in the anthology The Impossible Will Take a Little While; Lisa Agnew: Her first novel is Sword: Tales from the Green Sahara and Casual Soup; Elizabeth Thomas Wenning, who is author of Confessions of a Mixed-up Weasel Hater; Terry Dartnall, Brian Ames, and J.R. Cain, who are each authors of several anthologies of short work, including work originally appearing in MYTHOLOG; Jerry J. Davis, who is responsible for the book Travels and has been included in the anthology Houston: We've got Bubbas!; Stewart Sternberg, who has work published in High Seas Cthulhu, an anthology of nautical Lovecraftian horror; and Robert Rhodes, who is a co-author of The Sword in the Mirror: A Century of Sword & Sorcery, in The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Contemporary Popular American Literature.

The Original "About" Page

MYTHOLOG is a paying market that operates not-for-profit. It is a quarterly collection of stories and poems, essays and reviews, writers and editors, illustrations and artists, that find myth in places odd and ordinary.

We aren't hardwired to genre or media. We'll publish things that fall between the cracks and perhaps stick their claws up to horrify or tantalize us, literature on the mythskirts of a genre. We're interested in anything that is part of the modern mythos or part of the construction of myth, from the ancient and traditional to contemporary culture, whether it be dark, bright, erotic, mysterious, adventurous, dystopian, folkloric, or fantastic. We define myth as universality of theme and story. The thread of continuity for us is mythic development.

Myth, for us, does not exist merely as a local and historical category of literature. Rather, it is the presence of a universal theme, even when the author decides on local and historical contexts. Myth isn't simply contained in particular explicit elements such as the gods, the sidhe, or unicorns. Myth can make use of or be completely devoid of such magic elements.

We do want living stories. While truly personal writing evokes universal themes, we're not interested in literature that is so "personal" that the universal is buried alive, only to be divined by the enlightened gravedigger. The genius of myth is that it persists, because it typifies, liturgizes, and recapitulates the human condition. That is what we look for, publish, and extol in MYTHOLOG.

Do remember, if mortal you are, that every house stands on the borders of Fairyland, do you but look to see it. -- Grey Walker

Genesis and Journey

MYTHOLOG was founded in October 2002 by Asher Black and Clear Glass, released its first (Winter) issue in December of that year, and became a paying market in Autumn 2004. Authors like Brian Ames, and J.R. Cain, as well as Terry Dartnall have included our stories in their anthologies. MYTHOLOG is listed at Ralan and Spicy Green Iguana, as well as Speculative Literature Foundation. Our fiction has been mentioned in Broad Universe Catalog and Eidolon. For other respected links, see our Links Page. For more about our past, see our Issues Archive.

With peer-judged submissions, high production values, and high standards of professional ethics and copyright adherence, MYTHOLOG demonstrates the relative ease with which electronic publication may equal or surpass the professional qualities of print publications. Furthermore, breaking some assumptions about professional publication itself, MYTHOLOG does not pay writers by the word, but insists that the length of a piece of writing should be that demanded by the story. We buy stories, not words. Since it did not pay writers during its first two years, MYTHOLOG also demonstrated the capacity of free publication to rival the professional qualities of paid publication. Finally, in regard to censorship, MYTHOLOG has taken a simple stance: The internet, like a library, is not a "safe" place. It's a place that evokes and represents the whole range of human experience. While we censor for literary sophistication, we do not censor for the implications of the content. MYTHOLOG is a free speech electronic publication.

See also, the MYTHOLOG About Us page at aboutus.org and the feedback at StumbleUpon.


"Dreams." She spoke almost in a whisper. "I dreamt oddly all night."

"About any particular thing?"

-- Feeding Time by Brian Ames (Autumn 2003 issue)


Summary

  • Pays writers (by work, not by word)
  • Not for profit
  • All genre
  • All media
  • Electronic submission

Our Mission

  • Listen, laud, and learn myth
  • Professionalized electronic publication
  • High production values for artist, reader, & advertiser

The Process

  1. Artists submit work
  2. Submissions board decides
  3. Issue goes to production
  4. Editor works with art/artist
  5. Copy Editor
  6. Proofing Team
  7. Issue goes live

For broken links or other errors, contact Asher Black via his website.