About Deep Outside SFFH

We Made History In Multiple Ways in Earliest Internet Publishing

References from 1996 Onward include Neon Blue Fiction, The Haunted Village, Deep Outside and Far Sector SFFH, C&C Publishers, Clocktower Fiction, and Clocktower Books

NAVIGATE:   ABOUT    PAGE 1    PAGE 2

RENO2022 Deep Outside SFFH (originally launched April 15, 1998 as Outside: Speculative & Dark Fiction) has been in need of a renovation for some years now to fix broken links and similar barnacles of historic old age. I am cautiously overhauling what must be updated, as best possible, while not changing anything at all in terms of content or substance dating to our glorious heyday on the early Web. Both Deep Outside SFFH and its later incarnation Far Sector SFFH became part of the Clocktower Books Museum webplex in 2007 after a successful, pioneering ten year run. Please find the glowing references to this team's accomplishments in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (ESF) and other print or online authorities (tbd). The Clocktower Books Museum includes a series of historic screenshots dating from 1998 forward, as shown below. NOTE: the bottom entry on this page dates to our opening salvo & launch in April 1998. Thanks! JTC.

Select References About Us

• Clocktower Books Museum Includes many early references to our publishing: e.g., Locus Online cites C&C Publishers in 1997 and Outside: Speculative and Dark Fiction in 1997 before we were forced to change the title to Deep Outside SFFH.
• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (SFE) is one of the key reference points documenting our history and achievements as a team of dedicated, lifelong Futurians: John T. Cullen (John Argo), Brian and Gwen Callahan, John Kenneth Muir, A. L. 'Al' Sirois, Dennis Latham (Marino), and Shaun Farrell plus each of our talented authors.
• Internet Archive (Wayback Machine) : one of many captures; we were in fact online before Wayback Machine, starting April 1996 with Neon Blue Fiction (our suspense/mystery publishing site, where we started releasing free weekly serial chapters starting April 1996 with the John Argo novel *Neon Blue*. In July 1996, we launched our SFFH publishing site *The Haunted Village*, serializing the John Argo SF novel *Heartbreaker* (retitled *This Shoal of Space* in 1998).
• Clocktower Books became a listed R.R. Bowker U.S. ISBN publisher c.2002. See Wikipedia listing for Group-0 ISBN publisher codes, between Simon & Schuster (prefix 07432) adn Pocket Books (ISBN Prefix 07434). Here is the U.S. R. R. Bowker official ISBN Agency for the United States and its territories. Important note: we lost our Clocktower Fiction COM domain name to squatters in 2002, and have no connection of any sort to subsequent users of the name or domain. JTC
• As noted in our Museum, there is an archive link page of Locus Magazine online listing us as Clocktower Fiction and Outside, dated 10 July 1998. Given that we founded Deep Outside SFFH in April 1998, that's a quick uptake (three months or less). Way to go!
• The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISDB) has extensive mentions of our early and current web presence. Info: see ISFDB Wikipedia page. including Deep Outside SFFH Speculative & Dark Fiction;   Far Sector SFFH;   Clocktower Books;   John T. Cullen, aka John Cullen, John Argo, Jean T. Cullen;   (includes a fairly long list of my 40+ published fiction books (includes poetry, nonfiction, and fiction). See John T. Cullen personal author website (still growing). Also at ISFDB: John Kenneth Muir;   A. L. 'Al' Sirois (long list of art & writings; and our many authors, too long a list for his summary. (Think Tim Pratt, Kameron Hurley, Melanie Tem, Pat York, Ted Kosmatka, and many others).

• Of special note, here in the Clocktower Books Museum is or was a Clocktower Fiction (etc) listing at Georgetown University's New Jour magazine on 16 July 1998, citing among other things that we had been publishing free serial novels online by then (actually since 1996), including John Argo's (my) *Neon Blue* (suspense), *Pioneers* (SF), and more (over 1700 free pages already and growing). They forgot to mention my symphonic SF novel *This Shoal of Space,* free in weekly serial chapters from *The Haunted Village* starting July 1996. That's their official New Journal (New Jour) magazine. New Jour (clever play on French *Nouveau Jour* or *New Day.*) Very cute.
• SFF.net listedClocktower Fiction and Deep Outside SFFH (together) under 'e-zines' on 9/22/1999, among other items. Here is that listing on the now retired SFF.net. Their touching memorial to a long-ago, great SFFH authority on line reflects the fate of so many pioneering, innovative ventures launched mostly before e-commerce and purely as idealistic, volunteer projects. I was able to grab screenshots of some of the references on these pages before they slipped away forever.
• In 1998, we exchanged links and medallions with former Omni Magazine Executive Editor Ellen Datlow personally by email at her *Event Horizon* online magazine. Her magazine is long defunct, along with its copy of our Step Outside Award. We still display the Event Horizon medallion on the Deep Outside SFFH pages.


• PRINT: 1999 Writer's Market (page 294), Writer's Digest Books, F&W Publications ISBN 0-89879-850-7.
• PRINT: 2001 Novel & Short Story Writer's Market (page 712), Writer's Digest Books, F&W Publications ISBN 1-58297-009-2.
• PRINT: Karen S. Wiesner was already in the late 1990s a ubiquitous and authoritative presence in early Web and digital publishing. We were in touch well before she mentioned us in various online and print publications including her 2003-4 Ed. Electronic Publishing The Definitive Guide with a lot of information about us. On page 36, Karen lists Clocktower Books as founded in 1996: "Offered e-books as a free promotional venture in May 1996; offered e-books for sale (Rocket e-Books), Nuvomedia) starting December 1999." NOTE also: lengthy article about Clocktower Books on pages 161-162, mentioning among other things that we (Brian Callahan and I, C&C Publishers) created Neon Blue Fiction, our suspense/mystery publishing website in April 1996, followed by our SFFH publishing site (The Haunted Village) in July 1996. "Reached avid readers in over 100 countries." JTC's SharpWriter.Com (SWC) launched Aug 1998 as a writer's resource site named "one of the Web's 101 best sites" by Writer's Digest in May 1999. Article also mentions, among other things, that we switched from Clocktower Fiction to Clocktower Books on New Year's Eve 2000 (to encompass nonfiction and poetry in addition to fiction). Major move to Fictionwise as our outlet for Clocktower Books and for Far Sector SFFH in 2002. [JTC]

[More references coming as I research precise look-up info. I know I have more items stashed away; will find them soon. JTC]

We are closed as of early 2007. Please do not send any material. There is nobody to read or reply, so please accept our best wishes for good luck in submitting elsewhere. By all means, enjoy the articles and stories remaining on this museum site, which reflects an important little piece of early Internet/WWW history.--JTC

Deep Outside SFFH (originally launched April 15, 1998 as Outside: Speculative & Dark Fiction) is making another transition in November 2002. Brian Callahan, co-founder, is moving on to concentrate on his new company, Sigh Co. Grapics of New Orleans. Brian remains a good friend and trusted advisor for the magazine's new incarnation as Far Sector SFFH.

John T. Cullen will remain as the sole proprietor of the magazine under its new name, Far Sector SFFH. The magazine's editorial policies will remain largely the same as it approaches its five-year anniversary in April 2003. John Cullen plans to continue the same focus on top-quality genre fiction from both new and established authors for years to come. The Deep Outside SFFH website with its treasure trove of articles and great fiction will remain as an archive for many years.

Deep Outside SFFH made history when it became the first web-only professional magazine of speculative fiction listed in Writer's Market (1999). It is the world's oldest surviving publication of its type from the early days of the internet boom, as detailed by Karen Wiesner in her official history of all things Webbish (see Electronic Publishing: The Definitive Guide (2002 Edition) ISBN 1931419035.

We wish to thank our writers and readers, and the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror communities in general, for their support during our long, happy, and successful run, and we look for your continued support as the magazine morphs into Far Sector SFFH and moves forward. In its publishing relationships, which include Print on Demand with LightningSource and all ebook formats with Fictionwise.com, Far Sector SFFH will continue to surf on the frontal curl of digital innovation. Stay with us as we enjoy the best that is to come.

Deep Outside SFFH (DOSFFH), Clocktower Fiction's magazine of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, first appeared on April 15, 1998 (as Outside: Speculative and Dark Fiction). The parent publishing arm, Clocktower Fiction (now Clocktower Books), has existed since 1996, absorbing two earlier web publishing sites—Neon Blue Fiction (suspense) and The Haunted Village (SFFH) written by John T. Cullen under the pen name John Argo. Sensing the vast new freedom and exhilaration of getting past the stranglesome print and pulp cartels of Gutenberg centuries past, he adopted the name of a Bronze Age ship of wonder (think: Sense of Wonder, the famous and defining slogan of 20th Century SF) that sailed the space age seas and outer limits of its time in search of adventure. The Argo mythos is still so powerful that a large constellation in the southern skies (now broken into its component parts like Sail and Keel etc) was named Argo (or Argo Navis, the Ship Argo). A great adventure movie was made in 1963 titled Jason and the Argonauts, which literally means "Jason and the Argo-Sailors." That's how smitten John T. Cullen, Brian Callahan, and other Argo-Sailors of Clocktower Fiction/Books were as they dedicated every spare minute of their time to the pioneering new web venture. See the whole story at the Clocktower Books Museum.

We made history when we became the first Web-only SF/F/H magazine, without a previous print incarnation, listed in Writer's Market (1999 ed.).

As far as we know, the first quality SF Web magazine* was Andy McCann's Planet Magazine, which has continually published since 1996. (Read John Argo's Control Game in the 1997 issue).

Also noteworthy is the brief existence of Omni on the Web during 1998 after its cessation as a print magazine. The on-line version was probably the first pro Web-only sf/f/h magazine by a few months, but soon went out of business. Ellen Datlow and her staff then created the estimable Event Horizon.

Welcome to Deep Outside SFFH, a magazine of speculative and dark fiction. We bring something else besides quality fiction -- we bring to the table a worldwide audience. Our readership is approximately two thirds in the U.S. and Canada, and one third in some 50 countries around the world. In a moment, I'll explain how this came to be.

The Internet is shaping up as a great leveler of playing fields and a great integrator of concepts and realities.

Early in 1996, Brian and I saw the potential in reaching some audience with our fiction, sidestepping the time-consuming and overly competitive gauntlet of agents, editors, and publishers. We saw it as every aspiring writer's dream -- the chance to step directly before the reader and thereby not be denied the ultimate challenge -- the reader's judgment as to whether he or she will like your story.

To our surprise, our two original websites (Neon Blue Fiction, a showcase for our noir mystery/suspense, and The Haunted Village, a showcase for our science fiction and darkly imaginative fiction) quickly took off. We get favorable comments from many readers, and the growth continues.

After the first year, we felt the logical next step would be to publish other people's work. We felt, however, that we should keep our fiction at arms' length from that of freelancers'.

First, we decided there should be a high-level publishing umbrella, and thus Clocktower Fiction went on-line in September 1997 after months of intensive development. The Haunted Village and Neon Blue Fiction became imprints of Clocktower Fiction. Another of Clocktower Fiction's purposes is to provide links and resources for authors, and development continues apace on that.

With Clocktower Fiction in place, we felt it was time to launch an Internet based magazine for freelance writers, and thus Deep Outside SFFH was born. Deep Outside SFFH's fiction is 100% authored by paid writers other than ourselves. It's a paying professional publication designed to reach as wide an audience around the world as the Internet permits.

We're excited and intrigued to find out what new submissions will come in the mail each day. There are many fine writers out there, many of whom will never be published in the paper and ink world, mainly because of that world's own bandwidth problems --so many good writers vs. the limited number of paper and ink venues constrained by numbers of retail outlets/shelf spaces, cost of materials, cost of production, inventory, and so forth. We are confident we will discover some new William Gibson, Michael Swanwick, or Cordwainer Smith. The Internet is making possible a heady new adventure for us and our readers -- not to mention our writers.

For us, the Internet is the most exciting medium in which to work. It's new, it's got cachet, it's mysterious and alluring and unknown. It's world wide, as mentioned before -- a list of countries will soon appear on Clocktower Fiction's main web page.

My own belief is that we are on the verge of the most astonishing revolution in publishing since Gutenberg. Here's why. We're headed for a technology of hand-held reader-appliances that will emulate the look and feel of a book, at a fraction of the cost. After all, when you strip the covers from a book, you have left exactly what we offer on the Internet -- a text file. And most of our stories have appealing cover illustrations. I give it 5-10 years before such readers appear, on a growth curve like that of the pocket calculator 25 years ago.

The first tide of change will come when school systems realize that, with the economies of scale, they can give each student (K through University) one hand-held reader (about the size of a hard cover book), capable of holding several gigabytes of memory -- enough to download all their texts at a fraction of the cost. The second tide of change will come shortly after that, as people begin to clamor for text files that cost $3 rather than $8 for a paperback or $26 for a hard cover. The pricing will make sense, and the demand will be there. In fact, the only thing missing right now is the technology. And that's being worked on in labs here and there across the country.

When that revolution arrives, we won't need to move. We'll be there already. We're there now.

Let me take a final moment to compliment my web partner, Brian Callahan, for his patient and brilliant design work. All the graphics you see on our webplex are his, except for some that our authors may provide.