Oops. Like an absentminded spouse who forgets an anniversary, I’m embarrassed to say that we here at Dark Scribe Magazine forgot our own one-year milestone. Seems hard to imagine, but it’s true. We out-and-out forgot our own anniversary.

When we officially launched last October 1st, we had one mission: to keep a single-minded focus on the printed word. One year later, I’m gratified to look back at our virtual content and realize that we met and exceeded our own expectations.

To date, we’ve published over 100 reviews. What’s more, we’ve maintained a purposeful balance between mainstream and small press titles — with forty-two books from mainstream publishers and forty-three books from small press companies receiving coverage in our magazine. We’ve also honored the venerable short story format with reviews of twelve anthologies, six single-author collections, and seven individual short stories. Thirty authors have graced our virtual pages in interviews, and we’ve even branched out and covered a screenwriter or two. We’ve managed to provide the occasional thought-provoking essay and some well-regarded guest columnists. We launched an annual awards program and honored some incredible dark genre works with the first ever Black Quill Awards.

And in an era of declining book sales and readership, I’m proud to say that we’ve grown DSM from a few hundred hits in those early days to several thousand unique visitors to our virtual pages each month. We’ve done that without benefit of film or video game-related content or other media tie-ins. We’ve done it without big corporate sponsors or annoying pop-up ads or even advertising.

We’re about celebrating all forms of the written word in the genres of horror, suspense, and thrillers.

We’re about those literary dames and dudes who dabble in the supernatural and paranormal, the thrilling and the chilling.

We’re about cozy afternoons cuddled up with King or Ketchum or Koontz and rainy nights spent looking over your shoulder while reading Langan or Laymon or Little.

We’re about books and primarily books —and pretty damn proud of it.

Happy Birthday to us.

And thanks to each of you for reading.

Vince A. Liaguno / Editor-in-Chief

Two postscripts:

First, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention our stable of loyal DSM scribes — Martel Sardina, Derek Clendening, Blu Gilliand, Michele Lee, Jeff Burk, and JG Faherty. Their contributions to the magazine have aided immeasurably in the quality of our content. In short, without them…I’d be one busy guy.

Second, to celebrate our belated first birthday, we’ve got an incredible, one-of-a-kind contest for our loyal readers. Curious? Only registered readers can access our ‘Contests’ page, so either login (if you’re already a registered reader) and click on the Contests link or take a minute to register today. Trust me, you don't want to miss this!