The Back Alley Closing

This notice from Rick Helms, editor of The Back Alley came through several Yahoo groups that I belong to. Sad new, indeed:

This decision has been a long time coming, but I've decided to shut down The Back Alley Webzine.

We've had a great almost-five-year run.

Well, four of the five years were great. 2011 didn't really exist.

After the deaths of my mother and stepfather, within five weeks of each other in 2010, I sort of lost motivation to do a lot of things, and The Back Alley was one of them. 2011 was an amazing year for me personally, with four major award nominations and one win, but all the hoopla distracted me from the editing and publishing duties that might have kept The Back Alley alive.

I was very proud of what we were able to accomplish in just four short years:

Five Derringer Award nominations. Two were for me, and one each went to John Weagly, Debbi Mack, and Chris F. Holm. Two of these nominations resulted in wins (Paper Walls/Glass Houses, written under my pseudonym Eric Shane; and In The Shadows of Wrigley Field, by John Weagly).

A Spinetingler Award nomination for Claude Lalumière (She Watches Him Swim)

An Anthony Award nomination for Simon Wood (The Frame Maker)

And, among my proudest achievements, The Back Alley Webzine became the very first all-electronic publication to be accepted by Mystery Writers of America as an Approved Publisher (Periodical/Webzine).

Along the way, we published stories by winners of the Edgar, Anthony, Agatha, Shamus, and Derringer Awards. Authors who graced our electronic pages included O'Neil De Noux, Ross Macdonald protege Fred Zackel, Wayne D. Dundee, Simon Wood, Stephen D. Rogers, Angela Zeman, Patricia Abbott, Jack Bludis, Tim Wohlforth, Keith Gilman, Jochem Vandersteen, Nick Andreychuk, Anita Page, Keith Gilman, John Lau, and G. Miki Hayden, among others.

While I was proud to showcase acclaimed authors, one of the greatest pleasures came from uncovering new and emerging talents. In each issue, I tried to feature at least one story by an author who either had never had a paid publishing credit, or was at the very beginning of what I hoped would be a jet-propelled ride up the writing ladder.

I plan to keep the website up for at least a few more months, and eventually I will migrate all the archived issues over to my personal website, so that they will continue to be accessible for readers looking for a toot of the good ol' hard stuff.

As a side note, I really would prefer to see the webzine keep going, even though I just don't have the time anymore to make that happen. If anyone out there would like to take up the reins and drive the second generation of The Back Alley Webzine, I will happily sell the domain name and rights to produce the 'zine. How about twenty bucks and bottle of Patron Anejo tequila?

Thanks to all the readers for a great run. Onward and upward!
R

Richard Helms