Submissions for the first edition of thesnailmagazine are coming in slowly but steadily. I am surprised at the consistently high quality of most of them – perhaps this has something to do with the demographic profile of
the people I have been canvassing for material. I joined Linkedin and so far have links to 3,500 people. Almost without exception they are college professors, writing instructors, publishers, literary agents, magazine and book
editors, experienced writers. I have avoided the flood of badly-written or poorly-though out pieces from writers who might have some time to go before they can produce professional work.

 The material covers a wide spectrum of subjects, from an account attempts, after the Bay of Pigs fiasco, to mount new attacks on Cuba, to sexual harassment at a University in Morocco; from a brief profile of a murderer turned
trucker, to an account of the new phenomenon of Mechanical Turks (no, I had never heard of the expression either), and a review of a long-out-of-print book
that reveals (again) Victorian man’s disinterest in the life of other creatures except as paid-for specimens for the natural history museums that were taking-off in 19th-century Britain. There is also a considered examination of the decline of the American newspaper industry over the last
twenty or so years.

 The magazine is about half-full now, and I am still looking for more material. So if you, or any of your friends, have something you think might be worth a look at, please send it to submissions@thesnailmagazine.com, either as an attachment or within the body of the e-mail.

I am also looking for book reviews. If you have recently read a new book that you think falls into the category of ‘creative nonfiction’, why not take some time, sit down and write six hundred words about the book, and
give it anything from 0 to 5 stars.

There are web-sites that show how to structure a book review. No harm in trying.

A NOTE ON THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE
About a month ago I decided to try and start a print-only magazine devoted to journalistic features, a genre that I have been reading happily all my life and which I only recently learned had a name of its own - ‘creative nonfiction’, a dichotomous phrase if ever I heard one.
I decided on a working title of thesnail. This quickly became thesnailmagazine, and is my preferred choice for title, even if it does mean that I am bombarded with spam emails promoting the control or cultivation of
terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs.
Until the magazine goes into production this site will be used as a haversack for everything I am finding out about the genre, as I go along, together with updates on the progress of the magazine.
I would welcome any comments or suggestions - the most useful will be published on the site. They should be send to:
ronfrancis@thesnailmagazine.com
I will try to update the site at least once a week.

Thank you for your time.