From Author Bondoni

We're excited to feature "Peace Between the Tribes" by Gustavo Bondoni in our fabulous February 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Gustavo was kind enough to send us some comments.

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I'm an almost incurable optimist, so when it comes to writing about space, I'm generally the guy who takes it as a given that humanity will reach the stars and establish itself in the wider galaxy. This story is a clear example of that, but it also showcases my conviction that it's going to be a bumpy ride. If human history has taught us anything is that we never seem to be in a place where everything is good for everyone at the same time, so there will always be conflicts to overcome. That means there will always be stories to tell. Asking what if led me to this tale.

My writing process can be pretty much boiled down to two maxims: read as much as you can and write as much as you can. I've often tried to hit wordcount goals, but sometimes my schedule (job, kids, other interests) makes it impossible to hit them. My ideal is 2000 words a day, every weekday, but I can't hit that every day lately. Still, the thing is to get at least a few in and not lose the habit. Because once you lose the habit it's twice as hard to restart the process. At least for me!

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Interesting! Thanks, Gustavo! Be sure to check out "Peace Between the Tribes" and the rest of the stories on February 28th!

From Artist Quinn

We're excited about our cover art for the fabulous February 2025 issue of Electric Spec. The artist Brian Malachy Quinn was kind enough to send us some comments about it:

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"The Altar of Creation" is a very unusual piece for me. Almost all my art features a figure that dominates the space. A person, animal, monster – some sort of creature. In this piece the figure is barely present – almost an afterthought. The environment intended is like inside a European Gothic cathedral. The architecture causes the people to feel insignificant by the grandness of the edifice and to look in this case upward and outward to the Mysterious Orb. The smoothness of the surfaces in the building and the almost perfect reflections give it an otherworldly feel. All give an experience of the joining with the Divinity – the One who created this world – wherever and whenever this Verse may exist.

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Thanks, Brian! Very interesting!
So, without further ado here's a sneak peek:

Deadline Approaching!

The deadline for the fabulous February 2025 issue of Electric Spec is fast approaching: January 15, 2025 ! Get those stories in to be considered for our first issue of 2025. Of course, we'll be accepting subs for the marvelous May 2025 issue starting January 16, 2025...

I have been reading slush all along and am a little surprised at the wide variety of formatting in submissions. Please don't use weird formatting. This will get your story noticed by editors--but not in a good way.
Here are some tips:

• Do send an rtf file as an attachment.
• Do double space.
• Do use paragraph indents (not spaces, not tabs).
• Don't put in extra spaces after paragraphs--unless it's for a scene break.
• Don't use weird fonts, or huge or tiny font sizes.

These rules aren't arbitrary. If all the manuscripts look the same it facilitates objectivity.
Even more important: if we buy your story it's less work for us to publish it if it's formatted correctly. Editors don't like extra work.
Good luck with your story!

As you may have noticed, we've transitioned this blog to focus more on comments from our artists and authors and less on comments from editors.

Basking in the glow

Woo hoo! We're still basking in the glow of the awesome November 2024 issue of Electric Spec!
We had so many wonderful stories:

• AKA Jane Museum by Lane Robins
• An Equivalent Exchange by Jamie Hawley
• Just Fooling by Lisa Timpf
• The Delivery by Meenakshi Bhatt
• The Malicious Time Traveller's Dinner Party by Nigel Brown

Which was your favorite? So many great choices! I can't decide. :)

From Author Hawley

We're excited to feature "An Equivalent Exchange" by Jamie Hawley in our awesome November 2024 issue of Electric Spec. Jamie was kind enough to send us some comments.

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This story’s first line came to me during a free write and remained unchanged throughout revision. I set out to write a story about a dragon falling in love with a human, but the thing I’m most proud of is the way this story highlights the many forms love can take, including a love of music, a love of collecting, and a love for our community, even after that community is no longer with us. I hope the story serves as a reminder that we can’t shoulder our burdens alone; by sharing our grief, we not only lighten the load, but we also grow closer with those around us. (The other reminder is this: when in doubt, listen to The Mountain Goats.)

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Interesting! Thanks, Jamie! Be sure to check out "An Equivalent Exchange" and the rest of the stories now!

Awesome November 2024 Issue Live!

The awesome November 2024 issue of Electric Spec is live!
Thank you, authors! Thank you to our artist!
Thank you to the whole Electric Spec team!

Thank you, readers!
We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did.

From Author Brown

We're excited to feature "The Malicious Time Traveller's Dinner Party" by Nigel Brown in our awesome November 2024 issue of Electric Spec. Nigel was kind enough to send us some comments.

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The Time Machine by H.G.Wells (1895) is probably one of the most famous sf stories published, certainly one of the first, and remains my favorite sf story of all time. The core of the story doesn't concern time travelling, which Wells uses as a science-fictional device, but Darwin's Theory of Evolution. Darwin's On the Origin of Species... had been published in 1859, just 36 years before The Time Machine saw print, and Wells explored its implications for the human species using pioneering sf techniques that were a bombshell to the Victorian mind. When writing, I sometimes have trouble with titles, but in this case the title of my story came first: "The Malicious Time Traveller's Dinner Party" just popped into my head. Soon I realised that the 'Time Traveller' of the title was THE 'Time Traveller', Wells's own. From then on, the story wrote itself.

From movies, books and fiction of the day, we're familiar with the Late Victorian world of the 1890s, and my story is peppered with references that link to Wells's own life. I had the advantage, as well, in that the drapery store that Wells suffered to work in as a teenager, and that he later wrote about in his book The History of Mr. Polly.(1910), was located in the neighborhood where I grew up, in Southsea, in Southern England. By my day, sadly, it was long gone, but the elegant Victorian and Edwardian villas still remain, and retain in that part of Southsea the genteel air of Wells's time.

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Interesting! Thanks, Nigel! Be sure to check out "The Malicious Time Traveller's Dinner Party" and the rest of the stories on November 30, 2024!