28 February 2017

Fabulous Fiction!

The first 2017 issue of Electric Spec is alive! We're proud to present five fabulous tales:
  • In "The 'aiei of Snow" D.A. D'Amico shares a beautiful fantasy about family and everything that comes with it.
  • David Bowles creates an amazing mash-up of high energy physics and native mythology in "Quintessence".
  • Kathryn Yelinek's "The Improbable Library" lets us visit the fantastic library we all wish we could go to again and again.
  • Jay Barnson makes our skin crawl with "Crawlers." Let's just say, natural disasters could be even more terrifying than we might have thought.
  • In "General Notice to Off-World Visitors" Dana Martin puts troublesome tourists on notice.
  • Bonus: In Editor's Corner Nikki Baird presents "Author Interview: Laurence MacNaughton." Laurence has a lot of helpful advice and even some freebies...
As usual, thank you very much to everyone who made this happen! Thank you staff! Thank you authors!
Thank you readers!

23 February 2017

Cover Art!

We are working hard on the new issue of Electric Spec.
We are proud to reveal the beautiful cover art "Snow Gates" by Nele Diel. feb 2017 cover
Check out the new issue February 28, 2017!

21 February 2017

from Author Bowles

Here at Electric Spec we love learning more about our authors and how their stories come together. Thus we're excited to hear from Author David Bowles...

Crafting "Quintessence"

Growing up in a Mexican-American family, I was fascinated from an early age by the legends and myths of the borderlands and Mexico. At college, that fascination grew into scholarly interest in the culture and language of Mesoamerican peoples that rivaled my deep love of speculative fiction.

One of the most prevalent mythic cycles in pre-Colombian lore is The Five Suns, an epic description of the repeated creation, destruction, and rebirth of our world as the gods refined their skill and overcame their rivalries. Prophecies from before the Conquest promise that this fifth age of earth will also come to an end via violent earthquakes, and a new era--more perfect, peopled with folk of greater wisdom and goodness--will emerge under a new and brighter sun.

For the longest time, a need to tell the tale of that next transition has tickled the back of my mind, a creative itch I knew I’d eventually scratch. Then came the day that, on vacation in Mexico, I happened to be in a small Afro-Mexican town in Oaxaca when a group of men and women performed the traditional Dance of the Devils. Also watching the subversive celebration--which preserved the native gods of freed blacks right under the noses of their Catholic priests--were two women, holding hands, enrapt as I was.

The wheels of my mind turned. The story clicked into place, a blend of myth and science and cosmic horror that echoed the syncretic religious ecstasy I beheld that day.

We all of us wish for a better world. What sort of anguish would push us to risk this one to usher in the next? I hope that with "Quintessence" I give an answer that rings true and human in your minds and hearts.


Thanks, David! Fascinating!
Check it out on February 28, 2017!

14 February 2017

Coming Attractions Preview!

Huzzah! We've finalized the scintillating stories for the fabulous February 28, 2017 issue of Electric Spec!
They will be:
  • The 'aiei of Snow by D.A. D'Amico
  • Quintessence by David Bowles
  • The Improbable Library by Kathryn Yelinek
  • Crawlers by Jay Barnson
  • General Notice to Off-World Visitors by Dana Martin

Congratulations to all of these authors!
Thank you to everyone who submitted.

We'll have more preview info in the next two weeks.

07 February 2017

successful production meeting

We recently had a successful production meeting for the fabulous February 28, 2017 issue of Electric Spec. If you sent us a story for consideration: Thank You!

We've started emailing authors in the hold-for-voting list with the good or bad news. If you sent us a story between October 15, 2016 and Jan 15, 2017 and you haven't heard from us by the end of this week...bad news: your story likely got lost in cyberspace.
To reiterate: authors in hold-for-voting will hear from us this week.

As usual, it was a very tough time picking stories. Some behind the scenes discussion included:

  • Humor is tricky because it is very situational. We have authors and readers from all over the world--which is a good thing--but it means humor doesn't always translate.
  • Flash fiction (roughly speaking, fiction less than ~1000 words) is tricky because it's difficult to tell a complete story in that kind of page real estate. But we do have a flash story for the next issue.
  • If the protagonist is not sympathetic, readers (and hence editors) are less likely to like a story. Ideally, your characters have both good and bad qualities.
  • Stories over ~5500 words were not popular with editors because it's more work to edit them.
Once again, we hope to get some new authors blogging here this month. So, stay tuned for that!
I better get back to work putting the issue together.