Smashwords is holding the very neat Authors Give Back promotion March 20, 2020 through April 20, 2020 with many, many books marked down, so folks stuck at home can have good stuff to read. Now extended through May 31, 2020!
From our Electric Spec family to yours: take care!
Like Dave and Renata, I am a founding editor of Electric Spec. It was fun to connect with them lately and share their thoughts here on the blog. As I recall, creating Electric Spec was Dave's awesome idea. I also recall the name "Electric Spec," for electronic speculative fiction, was Renata's awesome idea. Wow! Talk about ideas that stand the test of time. Hurray for them!
I've told the story of the origins of Electric Spec at cons, but I don't think I have on the blog...
Dave, Renata, and another founding editor, Georgia, were in a Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (RMFW) critique group together. We were all sending out short stories and getting rejections. One evening, we were shooting the, ah, stuff, about this sad state of affairs and Dave said, "Hey, why don't we start our own ezine?" We discussed it and thought we could be a kinder, gentler 'zine. We thought we could encourage and nurture writers. Bottom line: we all embraced the idea immediately.
This was in the very early days of ezines, so we basically invented our own wheels. As I recall, we all helped each other with everything, but Dave was great with the legal stuff, Renata was excellent with the editing stuff, and I did a lot of the technical stuff. Happily, it all came together.
Eventually, Renata and Georgia stepped down and we got another editor, Betsy Dornbusch, who put her stamp on things. (Betsy was also in a RMFW critique group with Dave and I.) She was instrumental in creating the current look of the ezine. Eventually, both Dave and Betsy stepped down and Grayson Towler and Nikki Baird stepped up. Chris Devlin stepped up to be a copy editor. Grayson, Nikki and Chris are also in RMFW. Hmm, I'm sensing a pattern...
As our popularity has grown, we've had to get a bunch of associate editors. First Minta Monroe and Candi Cooper-Towler joined us, and recently, Lauren Slawson and Beth Chan.
All our editors are committed to nurturing writers, helping them grow, and reach a wider audience. And, all our editors are volunteers!
So, kudos, to all the editors, past and present! Thank you for making a positive difference in the world! Hopefully, we'll be nurturing writers and entertaining readers for many years to come!
Take care, everyone!
My fave story was the one about the baby gargoyle and his guardian (sorry, I've long forgotten the title). The man went out in the countryside and tried to get the gargoyle to stay and live out there, but it flew home after him. I enjoyed it so much bc the characters were complex and vivid, I could see the setting (his house, this place in the country, etc) and the protagonist's development followed an interesting arc as he struggled to figure out what to do with this extraordinary creature who had entered his life.
The second most memorable story for me was an urban sci-fi adventure
(don't remember this title either) about a young man who made money
selling body parts on the black market. He had a pair of eyes that were
very valuable. Gangsters were involved. The author did an excellent job
of plunging the reader into this gritty, dark reality. I sympathized with
the protagonist's determination to succeed and found the story very
compelling.
I remember being so nervous about launching the magazine. We were starting from scratch, and we had no idea if people would submit stories for our first issue. We did get submissions, but I was dismayed by much of the slush. Then I read "Raising Archie" by Michael Stone. Not only was it a clever story, but it was about gargoyles, which I already had a fondness for. I knew if we could pick up stories like that, then Electric Spec would be a worthwhile venture.
For the early issues, some of the stories that we picked needed some editorial help. We were often willing to take a diamond in the rough and make it sparkle. I don't think there were many (if any) magazines that would take time and effort to work on substantive edits in that way. For those stories where I ended up doing some major edits, I was often worried that the authors would be upset when they saw the proof. However, it turned out that most authors understand and appreciate edits. We ended up with some great final products.
I'd be remiss if I didn’t mention the Editor's Corner story: "The Dog that Broke the
Camel's Back." I was lucky enough to co-write that one with current editor Lesley
Smith. If I recall correctly, that one arose out of a writing exercise we did in our
critique group. Lesley and I decided to try to write a story by trading off on the
narrative. It turned out to be quite a wild ride since neither of us knew exactly
where the story was going as we wrote it. (I know, not the recommended technique for
a good story). It was so fun reading it again—-I love stories that make me laugh!
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