Fabulous February 2024 Issue Live!

The fabulous February 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 February Author Yelinek

We are pleased to announce one of our featured stories in the fabulous February 2024 issue of Electric Spec is "Neither Snow nor Rain nor Gloom" by Kathryn Yelinek. Kathryn was kind enough to send us some comments about the story:

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Back when I was in college, I studied French. Now that I've been out of college for a number of years, I wanted to pick up the language again. There's a magazine that specializes in easy articles in French for native English speakers. Each issue focuses on a specific region of France or overseas French territory. One issue focused on Réunion, an island in the Indian Ocean. It featured an article about the postal carriers. Because Réunion is so remote, the mail carriers there walk their entire routes, almost a hundred miles a week.

I found this fascinating. The article focused both on the rigors and dedication of the postal carriers as well as the natural beauty of the land and the connection the carriers have to the people they serve. Me being me, I immediately thought of Fairy and what a postal carrier in some of the wilder regions of Fairy might encounter. I also remembered the dedication of my local postal workers during the pandemic. I wanted to honor them with something a little lighter, because many of my stories focus on heavier topics such as loss or loneliness. I'm pleased with how "Neither Snow nor Rain nor Gloom" turned out.

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Interesting! Thanks, Kathryn! Be sure to check out all the new stories on February 28, 2024!

Feb 2024 cover sneak peek

In our upcoming fabulous February 2024 issue of Electric Spec we will feature "Jupiter Project" by UK artist and science fiction fan Andrew C. Stewart.
About his work, Andrew says: I am a airbrush artist based in Nottingham UK. I like to experiment with different Airbrushes. I like to use a Paasche 1934 vintage Airbrush. My work has evolved over the years and I enjoy experimenting different techniques with the Airbrush.

Without further ado, let's take a sneak peek at the piece:

Ambiguous Endings

At the recent production meeting we had a discussion on ambiguous endings. Some editors like everything tied up in a neat little bow. Some editors like readers deciding for themselves how the story ends based on the author's clues. It's actually not the first time the topic has come up. One of our retired editors often lobbied for stories that let the reader decide; she said it was more literary and sophisticated.

So, anyway one of our editors is currently working with one of our authors on a story ending. We'll see what they come up with...

What's your preference for a story ending?

Production Meeting report

Woo hoo! We had a successful Electric Spec production meeting for the fabulous February 28, 2024 issue! If you submitted art or fiction for this issue: Thank you! We appreciate your efforts!

Authors should hear back from editors with a yay or nay this week. (Many of these emails have already gone out.) Please check your spam or junk folders. If you got an acceptance, please email us back ASAP because the February issue has a short turn-around. Once we hear back, we will start editing stories. This may involve multiple back-and-forths with authors.

After we get a final story version with the author, the story still has to go for proofreading. And, then, we pass the story off to the tech team.
We also add the authors' and artist's bios to the website and write the Letter from the Editors. And hopefully, we'll get some fun blog entries to post right here later in the month.
If everything goes smoothly, the authors and artist will get paid on February 27, 2024. We will publish on Feb 28--we haven't missed a deadline yet!

Check back here next week for more info about the fun new issue!