from Author Oxford

We're excited to feature "Ms. McCrae's Metaphysical Cleaning Agency" by L.D. Oxford in our marvelous May 2026 issue of Electric Spec. L.D. was kind enough to send us some comments.

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I'm sure it's possible for some writers to pinpoint the exact origin of a story. That's never been true for me. I'm a magpie, a dragon, collecting images, sentences, ambiance. Eventually, after much wrangling, some of those items come together into a beginning, a middle, and an end.

This particular story--"Ms. McCrae's Metaphysical Cleaning Agency"--is a love letter to New York City. When I was young, I had a very clear vision for my life: I was going to be a writer, and I was going to live in New York. Only one of these has come true (so far). But still, I'm drawn to the rich stories of that storied city, and apparently wanted to contribute my own small part. It wasn't planned, not really. I didn't set out with the intention, "I want to write a story about New York." But as Ms. McCrae and her brethren took shape, it was clear that was their home. Stories, in my experience, have the tendency to grow in unexpected directions. You don't know it's the right path until you've tried it out.

This story also grew from grief. From the process of having to wrangle it and figure out what on earth to do next. For those of you wrestling with the same thing, I wish I had any sort of advice, but what works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. For me, I just had to write my way through.

For a long time, the story was only its protagonist, Jean McCrae, bopping around in my head. I knew she had ghosts. Beyond that, it was blurry. So I sharpened the cast of characters around her. The story's antagonist, Mrs. Bardot, was actually the last to coalescence into a (somewhat) solid form. Once she did, the story followed.

If this sounds like many twists and turns, some non sequiturs and nonstarters, that's because it was. Writing--creativity--is not linear. There are always surprises along the way. And isn't that why any of us do it? The joy of discovering what's next. If we all knew how it ended, we'd never pick up the pen in the first place.

Thanks to the journey it took to get here, I'd like to dedicate this story to those battling their own ghosts. Maybe try offering them a cup of tea.

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Interesting! Thanks, L.D.! Be sure to check out "Ms. McCrae's Metaphysical Cleaning Agency" and the rest of the May 2026 stories!

Marvelous May 2026 Issue Live!

The marvelous May 2026 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.

Marvelous May TOC!

Greetings, Readers and Writers! The editors are hard at work behind the scenes on the marvelous May 2026 issue of Electric Spec.
We are excited to share the Table of Contents with you right now!
The stories we will feature are:

• The Mythology of It by John Leahy
• The Eleventh Wild Swan by Taylor Jones
• Ms. McCrae's Metaphysical Cleaning Agency by L.D. Oxford
• The Ballad of the Bell Knight by Scott Wall
• Haggard by L.M. Conkling

Check it out on May 31!

Fabulous February 2026 Issue Live!

The fabulous February 2026 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 Blatchley

We're excited to feature "Smoke and Mirrors" by Nyki Blatchley in our fabulous February 2026 issue of Electric Spec. Nyki was kind enough to send us some comments.

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Smoke and Mirrors is a story about my recurring character Loshi, whose previous story The Guild’s Share appeared in Swords & Sorcery Magazine in 2023. Loshi is a teenage thief in the city of Shimeth, trying to strike a balance between making a dishonest living and surviving against people far more ruthless than her.

The aim is to create something of the spirit of classic sword & sorcery, but with a difference. As a thief, Loshi has little use for swords and avoids violence (though it often finds her), surviving instead on her wits.

I’m fascinated by liminal conditions, and this includes Loshi’s state as someone barely out of childhood trying to prosper in an adult world. In Smoke and Mirrors, I’ve mirrored this theme with a secondary character who is (literally) a child in an old woman’s body. While I set out to tell an exciting tale, this exploration of the borderland between adult and child is at the heart of the story.

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Interesting! Thanks, Nyki! Be sure to check out "Smoke and Mirrors" and the rest of the February 28 stories!

February 2026 Cover Reveal!

We're excited about our cover art for the fabulous February 2026 issue of Electric Spec. We will be featuring "Landing Party" by artist Barbara Candiotti.
So, without further ado...

From Author Zhang

We're excited to feature "Wife of the Iron Road" by Wanying Zhang in our fabulous February 2026 issue of Electric Spec. Wanying was kind enough to send us some comments.

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What inspired you to write this story?

The core of this story was inspired from the history of Chinese railroad workers in America. In light of recent events that stirred anti-Asian sentiment, I looked into the history of Chinese-Americans and was interested in the experiences of Chinese immigrants who arrived during the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. When I dug further into their role and living experiences in building the transcontinental railroad, I was struck by the extent of their exploitation and erasure as "cheap labour." Since this was minimized or overlooked in American history, I was inspired to write a story to give a voice to the people who sacrificed their lives to build one of the nation's most used infrastructure.

I also drew inspiration from Chinese folklore, particularly the legend of Meng Jiang Nü, where a widowed wife journeys to seek her deceased husband along the Great Wall of China. For the horror aspects of the story, I was influenced by Pu Songling’s ghost stories, especially his depictions of female spirits who confront injustice.

More broadly, I was interested to explore generational and familial trauma in immigrant families, and examine how historical violence shapes the present. In doing so, I hope I can honour the cultural memory.

Did the story develop in any surprising ways as you wrote it?

Yes, this story evolved in several unexpected ways over the course of many revisions. In my first iteration of the story, the ghost was the central figure driving the story and the protagonist functioned as a distant observer from the future. However, when I revised, I realized I wanted a stronger connection between the past and present, so I revised it to give the protagonist greater agency and purpose and to let the narrative unfold through his lens.

My research also progressed in stages which altered several details in my story in terms of world-building, dialogues and characterization. Initially, I relied mostly on secondary accounts reported in news articles or historical texts. But eventually I found some firsthand testimonies that allowed me to incorporate more specific details and authentic voices. As I learned more about the racism, violence and harsh working conditions faced by the Chinese railroad workers, the story naturally grew darker. Gordon H. Chang's book, “The Chinese and the Iron Road: Building the Transcontinental Railroad," was an invaluable resource that provided first hand accounts of their living experiences and ballads from their families.

In my more recent revisions, I gave my protagonist a more distinct Chinese-American voice and internal conflict. He became a more fully realized character that evolved along with the story, which strengthened the emotional core.

Is this story similar to your other writing, or were you trying out something different?

Yes, currently I write a lot of speculative fiction that is inspired by Asian folklore and myths. However, before this story, I had written a lot of western fantasy/horror. This was the first piece where I fully leaned into Asian folklore and history. In doing so, I began to find my voice. I wrote the first draft in 2021 in response to a submission call with the theme of "Asian Ghost Stories." It was rejected, but I believed in this story’s core and theme, so I continued revising it on and off over the years until it was published. In the time since, I have written many other stories, and in my more recent revisions, I was able to bring the voice I had developed elsewhere back into their piece, allowing it to fully come alive.

Would you like to dedicate the story to anyone in particular?

I like to dedicate this story to all the railroad workers who gave their blood and sweat for America, and may their voices and memories be remembered. I also like to dedicate it to my husband for his unwavering support for my writing and for sparking discussions regarding labour movements.

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Interesting! Thanks, Wanying! Be sure to check out "Wife of the Iron Road" and the rest of the February 28 stories!

Fabulous February ToC!

We are working hard behind the scenes on the fabulous February 2026 issue of Electric Spec!
Without further ado, here is the Table of Contents:

• Patched by John DiStefano
• The Annual Port Vanguard to Alpha Station Sprint by S.C. Mae
• The Moonbell’s Last Bloom by Rod A. White
• Wife of the Iron Road by Wanying Zhang
• Smoke and Mirrors by Nyki Blatchley

We'll also have something interesting in Editor's Corner!
Be sure to check it all out on February 28, 2026!

From Author Werner

We're excited to feature "Salvage" by A.R. Werner in our awesome November 2025 issue of Electric Spec. A.R. was kind enough to send us some comments.

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Science fiction is what initially sparked my love of short stories as a form, thanks to an entirely dinosaur-themed collection of Ray Bradbury stories someone gifted me when I was a kid. My other published fiction shows that influence, but has tended to be more atmospheric than plot-driven. "Salvage" was my attempt to write something more structured and propulsive.

In my professional life, I work with some excellent librarians who provide library service to people who are incarcerated. They introduced me to the concept of "image poverty" in the jail and prison system - the profound lack of novel views and images. One of the most common reference requests they receive is for pictures of nature and art, which help relieve the visual tedium of incarceration. This idea of visual monotony struck me, and I began to develop a story around the idea of someone imprisoned in a spaceship who never gets to see the stars. I was also influenced by the exhibition Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration, and the ingenuity of incarcerated artists who persist in making art despite deep constraints on time, space, and materials.

In the earliest concepts of this story, the artificial intelligence that inhabits the prison ship was a more straightforwardly benevolent ally. Unfortunately, that was boring. By pushing to make that character more alien and ambiguous, I think I was able to better explore the story's themes of autonomy, exploitation, and uneasy solidarities.

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Interesting! Thanks, A.R.! Be sure to check out "Salvage" and the rest of the November 30 stories!

Awesome November 2025 Issue Live!

The awesome November 2025 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.

November 2025 Issue TOC Preview!

November is a busy time of year! Rest assured we are hard at work on the awesome November 2025 issue of Electric Spec. I'm pleased to pass along a preview of our Table of Contents:

• Salvage by A.R. Werner
• A Domestic Dispute by Alex Fayle
• Jewels and Vipers by Dafydd McKimm
• Genesis by John Leahy
• The Ballad of Black Calchas by Townsend S. Wright
• Editor's Corner Fiction: A Full Moon Botheration by Lesley L. Smith

Woo hoo! I can't wait!

From Author Leahy

We're excited to feature "Genesis" by John Leahy in our awesome November 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Grayson asked him some questions about his story.

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What inspired you to write this story?
I've always been intrigued by genetics and the human genome. I found the p53 tumor suppression gene to be particularly compelling. The thought that we need this guardian of the genome to keep cancer at bay is rather concerning. We need this amazing gene to prevent our bodies from turning on themselves! I got to thinking about the loss or damaging of this gene in millions of people at once in a terror attack using nanobots, and the story grew quickly from there.

Did the story develop in any surprising ways as you wrote it?
Yes, at the beginning I didn't see Dr Cristoni coming back as subject A. That only developed in my head about halfway through writing the story.

Is this story similar to your other writing, or were you trying out something different?
Yes and no. It's similar to my other writing in that I've written on apocalyptic events before, but I never delved into the human genome as a means of delivering a disaster.

Would you like to dedicate the story to anyone in particular?
Yes, to my nephew Josh.

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Interesting! Thanks, John! Be sure to check out "Genesis" and the rest of the stories on November 30.

From Author Fayle

We're excited to feature "A Domestic Dispute" by Alex Fayle in our awesome November 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Alex was kind enough to send us some comments.

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A Domestic Dispute plays with the concept of privilege, living unaware, and the dangers of being self-absorbed. Back in a university class on children's literature, the professor told us how most fairy tales and poems are actually warnings for children on how not to behave.

For example, a child might be curious about what would happen if they dropped the cat down the well, but they read a nursery rhyme that tells them doing such a thing would make them a bad person, but if they rescued an animal, they would be a good person. A couple may receive wishes, then waste them by arguing with each other.

In this story, Daniel who starts out as a totally self-absorbed twenty-something learns something the hard way, with a lot of arguing happening. No nursery rhyme or fairy tale lessons for him; he has to experience it first hand.

And we, as the reader, get to act all smug and knowing about it. We would never be so insensitive. (To be honest, I have been that unaware and worse many times in my life.)

As for the setting, well, I've been living in the Spanish Basque Country since 2007, and am fascinated by Basque myths. Basque culture in general is quite unique, but many of their myths overlap with other cultures. However, there is just enough difference to make the connections even more interesting.

Add in Basque cultural details and the beautiful city of San Sebastian, and you get the perfect setting and setup for a series of short stories (plus a novel underway).
Hope you enjoy the story A Domestic Dispute!

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Interesting! Thanks, Alex! Be sure to check out "A Domestic Dispute" and the rest of the stories on November 30.

From Author Stein

We're excited to feature "Find You Voice" by Jake Stein in our awesome August 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Jake was kind enough to send us some comments.

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This is more of an allegorical story than I usually write, which was an interesting experience. Despite the title, I definitely didn't want to proselytize about how to "find your voice" as a story teller—rather, I just wanted to explore the concept of "voice" as a creature or living thing, rather than the abstract concept we tend to discuss—but in a weird way, the story ended up sort of taking a stance against... taking a stance? For instance, the end of the story seems to be professing that there's no "one way" to write... but isn't that argument essentially as didactic as the opposite stance? It seems that in attempting to write a story which discourages drawing blanket conclusions for aspiring writers, I inadvertently stuck a "moral" at the end.

But here I am playing devil's advocate against my own work! Sometimes you just have to let the story take you where it wants to take you, I suppose. Rereading this piece, I'm really proud of the language toward the end, when the voice shifts toward a more whimsical and playful tone, even rhyming at times (or at least coming close!). One last note: I received various critiques from early readers and editors about how I might restructure this story, and I'm happy to say—in keeping with the theme of the story—I didn't change much at all. Rather, I just let the story be what it was—because I liked it. At the end of the day, that's all that matters, isn't it?

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Interesting! Thanks, Jake! Be sure to check out "Find You Voice" and the rest of the stories as of August 31!

Awesome August 2025 Issue Live!

The awesome August 2025 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 Dixon

We're excited to feature "Full Nova" by Phillip E. Dixon in our awesome August 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Phillip was kind enough to send us some comments.

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Time travel stories often involve a character trying to change or prevent an action, choice, or situation that had a major effect on their life. For my story, I wanted to approach this time travel trope from a different angle. Here, the main character, Charlie, can't change the past or do anything to prevent his partner's death. What he does get, though, is closure and resolution courtesy of Celeste's knowledge and ability to give him what he needs: a last moment with Rebecca. The story is also set in a world where time itself is a commodity, and we see the same haves and have-nots that exist in the real world now, as well as corporate burdens that often command people's lives and expend our most precious resource, which is our time.

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Interesting! Thanks, Phillip! Be sure to check out "Full Nova" and the rest of the stories on August 31!

From Author Dove

We're excited to feature "Half Lives" by Alan Dove in our awesome August 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Alan was kind enough to send us some comments.

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I've spent my whole career thinking about science and scientists, and one recurring theme is the gap between how most people think research works, and how it actually happens.

Most experiments fail. The controls die, the apparatus you cobbled together breaks, or the cool thing you thought you'd discovered turns out to be an artifact. Sometimes something works as intended, which is a nice change of pace. But the best thing, the moment scientists live for, isn't when an experiment works, but when it fails in an interesting way. When you're scratching your head saying "wait, that can't happen," you just might have stumbled onto something new.

This story started out with the usual sort of sci-fi musing: "wouldn't it be cool if we could ..." Then I wondered who would discover such a capability, under what circumstances, and how would they first realize it? I decided it would probably happen when they were trying to do something else. And maybe they'd think the experiment had failed.

Initially, I started with a very different cast of characters, and had trouble deciding how to shape the story. Once I hit on the idea of a graduate student making the opening discovery, everything suddenly came together. Heather finds herself confronted with something that doesn't make sense, and gets sucked into figuring it out. She learns a few other things along the way. To the extent that there is a theme, it emerged from what these characters wanted to tell me.

I hope people enjoy reading "Half Lives" as much as I enjoyed writing it.

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Interesting! Thanks, Alan! Be sure to check out "Half Lives" and the rest of the stories on August 31!

From Author Mattravers-Taylor

We're excited to feature "Hats" by Christopher Mattravers-Taylor in our awesome August 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Christopher was kind enough to send us some comments.

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This story was written for a competition that had 'identity' as the prompt (perhaps I strayed a bit in my story!). The inspiration came when my wife was seriously ill in hospital for quite a long time, and I struggled to juggle work with looking after our young daughter. I made an offhand comment to my mother-in-law about putting on my childcare hat, and then it was only a short hop to think that there could by a physical manifestation of such hat swapping. Add a dash of corporate greed and employee frustration, and there you go!

I think the stress and helplessness I felt at the time bled into the story, which was both unexpected and cathartic, and I do think it has a kind of angry energy that my other work doesn't have.

I'd love to dedicate the piece to my wife and children, Carly, Kara and Thomas. They're the best family anyone could wish for!

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Interesting! Thanks, Christopher! Be sure to check out "Hats" and the rest of the stories on August 31!

August Issue TOC Preview!

August is a busy time of year! Rest assured we are hard at work on the awesome August 2025 issue of Electric Spec. I'm pleased to pass along a preview of our Table of Contents:

• Full Nova by Phillip E. Dixon
• Find Your Voice by Jake Stein
• Half Lives by Alan Dove
• Hats by Christopher Mattravers-Taylor
• The Show Must Go On by D.A. D'Amico
• Editor's Corner: Charles Kowalski Interview by Grayson Towler & Candi Cooper-Towler

Woo hoo! I can't wait!

From Author Pae

We're excited to feature "The Sword and the Scabbard, or Which Do You Prefer?" by Evelyn Pae in our marvelous May 2025 issue of Electric Spec. Evelyn was kind enough to send us some comments.

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When I was a kid I had an illustrated children's version of the Legends of King Arthur, which started my fascination with Arthurian lore. One of my favorite stories from that book was the part where Arthur gets Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake. Later, Merlin tells him that the sword's scabbard is more valuable than the sword itself, because it prevents the carrier from losing blood. What is interesting to me now as an adult is the inherent "sense" of such stories -- how as children, or fantasy readers, we're willing to accept the ring of truth in certain claims or turns of phrase, sometimes without being able to explain why.

In the past year I've been lucky to stumble upon a site run by author L. R. Tourmaline, the Arthurian Preservation Project (arthurianpreservationproject.tumblr.com) which is a highly accessible, extensively fact-checked directory of all sorts of Arthurian media, including "intro" guides for folks looking to get into reading some of the source texts for the first time.

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Interesting! Thanks, Evelyn! Be sure to check out "The Sword and the Scabbard, or Which Do You Prefer?" and the rest of the stories now!