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.
Check out the new issue February 28, 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!

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.

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.

Creating Something from Nothing

In these shall we say, interesting, times I am trying to remain positive. Thus...
We are starting to put together the fabulous February issue of Electric Spec. Right now we're in the process of choosing stories and art for the issue. This is, frankly, the most difficult part of the whole process. We get so many great stories submitted it's disappointing we can't publish all of them.

My hat's off to all authors and artists who have the gumption, the imagination, the will to create something amazing out of ...nothing. Think about it. Before you created your story, your world, your characters, your images there was literally nothing there. Possibly this feat--creating something out of nothing--is one of humanity's greatest abilities. It is amazing.
Bottom line: even if we don't pick your story or image you should still be proud of your creativity. You rock!

I want to send a shout out to the person who came up for the idea of Electric Spec twelve years ago: David E. Hughes. Because of your vision an ezine has existed for twelve years where before there was nothing. Of course we couldn't continue to do it without our awesome editors Grayson Towler, Nikki Baird, Minta Monroe, Cani Cooper-Towler, Chris Devlin. You are also creating something out of nothing. Kudos!

Next week: behind the scenes at the production meeting.

Notes from the slush pile

We are deep, deep in the slush pile. (Thanks for sending in your stories!) Sadly, we don't have the resources to critique the hundreds of stories we get for each issue. So here are one editor's subjective notes:

• Carefully choose pov (point-of-view). Generally, you want your main character to be the most interesting character in the story, with the most relevant skills/abilities and the most to lose.
• Watch out for a lot of set-up in the beginning of the story. Probably the most common edits we make in stories is to suggest they start later. Do you really need that page of description in the opening?
• Watch out for lectures. I admit there is a long SF tradition of explaining the science to the supporting cast but I say: do this very sparingly. I think the era of long scientific monologues is over.
• Watch out for telling. If your story consists of one character telling the reader what happened--with no showing, it's not appropriate for our market. IMHO, save your telling for sitting around a campfire under the stars.
• Please don't send us stories with super-common plots. One we see a lot: the protagonist--who seems like a human--is really something else, like an alien, a zombie, etc, etc. Surprise! (Not.) We also see a lot of men murdering women, girl friends, wives, neighbors, etc. (Should I be concerned about the welfare of writers' significant others?) Murder in and of itself isn't really enough of a story. I had one grumpy creative writing teacher who always said you had to earn your murders.
• Consider an unusual story element such as a nonlinear chronology, unreliable narrator, or a multiple-first-person (we) pov. Sophistication catches our notice.

Good luck with your writing!

Remembering Butler

I can't resist mentioning a super interesting article by Scott Timberg over at Salon.com about awesome writers Junot Diaz and Octavia Butler. It's called Remembering Octavia Butler: "This country views people like Butler and like Oscar as aliens and treats people like us like we're from another planet". Diaz discusses Butler's significance, his favorite Butler stories, and puts it all in the context of our current societal issues. Among other things Diaz says "Butler was a model of artistic courage." Check out the article!

What are your favorite Butler stories?
I must admit Parable of the Sower really speaks to me. The dystopian aspects are chilling. The environmental collapse seems prescient.

What do you think Butler's influence has been on our culture?
IMHO: huge! Furthermore, her work, her life and her courage speak to readers more and mroe every year.

In other news we've closed for subs for the fabulous February 2017 issue. We're deep in the slush pile...

art vs. entertainment

Somehow our next submission deadline has crept up: January 15, 2017! Get those stories in to be considered for the fabulous February 28, 2017 issue of Electric Spec! We're starting our twelfth year of publication!
Of course, after that we'll consider your story for our marvelous May 31, 2017 issue.

Over the holidays I actually went to a couple movies, in actual movie-theaters! It made me think about the eternal dichotomy artists--including authors--must face: art versus entertainment. Art is difficult to define. It includes a diverse range of activities which are intended to evoke some response in the viewer. Entertainment might be defined as an activity that holds the interest and attention of the viewer, often giving pleasure. Hhm. If you think these seem very similar I agree with you. (Maybe my definitions could be better?)
In my subjective opinion, a movie in which everyone dies in the end might be considered more art-y. Thus possibly the divide between art and entertainment is pleasure. If something is more pleasurable it's more entertaining? If something is less pleasurable it's more artistic? I need to ponder this some more.

At any rate different fiction markets have a different balance of art vs. entertainment. Before you submit a story you should peruse previous issue of a 'zine. Luckily, we have all the issues of Electric Spec still available! And they're free! Wow!
Here at Electric Spec we're probably a little bit more on the entertainment side of the divide...

Send us your stories!
And stay tuned for an exciting new issue at the end of February!

Happy New Year!

Happy Holidays!

girl cooties rock!

There's a new group on our planet called Girl Cooties. They are all about Science fiction for women by women. Their welcome page says If you’re interested character-based stories that examine who we are and how the big questions of science and society affect us in our daily lives, this is the meeting place for you. Yay!
And We have no interest in negativity or in tearing others down. Yay!

They formed to help address The Leaky Pipeline: Where are Women’s Voices in Science Fiction? question. The bottom line is fewer female SF authors are published and reviewed. Boo! Check out Dr. K. Kitts' article here.

Personally, I love SF--and,spoiler alert--I am female. If you love SF, Definitely check out the whole awesome Girl Cooties site here. Girl Cooties Rock!

And don't worry, here at Electric Spec we still love male (and agender, bigender, transgender, cisgender, basically all genders) authors and fantasy, and macabre horror, and all other kinds of speculative fiction.
Send us your stories!

story endings

Yes, we are still revelling in the fabulous November 30, 2016 issue of Electric Spec! But we are also starting work on the fabulous Februrary 2017 (!) issue.

I've been working on the slush pile...

There seems to be two different schools of thought on story endings. I've read some stories in slush which seem to sort of peter out.
Some people might say this is a sophisticated ending, an artistic ending. I'm afraid I would say this is not an emotionally satisfying ending. If you survey the stories in our 'zine we tend not to publish the peter-out endings.

The alternative school of thought is a kapow-whiz-bang! ending. I prefer these. I want authors to engage my emotions. Make me laugh! Make me cry! Make me say, "Aw!" I want authors to take me on a journey. Let's go somewhere. Let's have an adventure!

Of course, not all editors agree with me.

No one ever said writing was easy...

favorites

Here at Electric Spec we're still revelling in the stories in our November 31 2016 issue. They're all quite different, from Lenin's Nurse: Notes for a Dissertation by Chris Barnham to Gazer by Karen Osborne to The Yuru-chara of Hector, NY by Morgan Crooks to Childe Roland by Sidney Blaylock, Jr. to Mered's Lament by Chris Walker. (And yes, that may be the longest sentence I've ever written!)

What's your favorite? I must admit, I really enjoyed them all!

If you haven't read them all yet: do so!

It's also neat that we got so much behind-the-scenes info from authors, here on the blog.
Thanks, authors!

And soon we'll begin work on the 2017 issues...

It's alive!

It's alive! The fabulous November 30 issue of Electric Spec is alive!

Thank you so much authors, artist, editors, and tech folks! You rock!

Most of all, thank you readers! You rock the most!

Enjoy!

anticipation

The anticipation is growing as we approach publication of the Nov 30, 2016 Electric Spec issue!
You've already heard from authors Osborne, Barnham, and Crooks about their stories.
This issue also contains some entertaining fantasy.

In the realm of fantasy, Chris Walker brings us Mered's Lament, a traditional knight-hunts-dragon story that rapidly upends the genre. Hint: it's a rare day these days to find a damsel in distress.

If you can't wait for The Dark Tower movie, coming next summer, Childe Roland by Sidney Blaylock, Jr. might just tide you over with his creative take on the Robert Browning poem.

And to leave you wanting more, here's a sneak peek at our cover art:

from Author Osborne

Oooh! We're getting close now to the fabulous November 30, 2016 issue of Electric Spec! Continuing our series of author comments, today we are delighted to hear from Karen Osborne about her story "Gazer."

---

I find it incredible that addiction is still such a taboo subject in our society. We’ve sent human beings to the moon and mapped the human genome, but when it comes to the struggle with the bottom of the bottle, things are apparently not as easy.

In our mixed-up world, someone who struggles with headaches needs -- and gets -- some aspirin, while someone who struggles with pain of a deeper nature often reaches for the bottle of booze or pills in order to heal less obvious wounds. Our culture doesn’t understand that kind of pain. Our culture takes that pain and makes it a moral failing, keeping the addict from feeling like they can reach out for help without being shamed.

That means that addicts can go around and around a bruising Moebius strip full of shame and loneliness for years before something convinces them they need help: you’re afraid of the pain, so you numb the pain, but the high keeps slipping further and further from your fingers, and the pain never really goes away. An addict’s pain is like a snowball falling down a mountain: by rock bottom, it envelops everything around it -- friends, family members, and sometimes the addict’s own life.

Recovering addicts will often tell you that if haven’t been down that hill yourself, you just can’t understand what it means to want that high so completely that you are willing to hurt yourself for it -- or the feelings that come afterwards when you choose to face your problems head-on.

Writing and reading fantasy can be addicting, too, in its own special way. By cracking open a book or writing our own stories, engaging with a fandom or putting in a DVD, we can escape the world around us and our own very real physical and psychological pain. We can be heroes. We can win the battle. We can save the world. We can be the secret princess or the knight that saves the land or the very center of the narrative. A good story can be a heady, wonderful high, can’t it? Hasn’t everyone who spends their days on the factory floor or whipping spreadsheets into shape wondered, at least once, what it was like to be the Chosen One? "But, Karen," you might say, "that kind of escapism is mostly harmless."

What if it wasn't?

Be careful where you stand when you’re on the top of that hill...

---

Provocative and very thoughtful, Karen! Thanks!

from Author Barnham

We're proud to announce another exciting story in the November 30, 2016 issue of Electric Spec "Lenin's Nurse: Notes for a Dissertation" by Chris Barnham. We're also excited to have comments from the author about the story...

---

One of the interesting things about making stuff up is the way the characters you invent can take on a life of their own. And a loose end of a story written years ago can spin itself into a bigger story.

Many years ago, I published a story in the late-lamented Pan Horror series. It was called, "On the Fishermen’s Path", and told the tale of a young man’s holiday romance with a mysterious young woman who turned out to have a chilling backstory. At the end we strongly suspect that she was responsible for a series of grisly murders, and the young man in the story escaped becoming the latest victim only by luck.

Something in the story wouldn’t let me go, and long afterwards I found myself wondering whether there was more to the young woman’s story than I had written. I found myself reimagining the woman who disappeared at the end of "Fishermen’s Path". Where had she come from? Why did she do the things she did? What if she had been around a very long time, changing her name and identity, repeatedly turning up to bring havoc to the lives of the men who crossed her path? Thus I found myself writing a novel, ‘Among the Living.’ In this story, a widowed father, desperate for love and stability, falls for a wealthy, attractive, enigmatic woman who turns out to be have a dark and lengthy past. He tries to break up their relationship, but the woman breaks in to his home, attacks him and abducts his son. Warned off from involving the police, he sets out to track her down to save his son. The search takes an increasingly bizarre turn as he discovers connections to a series of other women, stretching back over four centuries.

As evidence mounts of the troubling links to these women from the past, the guy has to face the possibility that they are in fact the same woman; from the Elizabeth Barlow he knows, through Eliza Batho, mistress of the British Prime Minister in World War One, and finally back to one of history’s genuine monsters, Countess Elizabeth Bathory. A woman reputed to have murdered hundreds of people for their blood, using witchcraft to prolong her life. A woman who has kidnapped his son.

I was pleased with the book, but even then I found that my character would not leave me alone. "Among the Living" ended with her holed up in a cottage in the country, apparently safe from the authorities and free to reinvent herself again. But still she nagged at me. If she had lived a dozen lives, however careful she was she would leave traces. Surely someone would eventually stumble over those traces and maybe come looking for her. What would happen then?

This thought led to the story "Lenin’s Nurse". A diligent historian spots the similarities between Lenin’s nurse in the 1920s and Stalin’s assistant in the 1950s, and follows a thread that leads to a quiet cottage in the present-day English countryside. With results that he could perhaps have foreseen. Certainly if he’d read "Among the Living".

Maybe I’ve finished with this story now, and the character can rest easy. Only time will tell. After all, I wonder what she would do next...

---

Thanks, Chris!

from Author Crooks

I know what you all have been waiting for... More info about the stories in our November 30, 2016 issue of Electric Spec. Well, wait no more! We will be presenting a unique science fiction story "The Yuru-chara of Hector, NY" by Morgan Crooks. And right now, we're presenting comments from Author Crooks...

---

I don't remember what exactly inspired this story. I know the basic idea of virtual pets getting bodies came to me while I was driving and that I was taken enough by the concept to pull over to write it down. I suspect there was a radio program behind it but who knows. While writing the first draft I came across the concept of yuru-charas: in Japan, some municipalities create mascots to promote civic pride. That gave me Tama’s basic personality and outlook and the rest fell into place quickly.

One basic theme of "The Yuru-chara of Hector, NY," is responsibility. To what do we owe responsibility? What qualifies as deserving our attention and care? We owe this to other human beings, certainly. To pets, of course. Property and nature should be respected. Even certain intangible things like ideas need to be cherished. But what about virtual pets, digital assistants or online companions? Should we feel guilty when we eventually abandon a tamaguchi or pokemon? Should we be cavalier in our treatment of Siri?

But, you protest, those things are ephemera. They are designed to be discarded, programmed for disregard. And maybe that's true but somehow the question I kept circling around was not whether Tama suffers from her experiences but how Sam seeks a way to give that part of her childhood the dignity it deserves. If something is important to us at one point in our life than maybe it warrants attention and respect.

The other theme is, of course, dealing with the various losses involved in growing up. Of all of the protagonists in my stories, she's one of my favorites. I'm sympathetic to her impatience for the future to start even as I understand the regret she experiences. What I don't think she's fully dealt with are the consequences of placing one of her friends (no matter how artificial) into a box and walking away. In gaining a solid form, Tama makes Sam confront that abandonment.

---

Fascinating! Thanks, Morgan!

post Production Meeting

The Production Meeting tasks have been completed. Huzzah!
We selected 5 really neat speculative fiction stories. Huzzah!
I'll blog more about them later in the month. "Yeahs" should be hearing from us today or very soon. "Nays" should have heard from us already. It was extremely difficult to winnow down the list of excellent stories in hold-for-voting. You should feel good if your story was in hold-for-voting. If your story didn't quite make it into hold-for-voting, you should still feel good. You won't succeed if you don't try! Good luck next time!

We will have some really neat cover art!

We are tentatively going with the advertised November 30, 2016 publication date.

In Editor's Corner I'm going to include chapter one of my new novel The Quantum Cop. Exciting!
We're also going to interview Editor and Author Grayson Towler about his writing and his new novel The Dragon Waking. Exciting!

Stay tuned for more info about our upcoming stories! Hopefully we'll even have some author blogging!

Ranking Stories

Behind the scenes at Electric Spec we finished slush. Hooray! (Thanks for sending in your stories!) Now we're in the phase where we have to rank stories in preparation for our Production Meeting. Each editor ranks the stories from #1, the best, and on down to however many stories we have.

I always find this step to be very difficult, because all the stories in Hold-For-Voting are good. I don't know how the other editors do it, but I rely mostly on my gut at this step . Do I like it? Is it fresh, original? Thus, for me, this step is very subjective. Is this fair? Unfair? I know not.

The previous step, putting the finalist stories into Hold-For-Voting is more objective ( for me, at least). I try to discern if the story is objectively good. If so, in it goes.

I will compile the stats for each story and the total rankings will assist us at our upcoming Production Meeting.

Next week I'll give a report on the Production Meeting. And then...I'll start blogging about the exciting new issue!