Happy Holidays!

From all of us here at Electric Spec to all of you:

See you in 2019!

so many choices

We're still reveling in the new November 2018 issue of Electric Spec! What's your favorite story? "Undertow" by Mark Bilsborough? "Mission on Nemistat" by Lisa Timpf? "Clinging" by Joe Baumann? "Ugly Earthling" by Kate Sheeran Swed? "Grounded" by Nikki Baird?
So many choices! I can't decide. :)
Bonus question: which author(s) has appeared in Electric Spec before?

And how about that editor interview? Gremlin Editor uncovered a lot of intriguing info!
Bonus question: which editor(s) did not participate? I wonder why...
Feel free to ask a question in the comments for a future interview.

Yay!

Hopefully, you've noticed by now, the new issue of Electric Spec is out! Huzzah!

Thank you to all the authors, the cover artist, the tech support folks and all the editors! Yay!

And thank you readers!

from Author Timpf

One of the great stories we're looking forward to is the science fiction tale "Mission on Nemistat" by Lisa Timpf. She says...

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One piece of advice often given to writers is to think about stories they have enjoyed in the past. When I think back the books I most enjoyed as a child growing up in the 1960's, Thornton Burgess's stories about the furred and feathered creatures that lived in the Green Forest and the Smiling Pond rank right up there. I credit Burgess's stories with helping me develop empathy for animals and a deep appreciation of the natural world.

As a teenager reader, I started to enjoy science fiction books, particularly those of Andre Norton and Robert A. Heinlein. Norton and Heinlein remain among my favorite science fiction authors, joined more recently by John Scalzi and Kim Stanley Robinson.

I first started writing and sending out fiction stories after I retired from full-time work in 2014. Many, though by no means all, of my stories have leveraged two of my most-enjoyed reading experiences—science fiction tales and animal stories. "Mission on Nemistat" is my seventh published science fiction story with an animal protagonist.

The inspiration for "Mission on Nemistat" came from thinking about the question of faith--specifically, faith in what we devote ourselves to do, whatever that may be. As one of the characters, Ninja, suggests, doubt isn't necessarily a bad thing if it helps us find the way to a more reflective and deeper commitment to the causes, occupations, and organizations to which we devote ourselves.

I think many of us (if not all) have doubts at some point in time, whether those doubts are about the value of our contributions, the merits of the tasks we do in our jobs, or the causes we commit ourselves to. Hopefully, we can find our way from doubt to a degree of certainty, as our protagonist Star manages to do. To do so can be liberating and energizing, though we must also realize that doubt is seldom banished forever. That's just the way it is.

Perhaps you've found, as I have, that sometimes, it's enough to say, "for now, it's all good." May we all find that peace, from time to time, as we go about our daily lives.

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Thanks, Lisa! Very Interesting!

from Author Swed

We're working on the notable November 30, 2018 issue of Electric Spec! One of the stories we're exited to feature is "Ugly Earthlings" by Kate Sheeran Swed. Here's what she has to say about the story:

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On Absurdity and Character Journey in "Ugly Earthling"
By Kate Sheeran Swed

"Ugly Earthling" is my love letter to absurdity.

The process of writing short fiction is a joy. Shorts give me the opportunity to strut my weird, and to play with styles that would quickly become wearisome in the writing of a novel--or a reading of it, for that matter. I stand forever in awe of authors like Douglas Adams, whose long form works so effectively embrace absurdity in both style and content. It is not easy to pull off.

Still, the absurdity of "Ugly Earthling" posed a challenge when it came to crafting a satisfactory ending to the piece. As far out as it may be (rather literally, I suppose), my main character, Esmeralda, does have a goal in this story. It's reflected in the very first line. While there’s certainly room for character goals to shift and grow, I couldn’t very well have Esmeralda reacting to the events of the story by seeking out revenge, for example.

The prose style of a story like this might allow for a lot of weirdness, but that doesn't mean a character can randomly make decisions that run contrary to what they hope to achieve. Not unless they've got a convincing reason to do so. This story taught me quite a lot in the writing, quite a bit of which I managed through trial and error.

Squid chefs are one thing. Disappointing character journeys are quite another.

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That's great. :) Thanks, Kate.

from Author Baumann

We're working hard behind the scenes on the notable November 30, 2018 issue of Electric Spec! We're pleased to present "Clinging," a unique fantasy, by Author Joe Baumann. He tells us:

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I owe three inspirational shout-outs for this story, two to writers I admire and wish I knew personally and one to an artist about whom I feel the same (who is, sadly, deceased, and thus far less likely to ever see this): first is Julia Elliott, whose sublime short story collection The Wilds features a woman who appears to have tree roots blasting out of her head on its cover. That image stuck with me as I was reading her incredible stories, and led me to the idea of writing about people who grow tree roots.

Second is Ramona Ausubel, whose story "Tributaries," in which people grow extra arms every time they fall in love, inspired the grief part--the "how" of that should be fairly obvious.

Third is a thanks to Pablo Picasso, who--according to the postcard I bought at his museum in Barcelona (the only souvenir I bought on that trip)--once said, "Bad artists borrow. Good artists steal." Without that oomph pushing me along, I probably would have thought I was borrowing too much from Elliott and Ausubel--so I gladly took what was theirs and made it mine (please don't sue, if you see this).

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Thanks, Joe! Very interesting!

tales from the Production meeting

We recently had the Electric Spec Production Meeting. It went well. It was difficult, but we picked five stories and some cover art. This means all authors in hold-for-voting should hear back from us early this week--if they haven't already. We assigned editing tasks. For your information, usually editors pick their favorite stories to edit. So, this means authors get an editor that is very enthusiastic about their work. :)

We will have a story from Editor Nikki in Editor's Corner Fiction. And, in a first, we will interview all the editors in the Editor's Corner Interview section. That should be interesting!

We pondered updating the website, but don't have time right now. We pondered putting together some kind of e-book anthology collection of Electric Spec...and decided to revisit the idea in the future.

We had an interesting discussion about how the zeitgeist of our modern culture affects writers. Do we get more dire, depressing stories these days? Maybe so.
But do we want to read dire, depressing stories these days? Maybe not.
Something to think about...

Hopefully, next time, we'll start hearing from authors!

Happy Halloween!

Next time: a report from the Electric Spec Production Meeting.

Rocketpack Adventures

There's a new anthology of short stories related to rockets, jetpacks and related fun stuff.

	Rocketpack Adventures Anthology available October 29, 2018!

Check it out!

the challenge of being spooky

We're working hard behind-the-scenes of Electric Spec. One task is finishing up stories in the slush pile. I've read a variety of tales over these last few weeks which tried to be spooky or macabre and/or in the horror genre. It can be challenging to make such stories work.

One major issue is you must connect with the reader on an emotional level. To scare the reader, you have to make the reader care about the characters. Thus, usually, the opening of such a story should make the reader empathize with the point-of-view character. (In a flash piece this can be very difficult.) I think this is especially important in horror fiction if you want to scare the reader, make them uneasy. In such cases, first, you have to make them easy. :)

Another issue is there is a long, rich history of horror fiction in our culture. Please be aware of it. If an author expects a surprise reveal that the protagonist is actually a vampire/ghoul/ghost/werewolf/axe-murderer to work, think again.

All that being said, we enjoy macabre fiction. Show us something fresh!

Early Happy Halloween!

the lens of character

The Oct 15 deadline for the notable November issue of Electric Spec has just passed. Doh! Thanks for submitting if you made it in.

The editors are working their way through slush. Some do a pretty good job keeping up with it, some tend to procrastinate. If you submitted, you should hear back in the next two weeks for an initial thumbs up or down.

I've been reading a lot of slush. Some authors authors do a great job of telling their story through the lens of character. Some do not. Most modern story-telling is told via a very close point-of-view, be it third person or first person. In this case, everything in the story needs to be told through the subjective lens of your pov character. This includes language, metaphors, similes. This includes vocabulary and dialogue. This includes descriptions of other people, places and things.

If an author doesn't carefully implement this, the author's subjective lens is the default. This can work, if it's consistent. A haphazard mish-mash of pov, however, does not work.
When the lens of character is successfully implemented, the story is a joy to read...

Reading fiction is beneficial.

Reading fiction is beneficial.

• Reading fiction facilitates empathy and understanding
• Reading fiction opens your mind to new ideas and people
• Reading fiction faciliates uncertainty and creativity
• Reading fiction reduces stress
• Reading fiction facilites sleeping
• Reading fiction makes you happier
• Fiction simulates relationships and other challenges, enabling readers to deal with them more effectively
• Fiction readers build more language skills
• Fiction readers have less mental decline later in life

Writing fiction has these same benefits!
Don't forget the next submission deadline is October 15, 2018.

Send us your stories!

Hello Goodbye

We're hard at work on the neat November 2018 issue of Electric Spec. At this stage this involves reading the stories people are kind enough to submit to us. (Thank you!)

I read a story recently that had extended 'Hello' and 'Goodbye' scenes. These scenes seemed very realistic in terms of dialogue. Unfortunately.
I challenge anyone reading this to go to a crowded spot and listen to people talking. You'll hear a lot of Hey's, Um's, So's, and similar words. Talking in the real world is a way to communicate and emotionally connect with other people but, generally, it's not efficient. Sometimes the actual words don't even matter because just showing up matters, participating matters, nonverbal communication matters.

Dialogue in story world should not be realistic. It should be fictionalized. Dialogue in a story should convey plot information, help build the fictional world, and it should characterize the speaker. It should be efficient. Words in story world do matter, because the words on the page are the only way we can communicate and connect with the reader. Every word is important.

The submission deadline for the November issue is fast approaching: October 15, 2018.

Send us your stories laden with unrealistic dialogue! :)

Happy Ending?

We're pretty deep into the slush for the notable November issue of Electric Spec. I've been reading stories and was reminded of some feedback I got from a creative writing professor once. Basically, he told me to consider not including a happy ending in my story.

What is a happy ending, anyway? There's not an accepted definition. This is especially true when you consider different temporal eras, cultures, countries. Some would say as long as the protagonist is alive at the end of the story, it's a happy ending.

I think the whole happy ending issue exemplifies the art versus entertainment dichotomy in fiction. In art, anything can happen. In entertainment, people want to be entertained; often this means they want and expect a happy ending. Fiction falls somewhere along this spectrum. I would say literary fiction is closer to the art end of the scale. Genre fiction, including speculative fiction, tends to fall closer to the entertainment end of the scale.

Where do the Electric Spec Editors fall in terms of their preferences? There are certain conventions in a particular culture and we editors are subject to them along with everyone else. As convention says all characters must be fully fleshed out now, more ambiguous endings are considered more sophisticated, better.

But you're in luck. To decipher what we really think (rather than what we claim) you can check out thirteen years of endings for yourself at Electric Spec.

What's your preference?

Avoid Cliche

We are starting to work on the next issue of Electric Spec--which means reading slush. Last time, I said stories should grab editors. This time, I'm saying stories should surprise editors. I didn't entitle this 'Surprise Me' because authors do need to lay the groundwork for their story endings. The end of the story should be the perfect complement to the beginning of the story. That being said, we see a lot of the same type of story endings...

Avoid these story cliches:

• the mysterious protagonist is actually an alien, robot, AI, elf, ghost, monster, insert_your_favorite_creature_here
  and closely related: the seemingly normal protagonist is actually an evil murderer/torturer
• the mysterious seemingly-not-human protagonist is actually a human
  and the closely-related: mysterious planet is actually Earth
• nonhumans act exactly the same as humans.
• the protagonist discovers he/she/it is the special chosen one
• brave knight saving the damsel in distress and/or killing the dragon/beast
• the powerful magic-object/wizard/AI/etc. saves the day
• scientists/science are/is evil

I'm sure you can come up with some yourself.
Subverting cliches, on the other hand, can work great...

Good luck avoiding cliches!

Grab Me

While we are still reveling in the awesome August 2018 issue of Electric Spec, we are also starting to think about the notable November 2018 issue...

How does an author get their work published? By grabbing the editor. Why is this relevant? Because editors want the stories to grab readers. They are myriad ways to grab an editor, but in general it does need to be done on the first page of a manuscript.

Here are some grab-worthy sentences you might recognize:

• Penelope was fading fast, but I agreed to meet her nonetheless.
• After my installation in Gloria, I am silent.
• He returns on a Thursday after the full moon.
• But there were no hummingbirds.
• "Will you put that bloody thing down and talk to me?"

These pique one's curiosity. How was Penelope fading? And why meet her? How the heck does someone/thing get installed in a person? Why be silent? Where does he return from? And who is he? What's with the hummingbirds? What is the bloody thing and why does it interfere with conversation?
The methods differ significantly but the result is the same: I'm grabbed.

Good luck with your grabbing!

Awesome August Issue!

We're still enjoying the awesome August 2018 issue of Electric Spec. If you haven't checked it out yet, here's what you're missing:

Perhaps the greatest gift of speculative fiction is that you never stop encountering startling and creative new perspectives. In this issue, we were amazed by the imaginative paths our writers took to tell their stories--including riveting explorations of relativity and quantum uncertainty, a moving story from a machine's perspective, an unexpectedly chilling choice for a menacing monster.

• "Hummingbird" by Kathryn Yelinek: One woman will learn to fear the buzzing of tiny wings...
• "Twist" by Michael J. Nicholson: In a mad race to beat the world record for Rubik's cube, one competitor is about to take it a twist too far.
• "Brother" by Subodhana Wijeyeratne: When a brother returns from deployment in space, we find relativity can be hell on relatives.
• "There Is a Beauty in This Condition" by Neil James Hudson: What would you do if someone you loved was literally fading away?
• "G10ria" by Michael Milne: An AI healing module implanted in a dying woman shows us a new perspective on the human experience.
• In Editor's Corner editor Nikki Baird shares her discussion with editor Angie Hodapp about how to create an anthology.
• Also in our Editor's Corner, editor Grayson Towler shares "Honor Dog," a story of a young boy's dangerous quest to preserve his father's legacy--and save the life of his best friend.

Which story is your favorite?

We're Live!

We're Live! Check out the awesome August 31, 2018 issue of Electric Spec!

Thank you authors! Thank you artists!

Thank you editors!

And, most of all, thank you readers!

from Author Hudson

We're proud to present "There Is A Beauty In This Condition" by Neil James Hudson in our awesome August 31, 2018 issue of Electric Spec. Here's what the author had to say about his story...

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You can't step in the same river twice. New things arise and old things disappear. People fade away, and our memories fade with them. And as we age, we feel ourselves fading. Of course we should fight it, but it always ends the same. I've always kept diaries as a way of keeping it at bay; it makes me feel as if somehow the days can be preserved, the people kept real, and the past live on in the present. It doesn't, but I can't help hoping that the story of my life will be preserved after I've faded, as a kind of verbal corpse.

In this story, Penelope is the river that the narrator tries to step in twice. He knows it's not the same river, but he doesn't realise he's not the same man.

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Very interesting, Neil! Thanks!

Check out "There Is A Beauty In This Condition" and all the others on August 31!

from Author Wijeyeratne

As part of our awesome August 31, 2018 issue of Electric Spec we're pleased to present Brother by Subodhana Wijeyeratne. Here's what Subodhana has to say about it:

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I've always been interested in incorporating the South Asian cultural context into my science fiction. Coming from a Sri Lankan family, even though I was born and raised in the West, I've always been keenly aware of the amazing depth and diversity of the subcontinent's religion, history, and art. The challenge for me was to bring this into my writing without making it appear tokenistic or modish. I already had a crack at this once with My Lady, The Lily, a short story I based on a Sri Lankan legend, which appears in my collection "Tales from the Stone Lotus." But I'd never done a SF piece in a similar register.

In the end, it was Sri Lankan legend to the rescue, again. Though based in the near future, Brother actually makes reference to Sri Lankan history too. The two brothers bear the name of the famously feuding monarchs Kasyapa and Mogallana. Having usurped his father, Kasyapa fled to a giant rock in the jungle and build a palace on its back, a structure he called 'Sigiriya' -- Lion's Rock. After a decade of tyranny, he was deposed by Mogallana, but not before he'd turned the rock into a great pleasure palace carved in the shape of a lion and adorned with images of heavenly maidens, Apsaras. The rock is still there in Sri Lanka, choked with tourists. Brother in some ways is my ode to that tale, and to brotherly relations the world over -- that curious mix of competition, love, hate, and tenderness that characterizes the bond between male siblings.

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Thanks, Subodhana! Very interesting!
Be sure to check out Brother and all the other stories on August 31!