We’d love to encourage our readers, friends and followers to buy someone a gift subscription to On Spec for their holiday gift giving! Then tomorrow, kindly follow that up with a donation to a charity of your choice.

Ask the Editors

We are thrilled to be receiving your new fiction and poems, and there is ample time to submit work until our December 15 deadline. If you are still hesitant, it might not be a bad idea to sign up for this free Q&A session where one of the On Spec editors would be happy to answer your questions! Editors from other fiction markets will also be on hand to engage with curious writers.

If you have been waiting for us to accept new submissions of fiction and poetry, now is the time! The window opens Wednesday, November 15th  and  closes Friday December 15, and we suggest you do not leave things to the last minute. Visit this page for instructions.

Please note if you try to circumvent the process by sending your work to us as an email attachment, we will NOT read it. PLEASE have a look at our writer guidelines before submitting, and if you send anything helped by AI, we will decline it.

Here’s a new review of issue #125 by Tangent Online reviewer, Victoria Silverwolf.

Check out this review by R. Graeme Cameron at Amazing Stories!

Our reviewer, Lorina Stephens has given us a review of a new YA book from Rati Mehrotra. You can read it on Lorina’s Review Page.

Rati is no stranger to us at On Spec. Her story “Death is a Blindfold” appeared in our VOL 29 No 2 issue.

We are also pleased to find out that her first exposure to On Spec was reading the Casserole Diplomacy and Other Stories anthology (see the ad on our sidebar). Her review is on her blog here.

Our newest issue is just about ready to mail to subscribers. You don’t want to miss this one. Glorious cover by Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk and Steve Fahnestalk.

As we write this, the 81st World Science Fiction Convention is going on in Chengdu, China.  One of the Guests of Honour is Canada’s Robert J. Sawyer. Numerous other Canadian SF&F authors and fans are participating, and we are eagerly watching their social media posts to see how things are going. We wish Rob and the others a great convention and a safe return home!

Reviewer Lorina Stephens has a new review of an action-packed book by Manitoba author Jason Pchajek.

See her review of Bounty here. 

We’re pleased to announce that On Spec‘s new issue is in progress. It should be delivered to the printer in the next day or two, and then it will be in the mail to our subscribers next week.  Here’s a peek at the lineup:

A feisty group of seniors takes on a zombie apocalypse in “The Trombone, The Pianist, The Four-Wheeler and the Zombies” by Carolyn Watson.

What we might expect in a future where virtual tourism is helping to reduce the human impact on ancient sites, is part of Fiona Moore’s “And If Venice IS Sinking”.

Eleni is dying. Her young daughter, Sofie is trying very hard to save her mother in the only way she knows how.  Antony Paschos’ story, “A Fairytale for Sofie” , translated from the original Greek, is an emotional tale of love and loss and magic.

There’s a lovely new cover by Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk and Steve Fahnestalk, featuring one of her beloved ‘Bots.

If you aren’t yet a subscriber, there is still time to begin. Or you can order a single copy to check us out, either from us or from Weightless Books in digital format.