All posts by onspecmag

Editorial

Editors and the slush pile

At the moment, the editors of On Spec are busy reading the 500 + stories that were sent in during our open submissions period. Some will be short-listed for further discussion, and many will not be. The process is lengthy, because we’re all doing this in our spare time. It goes without saying that we appreciate the patience of writers who trust us with their work.

If you are new to this business, you need to know that writers have to develop a thick skin, and forge ahead in spite of the setbacks. This article by editor, Barb Galler-Smith might shed some light on the life of a magazine editor, valiantly trying to find the right stories for the reading audience.

News

On Spec Editors & Young Writers

On Spec editors and friends will be participating at Sci-Fi City: An Evening of Networking with On-Spec and Co., presented by the Writers Guild of Alberta in conjunction with the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Authors Association.

The event takes place Monday, April 30, and details are available here. It’s aimed at young writers 18-30, and we will be available for Q&A, mixing and mingling in an informal setting at the Almanac.

We can give advice about networking opportunities, and best ways of presenting your work to a prospective publisher, or how to get started on the self-publishing journey.

RSVP is requested for this Facebook event, so we hope to see lots of young writers there.

Book Reviews

The Rosetta Man: A Review by Nicole Luiken

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The Rosetta Man by Claire McCague
Publisher: Edge-Lite, 2015
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
The Rosetta Man is an intriguing alien first contact novel–with non-verbal aliens. The story starts out in New Zealand, but soon travels. Every nation desperately wants control over the aliens and since Estlin (an empath who’s mental shininess often attracts small animals) is the only one who can communicate, he gets dragged everywhere along with them. I enjoyed the international aspect of the story. Though the main character is Canadian, there are characters from New Zealand, China, America, Indonesia and Samoa among others. I found the novel to be very well-researched with lots of small details that gave the story authenticity. (Though most of the math–okay, all of the math–was over my head…) The intrigue of who would get control of the aliens and the mystery of what the aliens themselves wanted kept me turning pages past midnight.
Quibble: One of the subplots involved a Greenpeace ship and was told from the point of view of marine biologist, Jeannette. Since Jeannette had a past romantic connection with Estlin, when their paths finally crossed after hundred pages, I expected more to happen. Not necessarily a rekindling of the romance but perhaps an epiphany or realization related to either’s character arc.

Nicole Luiken is the author of thirteen published books for young adults, including Violet Eyes and its sequels Silver Eyes, Angel Eyes and Golden Eyes, Frost, Unlocking the Doors, The Catalyst, Escape to the Overworld, Dreamfire and the sequel Dreamline. Her latest release is In Truth & Ashes, book three of Otherselves. She also has an adult thriller, Running on Instinct, under the name N.M. Luiken and a fantasy romance series, Gate to Kandrith and Soul of Kandrith.

Nicole lives with her family in Edmonton, AB. It is physically impossible for her to go more than three days in a row without writing. Nicole Luiken wrote her first book at age 13 and never stopped.

Nicole wrote her first book at age 13 and never stopped, and she also published in On Spec’s first youth issue.

On Spec Updates

The Renaissance & The Age of Enlightenment: The origins of Science Fiction by Constantine Kaoukakis

Many believe that science fiction originated with Jules Verne, but science fiction as a genre is older than that. With exploration and the spread of humanism, we have the emergence of science fiction in Thomas Moore’s Utopia published 1516, in which a perfect island nation is depicted.  Later, Anton Francesco Doni published a book I Mondi. In 1623, Thomas Campanella wrote The City of The Sun. After the publication of Galieo’s map of the moon, Ben Jonson wrote a masque for the court of James I called Newes For the New World Discovered in The Moone in which there are moon people riding in clouds. In Francis Godwin book in 1638, the antihero Domingo Gonsales visits the moon in a carriage towed by geese using the technology of another world. This was the first time any author used anything like this. In 1648, Samuel Gott’s first novel, Nova Solyma, is set in the future. The author Margaret Cavendish wrote The Blazing World in 1666 in which there is another world attached to one of the earth’s poles.

On Spec Updates

Volume 28 No 1 is Available

If you look at the Current Issue page on the website, you will see a beautiful cover by Saskatchewan artist Joel Hustak. Kevin Cockle and Marcelle Dubé  and Suzanne Church make a return to our pages, and we are pleased to present new names to On Spec readers: Meghan Casey, Ashley Mullins, Christine S.R. Jackson, Brent Nichols, and William Squirrell. Poetry by Emeniano Somoza and Michelle Chen, interviews by Roberta Laurie and Cat McDonald, and an editorial by Barb Galler-Smith complete the issue.

Copies are available by mail, or from Variant Edition Comics & Culture and Happy Harbor Comics in Edmonton. We will be at upcoming events such as the Royal Bison Craft Fair in Edmonton (May), Vul-Con in Vulcan, Alberta (July) and the When Words Collide festival in Calgary  (August). Digital versions of many of our issues can be obtained through Weightless Books.

On Spec Updates

On Spec Vol. 28 No 1

The new issue of On Spec is currently at the printer, so our subscribers should be receiving their copies early in March. We have a beautiful cover by Saskatchewan artist, Joel Hustak, with new fiction from Marcelle Dubé, Meghan Casey, Ashley Mullins, Christine S.R. Jackson, Brent Nichols, William Squirrell, Suzanne Church, and Kevin Cockle. An editorial by Barb Galler-Smith, poetry from Emeniano Souza and Michelle Chen, along with interviews by Roberta Laurie and Cat McDonald.