Supporting Canadian publishers

I am pleased to be an editor and reviewer at OnSpec Magazine, a quarterly journal of Fantastika fiction, featuring Canadian and International authors. The journal consistently wins genre literary awards, pays professional rates, and generally is a high-quality publication. Like many publications, periodically cash flow becomes difficult, not through mismanagement, but because of rising costs of production and distribution. It’s always a struggle. Yet despite that, OnSpec continues to hold to very high standards. At…

Observations on the current state of publishing

Let’s talk about AI There are some among my creative colleagues who view AI as simply a tool, nothing about which to be concerned. I cannot begin to express my disbelief, little say outrage, regarding this blind, uninformed view. AI is a huge genie released into the world, now rampaging through not only the creative sphere, but the business and academic world, and to think for a moment it isn’t going to affect every aspect…

New Associations

It’s about time Only took me until my 69th year to gather the wherewithal to apply and be accepted to two professional publishing-related associations. But as they say, better late than never. The Writers’ Union of Canada The first is an association with which I’ve long wanted to be part of, and never could justify the cost of membership until now, The Writers’ Union of Canada. It was, for me, mostly a question of economics….

News: On Spec Team, Reviews, and Stuff

Editorial Team At On Spec I am thrilled to announce I’ve accepted an invitation from Diane Walton, Publisher at On Spec Magazine, to join their editorial staff. There is a large roster of editors at On Spec. But, then, they receive a large number of submissions and require a large number of people to read and adjudicate every story. Very much look forward to working with Diane and all the team. If you’ve never read…

Short Story Publication

One of my Favourite Magazines In the latest issue of On Spec, one of my favourite speculative fiction magazines, and a publication for which I review, one of my flash fiction stories makes a debut appearance: “The Keening of the Sparrow”. I’m rather pleased with this short, sharp, shocking story which was inspired by the Industrial Revolution child-labourers known as chimney swifts. And given the human predilection for using and abusing their own, I transplanted…