Winter 2011/2012 #87 vol 23 no 4

Short fiction by David K. Yeh, Kirsty Logan, Steve McGarrity, Erin O'Neill and more.

Editorial by Susan MacGregor.

Featured Author Interview by Roberta Laurie. Cover Art by Ellen Jewett.

Our Sponsors

We wish to thank the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Government of Canada for their financial support.

www.canadacouncil.ca

www.affta.ab.ca

http:///wfc2012.org

Author Guest of Honour Elizabeth Hand
Encyclopedist Guest of Honour John Clute
Artist Guest of Honour Richard A. Kirk
Toast Master Gary K. Wolfe

Special guests include
Charles de Lint
Tanya Huff
Mercedes Lackey
Patricia Briggs

http://purespec.org

November 16th to 18th, 2012
at the Grant MacEwan Robbins Health Center

Author Guest of Honour S.M. Stirling
http://www.smstirling.com/

Skype Author Guest of Honour Spider Robinson
http://www.spiderrobinson.com/

Thursday, April 26, 2012 - 09:51

On Spec will be selling subscriptions, current and back issues plus merchandise at this year's Expo. Come by to visit us at Table P08. As a special treat, when you make a purchase, you can get a free On Spec eyeglass cleaning cloth. OK, it's not a new car or anything glam, but it gets your specs cleaned while you think about your favourite spec fiction journal, doesn't it?

Tuesday, January 31, 2012 - 14:38

Sorry! Both deadlines for the Apocalypse Contest and our regular submissions have now passed. Watch this space for further updates when we are accepting new submissions.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 - 17:08

Anne McCaffrey passed away November 21st. She will be missed by family, friends, and fans of her work. Our condolences to her family and friends - our hearts go out to you.

Del Rey's website: http://sf-fantasy.suvudu.com/2011/11/anne-mccaffrey-april-1-1926-novembe...

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_mccaffrey

When I attended the When Words Collide convention in Calgary last August, I sat on the ‘Writing Difficult Scenes’ panel with a number of folks, including Lynda Williams (author of the Okal Rel Universe saga), fellow On Spec editor Barb Galler-Smith (author of Druids, Captives and Warriors) and others. I made a comment that I liked gritty scenes and that one of the most personally disturbing stories I ever wrote was about castration. The story was later published in Northern Frights V. After the con, Lynda asked if I might write about violence on her blog, Reality Skimming. She assumed that I liked to write ‘extreme stuff’, and that I might address some questions on ethical considerations.

I had to decline.

Why? Because what I write isn’t excessive compared to some of the really extreme stuff out there. But it did get me to thinking about the portrayal of violence in fiction, and what works for me and what doesn’t.

Violence in fiction needs to be there for a...