A CLOSER LOOK AT ON SPEC EDITOR, BRENT JANS

On Spec Cover by Dan O'Driscoll

AS I DID WITH EILEEN BELL AND CONSTANTINE KAOUKAKIS, I put the following questions to new editor, Brent Jans. 

1). What kinds of stories appeal to you most? Do you lean towards a particular type of story or style? I’m a big fan of Urban Fantasy, so I love stories set in our world (or even a future world) with a fantastic or mythological aspect. For me, those types of stories harken back to early fairy-tales in that they have the potential to teach us about ourselves and our world by contrasting it with the fantastic. Moonheart, by Charles de Lint, was my earliest exposure to the genre. It has continued to set the bar for what I consider to be good writing, not just in Urban Fantasy but for speculative fiction in general.

In more general terms, I tend to like stories with strong characters - not necessarily characters I like, but characters that make their presence known. I love well-written first person narrative; when it's done right it can be like listening to a friend tell you a story. I also tend to like stories that sound good when read out loud. I will sometimes read books or stories to people. I can always tell when a writer didn’t read their work aloud before submitting it.

2). What types of stories don't appeal to you? What are your pet peeves, writing-wise? Characters that go nowhere. If your protagonist is the same at the end as he/she/it was at the start, then you didn’t tell a story. There seems to be a trend towards focusing on mood, detail, and setting these days. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you remember to tell me a story while you’re at it. If you don’t have a protagonist, or if your protagonist is just a mannequin upon which to hang your fantastically moody setting, then you don’t have a story. At best, you have a compelling writing exercise which I’ll be happy to read if/when you turn it into a story.

3). What advice would you give to a writer submitting to us? Follow the submission guidelines. If I’m staring at a list-filled screen of submissions I have to get through, I am looking for any excuse to lighten my workload. If you didn’t follow our guidelines (over word count, didn’t follow formatting instructions, and so on) you’ve given me that excuse. At this point you might think, “What a lazy jerk!” but how well you follow the submission guidelines gives me a glimpse of how you’ll be to work with as we go through the editing process. Don’t disqualify yourself. If any of the guidelines don’t make sense to you, please contact us. We want your stories, so we’re happy to answer questions.

4). Please list any credits you'd like mentioned (ie. book pubs, editing/publishing involvement), followed by a small bio: Brent Jans is the most junior of editors for On Spec Magazine and a lifelong, unapologetic sci-fi and fantasy geek. He’s that guy you know who re-reads The Lord of the Rings every year, yes, including The Silmarillion. When not copy-editing, proofing, maintaining the website, or dipping his toe into the slush pile for On Spec, he freelances as an editor for independent game publishers (such as Mystic Ages Publishing’s Foreign Element RPG), as well as Wayfinder, a long-running fan publication for the Pathfinder RPG. Brent is a devout gamer, keeping the faith for over thirty years by playing more tabletop games than you might think possible.

Thanks, Brent. It's great to have you as part of our team. For those of you who have been reading these posts, you can see we are a very diverse bunch at On Spec, which is a good thing for both readers and writers. If you haven't checked the rest of us out already, the links below are an indication of what we personally like and don't like to see in the slush:

For Diane Walton

For Barb Galler-Smith  

For Ann Marston  

For Eileen Bell 

For Constantine Kaoukakis 

For Barry Hammond (poetry) 

and for myself, Susan MacGregor.)

WANT TO SUPPORT ON SPEC and SPECULATIVE WRITERS HERE IN CANADA AND ELSEWHERE?

THOSE OF YOU WHO READ THE I READ ON SPEC FACEBOOK PAGE, have already seen the following post by Diane Walton, Managing Editor of our magazine. It looks as if the Canada Council has once again cut our funding, so she is appealing to folks to support On Spec through additional subscriptions and/or donations. Diane writes:

THERE'S A NUMBER OF ON SPEC FRIENDS AND SUPPORTERS IN THIS GROUP, and I am really hoping they all have like-minded friends. This will be the first of probably many posts on the same topic. Most of you know that On Spec is a small, non-profit journal. It depends heavily on support from granting bodies like Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Multi-Media Fund. That's a reality in Canada. Magazines, especially the arts and cultural journals, need help to reach their audience.

There was a time when we could depend on the annual grants increasing as our related costs of production and distribution increased, so we could remain afloat and plan for each year. Ending the year with a small surplus was always a blessing. Recently, the opposite is true. Grants have decreased as much as $5,000 from one year to the next, and there is always the threat of being cut off from funding completely, as we were when they unexpectedly changed the eligibility rules for the Canadian Magazine Fund grant. And believe me, it hurt. We've made spending cuts in as many places as we could, without sacrificing the quality of the magazine. The time has come when we've tightened our belts as much as we can.

We are basically treading water right now, trying to promote On Spec with next to no budget, often with the editors paying their own way to conventions outside Edmonton. Making sure we can pay our bills is an ongoing challenge. We need to ask for your support. A gift of cash is certainly appreciated, but what helps us more is sustainable income, such as that obtained from a strong subscriber base, or revenue from repeat advertising. So now, more than ever, we ask you to tell as many people you know about our little magazine. Encourage them to subscribe. Buy gift subscriptions for your friends and family. Spread the word about our e-reader versions. We need your help to get through the lean times. And we need more readers!

Our new website will be up and running soon, and there will be a page for making donations, and buying subscriptions. Please visit there, and encourage anyone with a taste for engaging, intelligent literature to drop by for a visit. We'd love to meet them.

- Diane Walton.

Susan, again: And just so all of you know, we editors used to be paid an honorarium for our work with the magazine. Nearly two years ago, when we were faced with dwindling resources, we all chose to stay on with the magazine without expecting any recompense for the work we do. For us On Spec has been, and continues to be, a labour of love - something we do for free. As readers and subscribers, any support you give the magazine goes solely to the writers and artists who help make On Spec the exceptional magazine it is.

Brent Jans, one of our new editors and also webmaster, is currently working behind the scenes to re-vamp On Spec's web page. Included on it will be a link for a free trial e-issue. I'll post about the e-issue once it's available. In the meantime, if you'd like to subscribe to On Spec, please go to the On Spec website here.

On behalf of all of us at On Spec, thank you for your support.

- Susan.

NEW EDITORS AT ON SPEC MAGAZINE

Cover by Lynne and Steve Fahnestalk

WE'VE BEEN EXPANDING at ON SPEC MAGAZINE. With the switch to Submittable software to handle the mountain of slush we received during our last submission's window, I'm happy to announce we've taken on four new editors at On Spec. Please join me in welcoming Brent Jans, Laurie Penner, Constantine Kaoukakis, and Eileen Bell!

 Brent Jans is a lifelong, unapologetic sci-fi and fantasy geek. He's that guy you know who re-reads The Lord of the Rings every year, yes, including The Silmarillion. When not copy-editing, proofing, or dipping his toe into the slush pile for On Spec, he freelances as an editor for independent game publishers (such as Mystic Ages Publishing's Foreign Element RPG). If you have ever read, loved, or hated a Tweet from @OnSpecMagazine, Brent wrote it so blame/praise him. Being able to learn on the job from some of the best writers and editors in Canada is why Brent feels fortunate to work with the folks at On Spec.

Full-time desk jockey Laurie Penner pushes papers around for the Alberta government during the day and proofreads for On Spec Magazine at night. Somehow, she also finds time to volunteer for the Millwoods Bread Run, play way too many video games, and attempt to find the best bowl of bo kho in Edmonton. 

Constantine Kaoukakis was born and raised in Montreal. His interests include comic books (Marvel & DC), Sherlock Holmes, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Greek mythology, Doctor Who, British murder mysteries, ancient history, and literature. He has degrees in Education, English, and Classics which have enabled him to teach Latin, ancient and modern Greek, ESL, English literature, ancient Greek and Roman literature at the high school, college and university levels: Concordia University (Montreal), Queen’s University, and other minor colleges. Not only is he a former member of The Bimetallic Question - the Sherlock Holmes Society of Montreal, but he has also founded The Wisteria Lodgers - the Sherlock Holmes Society of Edmonton.

Eileen Bell has written most of her life (usually as an antidote to whatever day job she had) and has had short fiction published in magazines and several anthologies, including the double Aurora Award winning Women of the Apocalypse. Recently, she and three other writers had a collaborative novel, The Puzzle Box, published through EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing. In 2014, she will have her own paranormal mystery, Seeing the Light, published through Tyche Books. When she’s not writing or editing or thinking about writing, she’s living a fine life in her round house (even if it is in a perpetual state of renovation) with her husband, two dogs, and a gold fish.

Of course, we couldn't function without the talents of Isaac Calon, our Proofreader,  Cat McDonald, our Production Editor, or Jen Laface, our Publisher's Assistant. I would also like to bid a fond farewell to Robin Carson, who we will miss greatly as a fellow editor, and who knows he can return to us any time, once his day job isn't so demanding. 

And while I'm on the subject of the On Spec staff, I may as well include links for those of us who make up the old guard. If you want to know more about what Ann, Barb, Diane, Barry, or myself are looking for in manuscripts, you can find that information below:

For Ann Marston:
For Barb Galler-Smith:
For Barry Hammond:
For Diane Walton:
And for Susan MacGregor: 

So welcome, Brent, Laurie, Constantine, and Eileen! And a big thank you to all of you who support us at On Spec Magazine.