PURE SPECULATION FESTIVAL, NOV. 14 TO 16, 2014

NEXT WEEKEND, I WILL BE ATTENDING THE PURE SPECULATION FESTIVAL, here in Edmonton, at the Ramada Conference Centre. I'm looking forward to it. The theme is The Final Frontier. GoH’s include David Gerrold (who wrote the Star Trek episode The Trouble with Tribbles, writers and gamers, Dave Gross, Dan Riskin, Amber E. Scott, and Skype guest, Samuel R. Delany (yes, I know - Wow!) It’s going to be a great event for so many reasons. Some of the many panel topics include Indie Game Development, the Science of Superheroes, the Mars Race, Alternative Sexualities, Dystopian Fiction, and so on. There will also be readings by local authors (and others) including myself. If you'd like to take a look at what more the schedule includes, check out this link: Pure Speculation Schedule of Events.
 
I am involved in two events: On Spec and Tyche Books are launching On Spec’s 25^th Anniversary Anthology on Saturday from 1:15 to 2:45 (in the Millenium Falcon Room). If you’re attending, please join us to celebrate 25 years of great stories by great writers, and a great magazine.

The other event is a Saturday night Group Launch I am sharing with my fellow writers Ann Marston, Barb Galler-Smith, Eileen Bell, and Amber Scott. I'm not sure yet of the time or room location, but once I find out, I will update it, here. The website blurb advertising the launch reads as follows:

On Spec editors, Ann, Barb, Eileen, and Susan, along with Guest of Honour, Amber E. Scott, will take us across time and space and show us how magical the world of words can be. And there will be entertainment. We’ve heard rumours that Amber is considering singing show tunes from the 1960s, Eileen has talked about doing a dog bath demonstration to the tune of Jaws, Susan is considering dancing a Bulerias por Fiesta from Jerez, Barb will finally demonstrate her keen ability to mimic the face of a guanaco and the call of a peacock, and Ann will knit a sweater in under 90 seconds while yodeling Carmen.

All right, so we’re pretty sure these are just rumours, and they won’t be doing any of that. But, they will be reading from their latest novels, and there will be door prizes and refreshments for all. Come and listen, relax, and chat among friends.

I will be launching and reading from the second book of my The Tattooed Witch trilogy, The Tattooed Seer (Five Rivers Publishing). Eileen is launching her debut novel, Seeing the Light (Tyche Books), Ann will be reading from her latest novel, King of Shadows (also Five Rivers Publishing), and Barb will read from her last novel in her Druids trilogy, Warriors (Edge Books). I'm not sure what Amber is reading. When I find out, I will also post it here, or maybe we'll just let her surprise us. As well as short readings from each of us, there will be plenty of time for socializing, so if you are attending, please be our guest!

And of course, we will have books for sale. Our covers are featured below:

Hope to see you there!

- Susan.

INTERVIEW - ON SPEC'S SILVER ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY with TYCHE BOOKS

Cover by Herman Lau

THIS SATURDAY (JUNE 14th) at 1:00 PM MST, I'LL BE IN A LIVE GOOGLE+ INTERVIEW with Diane Walton, Managing Editor of On Spec, and Ryah Deines of Tyche Books. (The interview is now featured on YouTube.)  We'll be talking about On Spec's upcoming Silver Anniversary Anthology, soon to be released this summer at When Words Collide in Calgary. The gorgeous cover to the left, created by Herman Lau, features visual elements taken from all twenty-four stories and poems in the collection. For me, some of these stories were new. On Spec purchased them during a time when I took a hiatus from the magazine, so I was thrilled to read them for the first time. As for the others, it's been a joy to read them again, many of which are still my personal favorites. I hope you'll forgive the effusiveness, but this is one terrific anthology. I am proud to be associated with it, with the writers who contributed to it, with my fellow editors, and with Tyche Books. As well as the Table of Contents below, I've included links to the authors' websites, blogs, books, and what-have-yous, so you can see what other great things they're doing. I've also added a line or two to describe each story or poem. Here's the line-up:


Happy Eating on Ugrath 3 by Jason Kapalka (On Management's home planet, the Happy Eating fast food galactic franchise isn't happy with Urgath 3's franchise, anymore.)
Star-Seeing Night (poem) by Alice Major (where the clouds part for one night in the year, so we might see the stars.)
The Reality War by Bob Boyczuk (When her castle drops unexpectedly in the path of a royal road crew, Lady Miranda knows there's no gain without a little pain.) 
Casserole Diplomacy by Fiona Heath (Edna serves up some Newfoundland hospitality to alien newcomers. Her tuna casserole is a big hit everywhere.)
Jubilee by Steven Mills (Reverend Dave witnesses miracles as the Universe grows up.)
No Such Thing as an Ex-Con by Holly Phillips (Emily, a psychic and wrongly accused ex-con, does what she must to solve a murder and make things right.)
Closing Time by Matthew Johnson (Gao must cook for his father's ghost who isn't ready to leave for the afterworld. But what makes for a proper funeral party? The food or the company?) Matthew's story is also featured in his collection Irregular Verbs and Other Stories, to be released June 17th, through ChiZine.
Foster Child by Catherine Macleod (Once forged, Claire finds the bonds of motherhood are never broken.)
More Than Salt by Elaine Chen (Cordelia loves King Lear 'more than salt', a fool comforts an old wino, and despite the tragedy of uncomfortable truths, love endures.)
Where Magic Lives by Sue Bolich (Ray officiates at the funeral of a beloved author and finds the guests are more than he thought.)
The Black Man by A.M Arruin (When the folks of Bergamot View realize they are too 'vanilla' a community, they diversify with interesting results.)
Pizza Night by Laurie Channer (What happens when the pizza delivery box doesn't hold pizza?)
Boys’ Night Out by Rob Hunter (In the gated community of Sur la Mer the wives hide unmentionable things under garden toads.)
Mourning Sickness by Robert Weston (When elephants turn up, grief is evident.)
Sticky Wonder Tales by Hugh Spencer (Two brothers share letters about their contributions to their respective scientific communities, and how it all went wrong.)
Emily’s Shadow by Al Onia (Sandy and Emily rebuild a Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle. In the process, they also build something else.)
The Resident Guest by Sandra Glaze (A receptionist becomes friends with the hotel's resident ghost, only to learn what keeps him there, and what turns him away.)
Come From Aways by Tony Pi (When a linguist encounters what might be a medieval welsh king washed up on Newfoundland's shores, she finds both the past and the future mix.)
Still by Greg Wilson (When Mr. Leaf breaks Still's violin, she can't live with the consequences and runs away. Eventually she finds herself, and helps other puppets find themselves, too.)
Asheville Road by Corey Brown (In a world connected by rail, Devin learns of loss, of death, and what it is to be a railman.)
Buddhist Jet Lag (poem) by Christian McPherson (what happens when living in the 'now' slips a bit....)
A Taste of Time by Scott Overton (For Gabby, the past comes back to life through a little girl and her love of blueberries.)
Penultimate (poem) by F.J. Bergman (why chase eternal youth, when eternity is already yours?)
Pilgrim at the Edge of the World by Sarah Frost (In order to come of age and take his place among his people, Kaainka must journey through desert and danger to reach the site of his ancestors.)

The anthology is set for release this August. If you have some time tomorrow and can tune in to the interview, please join us!

HAPPY 25TH, ON SPEC! AND TO CELEBRATE - A NEW ANTHOLOGY!

I ASKED DIANE WALTON, our Managing Editor and one of On Spec's founding members, to write a guest post about our upcoming anthology. In 2014, we’ll be celebrating our 25^th year of contributing to the speculative fiction scene in Canada. We've been promoting SF and encouraging writers for a quarter of a century! Will there be a party? I think so. Will there be cake? Most definitely! And we hope that when we finally do launch the anthology, you’ll join us. 

On Spec’s First 25 Years by Diane Walton:

It doesn’t seem that long since we were putting together our On Spec: The First 5 Years anthology, and handing it over to Tesseract Books for publication (copies of the anthology can still be purchased from Edge Publishing at this link). At the time we thought we could do this every five years, but something always managed to distract us from that lofty goal. Then, when we saw that magic number '25' looming, Jen reminded me that maybe we should think about celebrating our achievement.

  

We'd chatted amongst ourselves about maybe publishing an e-book, but the project sat on the back burner for years. Then one weekend last fall, we found ourselves sharing a dealer table with Margaret Curelas, Acquisitions Editor of Tyche Books. Tyche is a new kid on the block . It has a business model we admire, and some production and circulation ideas we shamelessly plan to steal. 

Margaret made us an offer we couldn’t refuse. 

So now, we face the daunting task of reading through 25 years’ worth of  issues—I can’t even begin to calculate how many stories that comes to—and selecting fifty or so Tales of the Fantastic that best represent our magical journey from that silly plan hatched over a bottle of wine in Marianne’s living room, to where we are now. 

I am having a blast! I’ve been sitting in my loft office for the past few weekends, pulling one issue after the other from the shelf, admiring the stunning cover art, gazing at the Table of Contents, reading the openings of stories I’d forgotten we had, smiling when I recognized a story I haven’t seen in fifteen years or more, and then writing down the most memorable title or titles from each issue. I also keep notes to indicate if we know where the author is in the universe (sadly a couple of my favourite writers have passed on; I doubt if we’ll be able to contact their estates), and if they are easy to find. 

When Tyche announced the contract had been signed with On Spec for the new anthology, we asked them to mention to authors with whom we've lost touch, to drop us a line with their current contact information (two of them already have, and I found another through the powers of Google). 

Once we editors have compiled our long wish lists, we’ll get together and compare notes to decide which stories we ultimately want. Then we’ll write to the authors to give them a heads-up in order to determine their level of interest in having their story in the anthology. Tyche will handle the contracts and we’ll compile the manuscripts. At the moment, the logistics boggle my mind, but I’m sure we will prevail. 

All in all, this is a very exciting project and one I look forward to, because it will bring so many excellent Tales of the Fantastic to a new audience. It’s like attending a class reunion and seeing old friends. And we’ll be sure to drink a toast to the ones who have left us along the way. 

(Thanks, Diane. I couldn't have said it better.)

Next Post: The ABC's of How NOT to Write Speculative Fiction - 'A' is also for...Can You Spot the Error?

Stay tuned.