Profile avatar
onspecmag.bsky.social
Canadian journal of Literature of the Fantastic
134 posts 3,127 followers 771 following
Prolific Poster
Conversation Starter

Looks like the link did not work for the Amazing Stories Clubhouse review. You can follow it if you go to our newest blog post at onspec.ca

New review up @onspecmag.bsky.social @noahchinnbooks.com Lost Lives, Book 3 of the Get Lost Saga. Really excellent #SF. onspec.ca/book-reviews...

On Spec has a Ko-fi account where you can pick up one (or more) of our recent issues to check us out. It's a great way for all our followers to show their support for what we are doing to publish new short speculative fiction and poetry. ko-fi.com/onspecmagazine

"Thanks" to Am*zon, we've added a "new" "feature"! In addition to never using DRM to ensure you don't own the ebooks you buy AND never selling AI-generated chum disguised as literature, NOW Weightless will never, ever use AI to "summarize" aka ruin the 100% human-made art you came here to enjoy!

We are chuffed that @wilwheaton.net picked a fabulous story by @cscott-author.bsky.social for his podcast. It’s a great plan to bring the smaller magazines to the attention of the readers!

So thrilled Year’s Best Canadian F&SF: Vol 2 is an Aurora Award nominee! It's especially meaningful THIS year. One great joy of doing this antho has been meeting and getting to know so many Canadian SFF writers, and its great to see so many familiar names on the ballot--congrats, all!

The 2025 Aurora ballot is live! Check out the finalists for each category here: www.csffa.ca/awards-infor...

On Spec is on the final ballot for this year’s Aurora Awards!

Have you noticed how many On Spec back issues can be bought for a mere 99 cents? @weightlessbooks.bsky.social has a wide selection of our older issues just waiting for you to press that “purchase” button. Thanks for your support!

April issues of @lightspeedmagazine.com, @nightmare-magazine.com, The Dark, @locusmag.bsky.social, @flashfictiononline.bsky.social, @onspecmag.bsky.social, @lunastation.bsky.social, @apexmag.bsky.social and @smallwondersmag.com are here! weightlessbooks.com/2025/4/

Our newest issue is available for purchase! Www.onspec.ca

New #bookreview up @onspecmag.bsky.social Last Dance at the Kitten Club, by @noahchinnbooks.com onspec.ca/book-reviews...

If you watch Wil Wheaton’s trailer, you will understand why we are doing the happy dance. Just learned from the author that one of our stories will be read by Wil on his new podcast! We can reveal this as soon as we know.

I am so excited to announce It's Storytime with Wil Wheaton, my new podcast. Our first episode drops on March 26th and is available wherever you get your podcasts.

So happy to report that @drfionamoore.bsky.social , a frequent contributor to On Spec, is shortlisted in FOUR categories for the BSFA Awards! Well-deserved!

Welcome new followers! Our new issue will soon be available. Stories from Chadwick Gunther, Kelsey Hutton, Hugh A.D. Spencer, Danica Klewchuk, Brian D. Hinson, and others.

Check out my #shortfiction @metastellar.bsky.social "A Bear at the Fridge". Sometimes spirit guides aren't easy. www.metastellar.com/fiction/a-be...

Heck of a deal to read some classic On Spec and see what we’re all about!

Just a reminder that if “Buy Canadian Products” is high on your To Do list, here we are, right in front of you!

Great post from @rollwithheather.bsky.social on indie bookshops in Canada. All of them now in my #StarterPack.

I concede that on one level the ‘Gulf of America’ idiocy is just a toddler screaming in his sandbox. On another, I wrote a novel 35 years ago, TIGANA, about how tyrants erase (or try to) names, history, art to consolidate their control of people. So, it matters. Symbols do. So does acquiescence.

We certainly appreciate the number of new followers. Did you know that if each of you were to purchase one issue from our Ko-fi page we’d be able to continue publishing for another year or more? Just look for ko-fi.com/onspecmagazine

Get your Canadian novel fix right here with our #canadianwriters #starterpack. Did we miss you or your favourite Canadian author? Give us a shout! #writers #writingcommunity #canlit #booksky #IReadCanadian go.bsky.app/TdLZDjo

If you would like to support diverse Canadian books, consider donating to @thefoldcanada.bsky.social. Or attend their upcoming festival, which always has a virtual component for accessibility! 💙📚

Canadian SFF writers! Our submission period ends soon. Don’t wait until the last minute!

Lovely review from Alex Brown at Punk-Ass Book Jockey (and reviewer for Reactor): "This is a great anthology with a ton of stories from a wide variety of authors. There’s something for everyone here, including poetry...If you’re looking to broaden your reading you can hardly go wrong here."

If you are Canadian, and a SFF fan, you can spend $10 and vote for the Aurora Awards. Csffa.ca

If you are having trouble registering to submit new work to On Spec, send us an email [email protected] and we can add you while the problem is being investigated.

Onspec.ca open to new submissions today!

News at onspec.ca with a new issue ready to download!

There’s a new blog post at onspec.ca in which your editor reminisces about a story from Christmas past. If you subscribe to get new posts, you can see this and also our next submission announcement in your email.

People ask when we will open to submissions. Probably early in 2025. With a slight change. This round of submissions will consider stories and poems written by Canadians only. While we’ve found wonderful work by non-Canadians, we need to return to our roots.

The offer is still available. Just sayin’

By the way if you are interested in getting a taste of On Spec, we recommend “Casserole Diplomacy and Other Stories”, an anthology of editor favourites published by @tychebooks.bsky.social .

On Spec #129 is currently available in both print and digital. Canada’s postal worker dispute means we can’t mail copies, but you can still buy it through @weightlessbooks.bsky.social . Stories from @julieczerneda.bsky.social , @drfionamoore.bsky.social , @alexlanger1993.bsky.social and others.

Ellen Datlow has released her Recommended List of works from 2023 that deserved mention alongside her new Years Best Horror anthology. Pleased to see that On Spec is represented by Cale Plett and KT Wagner for their stories “The Other Half” and “Frozen Charlotte”, both in issue #127! Well done!

If you like #horror, @datlow.bsky.social's annual year's best is a must read. She scours every piece of short fiction in magazines and anthologies, and selects the best. If you're an aspiring #writer, reading a year's best will show you the cutting edge of the field in one quick volume!

Just launched my latest project. You can probably guess the inspiration, but read all about it at igg.me/at/protest2025.

We don’t know how long the postal disruption in Canada will take to settle. If you start an On Spec subscription for yourself or a friend, we will send a digital copy of the current issue until we can mail out the paper copies.