All About Them Books

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Sable Aradia

Thanks to my friends Char Deuling and Casey Wolf for tagging me in this one!

(Incidentally, I’m a writer and I work in a bookstore. Just sayin’.)

When to give up on a story

Posted on May 27, 2015 by Sable Aradia

Cover of the latest issue of Clarkesworld, a sf short story magazine I highly recommend.

I’ve been reading a lot of science fiction short stories lately. Many have been excellent. But some have not been my cup of tea. I’ve run into a fair amount of melancholic ambiance pieces where nothing much happens. But the stories I tend to enjoy have action, dialog, or at least a steady stream of concrete information.

As I’ve been going through the stories, I’m noticing an increasing willingness on my part to abandon a story before the end. This is part of an overall trend I’ve noticed over the years where, compared to when I was younger, I’m much more willing to abandon a novel or even non-fiction book if it’s not working for me.

Recently, John Scalzi, discussing his reading for Hugo award voting, urged anyone who would be voting to actually read all of the nominated stories…

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New Ways to Get On Spec

Posted on May 6, 2015 by Sable Aradia

onspecmag

In our constant search for ways to remove impediments between our desire to sell you an amazing magazine, and your desire to buy said amazing magazine, I’m happy to announce two new methods for acquiring both digital and hard copies of On Spec. Both have been added to the subscription page, but here’s the details:

Kobo – We’ve teamed up with Kobo to offer both digital subscriptions and single issues of On Spec. The single issues go all the way back to 2009, so that is plenty of stories for you to catch up on. Plans are in motion to expand our offering of back-issues as well, so you may see more issues offered as time goes on.

Variant Edition – Edmonton has a brand new comic store, Variant Edition! Besides carrying an amazing array of comics, VE has made the sage choice to not only carry hard copies…