We just published another wonderful issue of Electric Spec! We were pleased to present: "Coffee with a Repentant Ghost" by Maureen Bowden--It's hard to let go of your best friend, especially when they keep showing up for coffee. "Whispers in the Wind" by Jess L Freed-- Being the chosen avatar of the wind only ever ends in tragedy. Is it possible to change fate? "I Am Your Demise" by Clifford Piel--Is death a mystery, or a puzzle that can be solved? "Meat Flower" by Ian Keith--Tom has a horrible affliction, but he can't see it, and nobody will tell him what it is. Until... "The Tank and the Gr ..read more

The fabulous November 2023 issue of Electric Spec is live! Thank you, authors! Thank you to our artist! Thank you to the whole Electric Spec team! Thank you, readers! We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did ..read more

We are excited to announce one of our featured stories in the awesome November 2023 Electric Spec is "I Am Your Demise" by Clifford Piel. Clifford was kind enough to send us some comments about the story: The idea of this story was taken from a dream my father-in-law had before he passed away in 2009. The premise of his dream revolved around a jigsaw puzzle that kept changing, but other details of his dream were murky. He had told my wife’s sister that the dream had haunted him so she thought the concept would be a good springboard for a story. I allowed it to stew in my head for a few months ..read more

We are excited to announce one of our featured stories in the awesome November 2023 Electric Spec is "Coffee with a Repentant Ghost" by Maureen Bowden. Maureen was kind enough to send us some comments about the story: I belong to a little circle of writers. We discuss and critique each other’s work, as well as chatting about life, the universe and everything. We constantly put the world to rights but unfortunately the world won’t listen. We also take turns in setting a writing challenge every month. A recent one was to write about meeting a ghost for coffee. It inspired my story, ‘Coffee with ..read more

Phew! The Electric Spec Editors managed to get through the slush pile before the November issue production meeting. Thank you for all your submissions! We appreciate it! There were many excellent stories to choose from. We had a spooky Halloween-influenced meeting. There was a Covid-19 scare. Boo! There were a lot of spooky horror stories among the finalists. Boo! Consequently, we had to discuss a lot of spookiness. Boo! Authors whose stories didn't quite fit the issue should have been contacted by now. (Check your spam or junk folder.) Authors whose stories did fit the issue are being contact ..read more

The Electric Spec editors are hard at work reading lots and lots of slush stories. (Thank you for submitting!) We have about a week left until our deadline, so let's just say there's been a lot of reading. Perhaps that makes me a little less diplomatic than I might otherwise be. Here's a few behind the scenes insights into some slush decisions... I just don't have the stomach right now for stories with brutality and/or terrorism. These are getting a pass. It's unfair, but sometimes real-life interferes with objectivity. Loooong stories (more than 6,000) words are a lot of work for editors, so ..read more

The submission deadline for the awesome November 2023 issue of Electric Spec has passed. (But we are accepting submisisons for the February 2024 issue.) We editors are very busy getting through lots and lots of slush. We appreaciate all your submisisons. Thank you! All the editors love reading fiction and sincerely want authors to succeed. We want to share lovely stories with readers! If you submitted, good luck to you! As a consequence of all this, we editors have a lot to read right now. This is both wonderful and challenging. I have some advice for potential Electric Spec authors... Please ..read more

The submission deadline for the November 2023 issue of Electric Spec is fast approaching: October 15! Get those stories in! For some reason, we seem to get a lot of spooky, horror, and similar stories in October. Okay, I guess it's not a total mystery why we get them: it's Halloween season! Personally, I enjoy a good halloween story very much. :) But since the November issue comes out at the end of November, Halloween season is long gone by the time we publish. Of course, we do accept macabre/horror fiction all year... Make sure it's sufficiently general. Trying to submit seasonal stories does ..read more

The submission deadline for the awesome November 2023 issue of Electric Spec is October 15, 2023. Wow! That's coming up soon. Get those stories in! We are working hard reading the slush pile already. Psst! I've got a secret to tell you: editors don't always read the whole story. We know authors don't like this idea. It seems unfair, right? It is unfair. Unfortunately, with hundreds of submissions for each issue, we just don't have time to read all of all the stories. :( Of course, some editors are more likely to read more of a story than other editors. And some markets read more than other mar ..read more

Some pundits say short story first lines are crucial. I say they're fun to look at. Here are the first lines from our awesome August Electric Spec stories: The last of my buy-out pay got me as far as Utross IV. Gary and I fight, and afterward, I go shopping. A giant eyeball opens in Michelle's living room floor. I am walking in the city at night. Of all the apothecaries in all the neighborhoods in San Francisco, he has to walk into mine. They dropped anchor just after dawn. Can you identify the story from the first sentence? Do you think first sentences are crucial? Talk amongst yourselves ..read more