This is the big week! The Kickstarter to fund a new anthology of Canadian science fiction and fantasy that carries on the On Spec brand launches Tuesday!
Here’s the “back story”:
In 1989, a small group of Edmonton writers formed The Copper Pig Writers Society in order to fill a niche in Canada: a paying market for English science fiction and fantasy. The result was On Spec Magazine, which put out 134 issues over the ensuing quarter-century.
The magazine published its last issue in December 2025, but the brand and the vision will continue in this new anthology of science fiction and fantasy from authors who are either Canadian citizens or reside in Canada, if this Kickstarter succeeds. Launch time is Tuesday, March 17, at 12 noon Eastern. Follow to be notified!
On Spec: New Canadian Literature of the Fantastic will be edited by me, Edward Willett, an Aurora Award-winning author and podcaster. It will be published by Shadowpaw Press (obviously, or why would I be telling you about it here?).
The goal is for the thirty-day campaign is $10,000. Backers’ rewards include everything from signed print books to ebooks to artwork to story critiques, kaffeeklatshches (online chats with authors), and Tuckerizations (your name used for a story character!).
Featured authors include such Canadian speculative fiction luminaries as Candas Jane Dorsey, Marcelle Dubé, Michèle Laframboise, Fiona Moore, Douglas Smith, Hayden Trenholm, and Liz Westbrook-Trenholm.
The cover art (which you can see below) is by Calgary artist James Beveridge, who has created many covers for On Spec Magazine, and the interior will include, as is On Spec tradition, a cartoon by Lynne Fahnestalk.
Additional stories will come from an open call for submissions, open to Canadian citizens and residents, which will be launched as soon as the Kickstarter funds. If you’re a backer, you’ll hear about it first!
The goal is to complete the anthology and have it ready for launch at Can*Con: Ottawa’s Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Convention in October. The book will be distributed widely in both print and ebook formats.
(Don’t worry—I’ll be reminding you after launch!)
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