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On Spec Magazine #130 Vol. 34 No. 4 (magazine review).

‘On Spec’ is a Canadian magazine of speculative fiction. Diane L. Walton’s opening editorial discusses how difficult it is to keep ‘On Spec’ going and thanks subscribers, contributors, and sponsors for their support, which is fair enough. Similar to poetry, a few eccentric practitioners and fans keep short fiction alive as an out-of-date hobby. Outside of a few lucrative film franchises and some bestsellers, long fiction may soon go the same way. Meanwhile, here are some stories.

‘Stone Tablets’ by Kevin Cockle is about Professor Seth Kendall, an eccentric genius funded by Wallis and Associates Venture Capital to do pure research, usually involving obscure mathematics that turns out to have real-world applications. Studying Muhammad Ali fighting Zora Folley, he analyses the timing and comes up with a formula that has far-reaching consequences. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand it.

‘We Invited The Harbingers To Dinner’ by Sarah Totton is an amusing short piece about a suburban dinner party.

“Raofin’s Daughter” by J.A. Legg is set in the city of Chattogram in Bangladesh, where Raofin Khan’s daughter vanishes while crossing the road, and he’s convinced she has been taken by a jinn. This effectively conveys the panic of parents when a child goes missing.

A magical fair appears in the piazza of a Sicilian town once every seven years. To enter it, you must climb the statue of Neptune, wait for the bells to finish tolling, and jump into the fountain. To leave the fair and return to our world, bargain with a vendor. In ‘La Fiera di Mezzanote’ by Hava Steinmetz-Cumbo, Signora Leandra Amara Vitale must somehow get to the other world in search of her lost little brother.

‘Shambolic Manor’ by Cat Girczyc is about a student house haunted by the ghost of a 60s hippy girl. Terese L’Infer is the rental agent for Parallax Property Management, and she has to deal with the problem. She does.

Housewife Mary is a bit put out when a heating engineer wants access to her husband’s basement workshop in Toll of the Tides by Tom Brennan. Kyle is in management now but used to be a saturation driver on the oil rigs near Aberdeen. Mary discovers her forgotten past.

‘A Ballad In Ten Acts’ by Pascal Raud & Paul Cote, translated from the original French, is about a little girl named Viviane who goes on a rampage with her magical powers, convinced that cars are evil. Her mother and her fairy godmother must try to restore normality to her and the world.

‘Carol Of The Hells’ by Mike Rimar is an update of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol.’ The ghost of Mister Fezziwig, his first employer, visits Scrooge, a kindly old man now, reminding him of his past sins. Will Scrooge face the same fate as his old partner Marley, wandering the Earth shackled with long chains? This is a clever update of the classic story that gave us our modern Christmas.

This issue also features an interview with Hava Syteinmetz-Cumbo by Roberta Laurie and poetry by Tara Campbell (‘The Snarling Stars’), Shantell Powell (‘Angakkuq’), Crystal Sidell (‘Under A Strawberry Moon’ and ‘What We Cultivate Will Love Us’), and E.J. Delaney (‘At The Death, A Moon Daisy Plucked In Sijo’). The excellent cover, ‘Dragon Reader,’ is by Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk.

On Spec is always worth a look. Try it and see what you think.

Eamonn Murphy

January 2025

(pub: The Copper Pig Writers Society, 2025. Ebook: 144 pages. Price: $ 4.99 (CAN). ePub: $4.99 (CAN). Hardcopy available in January)

check out websites: https://onspec.ca/2024/12/05/on-spec-issue-130/ and   https://weightlessbooks.com/on-spec-magazine-130-vol-34-no-4/

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