Editor Dale Wise writes to tell us about his “new speculative fiction magazine, Specutopia. It is a bi-monthly web/e-zine, and the first issue was launched earlier this month.”
Answering the question of “why start another speculative fiction ‘zine?” in his editorial, Wise writes a two-prong answer: “First, seeing how many stories are submitted to all the speculative fiction markets every month, and how few spaces there are for published stories, indicates that there are a large number of excellent pieces not being published. Even with the number of markets constantly expanding, there still exists ample opportunity for publishing high-quality short fiction.
“Second, there seems to have developed somewhat of a homogeneity in the publishing environment. Many new, smaller markets appear to try to emulate what the larger, more established markets are already doing. Also, many publishing and submission guidelines seem to have created stagnation in the types and forms of stories being published. The artistry of writing can get pushed to the wayside in favor of a perception of what is more broadly marketable or ‘correct’ when it comes to genre fiction. Some guidelines appear to have morphed into commandments about what is publishable or not. We hope to provide skillful, creative authors a market for stories that perhaps don’t fit into these somewhat arbitrary, checklist guidelines, and provide readers with some stories they may not come across in other publications.”
The ‘zine is available in a variety of electronic formats for $3.49, and they’ll be making one story per month available for free on the web site. For writers, they’re paying one cent per word (see the guidelines on this page.
The first issue’s table of contents includes:
Note from the Editor by Dale Wise
“Hollow Spaces” by Greg Mellor
“Death of the World’s Greatest Detective” by James Beamon
“Hoodoo” by D. Thomas Minton
“Water Child” by Jennifer Mason-Black
“Entangled” by Rachael Acks
“Never Idle” by David Steffen
“Solitude, Quietude, Vastitude” by Jetse de Vries