I’ve decided to give my column a name after more than a decade. Welcome to Steve’s Stuff!
I came to Edmonton in 1985, married to a Canadian woman. In the U.S. I’d started a fan group and a writers’ group as well as a local fan convention. Edmonton already had a fan group and a convention shared with Calgary—Noncon, which I’d attended, once as Fan GoH. And Marianne Nielsen, my then wife, was part of a writing group called The Copper Pig Writers’ Society. Diane Walton, the last editor of On Spec the magazine, says that those members had to put a loonie in the pig if they failed to bring new or promised writing into their meetings. I stayed well away so as not to interfere with my wife’s writing group and started my own.
But the Copper Pig Writers’ Society was much more ambitious than my own writing group—they published a pro SF/F magazine (a small “pro” rather than a big Pro like Asimov’s, Analog, or F&SF). An all-Canadian magazine! According to Diane, “the original members were Marianne Nielsen, myself [Diane Walton], Jena Snyder (who was roped into it because she had desktop publishing experience, and did production as well as editorial work, and took over the management jobs when Marianne left), Hazel Sangster, Barry Hammond, Lyle Weis (joined with our second issue), Karen Grant (owner of the actual copper pig), Phyllis Schuell, Susan MacGregor (joined with our Youth Issue), Tim Hammell (art).”
Furthermore, they had a professional Editorial Advisory Board, consisting of Doug Barbour, J. Brian Clarke, Candas Jane Dorsey, Pauline Gedge and Monica Hughes, all well known in Canadian SF/F circles as writers and/or poets. The first issue, (published with help from various grants both Provincial and Canada Council for the Arts, I believe) was Spring of 1989. They held to a consistent schedule, and as various members came and went, Diane took over in about 2000. Her tenure as Managing Editor ended in December 2025 with the last magazine issue. That was one heck of a 35-year project!
But On Spec was too well-liked to die that easily. Thanks to Edward Willett and (IIRC) crowdfunding, On Spec will be (as far as I know) an annual issue, still limited to, and spotlighting, the writing and art of Canadians, and edited by Edward Willett. This is a review of the first of those, titled On Spec 2026!
This first annual issue contains 27 stories, an editorial/introduction, and a cartoon and “bot” photo by Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk, just as a regular issue would—only much longer! The stories are a mix of science fiction and fantasy, both serious and seriocomic. These stories are generally well written, speaking as both reader and writer of the same stuff, although one or two are not to my taste. That, of course, will be true in any anthology-type book or periodical, but I can say that this shows a pretty high level of writing, auguring well for Canadian genre writing. Several of these stories come off, to me, as also particularly Canadian, in that a non-Canadian would likely not have written them.
A few that I particularly liked and that I think would stand out in any collection of genre fantasy, Canadian or otherwise, include Candas Jane Dorsey’s fantasy “Usual Journey,” which to me was almost a verbal equivalent of a tone poem. (Don’t ask me to explain that.) Another was “Cans of Worm” by Michèle Laframboise, which was far-future pure science fiction and, as usual for her, extremely well written. And those are only two of the twenty-seven stories!
Without going into too much detail about every story, and in order to keep this column from being “Too Long, Didn’t Read,”as they say, I can mention “Web Weave,” by Fiona Moore, which is what I’d call science fantasy; it starts out as a near-future story about an online web designer but changes into what might seem a fantasy, or perhaps slightly more extrapolation than usual. There are stories here involving bowling (Rhea Rose’s “Ghostlane”), about survival on an alien world (Liz Westbrook-Trenholm’s “What Befalls the Beast”). There’s an hilarious tale about British schoolboys in “A Natural History of the Victorian Schoolboy” by Sarah Totton, and a more serious one about Sir Isaac Newton in Mike Rimar’s “Catherine’s Wheel,” and Noah Chinn’s “Scorch,” about how a neuro-divergent girl saves history.
There is so much more here that I could tell you about, but you should probably go get your own copy and discover the depth and breadth of Canadian genre writing! I recommend this book/periodical highly.
NOTE: This column is in no way written, edited, proofed or composed by AI, though some of my photo editing software uses it in some capacity. This is a human column and will remain so.
I really want to hear what you think about this column. I’m on Facebook, or you could email me (stevefah at hotmail dot com). Let me know even if you hated it. My opinion is, as always, my own, and doesn’t necessarily reflect the views of Amazing Stories or its owner, editor, publisher or other columnists. See you next time!
Steve has been an active fan since the 1970s, when he founded the Palouse Empire Science Fiction Association (PESFA) and the more-or-less late MosCon in Pullman, WA and Moscow, ID, though he started reading SF/F in the early-to-mid 1950s, when he was just a sprat. He moved to Canada in 1985 and quickly became involved with chairing or helping run Canadian cons, including ConText (’89 and ’81) and VCON. As a fan, he’s published a Hugo-nominated (one nomination) fanzine, New Venture, and he’s founded two writing groups (Writers’ Bloc and Writers of the Lost, Ink). He’s emceed and auctioned art at many West Coast and Northwest conventions including one Westercon. As a writer, he’s published a couple of books and a number of short stories (including one in Compostella [Tesseracts 20], and has collaborated with his two-time Aurora-winning wife Lynne Taylor Fahnestalk on a number of art projects. As of this writing he’s the proofreader for R. Graeme Cameron’s Polar Borealis and Rhea Rose’s Polar Starlight publications. He’s been writing for Amazing Stories off and on since the early 1980s. His column can be found on Amazing Stories most Fridays.
