The winter issue of “Other Worldly News” from the Speculative Fiction Writers of the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers, is now available online. Access is free and contains news about members of the group, speculative fiction writers and books, and opportunities for writers and readers. Follow along with members who publish in many of the speculative fiction sub-genres including: science fiction, fantasy, horror, dystopian, weird west, fairy tales and more. Visit https://specficwriters.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/CAMPAIGN_168.pdf to read the issue and sign up to get it regularly.
Highlights include:
- Meet Our Member: Lynde Iozzo teaches at-risk youth in an alternative high school. A teacher 17 years but a writer since childhood, for her reading and writing were escapes from troubles at school and elsewhere. “In your head, you know there’s a better world” where she could envision that improvement.
- Four Steps to Revising My Opening with a Critiki Bar Hangover: Paul Martz introduces us to an overview of a productive critique session combined with cocktails.
- Well-Loved Bits: Books, Videos—the Rings of Power from The Lord of the Rings: Kayelle Allen reviews a video that’s part of a popular series and widely available.
- Flash Fiction, “A Diabolical Memory”: A special holiday gift for spec fic enthusiasts by Fred Lanigan.
What is “speculative fiction,” or spec fic for the shorthand. It’s a genre of writing in which the setting is other than the real world, involving supernatural, futuristic, or other imagined elements. It changes the laws of what’s real or possible as we know them in our current society, and then speculates on the outcome.
Readers’ Corner, July 2022, Give Something Away Day, like a favorite book to spread the joy? Ideas–The Poisonwood Bible, by Barbara Kingsolver, chock full of history, questions of culture and heritage, and religion, set in hot-spot Belgian Congo in the 60s, a well-meaning religious-fanatic pits himself against his four daughters, the locals, even Africa. Another popular book with religious and philosophical overtones, Breakfast With Buddha by Roland Merullo, matches a self-satisfied yet questioning intellectual with a soulful seeker after good, wearing long kasaya robes. On a meandering trip across the country, the two manage to build a supportive relationship. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen’s 2007 best-seller tells of a young veterinary student whose dreams are crushed by the Great Depression. Homeless and penniless, Jacob joins a shabby traveling circus, becoming involved with the crew and performers. See https://www.myprimetimenews.com/category/books/ #womenreaders #womenfiction #bookreview #seniors #Coauthor #readerscorner
ANOTHER NEW SHORT STORY PUBLICATION: My flash fiction, “King of the Class”, about young love gone right, appears in a July issue of Every Day Fiction. You are invited to read it. Please comment if you wish. See https://everydayfiction.com/king-of-the-class-by-Bonnie-McCune.
NEW SHORT STORY PUBLICATION: “The Girl Who Loves the Boy Who Loves the Girl Who Plays the Cello,” describing the circuitous path romance can take, has been published by The Sunlight Press. Feel free to enjoy and leave comments. https://www.thesunlightpress.com/2021/05/20/the-girl-who-loves-the-boy-who-loves-the-girl-who-plays-the-cello/
SHORT STORY PUBLICATION: My speculative fiction short story, “Final Report from the Land of Red-Headed Children,” was published late last year by a new local publishing house, Third Flatiron. The anthology, Things With Feathers: Stories of Hope, features 24 stories that range from future science fiction to ancient myth to mysterious bird lore, all demonstrating different speculative takes on hope. See https://thirdflatiron.com/2021_TF_WP/?page_id=11
Bonnie McCune, author 