#OnSpec
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weightlessbooks.bsky.social
Since @onspecmag.bsky.social is closing up shop next month, its publishers have reduced prices on all 100+ back issues of OnSpec to just 99 cents! weightlessbooks.com/category/pub...
Cover art for OnSpec #91, featuring a young astronaut in front of a rocket, rendered in 19th century portrait style Cover art for OnSpec #100, featuring a green tentacle alien trying to break into an apartment in a floating city Cover art for OnSpec #116, featuring a blue dragon sitting on a frozen stone perch Cover art for OnSpec #97, featuring a spaceship approaching an enormous concentric space station
November 18, 2025 at 6:54 PM
timfordwrites.bsky.social
The OnSpec Kickstarter is a little under $1500 short of its goal with 12 days to go.

Can we get a repost for fans of Canadian-made SciFi to support a small press?

@charliejane.bsky.social
@annaleen.bsky.social
@doctorow.pluralistic.net
@nikostratis.com
@premeemohamed.com
@peterbcounter.com
onspecmag.bsky.social On Spec Magazine @onspecmag.bsky.social · Mar 19
Visit onspec.ca for the link to the Shadowpaw Press On Spec Anthology Kickstarter! The magazine has stopped but the name can carry on. Plus you can buy back issues.
April 3, 2026 at 4:28 PM
jedlooker.bsky.social
My first sale! “The Superposition of Ramen” is featured in the current issue of OnSpec magazine. @onspecmag.bsky.social
October 22, 2025 at 1:09 PM
renanbernardo.com
Happy to announce that my flash fiction shaped like a professional exam, "Five Questions for the Monthly Routine Check of FTL Drive Chief Operators", will be reprinted at Archive of the Odd early next year! 🚀

It first appeared at OnSpec Magazine.
July 29, 2024 at 1:03 PM
weightlessbooks.bsky.social
New issue of @onspecmag.bsky.social is here! weightlessbooks.com/on-spec-maga...
OnSpec #128 cover featuring whale-like spaceships passing a red planet with a Greek looking face carved in it
June 27, 2024 at 9:23 AM
renanbernardo.com
The reprint of my story with the longest title is now out at @archiveoftheodd.bsky.social #5! Five Questions for Monthly Routine Check of FTL Drive Chief Operators is a story told in the form of a professional exam. Can you operate a FTL vessel and go back home?

Originally pub in OnSpec Magazine.
March 15, 2025 at 1:03 PM
paulajohanson.bsky.social
But hey! Ed Willett of Shadowpaw Press is committed to an OnSpec anthology, and if it succeeds to doing an annual edition.
November 10, 2025 at 11:18 PM
onspecmag.bsky.social
If you go to onspec(dot)ca and send us a note through our Contact Us page, we might just send you a link to get a sample issue of On Spec.
August 27, 2024 at 10:37 PM
mfwestphal.bsky.social
Will always be grateful to OnSpec for publishing my first story!
hugobookclub.bsky.social An Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog @hugobookclub.bsky.social · Nov 15
Really great article about @onspecmag.bsky.social in Canada's national broadcaster's website today.

Please consider nominating On Spec for a Semiprozine Hugo Award in 2026, as well as Dinana Walton for Best Editor short form.

They have done so much good for the genre.

www.cbc.ca/arts/on-spec...
Canada’s premier speculative fiction magazine calls it a day after 35 years | CBC Arts
Edmonton-based On Spec, which showcased authors like Julie E. Czerneda, Tony Pi and a young Cory Doctorow, will publish its final issue in December
www.cbc.ca
November 15, 2025 at 4:45 PM
weightlessbooks.bsky.social
New issue of @onspecmag.bsky.social is here! weightlessbooks.com/on-spec-maga...
ONSPEC #129 cover art by James Beveridge featuring a huge mechanical orca leaping from the waves above a square-rigged sailing ship amid seagulls
September 23, 2024 at 5:12 PM
superactionfunboy.bsky.social
Waaay back machine. Oil paints/pre-digital. #art (reposting because I forgot the $#@ alt text :) )
oil painted cover illustration for Canadian SF magazine, Onspec. A girl in an elevator opening a gold box, releasing a claustrophobic torrent of colorful fish
July 28, 2023 at 3:46 PM
sffreview.bsky.social
It's always tough to see a beloved magazine like On Spec come to an end. 💔 Thank you, Diane Walton, for your amazing contributions! Let's keep celebrating SFF! 🌌✨ #SFF #OnSpec #ThankYou
weightlessbooks.bsky.social Weightless Books @weightlessbooks.bsky.social · Oct 10
ICYMI, On Spec, the long-running Canadian SFF magazine, will be closing its doors in December after managing editor Diane Walton steps down :(
drfionamoore.bsky.social Fiona Moore (Management Lessons from The Lord of the Rings) @drfionamoore.bsky.social · Oct 10
Gutted about On Spec. They were my first publishing venue that wasn't a school magazine/university magazine/teens' writing competition, and the editing there was always friendly, helpful and supportive.

onspec.ca/2025/10/09/t...
October 10, 2025 at 5:56 PM
superactionfunboy.bsky.social
This is kinda funny! Found some old artwork on a CD my father burnt for me. Work is kinda late 80s early 90s? Woah, I was wound tight back in the day…
A black and white ink illustration of two aliens humanoids, back to back, staring tensely at a giant slug crawling across the window of their spacecraft. Unseen by them is the other end of the creature entering the spaceship behind them. An interior illustration for #onspec magazine for a short story. 3 inked panels. One featuring a werewolf head in the shadows. The other featuring a couple walking with arms linked, the woman appears nervous. The final panel features a woman in a bus seat, over shadowed by a sinister figure, head unseen. A Frankenstein monster like creature carries an unconscious woman. They stand in front of a large moon and an overly complicated, Frazetta esque tree Primitive alien man runs from an alien dinosaur. He carries a bow, and a few arrows can be seen stuck in the creatures neck. More overly detailed plant life
August 25, 2025 at 4:53 PM
noahchinnbooks.com
A while back I had talked a Science Fiction anthology being put out by On Spec, and I even contributed a short story to it, which I’m happy to say was accepted!

www.noahchinnbooks.c...

#shortstory #anthology #onspec #books #fantasy #noahchinnbooks #magazine #scifi #sf #sff
July 3, 2026 at 4:56 PM
gossjam.bsky.social
Pixley partially lifts the lid. There's no full guide to the madness, but he connects the dots of Prison in Space transforming Robert Holmes from onspec submission to writer in residence by Jon Pertwee's first season.
February 8, 2025 at 2:26 PM
travelinbrian.bsky.social
The latest OnSpec Magazine was released today with my short story, "Jukebox Cellist." onspec.ca/2025/03/30/o...
The cover of the latest issue of OnSpec. Three figures (one with a hook for a hand) peer into a red, opening door, revealing..not sure. Kinda crazy but very cool.
March 31, 2025 at 2:59 AM
aliennextdoor.bsky.social
"Provoking, illuminating, and exactly what good literary fiction should engender...the quality of the writing from this enclave of writers is quite remarkable"-- #OnSpec review of #ThroughThePortal anthology of #hopefuldystopia #ecofiction #bookreview ...
February 22, 2025 at 11:24 PM
rhondaparrish.bsky.social
Niteblade was active 13 years ago, and that was an SFF magazine in Canada.

I'm not saying it had the same impact on the landscape that OnSpec did, but it existed.
October 10, 2025 at 8:46 PM
edmontonin2030.bsky.social
The convention drew more than 30 notable Canadian sf authors, editors, and publishers as well as sf fans from across Canada. On Spec, the Canadian Magazine of the Fantastic, launched its first issue at ConText’89.
The cover of the first issue of OnSpec magazine, Canada’s first English-language paying publication for speculative fiction
January 27, 2026 at 4:54 PM
paulajohanson.bsky.social
My first pro sale was to OnSpec #2!
Cath Jackel says she soon learned something important about phoning writers: say their stories had sold and quickly move the phone away from her ear while they screeched YAHOO!
July 24, 2026 at 6:09 AM
noahchinnbooks.com
On Spec was a magazine I really wanted to break into back when I was starting out. If you love SF and want to support up and coming writers, toss a few coins to this Canuck Witcher, would ya?
www.kickstarter.com/...

#sciencefiction #scifi #sf #onspec #SF #scifi #sciencefiction #writing #kickstarter
March 17, 2026 at 6:52 PM
weightlessbooks.bsky.social
April issues of @lightspeedmagazine.com, @nightmare-magazine.com, The Dark, @locusmag.bsky.social, @flashfictiononline.bsky.social, @onspecmag.bsky.social, @lunastation.bsky.social, @apexmag.bsky.social and @smallwondersmag.com are here! weightlessbooks.com/2025/4/
Lightspeed #179 cover, featuring a girl in a mask wearing an arm cannon with a huge robot looming over her protectively Apex Magazine #149 cover, featuring a crowned girl and a wolf in a twilit meadow Cover art for OnSpec #131 by Tim Hammell, featuring three orange pirates looking through a red doorway at a bizarre spiral on a pedestal Cover for Locus April 2025 issue, featuring a neon blue robosheep head with some cloud icons
April 1, 2025 at 4:10 PM
weightlessbooks.bsky.social
New issue of @onspecmag.bsky.social is here and on its way to subscribers! weightlessbooks.com/on-spec-maga...
Cover art for OnSpec #131 by Tim Hammell, featuring three orange pirates looking through a red doorway at a bizarre spiral on a pedestal
March 31, 2025 at 6:09 PM
vcmyers.bsky.social
The new issue of @onspecmag.bsky.social features my poem "Cryptid Corpse Flower Constellation Superblooms in Space," apparently the longest title they've ever published.
#poetry #speculativepoetry #speculative #poems #poets #poetryjournals #literaryjournals
Cover of OnSpec Magazine excerpt from poem "Cryptid Corpse Flower Constellation Superblooms in Space" by V.C. Myers
July 5, 2024 at 1:12 AM
geoffreywcole.bsky.social
OnSpec is great to work with. Get your submissions in!
onspecmag.bsky.social On Spec Magazine @onspecmag.bsky.social · Jan 28
Canadian SFF writers! Our submission period ends soon. Don’t wait until the last minute!
January 28, 2025 at 8:41 PM