Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

December 3, 2020

Mrs. Claus, Feminist Warrior

A review of Rhonda Parrish’s Mrs. Claus: Not the Fairy Tale They Say (World Weaver Press, 2017) By Derek Newman-Stille Traditionally, Mrs. Claus is presented as a secondary figure in the Santa Claus myth – so much so that she doesn’t even have a name but derives all of her identity from her husband. She is generally depicted as a...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

October 28, 2020

Living Through Fairy Tales

A review of Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” in Whispers Between Fairies (Renaissance, 2020) Nathan Frechette’s “Cinderfella” is a biotext, a story of Frechette’s own body and transition told through fairy tales. Frechette explores the way that fairy tales have shaped his life, from providing a world away from a harsh outside world when he was young to providing a text of...

Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

September 5, 2020

Little Whispers Of The Fantastic

A review of Catherine MacLeod’s “The Stone Alphabet” in Earth: Giants, Golems, & Gargoyles Edited by Rhonda Parrish (Tyche Books, 2019) By Derek Newman-Stille Catherine MacLeod’s “The Stone Alphabet” is a refreshing collection of microfiction stories. Each of the stories is only a few lines of text but shows incredible worldbuilding, character development, and each has a delightful twist ending....

Fiction Book Reviews Comment: 1

August 30, 2020

The Golem of Frankenstein

A review of Chadwick Ginther’s “The Enforcer” in Rhonda Parrish’s Earth: Giants, Golems, & Gargoyles (Tyche Books, 2019). By Derek Newman-Stille Chadwick Ginther’s “The Enforcer” is part of a collection on the element of Earth by Rhonda Parrish, titled Earth: Giants, Golems & Gargoyles, yet his vision of the earth is unique. He associates the earth with the things that...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0

August 29, 2020

An Interview with Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay

By Derek Newman-Stille Today, I chat with CanLit scholar Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay about some trends in Canadian literature, ideas of belonging and the Canadian Nation State, and Canadian music. Thank you to Sebastian for joining us here and sharing his insights. Spec Can: To begin our interview, could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Sebastian Johnston-Lindsay: Absolutely, I’m currently...

Interviews Comments: 0

August 24, 2020

An Interview with Nathan Caro Frechette on SFCanada

I have had the wonderful opportunity to do some writing for SFCanada and as an introductory interview, I was able to interview author and Renaissance Press editor Nathan Caro Frechette. Here are some quotes from our interview: “So often, our stories are told by people who’ve never even met a person like us. It’s not just a question of it...

Interviews Comments: 0

August 22, 2020

Authors in Quarantine – Mark Leslie Lefebvre

With this this series, I am hoping to capture how this cultural moment is affecting our speculative fiction authors and how our authors are surviving during the COVID-19 outbreak Spec Can: What have you been up to during the COVID-19 outbreak? Mark Leslie Lefebvre: I’ve actually been re-discovering a creative exercise that I used to formerly use as a writing...

Interviews Comments: 0

August 20, 2020

Interview with Regina Hansen, August 2020

Spec Can: It’s great to chat with you again Regina. Last time we chatted was a couple of years ago and it will be wonderful to catch up. Can you start out by telling us a little bit about yourself? Regina Hansen: Sure. I’m a writer and scholar of supernatural subjects. I was born on Prince Edward Island, raised partly...

Interviews Comments: 0

August 15, 2020

Prix Aurora Awards 2020

Congratulations to all of the winners of the 2020 Prix Aurora Awards. As many of you know, Speculating Canada was nominated again this year for the Best Fan Related Work Category, and congratulations everyone, we won! Speculating Canada started as a way for me to give back to the Canadian SF community and it has been exciting to see it...

Uncategorized Comments: 0

July 19, 2020

What Big Teeth You Have

A review of Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild (Random House, 2019) By Derek Newman-Stille A fascinating blend of Red Ridinghood, werewolf fiction, Greek myth, and Rogarou legends of Metis people from the Georgian Bay area, Cherie Dimaline’s Empire of Wild weaves together monstrous wolves into a book that is partially horror story and partially a call for social change. Like...

Fiction Book Reviews Comments: 0