Short Fiction – Speculating Canada: Canadian Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy

April 1, 2024

An Interview with Carolyn Charron

I finally get the opportunity to interview Carolyn Charron and we talk about ageing in fiction, disability, historical fiction, pirates, short stories, and so much more. Carolyn Charron is a speculative fiction writer who’s always wanted to be a pirate or a wizard preferably with a dragon companion. Her short stories have appeared Renaissance Press’ Nothing Without Us, an anthology...

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February 27, 2024

An Interview with Eric Choi About Alternative Histories

In this interview with Eric Choi, we examine the interweaving of Eric’s roles as an aerospace engineer and science fiction writer and the way that he breaks down the barriers between the arts and sciences. We examine Eric’s work looking at alternative histories and imagining a world that could have turned out differently if not for chance moments in time....

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December 12, 2020

Holly Jolly

by Derek Newman-Stille She was dressed in street clothes, which was really unusual for Dr. Townsend’s practice. Generally her clients came dressed in their full regalia instead of as their secret identity. “Hi, are you the shrink?” “I’m Dr. Townsend, yes.” “But you’re the one that works with people like us, right?” “People like us?” “You know, magical girls.” “Oh,...

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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....

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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...

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May 7, 2020

Authors in Quarantine – Cait Gordon

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? Cait Gordon: For the first two weeks, I levelled up to 1000% disability advocate mode, encouraging people to flatten that...

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December 20, 2017

La Befana

Here is a holiday story for you this December. Renaissance Press is creating a tour of different websites where authors can showcase their fiction and they invited me to participate and share a short story with readers. This post is part of the Renaissance Holiday Blog Roll. Find out what it’s all about here and check out some other...

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March 1, 2016

Deadly Musings

Deadly Musings A review of Mary E. Choo’s “That Brightness” in Expiration Date, Edited by Nancy Kilpatrick (Edge, 2015) By Derek Newman-Stille Having a gift for artistic expression is a challenging thing. It tends to come with a heavy dose of “imposter syndrome” and the feeling that one is never doing enough or that one’s work is not good...

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December 27, 2014

Feeding the Homeless

A review of Trevor Shikaze’s “The Harbour Bears” in Lackington’s issue 4 ( http://lackingtons.com/2014/10/28/the-harbour-bears-by-trevor-shikaze/ ) By Derek Newman-Stille Homeless people are treated as human refuse, ignored when possible, and when not possible, treated as a social problem that requires police intervention and forced removal. Homeless people evoke a sense of horror partially because they remind society that the price for...

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December 19, 2014

Speculating Canada on Trent Radio Episode 25: A Discussion of Helen Marshall’s Work

In this episode, I focus on the work of author Helen Marshall. Helen wasn’t able to make it in to the studio for an interview, but I enjoy her work so much that I felt it needed a show of its own. Helen Marshall is the author of “Hair Side, Flesh Side”, “The Sex Lives of Monsters”, and “Gifts for...

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