Kenton Erwin

Kenton Erwin has had thirteen short stories and three nonfiction books published by Amazing Stories, Suburban Witchcraft, ELA Magazine, Science Fiction Lampoon, The Spectrogram, Gavagai, The Wise Owl, Pulp Asylum, Academy of Heart and Mind, Mobius, and others. Three of his stories were 'Editor's Choice" with special banners, fonts, and artwork. In 2026 he won the Spectacular Quill Award for best story of the year, in 2025 he twice won the Speckled Spectrum Awards, and in 2024 he won Punk Noir's 'A Good Death' writing competition. He's active in Speculative Fiction Writers Association, is a frequent speaker and writer on writing/publishing issues, and lives in Ridgefield WA, USA.
A crumpled, typewritten page marked up with red pencil with strikethroughs and notes in the margins

Critiquing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

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SpecFicWriters is primarily a critiquing group. It’s a skill like any other and must be learned. Developed. Practiced. We become better writers when we critique our fellow writers’ work and when they critique ours. It’s a great trade. At least, that’s the theory. Let’s look at The Good, The Bad, …

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Pen Names: Veils and Masks

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How many writers use pen names, and why? Our Speculative Fiction Writers Association member directory shows about FORTY members who do, or about thirty-four percent! Member Examples One of our members (“Q2”) doesn’t want the readers of their fiction stories to stumble across the videos that Q2 produces in their …

The Egg

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Gillian’s fame began as a kid, when she buried that egg.

She’s a great little sister, but you’ll see her craziness.  Like when she shredded fresh beets from our garden into the clothes washer

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Creative Writing: What does ‘creative’ mean?

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What we writers do is called ‘creative’ writing. But what is that, really? What do we have to do, to be ‘creative’ in our writing? The definition of ‘creative (adjective)’ is ‘involving original ideas in producing an artistic work.’ So, to be ‘creative’ writers, we must make original ideas. Ideas not heretofore conceived …