Speculative Fiction Writers Association
An Online Critique Group with Members from Coast to Coast
Spec Fic Writers 
In the third quarter of 2024, our members have been busy writing, publishing and winning awards. Danaeka Scrimshaw’s novel Worlds of Fire and Glass is a Finalist for the 2024 Gold Rush Literary Awards in the speculative fiction category. Colleen Mueller’s novel The Megaclub Soldiers is a Finalist in the …
The Speculative Fiction Writers Association has had a tremendous quarter with nine members publishing 14 stories or novels in various publications and websites, with some members having multiple stories accepted. In Winter 2019, Nancy Pica Renken wrote a flash fiction story inspired by a prompt in the WritersWeekly 24-Hour Short …
What is an author’s voice, and how can we cultivate it? An author’s voice is the unique way we share and express our story, using an imaginative framework of words to develop characters, settings, ideas, and emotions. A cultivated writer’s voice immerses readers in the story, making them feel like …
Literary criticism and critique are overlapping terms. Criticism means to negatively criticize a work. On the other hand, critique is intended to express a judgement about a work, both negative and positive, the yin and yang. In Chinese philosophy the terms describe opposite but interconnected forces and both are essential. …
Your job. Your social life. Your kid’s soccer tournament. Only a major overhaul can fix your WIP’s* character arc. And the last story you submitted for publication got a flat rejection. How do you stay motivated to write when the universe is against you? Two of our members keep writing …
Welcome to A Word with Spec Fic Writers. This week, we interview Bonnie McCune, who has been writing since age ten, when the Saturday Evening Post rejected a submission, and has been publishing whatever she can for decades since. Bonnie lives in Colorado and is the author of novels, novellas …
In our ongoing series A Word with Spec Fic Writers, we sat down with newcomer Matthew Cushing. Mr. Cushing’s passion for writing fiction started in junior high school when he started adding elements of mystery and action to classroom assignments. Short stories soon followed, and he’s been writing speculative fiction …
Welcome to A Word With Spec Fic Writers. This week, SFW interviews SciFi author R. C. Beckett. R. C. is a retired MD who has always loved science fiction and a good joke. He made his first website by hand-coding HTML. It was so long ago the scrolls have been …
Welcome to A Word With Spec Fic Writers. This week, we’re happy to interview Linda Ditchkus, who publishes under the pen name LV Ditchkus. L.V. DITCHKUS is the author of The Sasquatch Series: Book I – Crimes of the Sasquatch, Book II – Mission of the Sasquatch, and Book III …
Welcome to our first installment of A Word with Spec Fic Writers, a series of interviews with Spec Fic Writers’ members. This week, we spotlight Paul Martz, a member of Spec Fic Writers Critique Group since 2018. Paul is a new writer, a retired computer programmer, and a former punk …