Image © Ron Sanders
Letter from the Editors Dear Reader, It's almost spring, and certainly feeling more like that than winter in Colorado at the moment. In keeping with the seasons' changes, we have five stories of change. The song line says Every new beginning is some other beginning's end (with a nod to Semisonic's "Closing Time") -- and each story in the February 2018 issue ends with a new beginning of a kind. Waiting on a Sunny Day by Michael Haynes: So you think you have Seasonal Affect Disorder? Just wait until The Event makes it a permanent case. An Uneasy Paradise by D.A. D'Amico: How long does a robot have to do its job before it no longer wants to stop? Order of the Blessed Return by Sean Mabry: Necromancy. Profane, or sacred? It depends on how you spin it. And, in proof that the writers who submit stories for our consideration are somehow tapped into a common speculative fiction zeitgeist, we present to you not one, but two, stories about... porcupines. Anger Is a Porcupine, Sadness Is a Fish by Mary E. Lowd: Dara finds out what happens to a town that listens to a poisoned tongue when words carry Magic. Home Is Where the Blue Plastic Porcupine Is by Kiera Lesley: A snapshot of life at the front, where you take luck and good omens where you can find them. And don't forget our Editors' Corner where Candi Cooper-Towler shares Sci-Fi poetry. We hope you enjoy this issue as much as we did! Thanks for reading, The Electric Spec Team