DOUGLAS SMITH | Writing the Fantastic

The recently released SF anthology, Not Like Us,  contains eleven tales of alien encounters, set up by this quote by Werner von Braun: 

'The Sun is one of 100 billion stars in our galaxy. Our galaxy is one of billions of galaxies populating the universe. It would be the height of presumption to think that that we are the only living things within that enormous immensity.'

My entry is my award-winning novelette, "Scream Angel," which, by the way, provides the bulk of my examples in my new writing guide, Brick by Brick, which was released just yesterday.

Click on the cover image to find buying links for the antho.

If you're a fan of flash fiction, you should check out both Merganser Magazine and this book, their first anthology of flash stories.

The book contains 44 (!) stories, ranging from mainstream to SF to Fantasy to the undefinable. 

My story is "The Stopover" and first appeared in the inaugural issue of the magazine and is the shortest story I've ever written. It is included in my recent collection, Borderlanz: Tales From the Edges.

If you read this story, you're going to say, "Ah! This is his COVID story.” Nope. I wrote this in September 2019, a full four months before any pandemic rumours surfaced. I wasn’t being prescient. My go-to apocalypse trigger in my writing has often been a plague.

Click on the cover to the right to go to a buying link for the antho.

This is a fun one: SF stories based in the Earth Sciences and aimed at YA / middle grade students. 

Each story is accompanied by questions on the science used in the tale, together with steps to assist the student in answering those questions. 

My entry is "Jigsaw" which uses plate tectonics as the heart of the mystery the heroine solves on an alien planet in a race to save her shipmates.

The story originally appeared in the anthology Odyssey (Wonder Zone #4), which, in a similar vein, was aimed at grade 7-8 students and was based on the Ontario school science curriculum at the time. The book was intended to be used by both English and Science teachers to connect the two subjects. 

Click on the cover to the right to find buying links for the antho.

Although the venerable Canadian magazine published its last issue in 2025, the On Spec name lives on in this brand new anthology packed with original stories from some of the best Canadian writers of speculative fiction.

My story, "Prodigy," brand new and written especially for this anthology, is a contemporary (very) SF tale, and this will likely be the only place you'll ever get to read it. So, if you're a fan, you should pick this one up. Click on the cover to go to purchase links.

Plus, if this antho sells well, the publisher, Shadow Paw Press, plans to make this an annual event, so your support would be appreciated.

A reminder that my new writing craft book, Brick by Brick: How to Build a Story, is available for pre-order now on all major ebook retail platforms.

The book will come out on September 15. Shortly after that release date, the price will increase, so if you're interested, pre-order it now.

From the book blurb:

Most writing craft books, courses, and workshops focus on the tools for being a writer and how to use them: dialog, setting, pacing, plot, openings, exposition, point-of-view. And so on.

And on and on and on.

Their aim is to add another tool, or maybe even a set of tools, to your writer's toolbox.

The problem with that approach is the vast gulf in knowledge between having your toolbox filled with tools and applying those tools to create a story.

Those craft books are the equivalent of telling a rookie construction worker, "Here's how to use a hammer, saw, level, screwdrivers, band saw, power drill, etc. Got that? Great! Now go build a house."

In this book, Douglas Smith, a five-time award-winning author described by Library Journal as "one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction," takes a different approach.

In these pages, Doug will show how to design that house so that you can build it. You'll learn how to create a blueprint for your story idea to take you from inspiration to story structure, a structure you can then build, brick by brick.

Or rather, scene by scene.

If that sounds like a book that might help you on your writing journey, then click here to preorder Brick by Brick from your favorite retailer.

The book will also be available in print, both trade paperback and hardcover, starting on September 15.

I wrote back in January that On Spec, one of the best and longest running speculative fiction magazines in the world and a Canadian institution for 35 years, had published its final issue in December.

I can tell you that the On Spec name will definitely live on for at least one more publication.

The Kickstarter for the first ever On Spec anthology of all new stories fully funded in May, and Ed Willett's Regina-based Shadowpaw Press,  has announced the anthology will publish in late 2026. 

Check out the cool cover by award-winning Canadian spec fic artist, James Beveridge, a frequent cover artist for On Spec, creating many of my favourites over its run. Jim also did the cover for my new collection, Borderlanz.

As a five-time contributor to On Spec, I was invited to be an "anchor author" for the Kickstarter and contributed a brand new story for the antho.

The final table of contents features authors from across Canada. The stories range from post-apocalyptic to humorous far-future SF to  literary  to traditional fantasy to horror to unclassifiable. The only theme to this anthology is: when Canadians write fantastical stories, this is what they write.

The Table of Contents (order not final):

• The Usual Journey, by Candas Jane Dorsey
• Web We Weave, by Fiona Moore
• The Light Within All Things, by J. Y. Zhang
• Scorch, by Noah Chinn
• Written in the Bones, by Rebecca Bennett
• The Necromancer's Garden, by Claire Scherzinger
• What Befalls the Beast, by Liz Westbrook-Trenholm
• The Gloaming, by Marcelle Dubé
• Ghostlane, by Rhea Rose
• Fell Seraph at the Black Cathedral of Trappist-1, by R.H. Wesley
• The Heavy Light of the Drowned, by Peter Darbyshire
• Where Barnacles Whisper, by D.S. Burton
• The Wyvern in the Tower, by Sharon Plumb Hamilton
• A Natural History of the Victorian Schoolboy, by Sarah Totton
• The Three-Dice Game, by Darry Dinnell
• Biggar, by Dave Margoshes
• Ruby in the Barn, by Mark Morton
• Growth Medium, by O. L. Drake
• Door To Door To Door, by Dave Cherniak
• George and Ginger Take a Vacation, by Hayden Trenholm
• Cans of Worm, by Michèle Laframboise
• Prodigy, by Douglas Smith
• Gloaming Skies, by U.M. Agoawike
• Rubicon, by Catherine MacLeod
• The Buzzing Of Flies, by Colleen Anderson
• Catherine’s Wheel, by Mike Rimar
• The Absolutely Final Appearance of the Legendary Dead Boys, by Cliff Burns
• Who’s Still Out There?, by Brandon Alexander Rossi

The anthology can be pre-ordered now from Amazon. Don't worry. More links to come for other retailers.

The Bundle of the Summer! Fifteen fantasy bundles by fifteen authors, all inside this even bigger bundle—and best of all, these bundles are exclusive. Some will never be available anywhere else again.

You'll find every kind of fantasy here, from goofy fantasy to dark fantasy to made-up world fantasy (whatever you want to call that) to romantic fantasy…and the mother of all subgenres, romantasy itself.

I have a bundle in this deal, too. For the first time ever, you can pick up all of my Heroka shapeshifter stories in my bundle, Shifted, which contains my novel, The Wolf at the End of the World, along with all three of my Heroka short stories.

Award-winning, bestselling authors fill this bundle and even more lurk inside the handful of anthologies that have found their way here. So pick up the best deal you'll find this summer.

To find out more about this bundle, click below and make sure to click on each cover for a synopsis, reviews and preview of each book!

Get the Fantasy Bundle of Bundles!

Fellow author SM (Sean) Hillman interviews me about a wide range of topics on my writing career and publications, including how I got into writing, moving from short stories to novels, putting together my collections, my non-fiction writing guides and how I finally decided to write a book on the craft of fiction. 

Check it out here.

An interview with me about my entry, a mini-collection entitled Into the Time Slip, in the Escape from 2026 Storybundle of time travel and alt history books. Check it out now, because the bundle ends tomorrow!