"Clay and Susan Griffith's Vampire Empire is Transforming Genre Fiction" Paul Goat Allen, BN Explorations.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Bull Spec Magazine

Remember Turning Pages?

One of the most interesting and exciting things to come out of our home Triangle area in the last year is Bull Spec Magazine. It is a real life print magazine devoted to "speculative fiction" (what we old types still call science fiction/fantasy, but maybe the new term encompasses a wider range than SFF). Bull Spec is the brain child of Samuel Montgomery Blinn, a Durham resident and editor. There have been 4 issues so far, and more to come.

Sam is a tireless promoter of young, and not so young, writers. Even more, he understands the natural isolation of writers, and works to bring writers and editors and artists together as a community. We've attended several events he has hosted and have always been amazed by his selfless interest in others' work. His magazine eagerly publishes unknowns, as well as established writers. He also publishes poetry. He pays money to these writers, not just comp copies.

He does this expressly from an extreme love of speculative fiction and the people who write it because, believe it or not, editing and designing a print magazine is not the fast lane to riches. The magazine biz has always been a tricky and perilous life, but in this age of e-stuff, start-up print magazines are rare and wonderful things. And Bull Spec is a wonderful magazine.

If you live in the Triangle area, you can find it at select independent bookstores such as The Regulator in Durham, Flyleaf Books in Chapel Hill, and Quail Ridge Books & Music in Raleigh. There may be other brick and mortar sources which I hope folks will comment on. You can order it online. You can subscribe.

Buy Bull Spec.

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