We interview the Electric Spec Editors! Below, CC is Candi Cooper-Towler, NB is Nikki Baird, LS is Lesley L. Smith, and MM is Minta Monroe.

Why be an Electric Spec Editor?

CC: Grayson was struggling with reading all the submitted stories, so I joined in to help out. I'm a very fast reader and I like the genres covered, so it seems a good fit so far. I really enjoy reading so many different styles and types of story.

NB: You get to read all kinds of speculative fiction for free. And you get insights into what is bubbling up from the collective unconscious. Every quarter it seems like there is a different theme common to a lot of stories, whether it's ghosts or body parts or aliens or whatever -- there is always something.

LS: We started Electric Spec to give something back to the writing community. All the Electric Spec editors have been writers, as well, and we all know how hard it can be to get published. It feels great to help authors get their work in front of readers.

MM: Because it's an honor to contribute to the speculative fiction community by helping to keep another market open.

Why do you like speculative fiction?

CC: There are so many amazing ideas in speculative fiction! Imaginings of whole other worlds and reflections of our own, huge thoughts on the meaning of life and tight-focus moments of ordinary people living their lives: I never get tired of the new ideas.

NB: David Farland says every genre has its emotional element to it. Romance has love, Thrillers have suspense. Spec Fic, he says, is built on wonder. As someone who has always been fascinated by science and human progress, I enjoy the wonder of thinking about the future, and the wonder of the things we don't understand about our own world and our own selves. The flip side of that coin is horror -- what happens when the things we don't know have teeth? And that's fine with me too.

LS: Speculative Fiction is fun! It enables the writer's imagination to soar beyond the bounds of regular, non-speculative reality. As a reader, I really enjoy the added creativity that speculative fiction brings to storytelling.

MM: Spec fic takes me to imaginary worlds that no other type of fiction can take me. It stretches my mind in ways that other genres can't.

What's your favorite subgenre of speculative fiction and why?

CC: I tend to prefer Fantasy- Tolkien's influence I expect. But I also really enjoy SciFi and I'm gaining a new appreciation for how hard it is to write a good Horror story.

NB: I like to read harder science fiction for myself, whether near-future or more distant future. Andy Weir (The Martian, Artemis), Neal Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, Diamond Age), John Scalzi (Old Man's War - need to read his newest ones though) and the original author who captured my attention, Isaac Asimov, particularly the Caves of Steel series. But I also love a good urban fantasy, especially one built in an original world, like Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series or Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. And, my entry into the whole world of spec fic was Anne McCaffrey's dragons, which was like a fantasy and hard science thrown into one. I've always loved new worlds, I've always been more attracted to exploring ideas that are based on ordinary people who find themselves thrust into extraordinary circumstances, whether that is external or internal. I don't know why, except that it goes back to that sense of wonder and discovery that comes from speculative fiction in general.

LS: I prefer science fiction, with urban fantasy as a close second. Both of these tend to start with more normal reality and then they throw in some amazing imaginative elements.

MM: I'm a sucker for a good ghost story, especially when the chills are subtle--left to my imagination--and I ask myself "what really happened?" The questions of reality and perception stay with me long after the story is done.

Why do you like short fiction?

CC: When I edit, I tend to make my stories shorter and shorter, until I'm left with the smallest possible telling of that story. That's why I'm a pretty good haiku poet. I appreciate how much can be said with only a few words.

NB: In today's attention span theater, it's approachable. And it's not so easy. In a novel you have space to stretch out and room to move around. In a short story, you have to accomplish basically everything that is expected of a novel, but in a tiny, tiny house. There's a long tradition of short stories in spec fic, too, and founding fathers like Algis Budrys, who felt strongly that authors did best when they mastered the short form. I believe him. Novels are big and complex and it's hard to learn how to write one while writing one. It's much easier to see how different elements work together in the short form first.

LS: Each work of short fiction is a tiny artistic jewel. It contains everything, characters, plot, even whole worlds in miniature. Wow!

MM: Precisely because it's short. A short story well done is an art form and gives me a glimpse into another world. Interesting worlds are often places where I don't want to linger long, so the short form is the perfect length.

As a creative person, how do you like to express your creativity?

CC: : Mostly I write but I also paint and sew, time permitting.

NB: Writing, naturally!

LS: I enjoy writing science fiction--a lot!

MM: Mostly through exploring. I've sampled a wide range of artistic expression from macrame to folk dance to pottery to portraiture, but I haven't stuck long with any of them (with the possible exception of creating portraits). Word play has always been the constant for me. Whether creativity comes in the form of writing or anything else, I like to create for my own pleasure.

What's a fun fact about you people might not know?

CC: I never outgrew being a horse-crazy girl. I have a half-blind Thoroughbred ex-racehorse who's learning to be a riding horse.

NB: I have been a singer in a rock band. Not anything famous by any stretch, and I haven't had time to do it for several years now, but I have fronted a band and I would do it again - once I finish writing my novel!

LS: ElectricSpec readers and writers might not know I'm a physicist in real life.

MM: I once saw a "real" UFO--real, in that it was absolutely unidentified. And flying.