Calendar

On April 1, you're invited to share your story, poem, or any writing roadblocks you're facing. Bring a piece with fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 2,000 words, if you can't break the scene. This helps give everyone sufficient reading and feedback time.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our April meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, April 1, 2025 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Share Your Story: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC reading meetings are not recorded.

On March 4, the R-SPEC Team will mind-travel, seeking the birth of speculative fiction.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, written in 1818, is considered the first, modern science fiction novel. Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Edgar Allan Poe, and others helped develop the genre over the next two centuries.

Yet, speculative fiction (and its subgenres) likely extends much further back in time. Ancient oral traditions, myths, and religious texts often have elements that read more like today’s fantasy and horror, especially when parsed with technology-oriented mindsets.

What do you think may be the starting point of speculative fiction, when stories left the day-to-day “what was/is” and became explorations of “what if?”

• Meeting Time: Tuesday, March 4, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.
• Location: Our meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)
• Open chat: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Roundtable discussion: 7:00-8:45 (with a short break at 8:00)
• Close meeting: 8:45 (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

R-SPEC holds its Annual Business Meeting during the first half-hour of our February meeting. We look back upon our accomplishments in 2024 and elect Board members for the coming year. The meeting is open to the public, but only paid R-SPEC members are eligible to be on the Board and to vote in the elections.

Who Owns the Future? [Redux] – Four years ago, we considered whether the future is a malleable, blank slate or if it is predetermined and unchangeable. Much has happened since then. In this second look, we examine some of the many forces shaping our collective future, and how you can use them to extrapolate insightful, plausible speculative fiction stories.

• Meeting Time: Tuesday, February 4, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.
• Location: Our meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)
• 6:30-7:00 p.m.: Open chat
• 7:00-7:30 p.m.: Annual Business Meeting
  • Moderator: Ted Wenskus
  • Note: This is the same as the regular meeting - plan to stay connected to participate!
• 7:30-8:45 p.m.: Who Owns the Future? [Redux]
  • Group Discussion
  • Note: This is the same as the regular meeting - you don't need to disconnect & reconnect.
• Close meeting: 8:45 (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

On January 7, you're invited to share your story, poem, or any writing roadblocks you're facing. Bring a piece with fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 2,000 words, if you can't break the scene. This helps give everyone sufficient reading and feedback time.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our November meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, January 7, 2025 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Share Your Story: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC reading meetings are not recorded.

For some “Voting Day” distraction on November 5, you're invited to share your story, poem, or any writing roadblocks you're facing. Bring a piece with fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 2,000 words, if you can't break the scene. This helps give everyone sufficient reading and feedback time.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our November meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, November 5, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Share Your Story: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC reading meetings are not recorded.

For 25 years, aspiring novelists have committed to switch off their internal critic and write a fifty-thousand word novel during November, for "National Novel Writing Month" (NaNoWriMo). For much of that time, the biggest controversy has been how insane that goal seems even to many professional writers. In recent years, though, NaNoWriMo has been plagued by scandal such as sponsorship by predatory vanity presses, allegations of grooming and abuse of power in young writers' forums, and, most recently, divisive policies regarding the use of generative AI, coupled with attacks on AI-critics as "ableist."

Instead of abandoning the challenge, many "NaNos" have opted to challenge themselves outside of the formal NaNoWriMo structure. In October, we'll talk about what forms that can take - whether via the social media of your choice, new organizations springing up to serve NaNo Dissenters, or even abandoning the one-month-per-year approach altogether.

Moderator: Eric Scoles

Location: Our meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford in the Community Room and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, October 1, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Meeting: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

One reason many readers choose speculative fiction stories, instead of mainstream stories, is to escape their everyday realities and be transported to other worlds. And because these worlds exist only in the writer's imagination, without true connections to the world we live in, the task of creating seemingly realistic and cohesive speculative fiction settings can often be a challenge.

During our September 3 meeting, our panelists will guide you through a discussion and exercises on creating speculative fiction settings that leave lasting impressions with your readers in much the same ways as the characters in your stories.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford in the Community Room and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, September 3, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Meeting: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

[Handout for the meeting: The Setting: The Key to Speculative Fiction]

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

Time. There's too much, yet never enough. Time can be a friend or a mortal enemy.

The truth? You can’t manage time, only your tasks. So, how do you get your story written?

Well, it’s “easy.” You put pen to paper, tap on a keyboard, or record your voice. Easy sounding, except when things get in your way.

In our August 6 roundtable, we’ll talk about removing roadblocks, using “writing hacks” other writers have found helpful to finish their stories, scripts, or novels, and sharing some of your best practices for avoiding what hinders you from getting your writing…done!

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, August 6, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Meeting: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC presentations on topics of interest may be recorded, and a link to the recording posted on our website.

On July 2 , you're invited to share your story, poem, or any writing roadblocks you're facing. Bring a piece with fewer than 1,000 words, if you can, but no more than 2,000 words, if you can't break the scene. This helps give everyone sufficient reading and feedback time.

Moderator: Alan Vincent Michaels

Location: Our July meeting will be in person at Barnes & Noble, Pittsford and on Zoom. (Please join us at least 10 minutes before the 7:00 p.m. start time to ensure a good connection.)

Meeting Time: Tuesday, July 2, 2024 from 6:30-8:45 p.m.

• Open chat: 6:30-7:00 p.m.
• Share Your Story: 7:00-8:45 p.m.
• Close meeting: 8:45 p.m. (or sooner to break down the Community Room before the store closes)

Note: R-SPEC reading meetings are not recorded.