December 2012 -

December 24, 2012April 20, 2016

Our Inaugural Year

Or six months really.

I am wrapping up 2012 with a real sense of achievement and not a little astonishment. At Easter, to the soundtrack of Buffy The Musical, plans for world domination were jokingly discussed and the conclusion was reached that The Nun & Dragon was the perfect pub name. Since none of us own a pub, we decided to make a book. By June that decision had morphed into Fox Spirit and the Bushy Tales series.

I get a bit Oscar speechy now, so you can skip through to the end and the fox if you like.

Joan De La Haye put her trust in me and let me put her titles out, the psychological horror novel ‘Shadows’, the serial killer crime novel ‘Requiem in E Sharp’ and the fun zombie novella with a different perspective ‘Oasis’. Over the following months three more writers have trusted me with their work. In fiction Alec McQuay with the wonderfully weird post apocalyptic punk novella ‘Spares’ and Colin F Barnes with a gothic chiller of a novella ‘A Heart for the Ravens’. In non fiction, our last release of the year ‘The Pseudopod Tapes’, a collection of essays that served as outro’s to the world renowned podcast in which Alasdair Stuart is honest, smart, heartfelt and witty.

I have also had the honour of working with a number of fantastic authors on Nun & Dragon, our first anthology and the incredible writer and academic K.A.Laity who did an astonishing job of editing Weird Noir. I’ve been very fortunate to work with fantastic artists throughout and have tremendous support from a variety of people on a personal and professional level.

Special mentions to Gav at handebooks for performing miracles and having endless patience and Daz for copy editing at short notice.

We have more fantastic things coming next year and I’m very excited. The next two Bushy Tales books, Tales of Eve edited by Mhairi Simpson, the charity cookbook ‘Fantastic Treats’ edited by Andrew Reid and a host of other wonderful things.

So I want to say thank you to everyone who has worked with me, supported me, entrusted me with their stories and hung in their while I work it out as I go.

Now here is an Artic Fox playing in the snow. Image by Phil Knott. Happy Christmas.

December 23, 2012

In the mood for food!

Fox Spirit Call for Submissions!

Get your apron on and fire up the Kenwood (or if you are anything like us, the fork and hand whisk); we are doing a cookbook.

It’s like this: there are so many cookbooks out there now that have pleasant vignettes to accompany the recipes – we think we can go one better. Instead of a reflection about how your grandma taught you to bake sugar cookies, we want stories – perhaps a baker had to bake sugar cookies to feed fierce, sugar-addicted dragons and save their village (or something).

We want you to submit a recipe with a short story, a poem, or a piece of artwork that links in some way to the recipe.

Collaborations are entirely welcome so if you are more inclined to the cooking or the story writing then grab a friend and get involved.

We will be making some of the recipes (or getting someone more artistic to) so the book will include some photos of the goodies.

What we want:

A recipe for a dessert. It can be sweet or savoury, take the form of a pudding, cookies, cake, petit fours – whatever you like. It doesn’t need to be a completely original recipe, but it should be something you have made and would love to share. Perhaps it’s something classic, but with your own personal twist added?

Accompanying it, a story, flash, poem, or artwork. These should be no more than 3,000 words and can be as short as 500. They can be sci-fi, fantasy, crime, or horror, but should link in some way to the recipe submitted. We will accept stories that have been published before as long as they are relevant and you have the rights to re use them.

You can submit up to three recipes. If your recipe is substantially based on an existing one please let us have the credit detail for the original

What you will get:

In return for your contribution you will receive a copy of the book, if you collaborate you both will.

All royalties will be going to Cancer Research UK.

Send your submissions to adele @ foxspirit.co.uk titled ‘cookbook submission‘.

‘Fantastic Treats’ will be edited by Andrew Reid.

December 22, 2012April 20, 2016

The Pseudopod Cake

I love the authors I work with, they are amazing writers and fantastic people and they continue to surprise me.

With our last release of 2012 Alasdair held an apocalypse launch party with cake. Seriously folks, I’ve never seen a Fox Spirit book cover that was quite this sweet before. I love it! Best cake ever!

I can’t give you a sample of the cake, but you can try a sample of the book. Pseudopod Files taster

December 16, 2012December 16, 2012

Last Release of 2012

The Pseudopod Tapes Vol 1 by Alasdair Stuart

Coming on the 21st December we have our final release of our first year and it’s a little different.

The Pseudopod Tapes is our first Non Fiction release and we think it’s the perfect way to end an exciting 2012.

‘Not the end of the world, just the end of the year’

Alasdair Stuart, one of the UK’s most knowledgeable and passionate genre journalists has finally decided to do a book. And not just any book, he’s not just offering up his in depth genre gems for your delectation, it’s better than that.

In the Pseudopod Tapes, Alasdair gathers a years worth of outro’s from one of the worlds leading horror podcasts and collects them all together for you in this volume. Stuart hosts Pseudopod with a sharp wit, clear insight, tremendous honesty and warm humour. It translates extremely well to the page.

‘Alasdair Stuart, host of the must listen Pesudopod just became a must read!’ -Steven Savile

Cover art by S.L.Johnson

Introduction by the Mighty Mur Lafferty

You can read more from Al at his blog and of course you can listen to him on Pseudopod along with a host of talented readers & writers bringing you horror and strangeness.

We will be making a sample available on the book’s page at the time of release.

December 8, 2012April 20, 2016

And the business of another manic week.

First up our new release

Fox Spirit books is seeing in December with a creepy gothic tale of love, death and science. The first of our holiday season treats is available now as a paperback and we expect it to be available this weekend as an ebook.

Heart for the Ravens by Colin F Barnes

In the traditions of Poe and Shelley, Heart for the Ravens is a gothic horror story set in the 19th century following a heroine in search of a man with a good heart.

Katerina Roeslling is the daughter of a wealthy businessman and resents being treated as just another asset by her father. When she meets Willhelm, a rough-hewn, but charismatic, soldier, she thinks he is the right man for her, but he is just the start of a tragic nightmare.

The novella is available as a paperback of ebook via Amazon and will shortly be available through Wizards Tower Press for other e readers.

Cover image is by Bill Munster
Cover model Kiley Adriance

Colin’s Website

Next up, our friends at Anachron released their first Pulp Line novel

Curse of the Jade Amulet by Jack Calico

Jack is guest blogging at Anachron and has his own site here

We’d also like to remind you that the submission deadline for YA appropriate stories is the 31st December and for those on the Fox & Fae / Mouse & Minotaur invite list, it’s the 1st Jan.