A reminder about Fantastic Treats

We are still open to submissions for Fantastic Treats our charity cookbook.

We are seeking flash or short fiction, in any genre that has a loose tie in to a recipe for a dessert, treat or snack. We also need the recipe. Writers and cooks are encouraged to team up on this one. Every one included in the book will receive a contributors copy but we are not offering payment. All proceeds go to Cancer Research. More information is available on our submissions page.

Get yourself involved!

Tracking Submissions

Ok, I’m entirely human so I have recently discovered I missed a couple of submissions. It’s been perfectly correctable in these instances but rather than take the risk I will be regularly updating tracking sheets you can access via the submissions page. Each books details will be taken down when I notify the authors of whether or not they have been successful but in the run up you can check that I’ve had your story and that you and it are correctly titled. In the case of the Fox Pockets where I may occasionally consider a story for a book other than the one you planned to submit to, you can also see where I think your story is a good fit.

I hope it helps.

 

Piracy Yarr!

The full line up of authors for the first Fox Pocket Piracy in no particular order:

Emma Teichmann – Silvermelt

Jenny Barber – Past Lives

Christian D’Amico – Insurgent

Den Patrick – Becalmed

Kit Marlowe – Black Ethel’s Beast

Francesca Terminiello – Plunder

T.F.Grant – Geronimo

Chloe Yates – Leave the Pistol Behind

Rahne Sinclair – No Quarter

Margret Helgadottir – Nora

K.C.Shaw – Skyway

Ruth Booth – The Real Deal

Catherine Hill – The Trouble with Daydreams

Asher Wismer – True to the Song

S.J. Caunt – X Marks the Spot

Rob Haines – Pieces of 2^3

I’m really excited about this series and we have great stories taking piracy from a child’s mind, to the high seas and straight onto mind jacking. We have strange beasts and the penalty for stealing dreams.

Fox Central: The one for voyeurs

For those of you with voyeuristic tendencies, i’ve just finished moving the office upstairs and getting it straight. I still have pictures to frame and hang and obviously most of the bookshelves are in the rest of the house. Still here it is, the heart of the Den.

foxden1

Books, my teenage mutant turtle toy bin and a Victorian china cabinet full of action figures and such. Oh and a cat bed.

foxden4Moving round to the right, umm, a scratching post, more bookshelves and my world map (being populated with tiny black foxes).

foxden3

 

My Bureau. This belonged to my grandfather and in it you can almost see his gorgeous portable typewriter all tucked away.

foxden2My computer desk which the printer will go on and the top of my ‘office’ chair, which is actually an old rocking chair. So that’s it. How publishing empires are built. 😉

 

 

Call for Stories: Noir Carnival

This is also up at awesome editor Kate Laity’s site

We are also planning on bringing Weird Noir cover artist S.L.Johnson back on for this project.

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A call for stories from Fox Spirit Books, publishers of Weird Noir and many more superb volumes.

Dark’s Carnival has already left town, but it’s left a fetid seed behind. There’s a transgressive magic that spooks the carnies and unsettles the freaks. Beyond the barkers and the punters, behind the lights and tents where the macabre and the lost find refuge, there’s a deformity that has nothing to do with skin and bones. Where tragic players strut on a creaking stage, everybody’s going through changes. Jongleurs and musicians huddle in the back. It seems as if every one’s running, but is it toward something—or away?

Carnival: whether you picture it as a traveling fair in the back roads of America or the hedonistic nights of the pre-Lenten festival where masks hide faces while the skin glories in its revelation, it’s about spectacle, artificiality and the things we hide behind the greasepaint or the tent flap. Lead us on a journey into that heart of blackened darkness and show us what’s behind the glitz.

Touchstones (to give you a sense of the breadth of the net cast):

John Webster’s “skull beneath the skin” • Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love • Angela Carter’s Nights at the Circus • Gargantua & Pantagruel • Pinocchio (the novel! Not the Disney atrocity) • Papa Lazarou • Doctor Lau • Ray Bradbury’sSomething Wicked This Way Comes • Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal • Leonor Fini

Surprise me, delight me, make me afraid of the shadows of a warm summer night, rip my guts out and stuff them back in again. Just don’t bore me. All editors have their tastes or quirks: if you want a clue to my sensibilities, check out my extensive bibliography and of course, read Weird Noir.

Stories should be:

  • Previously unpublished anywhere
  • Not submitted anywhere else
  • Length 3-8K
  • Formatted: Times New Roman, regular, 12 point. 1″ margins. 1 space after full stop. Spaced 1.5 lines. Use paragraph formatting to indent first line nottabs. No header/footer.
  • Identified with a title, your name (and pen name identified as such),working email address on the first page: file name should include your surname & title
  • Submitted in RTF format via email to katelaity at gmail with at least your name, the story title and total word count included in the body of the email; make sure the Subject line includes “Submission: Noir Carnival” + your name
  • Due by Walpurgisnacht

We will ask for world-wide print & ebook rights for a year and pay $10 via Paypal as an advance against the royalties to be split with the publisher. We plan to launch the book at EDGE-Lit in Derby in July 2013.

Announcing – 25 Ways to Kill a Werewolf

You may have spotted mutterings and rumours about this, but I am pleased to formally announce that Fox Spirit will be publishing ’25 Ways to Kill a Werewolf’ a YA novel by Jo Thomas (@journeymouse) later this year.

I’m delighted Jo will be joining us at Fox Spirit, she has written an unusual and entertaining novel that is perfect for readers who prefer their werewolves to be primal killers and who like their heroines smart and capable.

Cover reveal for Blood Bound

full-cover-proof1

We have kept this one a bit quiet really but in April we are delighted to be releasing a novella by the wonderful Sarah Cawkwell.

Sarah opened Tales of the Nun & Dragon with ‘The Ballad of Gilrain’ which we loved so much we made her write an actual ballad which was recorded by Under a Banner.

Blood Bound is a more traditional fantasy with the wit and tight story telling that is typical of Sarah as well as wonderful characters I hope she will revisit at some point.

Blood Bound

‘Agreement is made this night between Jareth De’Roth and Taryanderon ap Pallerion. For the successful procurement and return of the item (as
 described) in its original state and undamaged, the promised and most generous payment will be made in full. Should this contract be broken, the
 consequences will be most severe. By signing this oath, you acknowledge your full and complete understanding of these terms.’

Fox Pockets

FS big thing 72

 

A look at the first three Fox Pocket covers, so you can see the what a gorgeous set of books they are going to be.

Cover art by Sarah Anne Langton

Don’t forget these will have a rolling closing date. The first volume Piracy closes on the 14th March 2013 and the second volume will be Shapeshifters. Closing date will be set after the 14th March, but get your submissions in.

Full details are at the bottom of the submissions page.