Foxy Friday : Kate Jones

Please send your Foxy Friday recommendations to submissions@foxspirit. co.uk, now over to Kate.

For 2015, I’ve resolved to review and recommend more works of fiction with diverse casts which feature issues of diversity as character notes rather than plot points. I want to see these characters starring in gripping stories which don’t necessarily revolve around their experiences of being a person of colour, a non-heterosexual, a transgendered person or someone struggling with illness. For my Foxy Friday, I’ve chosen five works that are gloriously entertaining which also provide a platform for characters who don’t fit in and aren’t necessarily trying to. Here’s my celebration of the misfits, the geeks, the sex workers, the BDSM community, the people of colour, the working classes, the chronically ill, the injured, the disenfranchised women, the old folk and my hope for everyone who may have struggled to find a story with a central protagonist who is just like them.

Fantasy Novel

Kushiel’s Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Give me this over any 50 shades book any day! A wonderful and complicated political intrigue, set in a world where sex work is considered an honourable career choice. So refreshing to read a fantasy book set in a world where women can enjoy power within sex, where their right to say ‘no’ is sacred and their wish to enjoy physical pleasure is not shamed. If you are looking for a book which respects diversity in sexual taste and also tells a compelling story, this one is for you.

Kushiel's_Dart

Short Story

Chivalry by Neil Gaiman

I love old tales and legends, myths that have endured and seeped into our consciousness. In this story, I loved the idea that they are still here, not strange and distant but part of our own small worlds of charity shops, families and daily life. This story reminds me that the fantastical can be part our everyday lives, and that our everyday lives can be improved for their accidental brushes against it. It also reminds me that not all heroines are necessarily young and beautiful, although they may still remember the days when they once were.

Fantasy Novella

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold

#WeNeedDiverseBooks and this one is a great starter! Cordelia Vorkosigan, plunged by marriage into an archaic, socially divided world, struggles to fit into her new home. She faces prejudiced behaviours which are new to her, including sexism, homophobia, institutional class bias, poverty and ableism. With help from a misfit band of social outcasts, Cordelia defies these social rules and restrictions, a course of action which culminates in a covert mission to rescue her infant son during a revolution and change the world for all future generations of Barrayarans.

Barrayar

TV Series

Spaced

Priot to becoming megastars with epic geek credentials, Simon Pegg and Nick Frost starred Spaced. With only two series, each containing six half-hour epsiodes, you could watch the lot in an afternoon. Meet Tim and Daisy, two artistically inclined and utterly hapless twenty-somethings, who along with their diverse cast of friends and acquaintances are trying to avoid growing up. Each episode is a miniture jewel, littered with delicious geeky references to sci-fi, fantasy, horror and all things cult and classic. If you’re a young geek who hasn’t figured out where life is going yet – watch Spaced, and know that you’re not alone.

Film

Attack The Block

Forget the army, forget the police – it’s up to a South London gang of teenage hoods to save their neighbourhood from an alien menace. Clueless but determined, lead by Moses (John Boyega, now confirmed for a lead role in Star Wars VII), the gang aim to defend their territory with a little help from a nurse, a couple of drug dealers and some teenage girls. Attack The Block is a raucous comedy, but also touches on more serious issues, such as racism, crime, child neglect, poverty and distrust of the police, alongside positive ideals such as honour, bravery and loyalty.

attack

 

 

 

 

Not The Fox News: Memeoriam Day 2015

(Supercut by the magnificent David Ehrlich)

It’s Memeoriam Day once again. That day when we take a look at the tired old gags that the internet leant on throughout 2014 and lovingly, reverently, throw them into a hole and cement it shut. This year there are just two entries. That’s for two reasons, they’re two sides of the same coin and secondly because I suspect you all have a good four years of blog posts titled ‘In Which…’ in you.

I am Jack’s resigned acceptance.

Except where these two particular memes are concerned because they can screw right off. Alone they’re annoying and insincere. Together, they speak to a colossal failure at the heart of both male psychology in particular and fandom culture in general that I feel is directly responsible for some of the most horrendous damage of the last few years. The two memes in question?

 

‘That emotional ending was great. But I got something in my eye…’

 

And it’s emotional cousin:

 

‘If you didn’t weep at the first half hour of Up! You have NO SOUL!’

 

They need to go, folks. Today. Here’s why.

 

The ‘Something in my eye’ defense is a sword that cuts deeply and two ways every time it’s used. Firstly, if you’re a guy, every time you say that in public you’re actually saying:

‘This affected me emotionally and I’m so uncomfortable about that I’m attempting to cover it up using humour that, in turn, draws attention to the fact that I’m uncomfortable about it.’

An unwieldy sentence for an uneasy sentiment. It’s a complex one too which says three very different things at once. Firstly, that you’ve been emotionally affected by a Thing, secondly that you’re embarrassed about it and thirdly you really want to be able to admit it to a group of supportive friends but you’re frightened to. Using this isn’t a defense, because it’s a shitty defense. It’s you showing your neck to your friends and hoping they don’t bite it or point and laugh and call you a sissy girly man. Because God forbid a guy, especially a British guy, should dare to respond to anything or anyone with something other than ‘not bad’.

The purpose of art is to communicate and evoke emotion. What the art is doesn’t matter. Whether or not it’s viewed by the general public as worthwhile doesn’t matter. The only thing that does, that makes any piece of art not just worthwhile but whole is this;

Did it affect anyone?

If the answer’s yes, the artist has succeeded. If the answer’s yes, and the person it affected was you, then congratulations you’ve just had a formative experience. The bad news is it might have been painful. The good news is there are thousands more of those in your future and most of them won’t be.

Art sustains us. We complete Art. Bury that beneath waves of stiff upper lipped bullshit or nerdy over articulate pseudo analysis and we bury ourselves.

Don’t do that.

Because if you do, you’re not just hurting yourself, you’re hurting every single one of your friends who use the same defence. You’re not saying ‘You guys cried at that too, right?’, you’re saying ‘YOU cried at that, didn’t you? I DIDN’T.’ So no one blinks, no one admits it and everyone goes around being the same puffed up, chestbeating nerds who secretly just want to be real people who talk about their emotions but know they can’t trust their closest friends to be okay with that.

Business as usual.

 

The other side of the coin is actually more aggressive in some ways. Where the ‘Something in my eye’ defense is a heavily encoded call for acceptance, ‘If you didn’t cry at this you have no soul’ is about as direct and discriminatory a piece of language as you can get. Its saying ‘You’re responding to that wrong’, using culture and our interaction with it not as a universal constant but as a competition.

It’s not a competition. It’s never a competition. It’s like calling something a ‘guilty pleasure’ which barely escaped Memeoriam Day this year. All three of them speak to a fundamental insecurity; the fear that the things we love, or hate, or laugh at won’t be the things other people respond to.

They won’t be.

That’s the point.

We come into every form of media there is alone. We interact with it based on our previous experience and most of the time that interaction doesn’t rise above mild interest. But when it does, that teaches us not just about the art but about ourselves. We join a conversation that started with cave paintings and has gone on for as long as we’ve existed as a species. We owe it to ourselves to join that conversation honestly, and we owe it to everyone coming after us to make it easier to participate.

These memes both get in the way. They both slow down how we grow culturally. So today they both get thrown away.

 

Happy new year, folks. Go forth and engage.

Monday Methods : R.B Harkess

My writing day starts absurdly early, thanks to my partner who I have to taxi down to the train station at the ungodly hour of six in the morning. Having said that, it does mean I am sitting at the

kitchen table, ready to start, by about 6:30. Things tend to go something like this.

Open Mac, log on

Realise I forgot to make tea

Put kettle on

Log back on to Mac

Open Scrivener

Kettle boils, make tea.

Log back on to Mac, open the right scene.

Dry cat off, because it raining and he’s just come in soaking wet and jumped up onto my lap.

Log back onto Mac, compose thoughts, ready fingers above keyboard

Try to stop the cat, who is now hungry, from stomping all over the keyboard

Feed Cat

Log on to Mac — make note to extend the screensaver time-out

Type twenty words

Dry the other cat, who has just come in soaking wet…

not the author's cat
not the author’s cat

And so it goes on for about an hour. Eventually they get bored with harassing me and settle down, and I can finally get around to some real writing.

At the moment, I’m working on the third and final book of the Warrior Stone trilogy (as yet unnamed). I used to say I was more ‘pantser’ than ‘plotter’, but these days I’m not so sure. I start off needing to know all the backstories, what the motivations are, and some fairly detailed notes on any new characters. All of this is done pen on paper, preferably with my special ‘writiing pen’ that my partner gave me about 20 years ago. From that, I go to what I call ‘scenes’; two or three lines, like ‘Somebody tried to kill Claire by….’ or ‘Claire is at the hospital with her parents. Stuart comes in and they…’ (You didn’t actually expect I was going to tell you what happened, did you?)

From there, its time to transcribe everything into Scrivener, and then I start filling in the blanks. In this phase, first draft, I’m doing the equivalent of scribbling in pencil so fast I can hardly make out what I’ve written. This is one of the most wonderful parts of the whole writing process to me. It’s like giving birth to the story; quick and rushed and exciting and at then end of it I know if I’ve got something I can work with.

There are some that say being a plotter takes away the fun of exploring the story as you write it. All I know is that since I started plotting, I’ve finished every novel that made it as far as a list of scenes, and that I have a drawer full of 20-30,000 word false starts I didn’t plan first.

Happy writing

 

Foxy Friday : James Bennett

Our  Foxy recommendations this week are from James Bennett

Book: The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring

A fictionalised account of the notorious haunting of Borley Rectory. Seances, ghosts, old family secrets, an appearance by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and a big spooky mansion. This would make a perfect Christmas read. Paranormal activity or clever hoax? The author keeps you guessing right until the end. What’s not to love?

Film: The Desolation of Smaug Extended

Yes, yes, these films are long, but have you seen the extended versions? Jackson shades in a little more of the background and as a result the pace works better. Beorn gets more than a walk on part, the Black River of Mirkwood makes an appearance and there’s a different cut of Gandalf in Dol Guldur. Like Unexpected Journey Extended, it all feels a little less *rushed*. Yes, I know I just wrote that.

smaug

Graphic novel: Locke & Key VI: Alpha & Omega

The concluding part of Joe Hill’s graphic novel series and perhaps his best work to date. In this one, the somewhat complex plot unravels into a gripping finale as the children of Keyhouse face down Dodge and his army of shadows. You’re missing out. Go read.

Comic: Sandman Overture

Confession: I haven’t read this yet. But just look at that cover. A stunning comeback for the Dream King.

sandman

Gadget: Huawei E5372 4G Mobile Wi-Fi

OK, so this isn’t strictly a genre thing. So what? This pocket-sized doohickey  is a portal to other worlds! Get superfast broadband wherever you get a mobile phone signal (including rural Wales) and never curse at second hand signals through dodgy wired access points again. Only £20 a month for 15GB from Three Mobile. How come no one told me about this 2 months ago?

The Music of the Lonely Dark

Author of The Lonely Dark, Ren Warom, takes time out to tell us about the music behind the writing. Enjoy. – Aunty Fox.

The Music of The Lonely Dark

I don’t work to music. I’m one of those terribly dull types who functions best in silence. However, I am frequently inspired by music; sound landscapes opening story landscapes in my head that I can revisit by listening to particular tracks. I think it’s rather common for this to happen, whether it be an artist, writer, or another musician – music seems to reach in and open doors inside of you, showing you places or connections you didn’t know were there.

I live in future worlds in my head, they’re the ones I cleave to. Strange worlds on the whole. When I sit down to write, however serious my intent (NB: I’m no nowhere near intellectual enough to be serious in my writing, but I suffer from unfortunate delusions of literature. Yeah. *Eyeroll*), I get sidetracked by odd details, weird little moments crop up and spread like bacteria until all attempts at the serious (or rather, I suppose, the intellectual) have been eaten alive.

Think of it like a vampire virus in blood; the weird gradually gobbling every sane moment until only the skin and meat jacket look similar. Remaining so until that moment the inner weirdness is revealed in sharp fangs and predatory intent, provoking the expectation/reality shockwave created by the illusion of normality. Gosh… that makes my writing sound waaay sexier than it is, so I’m going to run with it. Possibly to Paris. Or Gretna Green, because I’m cheap. Or rather because I’m poor. So romantic!

I appear to be digressing. Habit.

On rare occasions the strangeness infecting my writing comes in the form of musical inspiration. Lyrics that reach under the skin and mutate the words even before I can begin to build them into a story. So it was with The Lonely Dark. I first discovered Purity Ring when one of the YouTubers I watch included them in a roundup of her favourite music. The track she mentioned was called Fineshrine and, accompanied by a wonderfully surreal video, it made me want to know who this Purity Ring were.

262_c_w_450_h_450

They are, to my delight, a Canadian electro-pop duo, and everything they do is just as wonderful strange as Fineshrine. The combination of eerie, beautiful music mixed with the peculiarity of the lead singer’s lyrics, all sung in her slightly child-like voice creates atmospheres of dreaming incongruity to become lost in. It was this atmosphere, as well as a combination of certain lyrics, that infested the DNA of The Lonely Dark. Changed it at a fundamental level from a story of exploration and horrifying discovery to one with an underlying tone of loss, loneliness and the too-real unreality of dreams.

Throughout the writing of The Lonely Dark, in moments when driving or doing household chores, or when my inspiration lagged and words refused to come, I would listen to Purity Ring and the world would open to me all over again, bringing me home when I was lost. I didn’t quite capture exactly what I wanted to (and oh how familiar is that? The frustration of writers everywhere!) but I am very proud of the story I created and I hope you might find in it some of what I sought to express.

Listen to Purity Ring. Read The Lonely Dark (Please!). If you can, do both together. They do, after all, share DNA.

NB: Just how many times did I write strange and/or weird in this thing? Where’s Roget when you need him!

Foxy Friday : G Clark Hellery

This week Geraldine has gone for something quite specific and provides a few quick picks for anyone looking for female protagonists.

Top five books with female protagonists

The Red Knight by K T Davies

Anyone who’s read my Twitter feed knows I’m a great fan of Davies and her Red Knight. The action is very well-written and the fantasy elements fit in naturally. Our heroine, Stenna, is a fierce warrior with occasional flashes of feminine emotion but she ultimately does her duty. I found her a very engaging character – someone I’d definitely like to go down the pub with & share a few pints (no girlie cocktails for our girl Stenna!). I’m eagerly awaiting the sequel (hint hint!).

red knight

Immortal by Christopher Golden

No Top Five of kick-ass females would be complete without my girl Buffy. I’ve read a number of the BtVS books an I feel Golden is one who’s best captured the characters and spirit of the show. This was one of the more adult-themed books and one which in my opinion added to the BtVS universe.

Study Trilogy by Maria V Snyder

Convicted murderer Yelena Zaltana is sentenced to death but is offered a reprieve by becoming the Commander of Ixia’s food taster. There’s action, mystery, double-dealing and fantasy and while the story may not be particularly original, Zaltana is the underdog you keep cheering for over three books. Not a challenging read but perfect for a rainy Sunday afternoon.

Skullduggery Pleasant by Derek Landy

Our teenage heroine Valkyrie Cain (not her real name) works with the irrepressible Skullduggery Pleasant so save the world time and again from Armageddon. There’s so many things I love about these books: the banter between the characters is humorous and flippant, bringing levity during tense scene, the action is well written with much of it mixing magic with martial arts, the relationships between characters (both romantic & platonic) feel natural and are tested in relatable ways, it’s not all magic and fantasy with a fair amount of mystery involved & you’re never 100% sure if you can trust certain characters. The other great thing about these books is that there’s a plethora of strongly written female characters from Cain and her Shadow to Tanith Low (who has been given her own book!) these girls will be your best friends and worst enemies without falling into stereotype. Although officially a YA book, there’s enough in here to keep most adults entertained.

Miss Marple by Agatha Christie

Who doesn’t want this lovely old lady as their granny? Ok, murder and mayhem follows her (even to the Caribbean!) but imagine all those hand-knitted jumpers and scarves? I’ve long been a Christie fan and while Poirot is my favourite, I’ve got a soft spot for the nosy old lady from St Mary Mead and it could be argued that she’s the first feminist (independent means, not reliant on a man for anything except the occasional holiday paid for by her nephew, working equally with men in a mans world). I don’t have a favourite story and there’s not really any continuity with the stories so it doesn’t matter what book you start with. I like trying to work out who the murderer is but can guarantee that Christie will throw in more twists than a roller-coaster so settle back with a cup of tea and enjoy.

miss marple

Monday Methods: K.A.Laity

We are looking for posts for Monday Methods and Foxy Fridays all year so skulk members please let me know if you have something. – Aunty Fox

The Magic Elixir

What would you do if I told you there was a guaranteed magic potion that could improve your writing, sharpen your mind and boost your general health for only pennies a cup? Furthermore, I will not ask exorbitant prices for this secret, require you to join a cult (though if you’re of a mind to may I suggest this one) or endanger your health and well being for the coming months! What is this magic substance?
You may be surprised to find it is easily obtainable — often in your corner shop! You need not look high and low, not need you set off on long journeys in uncomfortable circumstances to secure it from a holy man on a mountain top after many months of fasting and meditation. You need not learn a secret handshake, attend a seminar or even complete a course.
What is this magic elixir I speak of?
Why nothing less than humble cup o’ tea. With only a plain cuppa by my side I have written umpteen novels, short stories, essays and scripts. I have written under several names in several genres and I’m by no means done yet. I have projects galore for the coming year that will astound you with their complexity, audacity and sheer perspicacity. Or at least make you chuckle now and then. And how will I have done it all and have done it in the past? With TEA!
tea
What’s that you say? Bait and switch?! You already drink tea and it has had no magical transformation upon you? Then you’re drinking it wrong! Are you pouring boiling water over a fine bag of dried tea leaves? Maybe you have chosen the wrong tea. Hie yourself to the nearest tea shop and begin a thorough examination. Everything from assam to darjeeling to keemun — or if you prefer a green tea, or jasmine or gunpowder. There’s even herbal teas that are not in fact really tea but various herbs, twigs, socks and some kind of tiny animals (so I hear) but if that’s what you want to drink, it still counts as tea.
What? You’re already drinking tea? And not magically writing loads of stuff? Huh. Maybe it was the writing every day and making it a habit that has led to me producing so many books and stories.
But I’d bet on the tea.

Foxy Friday : James Fadeley

Foxy Friday: Pick five things to recommend, I was challenged. I thought about it, pouring over all my old interests, the shows I’ve watched and books I daydream of reading over again. For some reason, the most popular things always seem to miss me. I mean, I’ve seen Star Trek and Star Wars…but it’s the entertainment that’s slightly more outside-the-box that I keep coming back to.

So here they are.

unnamed

Television / Science Fiction:

FarScape is the show that I refuse to let time forget. It’s about the travels of John Crichton, an Earth astronaut who accidentally stumbles upon wormhole technology and gets slung-shot to the other end of the universe. There, Crichton accidentally collides with another, alien fighter craft, before being brought aboard a living starship full of prisoners.

Unfortunately, that fighter craft happened to be piloted by the brother of a Peace Keeper fleet commander, who obsesses about getting revenge on Crichton. The rest of the show catalogs Crichton and his alien allies’ adventures, the cultural collisions, the exploration, discovery and the constant escapes. The show is full of humor and heart and never fails to entertain.

Vampire Hunter D

Book / Post Apocalyptic Horror:
If you’re a writer, somethings should be read for no other reason than to stir creativity.

That’s why I recommend reading Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi. Set in 12,090 A.D., the world has suffered a devastating nuclear war. The aftermath saw the rise of vampire nobility who ruled humanity. However, recent years have seen decline in their power, thanks to powerful Vampire Hunters. D, the dhampir son of Dracula, is the best there is.

The book series is absolutely packed to the gills with fantasy lore and futuristic twists. Fairy cloning factories, natural and artificial werewolves, cyborg horses. Kikuchi takes everything awesome, mixes it in a pot… and then sets it on fire. The only warning I’ll give is that the translations have not been stellar, so read it with a grain of salt.

Following

Movie / Crime Thriller:
Perhaps you aspire to be a director someday, or simply like a well told crime story. In that case, you need to watch Following, Christopher Nolan’s very first film (you know, before he was cool). A 70-minute black and white neo-noir flick, Nolan managed to make this great movie… for a mere $6,000.

The story involves a young man who takes to following people in order to gain writing inspiration. One day, he picks the wrong person to stalk, as the man notices and approaches him. Surprisingly, this man introduces himself as Cobb… and admits to being a burglar. Cobb begins training the young man as an apprentice thief.

The film is full of twist after twist, and is told somewhat anachronistically. But if you ever had doubts about being able to make a fantastic film on a low budget, check out Following. You’ll happily be proved wrong.

Patlabor

Animated Movies / Police Thriller:
I’ve had more than my fair share of eastern influences in my life. And one of the best wasPatlabor 1, an animated movie about a Japanese police department who handles Labor (large, construction robot) crimes. Their duties vary between simple Labor trafficking, Labor thefts and violent crimes involving Labors. Isaac Asimov was very, very wrong.

But that mundane stuff was left to the television series. The Patlabor movie was big. Huge. A mystery of technological, beyond-the-grave vengeance with incredibly scary Biblical suggestions. It all ties together in a fantastic climax that manages to be both eerie, action-filled… and will leave you a little less inclined to trust technology.

Brunner

Book / Fantasy:

It’s not very often that a character simply commands our attention based on his or her sheer… aura. But that’s exactly what Brunner the Bounty Hunter, by CL Werner, accomplished.

Brunner’s history and identity are hinted at, but never really expounded upon. Instead, most of his tales and stories focus more around the bounties he hunts over anything personal about Brunner himself. Nor does Brunner’s tales put him in the “epic fantasy” vein. This is simply a guy making his daily bread in the Warhammer fantasy setting, and a great way to remind us that not every tale has to be a personal quest, vendetta or ye olde save-the-world-from-the-darkness string.