blog posts Archives -

November 4, 2018

Blog posts needed for December

You know what makes a great gift? A book!! Books are amazing, you can pick them up all over the place, they fit into stockings and under pillows, and they provide endless adventures. So all this December we are inviting you to share a review of a favourite book or give us five of your favourite books with just a few lines for each.

We are not looking for reviews of Fox Spirit Books for this, (although if you pop those on Amazon or Goodreads we will love you forever, obvs).

Just send your submission to submissions@foxspirit.co.uk and title it ‘Christmas Books’. We are offering a £5 token payment for these posts so also include a paypal email.

We are looking for titles from any time, old or new and we are keen to see books proposed by under represented groups, such as POC and LGBT+ writers.

December 12, 2016December 9, 2016

Asian Monsters : Yukimi Ogawa

Our folklore monsters, yokai, are the way through which our ancestors tried to explain the aspects of the universe, otherwise unexplained at the time: mostly fear for the unknown. It’s dark, you want to reach the comfort of your home as soon as you can, but you find yourself unable to keep walking–if you feel something is trying to trip you, it might be a monster called sunekosuri, calf-rubber; if you feel as though something large is blocking your path, it might be nurikabe, the wall monster.

sekienkokuri-baba — Image from _Konjaku Hyakki Shuui_. by Kokuri Babaa

Ghosts are categorized as yokai, too. People probably tried to explain *what happens* once you’re dead, by creating ghosts. Or perhaps tried to reconcile themselves with the fear for death, by imagining that something goes on after death of their body, even as monster.

Now, the main character of my story “Kokuri’s Palace,” Crone Kokuri (kuri means the temple’s kitchen, ko- is a prefix meaning old), I think, falls in this “explaining the unexplained” category, too. In our folklore she is an old woman living in an old temple. She strips corpses of their skins, eats the flesh, weaves stuff with the corpses’ hair. This is, I think, how people tried to see where corpses go after they are buried. By making her find the use for hair, they even explained how the hair lasted longer than the flesh, and what became of it.

The part about Kokuri wearing the corpses’ skin is entirely my creation. She is always depicted as a horrifying, grotesque kind of a monster, and I wanted to imagine her finding entertainment, even in her solitude. And I hope she wouldn’t mind my tampering with her nature–after I die, I’ll be burned down to bones, and will have nothing I can offer her.

November 7, 2014

Blog post call

This is a call for the Fox Spirit Skulk. Our writers, editors, reviewers, artists etc. Anyone who has worked with us in any context or has a yes to work with us over the coming programme of work.

We wish to a couple of regular blog series next year. After some discussion on the foxy forum we have settled on ‘Five on Friday’ and ‘Monday Methods’. Depending how many responses we get I would like to do Five on Friday weekly from the Beginning of Jan to the end of Nov 2015 so we can use early December to produce a complete list (it will make sense in a minute I promise). Monday Methods may be more like fortnightly but again, it will depend on the level of response.

Monday Methods – This one is aimed at writers and artists. We would like a short post, a couple of hundred words at least, but no more than 500, preferably with an image or two (your desk space, your favourite mug, the mass of wine bottles waiting to be recycled, a shelf of books or wall of art you gaze at when you should be writing, your whiteboard) about the things that are essential to you in writing. Playlists are always a good addition to this sort of thing too.

Five on Friday – Five recommendations with a short paragraph on each (around 50 – 100 words is ideal) for fans of sci fi, fantasy, horror and crime. They can be fiction or non fiction, they can be books (at least one should be), films, tv shows (a specific episode or one series of a show is better than the whole show, so Star Trek bad, Star Trek the next generation ok, Star Trek original series, the trouble with tribbles best), music, comics, memorabilia, action figures, tentacle book ends, Dr Who cushions anything you love dearly and think we should all know about. Again, if you can send through images of the items that would be helpful, if not we shall find what we can.

Please send the posts to submissions@foxspirit.co.uk and title it either Method Monday or Five on Friday as appropriate.

There is no remuneration for these blog posts, they are just for fun and to engage with the readers, let them know a bit about who you all are.