New Release: Akane

G Clark Hellery’s new YA sci fi / fantasy novel ‘Akane Last of the Orions’ is available now!

Akane cover

When the Shadows arrived on earth, everyone assumed they were another benign alien race looking to live peacefully among us. However, they soon showed there true intentions and now the only person between them and the annihiliation of human race is Akane, one fo the last Orions. On the run from the police and not knowing if she can trust even her oldest friends Akane must uncover the full power of the locket passed down through her family. Will she be in time to save her family and the rest of the human race or will the Shadows drag them all into darkness?

We are looking for reviewers for the book so please contact adele @ foxspirit.co.uk if you are interested.

 

Reviews 4: Down the Rabbit Hole

Weirdmage

Tales of Eve edited by Mhairi Simpson

‘The quality of the storytelling is very high here, above what can be expected from any anthology. It really is consistently very good throughout. Every author in here has delivered something that they can be proud of, and something which I have really enjoyed.’

Fox Pockets: Piracy edited by Adele Wearing

‘It is short, as are the stories in it, and it is all the stronger for it. This is excellent for those that want some short fiction that will fill a few minutes now and then. For those that like their fiction to come with a piratical leaning, this is an absolute must.’

Neil Williamson

Fox Pockets: Piracy edited by Adele Wearing

‘Did I mention the cover design? How much I love it? No? Well I do. Look to your left. See what I mean? I reckon artist Sarah Anne Langton has created something truly iconic with this set of simple elements and limited palette.’

Liquorice UK

Weird Wild by G Clark Hellery

‘The mix of styles and genres, incorporating elements of thriller and fantasy works well on the whole and the descriptions of the wood are wonderfully vivid and rich, beautifully capturing the eeriness of the setting.’

Killer Aphrodite

Requiem in E Sharp by Joan De La Haye

‘As you all may know, Killer Aphrodite is run from Pretoria and we are well aware that sometimes the truth is much more terrifying than fiction… especially around these parts, which means that De La Haye was able to capture the truly gruesome realities that we have to face more often than not and turn it into a book that will give you a proper scare. ‘

White Rabbit advert 2

A whole bunch of carrots… or reviews for White Rabbit by K.A. Laity

Alasdair Stuart : This is supernatural fiction mixed with noir, coffee and incense, whiskey and blood, all swirled together in a novel that’s compact, punchy fun. Life is messy, death is too.

Antonio Urias : White Rabbit is fast paced, pitch perfect noir with a well-developed fantasy world and tight characterization. Highly enjoyable.

Crimeculture : Laity’s writing is punchy and readable and she has a knack for slang and banter. The whole style of the genre mash-up keeps the reader on their toes, because with noir, the supernatural and the Carroll-bunny theme all in play, we never know what’s coming next.

Final Call for Fantastic Treats

Final Call for Fantastic Treats

It’s been ongoing for some time since our original Instigator Andrew Reid put the idea of a charity cookbook forward. Still, the time has come. We are closing submissions on the 1st May.

The book will be under the creative control of our adored Mutherfudger, Nadine Holmes whose remarkable baked goods have supported book events nationally. Mutherfudger  will also be creating some of the recipes and providing photos for the book.

This one is for Cancer Research so there is no payment beyond a print copy for all participants. All income will go to the charity as Fox Spirit are not taking anything from this for costs. We are seeking submissions of a short or flash length story with a related dessert or treat recipe. The treats can be sweet or savoury, but savoury items should be snacks or tapas style, not main meals.

from cakelady247 at cakecentral.com
from cakelady247 at cakecentral.com

The stories can be sci fi, fantasy, horror or crime. The stories can be heavily involved with the recipe or merely mention it. We will also accept poetry or drawings as submissions to accompany the recipe, if they are in keeping with genre fiction spirit of the book.

We are accepting submissions from writing/cooking teams. Recipes should be original or personal versions, please do not submit recipes as found in existing books for copyright reasons.

We are hoping to release the book November 2015 although given the added complexity of including photos and trialling recipes we are allowing some flexibility in that.

Please send all submissions to submissions@foxspirit.co.uk

For more information on our editor/hostess please visit http://www.mutherfudger.co.uk/

 

 

 

The Stars Seem So Far Away

This Valentines Day we are delighted to offer something much better than chocolates or flowers. A new shiny book!

FS Star Seem So-Front 180ppi

‘Margret Helgadottir’s kinetic prose immerses the reader in a future woven from the threads of Nordic history, studded with jewels pillaged from our mythic past.’
– Damien Walter, Columnist for The Guardian
‘Finely observed, beautifully written; Margret Helgadottir’s stories have the chill brightness of new myth. She is a writer to watch.’
– Adam Roberts
FS Stars Quote 3

Reaching for Stars

It’s already February! How did that happen?

We are in the midst of getting books out, particularly ‘The Stars Seem so Far Away’ the re release of ‘Dreambook’ and ‘Emily Nation’ three very different and very awesome titles to kick off 2015.

FS Star Seem So-Front 180ppi

We also have events to plan. We are going to be very active locally organising live reading sessions and panels. The Skulk will be in force at this years Edge.Lit having a joint event with Boo Books (Working title Fox Boo).

…and in case all that wasn’t enough we will shortly be launching our new Combat Sports imprint FoxGloves which we are aiming to Kickstart this summer.

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Finally, because we never take a breath here in the fox den, we will also be bringing you news of Fennec our childrens imprint soon along with developments under our HEMA idenity Vulpes. It’s a busy time for the whole skulk so please follow us on twitter and facebook and visit the site regularly or even better, sign up for the newsletter so you don’t miss anything.

And while you wait for our new titles, we have plenty to entertain you already out there!

A Special Christmas Offer

It’s nearly Christmas and Billy’s Monsters are here!

In a moment of Christmas Spirit (no Aunty Fox has not been at the sherry) we have decided that if you have bought or buy the paperback of Billy’s Monsters this December we will give you the ebook and send it to a kindle address of your choice.

All you need to do to claim is send your proof of purchase to adele@(NOSPAM)foxspirit.co.uk (remove the (NOSPAM) along with the kindle address you want the book sending to. Please title your email ‘Billy’s Offer’.

If you or the person you want to gift the ebook to are not kindle owners, not to worry, we can send an epub or mobi file to an email address.

 

billys monsters - front coversmall

 

The monsters under the bed.

Billy’s Monsters by Vincent Holland-Keen

Paperback available now, ebooks comings soon.

The monsters lurking under Billy’s bed when he was small were real, also not so much lurking as hanging out. Now some of them travel with him in a backpack and when he meets two sisters with a serious supernatural problem Billy’s backpack makes him something of an unlikely hero. 

 

billys monsters - front coversmall

Cover by Vincent Holland-Keen

Billy would be an ordinary sixteen your old boy if his best friends in life weren’t monsters from under his bed.

Scarlett wants to be an ordinary sixteen year old girl, but her life is on hold thanks to her younger sister, Hester.

Hester is special. She doesn’t know why. She doesn’t know she’s part of a sinister conspiracy centred around the exclusive Elderigh College. She only knows that if she doesn’t keep quiet, the monsters will find her….

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Drag Noir: Tracy Fahey

Richard Dadd’s The Fairy Feller’s Master Stroke

Fairy Drag: Or, How I Wrote The Changeling by Tracy Fahey

You don’t mess with the fairies in Ireland. They are malignant force, older than humanity, who live by their own laws. Unlike their elegant Victorian English counterparts, the Irish fairies are Other, different in every way; both in looks and in character. They’re tall and pale, with a warlike approach to life and an immense propensity for revenge. Country life, until well into the 20th century was ruled by a series of invisible boundaries –folk who lived there didn’t cut down the whitethorn, didn’t build a house on a fairy path, didn’t meddle with the forts. These sites, demarcated by fairy behaviour became forbidden zones

Alan Lee’s Changlings

As with all stories, the writing of this started as a result of several unaligned thoughts coming together – the persistence of supernatural rituals in rural Ireland, a gruesome murder in Northern Ireland, and the old belief that you needed to disguise the sex of a baby to save it from been ‘swept’ or ‘fetched’ by the fairies. The fairies, it was said, would steal away an unprotected baby and replace it with a sickly fairy child who would dwindle and wither away, despite all human efforts. I became fascinated with the idea of ‘infant drag’, where clothing, hair and adornment function as a protective, gender-masking disguise. The idea of drag in this story is a double-edged sword. It is a catalyst for concealment, transformation, but also for revenge. I began wondering how this experience might translate into later life…and so this story came to life.

The story has an unhappy ending, but then, all fairy stories do. They end in tears, in partings, in kidnappings, desolation and death. Our poor changeling fares no differently.

DRAG NOIR is out now.