‘Noir Carnival’ Taster Day 1
Rosalie wound her way along the deserted path, passing tent
after tent of midnight blue outlined in broad strokes of silver.
It was near midnight, and the Carnival had begun winding
down. Lights began to flicker out one by one, restoring the
brightly illuminated fairgrounds to a darker, quieter gloom.
Rapunzel, looking out from her window at the Carnival’s
northern end, had started keeping her hair, pulling her
blonde braid laboriously up the three floors of her tower,
singing a wistful tune while she was at it. It wouldn’t be long
till she was at Jack’s Pub, downing the pints with Jill and Red
Riding Hood.
from ‘In the Mouth of the Beast’ by Li Hiujia
On the Edge
Yesterday was Edge.Lit two and although I missed it last year I have enough experience of Alex Davis’s events that Fox Spirit booked a launch in full confidence that this was the right kind of event for us to bring the Carnival to.
There were some twenty five or more of the skulk in attendance on the day and in addition to being a fantastic event as can be expected from Alex, it was also incredible for me on a personal level to see so many of the writers and people involved in Fox Spirit (including our tireless copy editor Daz) in one place and to meet some of them face to face for the first time as well as catching up with old friends. I could not wish to work with a more fun, passionate and inspiring bunch of people.
So enough of me being all proud den mother, and onto the shennanigans as the Prof would say.
We had the lunch time launch time spot and we had brought Spacewitch in on it with us, so for around 50 minutes Fox Spirit and Spacewitch had control of the horizontal and the vertical in Cinema One. A fact we abused roundly. Things kicked off with a very sensible powerpoint from Del Lakin-Smith about what Spacewitch is trying to achieve. It’s a fantastic concept, the idea of enhancing the experience without interrupting the book. Here are the books, the core stories and here is the world we built around them, the DVD extras if you will for you to return to afterwards to extend the experience, or explore while you contemplate getting the book. The whole site will be a semi organic living thing, full of hidden treasures and opportunities for exploration. It’s a portal for storytelling not just books and it’s going to grow!
But enough of that. K.A Laity ‘Noir Carnival’s’ editor ushered him of stage to allow the carnival to begin, drawing the audience in and creating a fantastic fun mood. We then had short readings by James Bennett and Chloe Yates who did a marvellous job, before I finally allowed everyone to head up on stage with us for wine and cupcakes by the talented MutherFudger which went down a storm.
I’m not sure it’s usual to mention the book so little at a launch but the cover image was up and that and the readings spoke for themselves I think. At any rate everyone seemed to have a fun time, the atmosphere was great and we sold a respectable number of books. Huge thanks and well done to everyone involved with a special mention to the redshirts and Quad staff who silently make things work on the day.
Other than that I spent the day talking, enjoying the sunshine and eating in fantastic company. All in all I’m not sure it could have been much more perfect.
It’s Here!
It’s all about the story
It has to be really.
I was always a reader because I love stories. I love watching them, reading them, listening to them, even playing them. I reviewed so I could find new stories and tell people about them. Now I get the ultimate dream for anyone who doesn’t write, isn’t a creator of stories, I get to put stories out there that you might otherwise never get the chance to read.
The thing is books, even ebooks are just one medium for stories. Stories can be told in a multitude of ways and I love that! I love that changing the method of telling changes the story. I quite deliberately don’t seek audio rights from authors and I keep exclusivity periods short because I believe this:
It’s all about the story.
Selling or giving the story to a podcast doesn’t devalue an anthology or novel. It’s a new entity and it supports the telling and retelling of the tale. Stories that appear in FS anthologies appearing in other anthologies or magazines doesn’t devalue our anthologies. A Fox Spirit anthology is a particular collection on a particular theme, collected according to our values and preferences. It’s an entity that is more than the sum of its parts. Besides, it’s generally standard to note when reprinting where the first print was and that helps spread the name of Fox Spirit Books, a thing I approve of.
I mention this now for a couple of reasons, to remind my wonderful skulk of writers that they are free to submit their stories to podcasts and for audio and that Nun & Dragon’s exclusivity period is a month or so past now, so they should be looking for other opportunities to spread those tales too.
The other reason is that on the 13th July at Edge Lit in derby we launch Noir Carnival and Spacewitch will be launching as a part of that event. The brains behind Spacewitch, Del Lakin-Smith shares this view and we will be seeking new and interesting ways of engaging with readers and making it about more than selling books. It’ll be about sharing stories, growing them, being part of them. You don’t have to write for us to be part of what we do. We love getting reader photos, we would love to support people in sharing our stories so if you have ideas contact me on adele @ foxspirit.co.uk and lets see what we can come up with together.