It’s here! All of us here at the Fennec Den are so excited to announce the publication of ‘The Girl in the Fort’ by Tracy Fahey, with the beautiful cover by Jacob Stack.
Set in rural Ireland of the 1980s, The Girl In The Fort is a novel about fables, friendship, family and fairy forts. After her father takes a job abroad, eleven year old Vivian is sent from Dublin to stay with her grandparents in their ramshackle family home in the countryside. At first she fiercely resents abandoning city life and her friends – her grandparents don’t even have TV, just hundreds of books. However, she reluctantly finds herself becoming attracted to the strange fairy fort in a nearby field, and the odd secrets it holds. But spending too much time in the fort can be a dangerous thing, as Vivian and her new friends Katie and Tommy find out. As the long, hot summer unfolds, Vivian sees her grandmother’s folk tales come to life, experiences the complicated joys of witnessing the past, and forges new relationships with her family.
You can buy your copy now through Amazon or Aunty Fox will have copies at SledgeLit where Tracy is a guest speaker.
We’ve all really enjoyed joining Vivian on her adventure and hope you do to.
We are so proud of our little sister Kit, the second title in her line for Middle Grade to Young Adult readers is available today!
The Girl in the Fort by Tracy Fahey
Tracy’s collection of short stories was shortlisted for this years BFS best anthology and in this full length novel seh delivers the same talent for story telling.
‘Your actions affect others; you are very powerful.’ For a second her eyes seem to glaze over, her voice deepens. ‘You hold a great fate in your hands, and no-one can tell what way it will turn. It is all within you, but there are dark shadows around you…’
After her father takes a job abroad, eleven year old Vivian is sent from Dublin to stay with her grandparents in their ramshackle family home in the countryside. At first she fiercely resents abandoning city life and her friends – but reluctantly finds herself becoming attracted to the strange fairy fort in a nearby field, and the odd secrets it holds. But spending too much time in the fort can be a dangerous thing, as Vivian and her new friends Katie and Tommy find out. As the long, hot summer unfolds, Vivian sees her grandmother’s folk tales come to life, experiences the complicated joys of witnessing the past, and forges new relationships with her family.
Halloween is nearly upon us! The pumpkins are carved, the cobwebs draped and the ghosts are dusting off their best hauntings. It is the perfect time to launch a spooky novella for a little Halloween fun.
Welcome to Greystones. Do you believe in ghosts? You will.
Haunted manor house Greystones Hall is filled to the brim with ghosts. It’s also falling to bits, and artist owner Emily doesn’t have the money to refurbish the place. When the makers of hit tv show ‘Got Ghosts?’ offer to pay for a weekend’s filming there she jumps at the chance, even though she and her ghostly grandfather Gramps have reservations.
The reservations seem to be misplaced when the film crew swing into action, and producer Carl turns out to be dark, handsome and very available. But Emily soon starts to have doubts about the methods they use, which Carl won’t discuss. Then the show’s resident medium Stella stirs up a new and malevolent spirit, revealing a dark secret at the heart of the house that has been hidden for centuries. And when Emily’s own safety is threatened, together with that of her ghosts and her beloved Gramps, will it be Carl who comes to the rescue, or someone much more unexpected?
In addition to our two upcoming releases, The Girl in the Fort with Fennec and Got Ghosts, we have several other titles perfect for curling up under a blanket with as the nights draw in.
Of course, we have our 2017 anthology, Respectable Horror. Full of thrills and chills to make your blood run cold.
Introduction by K. A. Kaity
The Estate of Edward Moorehouse by Ian Burdon
The Feet on the Roof by Anjana Basu
Spooky Girl by Maura McHugh
Recovery by H. V. Chao
The Holy Hour by C. A. Yates
Malefactor by Alan C. Moore
A Splash of Crimson by Catherine Lundoff
In These Rooms by Jonathan Oliver
A Framework by Richard Farren Barber
Running a Few Errands by Su Haddrell
Miss Metcalfe by Ivan Kershner
The Little Beast by Octavia Cade
The Well Wisher by Matthew Pegg
Where Daemons Don’t Tread by Suzanne J. Willis
Full Tote Gods by D. C. White
Those Who Can’t by Rosalind Mosis
The Astartic Arcanum by Carol Borden
Or is you fancy something that is sure to make you feel the bite of oncoming winter… Winter Tales might be just what you need.
Mat Joiner: The frost sermon
Cover by S.L. Johnson
Su Haddrell: The Bothy
Sharon Kernow: The Wolf Moon
Ruth Booth: The love of a season
Masimba Musodza: When the trees were enchanted
Fiona Clegg: Sunday’s Child
Tim Major: Winter in the Vivarium
Lizz-Ayn Shaarawi: Snow Angel
Amelia Gorman: Under your skin
B. Thomas: Among Wolves
Eliza Chan: Yukizuki
DJ Tyrer: Frose
G.H. Finn: Cold-Hearted
David Sarsfield: Voliday
Kelda Crich: Coldness Waits
K.N. McGrath: The Siege
Jonathan Ward: Spirit of the Season
James Bennett: The Red Lawns
Anne Michaud: Frost Fair
Jan Edwards: Shaman Red
Adrian Tchaikovsky: The Coming of The Cold
Verity Holloway: The Frost of Heaven
For shorter reads we have G. Clark Hellery’s murderous camping collection Weird Wild or Colin Barnes gothic novella A Heart for the Ravens.
Or you might prefer to wonder paths unknown with Ian Whates in Dark Travellings
And for those of you who are having an urban Halloween, perhaps the fairy tale stylings of King Wolf, a short collection by Steven Savile
Of course, you may be in the mood for something completely different. A journey into outer space, a fun adventure to drive away the shadows. Have a browse, because the only thing we know for sure is dark evenings are perfect for reading.
With her first novel for Fennec being published on Thursday, Tracy Fahey discusses writing ‘The Girl in the Fort’ over on her blog.
Here’s a little about the book: Set in rural Ireland of the 1980s, The Girl In The Fort is a novel about fables, friendship, family and fairy forts. After her father takes a job abroad, eleven year old Vivian is sent from Dublin to stay with her grandparents in their ramshackle family home in the countryside. At first she fiercely resents abandoning city life and her friends – her grandparents don’t even have TV, just hundreds of books. However, she reluctantly finds herself becoming attracted to the strange fairy fort in a nearby field, and the odd secrets it holds. But spending too much time in the fort can be a dangerous thing, as Vivian and her new friends Katie and Tommy find out. As the long, hot summer unfolds, Vivian sees her grandmother’s folk tales come to life, experiences the complicated joys of witnessing the past, and forges new relationships with her family.
We have all really enjoyed helping Tracy to bring Vivian’s world to you and are so excited to see the finished product. We hope you enjoy ‘The Girl in the Fort’ as much as we do and can’t wait to hear what you think.
We were very pleased to discover yesterday, that in addition to being shortlisted for the British Fantasy Awards best anthology, Asian Monsters has appeared on Ellen Datlow’s honourable mentions.
Congratulations to
Yukimi Ogawa for Kokuri’s Palace
Eve Shi for Blood Like Water
Eliza Chan for Datsue-Ba
This series continues to show its quality and editor Margret certainly deserves recognition for the research and care she puts into maintaining that standard.
This November we are releasing Volume Four, Pacific Monsters, to be followed in 2018 & 2019 by the Americas (and related areas) and finally in 2020 by Eurasia. The first three volumes European, African and Asian Monsters are available now, from Amazon.
Our latest Fantasy outing is Into the Blight by Jonathan Ward.
It is a time of turmoil and uncertainty.
For decades the Bask have ruled over the six clans of Arran. Now they rule no longer: overthrown by a creature from legend that wields terrifying power, and seeks to remake the land according to her own inscrutable designs.
Fearing that the creature might turn her attention their way, the rulers of the neighbouring kingdom of Taleria seek anything that could stand against her might. They find it in the past: in the tales surrounding a cursed land and an ancient power buried there. An expedition is mounted to claim this power for Taleria.
But there are some things in the world that should very definitely remain buried…
Lots of covers to show you over the next few days but let’s start with Monsters.
This year, Volume 4 takes us to the Pacific and Daniele Serra having just picked up another BFS award for Best Artist for his incredible work, once again supplies the cover.
A thing of beauty as always. We have a great line up once again and this will be released late November so if you are stuck for a Christmas present… just a thought.
This series combines, stories and art to give an introduction to the horror stories and monsters of a region, working as much as we can with writers from or strongly connected with the region.
It is Fantasycon Friday so I hope everyone at the event today is having an amazing time! We can’t attend but there should be just a little paw print on the Mother’s Milk Books table on Saturday.
We are opening our doors today too, but for submissions. We have a couple of slots for 2018 and we are looking for fiction to fill them. We will update the submissions page with this call in time for the 1st Oct when we officially open.
Todd & Reynard enjoying a book together
What we want: You know our genres by now, sci fi, fantasy, horror, crime, blasphemous mixes of various genres, anything speculative. It can be dark or fun as long as it is packed with great characters and fantastic plot.
Length wise, well, we hate to say it but we were doing novellas before it was cool, so really anything that is long enough to need it’s own book works for us. It needs to be completed though. Adult or YA is fine. If it leans toward middle grade, there will be another call for Fennec in due course, please wait for that.
What we don’t want: We don’t do shock, extreme or body horror, it makes Aunty Fox squicky and if she can’t read it she can’t publish it. We don’t publish romance, erotica, literary or anything we haven’t actually asked for. We will reject without reading.
Our submission guidelines are on the Subs page and we do suggest reading them.
Please make sure you use ‘submissions@foxspirit.co.uk‘
Doors open on 1st October and remain open until 31st October, please submit within that window.
How we work.
Fox Spirit is a small press, we work on profit split, our terms will be 65% to the author 35% to us, but we will be taking all out costs for cover art, editing etc out of our %, so you get you % of every sale. We sell via Amazon using print on demand.
As a small press we are working on a limited budget and limited range so if you have expectations of retiring from your dayjob on book income you need to talk to someone like Penguin. If we are interested in your title we will be happy to discuss expectations in more detail.
What happens now?
During October we will gather submissions and send acknowledgements. If you do not receive an acknowledgement in 24 hours please let us know in case your sub hasn’t reached us.
When submitting please send a short synopsis and the first three chapters. We may come back to you to request a full manuscript during the process.
Depending on submissions we will read over November and December and finalise in January.
Commissioning Editor Aunty Fox and Editor Daz will be reading submissions.
La Scherma, the art of fencing by Francesco Ferdinando Alfieri and translated by the team from The School of the Sword is available in it’s gorgeous new second edition.
‘This is the first published English translation of Francesco Alfieri’s fencing treatise: “La Scherma”, first published in Padua in 1640. Alfieri was the Master at Arms at the Accademia Delia in Padua, Italy from 1632. The Delia was a school attached to the University of Padua teaching young gentlemen military skills, mathematics and the martial arts of self defence. It is not widely appreciated that Europe has martial arts traditions that are centuries old. Contained within this book is a description of one of these European combat systems ~ the art of fighting with the Rapier ~ a long, slender, civilian sword designed for self defence and dueling. The ability to wield such a weapon with skill was a matter of vital importance in an age when the defence of honour and, by definition, the immortal soul, could be more important than life itself. Alfieri’s concise system is a very practical and effective way to address this need. It is an excellent resource for all students of historical swordplay and anyone interested in the martial arts of Renaissance Europe. “This work doesn’t ‘merely’ provide new access to a significant treatise published at a time of great transition in Europe, but it offers an opportunity to truly engage with Alfieri through the context supplied in its concise yet informative introduction and copious notes.” – Joshua Pendragon: Guest Curator, Noble Art of the Sword Exhibition, Wallace Collection, 2012′
This is a second edition of the original translation by the same team.
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