Aunty Fox, Author at - Page 34 of 57

March 17, 2015

Reviews 2: The Tony Lane Edition

Tony has been a supporter of Fox Spirit since it beganand has consistently given us honest, largely positive reviews. He’s also on occasion hosted interviews with our authors, artists and even Aunty Fox. I have attempted to collect all his reviews so far here.

Emily Nation By Alec McQuay

The Velocity of Constant by Hardeep Sangha

Drag Noir edited by K.A. Laity

Billy’s Monsters by Vincent Holland-Keen

Breed by K.T. Davies

King Wolf by Steven Savile

Burning by Joan De La Haye

The Girl at the End of the World Bk 2 edited by Adele Wearing

The Girl at the End of the World Bk 1 edited by Adele Wearing

White Rabbit by K.A. Laity

Warrior Stone by Rob Harkess

Fox Pockets: Guardians edited by Adele Wearing

Tales of the Fox and Fae collected by Adele Wearing

Oasis by Joan De La Haye

The ‘Lost’ Second Book of Nicoletto Giganti (1608) translated by Piermarco Terminiello and Joshua Pendragon (A Vulpes book)

Fox Pockets: Shapeshifters edited by Adele Wearing

Tales of Eve edited by Mhairi Simpson (shortlisted for Best Anthology with BFS in 2014)

Noir Carnival edited by K.A. Laity

Fox Pockets: Piracy edited by Adele Wearing

Blood Bound by Sarah Cawkwell

Requiem in E Sharp by Joan De La Haye

Weird Noir edited by K.A. Laity

Tales of the Nun & Dragon collected by Adele Wearing

Huge thanks to Tony and everyone who has reviewed our books for their support. It means a lot to us.

March 13, 2015

Reviews

A little while ago the wonderful Starburst Magazine (a must for all SF fans) reviewed a few of our titles. We wanted to flag them up here too. Click the titles for the full review.

The Lonely Dark by Ren Warom

‘Author Ren Warom writes in a free-flowing, personal and highly evocative way. This is a tale of introspection and much of the action takes place in the protagonist’s mind. What could have easily become a drawn out exercise in navel gazing becomes a thrilling journey into the unknown, fraught with both paranoia and self-discovery.’

Drag Noir by Various, edited by K.A. Laity

‘One of the nice things about the small press is that you tend to find more original and clever ideas amongst them, especially when it comes to anthologies. Fox Spirit Books tend to specialise in seeking out new talent and coming up with bright new themes. Drag Noir blends two things that work so well together it now seems obvious. The grim, gritty and hyper-sexualised noir genre and the glorious world of drag. Both share similar histories, and it’s easy to imagine a top hat and tails wearing Gladys Bentley rubbing shoulders with the characters from The Postman Always Rings Twice.’

European Monsters by Various, edited by Margret Helgadottir and Jo Thomas

‘EBooks have been a boon to the small press, allowing many independent publishers to produce work that would otherwise be too expensive. This has also meant that paper and ink books created by such companies have become much less common. So it’s nice to see that Fox Spirit’s latest anthology is not only available in the old fashioned format, but that it’s also beautifully produced and illustrated.

European Monsters is a gorgeous collection of tales of unnatural creatures, dealing with the rigours of the modern day. Each tale picks a creature from myth and gives us a short but sweet snapshot of its existence.’

And The Future Fire is currently working its way through Girl Vol 2 but gave a balanced and positive review of Girl at the End of the World Vol 1 here.

‘The very cool small press Fox Spirit Books have brought out an anthology of apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic stories with women protagonists in two volumes. Edited by Adele Wearing, the generally high-quality The Girl at the End of the World (or at least the first volume, which is all that I have read—a review of volume two will follow from another reviewer) covers several different areas beneath the umbrella of apocalypse, from the personal to the world-shattering, from the absurd to the terrifying.’

If you are interested in reviewing Fox Spirit Titles please contact adele@ foxspirit.co.uk

March 11, 2015

Welcome to the Speakeasy

The awesome Trixie Sneer (created by S.L. Johnson) would like to welcome you to the Speakeasy with the first episode of Speakeasy radio.

We will be embedding the Speakeasy radio into the sidebar, but for now just go and enjoy the first epsiode with K.A. Laity and founder Carol Borden.

Yes there are a number of skulk members lounging in the Speakeasy, along with a whole load of other awesome ladies to discover.

Check Out Pop Culture Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with SpeakEasy Radio on BlogTalkRadio

March 5, 2015

World Book Day

It’s world book day today. All over the place kids are going to school dressed as their favourite characters. Aunty Fox has even loaned out her tail for the event. World Book Day makes me think of sitting in the space under my bunk bed (behind the inbuilt cupboards) with a lamp and a book as a kid, or reading a novel inside a science text book when I was supposed to be revising. It makes me think of the table of indie books I had the honour of manning at NineWorlds last year. Most importantly it makes me think of stories and the pleasure they bring.

There are people who believe that fiction must try to be improving to have value. I disagree. I think we cannot help but be improved and enriched by the sharing of stories, so in fiction writers should be trying to tell the best story they can. What we are trying to do at Fox Spirit is share some of the stories that capture our imagination, that enrich us, with everyone out there.

So this world book day eat cake for breakfast, read something you enjoy and tell someone about a book you love!

March 3, 2015March 3, 2015

Awards Season

Awards season has well and truly started and we hope you will forgive us a moment of vanity as we ask for your support.

Our own Joan De La Haye (Shadows, Requiem in E Sharp, Oasis, Burning) is up for an award in the South African Indies for ‘Burning’. We couldn’t be prouder and if you had a moment to support that would be very wonderful of you. Voting is open now.

Also at the moment the British Fantasy Society are taking suggestions for their shortlist. We were surprised and delighted to be shortlisted for Best Anthology and Best Small Press last year and if you like what we are doing we would be really pleased* to have your nomination this year.

* massive understatement.

You can check out when our books were published here.

***Bouchercon Voters: Eligible crime releases include
ANTHOLOGY: Drag Noir ed. K. A. Laity
COLLECTION: Extricate/Throw the Bones by Graham Wynd
NOVEL: White Rabbit by K. A. Laity
SHORT STORIES:

Any/all of the DRAG NOIR stories
“Headless in Bury.” Missing Monarchs: Fox Pockets Anthology
“Smallbany.” Short story. Free promotional story for Drag Noir from Fox Spirit Books

March 3, 2015

J. Damask series cover reveals

A little while ago we published the third in J Damask’s ‘Xan Ju’ series ‘Heart of Fire’ with this stunning cover by S.L. Johnson

We are delighted to say that we subesquently obtained the rights for the previous two novels and will be re releasing them shortly and S.L. Johnson has returned to give them a wonderful look as a series!

We love these striking covers with their nod to Warhol and look forward to bringing you the books this spring.

March 2, 2015June 16, 2015

Winter Tales – Submission Call

Frost pierces through everything. Your bones ache in the icy wind. Harsh winter storms rage and the sun is leaving, not to return for many months. Winter seems to never end. There is however beauty and magic. The snow covered pine trees reaching for the sky, the green northern lights dancing over the mountains, the wolf packs howling at the moon, and the snow crystals glinting like stars in the pale moonlight. When the temperatures drop, people and creatures gather around the camp fires to share warmth, friendship and tales, to chase away the frost and try to ignore the terrifying creatures lurking in the darkness.

We are now collecting winter tales, to drive away the grim winter and bring you the wonders and magic of the season. Fox Spirit Books will publish the Winter Tales anthology in the beginning of 2016. The anthology will be edited by Margrét Helgadóttir. We want unusual and elegant speculative fiction stories with full plot and strong characters. We are seeking diversity. The stories can be light with a touch of romance or humour, or dark and terrifying. Stories about creatures, monsters, animals and shapeshifters are welcome. The stories can be within speculative subgenres such as the weird, fables or folkloric, magical realism, adventure, dystopian, cyberpunk, mystery or fantastic, but we ask that the stories take place on Earth and have the winter as frame. Poetry is welcome. We are not looking for nonfiction or fanfiction. We are not looking for satire, erotica, paranormal romance, splatter or overly gory stories.

Submission details

Submission deadline: June 15th 2015. Response will be given by end of October 2015 at the latest. The manuscript must be written in English. Stories should be 1500 words up to 7500 words. Any stories below or above this will not be considered, with the exception of poems which should be no longer than 30 lines. In this instance we are not accepting graphic stories for submission. No multiple submissions, simultaneous submissions, or reprints. We do not want stories that have appeared on your blog or other public websites for this anthology E-mail your submission to narjegerredaktor at gmail dot com. Put SUBMISSION WINTER TALES as the subject of your email. The submission email must contain your real name, your writing name if different, the title and word amount of your submission, and a 100 words bio. There is no need for a submission letter other than this.

Document title should have the story name and your name or initials for easy identification. Documents must be in .docx or .doc (word), or .rtf (rich text) formats. The story document itself needs your name and email at the top, then the title of the story and the name you want it publishing under followed by the text of the story. Please format your document according to the guidelines on the submissions page at Fox Spirit Books.

Payment and rights Fox Spirit is a small independent press and at present we can only offer a token payment of £10 for stories with a copy of the print book and a copy of the ebook. We are looking for twelve months exclusivity from the submission deadline and details of rights are on the Fox Spirit submissions page (https://www.foxspirit.co.uk/sample-page/submissions). If you have any questions, send email to: narjegerredaktor at gmail dot com

Happy writing!

March 2, 2015February 28, 2015

Monday Methods : Alec McQuay

Alec’s book ‘Emily Nation’ is officially released in paperback TODAY! Post apolcayptic Cornwall, an alcoholic assassin, a mysterious benefactor…

Now here is Alec with a Monday Method for you all.
Monday methods!

I thought I’d start by summing up my writing environment in one neat little picture. In the background you can see what I like to call organised chaos, but what everyone else at work thinks of as an unholy mess. They’d probably be right, and if I had to submit a metaphorical picture of the inside of my brain, a big heap of bits of paper, probably teetering on the verge of falling over and crushing me to death, would about do it. I’m not the organised kind in anything that I do. You want a wedding planned for next June amidst the softly swaying trees of rural Pembrokeshire? Nope, can’t help you. Oh, the shit just hit the fan, the doves are attacking the guests, the priest is stuck at the bottom of a well, the venue (a busy roundabout) is on fire and you have to get married within the hour or you’ll turn back into an ornamental bedside lamp? Well hold on to your fucking petticoats, you’ve come to the right place…

I’ve got a full time job, two kids, three cats, a dog and more hobbies than I can shake a stick at, and I still find the time to write. That doesn’t make me special though, if you ever find yourself at a convention (try Edge Lit in Derby, tis a good ‘un) you’ll find out this is quite close to the norm. We all have our ways of getting it done, and this is mine. It’s all about controlling my environment, and the way I do that is really simple. I stay up really late when everyone else is sleeping, pour myself a huge brew the colour of Black Beard’s shaded parts, crank up the tunes to FUCK YOU, EARDRUMS! type levels and get typing. A lot of people can’t write to music; personally I find it’s best to avoid anything you’d normally sing along to, avoid rap as the music is heavily dependent on the words and, for preference, opt for a band with a vocalist whose indecipherable singing you can’t understand anyway. Keeps the distractions to a minimum, but you can still stop to shred an air-guitar solo every now and then. That’s a given. There’s no-one around, I can’t hear anything that I didn’t put there to be heard and the whole world is kept at arm’s length while I try and turn the internal chaos into something resembling a story.

Sometimes it actually works.

February 25, 2015June 16, 2015

Fox Bites, First Bite

We had our first ‘open mic’ reading event at Leicester’s Cafe Malveen last Saturday and I think we are calling that a success! The Cafe turned over enough in coffee and cake to invite us back and six local authors read for five minutes from six very different books.

Fox Bites isn’t aimed at just Fox Spirit writers, it’s aimed at all the local writers who want to practice reading or try a piece on a live audience, a nice friendly audience of people who love books.

It ran smoothly with three readings, a five minute coffee break and three more readings. The readings were all well delivered and warmly received and in between there was a pleasant babble of conversation, people catching up with each other and meeting other local writers/readers.

We will be providing the footage of the readings to the readers for distribution on their own sites. We’ve also put together a facebook group where we will post details of readers and their stories each month.

If you would like to be at the next Leicester Fox Bites or would like to bring Fox Bites to your city please contact me at adele@ foxspirit.co.uk for information.

February 16, 2015June 16, 2015

Monday Methods : Phil Thorogood

The Most Important Tool

In the past year, I have been a rider of dragons, a war-weary veteran, a brilliant but slightly psychotic rogue, and a genetically-enhanced post-human killing machine. Before you back away slowly, keeping eye contact and trying not to make any sudden movements, I’ll let you in on a secret – you’ve probably been some of those too. At the very least, I guarantee that you’ll not have been yourself at some point in this past year.

What I’m talking about is a writer’s most important tool; not a word processor, as some of you might answer that question. Not a notepad constantly on their person, nor passion, or even an editor (sorry editors), though they are all admittedly important in their own rights. The tool I’m talking about is super compact, totally mobile and (hardly ever) runs out of power. I am, of course, talking about the potential of the human mind, or more specifically, imagination, one of the most underrated gifts we are all given.

from 'How to Train your Dragon' — from ‘How to Train your Dragon’

Now, some of you will claim not to have an imagination, or that someone you know doesn’t own one. I put to you that that claim is false. What happens when you think of what to have for dinner tonight? When you plan an outing to the zoo with your friends or family? While you’re reading a good book? Imagination happens. Whether you actively realise it or not, all the time you are imagining things, and it is this gift that a writer makes use of the most.

As a writer, we imagine what would happen to X if they chose not to Y, as everyone else would expect them to. We wonder how the world would be different if historical events hadn’t occurred. Not only this, but we rely utterly on imagination even after the story has been written – when a reader picks it up, we count on their imagination to conjure up the action that we have penned, and they trust us to lead their thoughts into the realm of fiction.

So join me, now, in petitioning the government to make this day World Imagination Appreciation Day! …or just take a moment every now and then to acknowledge the gift that we are all given, either’s good.