Category: Publications

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In an Unknown Country release day!

It’s time! No 7 of the Fox Pockets ‘In an Unknown Country’ is finally here!

They are coming thick and fast ow folks and this summer we will be celebrating all 10 volumes being out in our home town of Leicester. Watch out for more details on Volumes 8-10 and that party!

In the mean time journey in to the unknown!

Other Worlds, unfamiliar territory, places we should not be! Wanderers in strange lands and those who have strayed just a little off the path face their fates in an unknown country. A selection of short and flash fiction exploring the unfamiliar. Exploring new worlds and new perspectives.

And Eve Called Her Husband’s Name by Paul Currion
Overwatch by Alasdair Stuart
Walker Of Worlds by C.D. Leyenaar
Cape of Storms by K. Bannerman
The City is of Night, But Not of Sleep by Chloë Yates
An Unexpected Storm by Cindy Dunham
Hiatus by Jonathan Ward
Wherever You Go, There You Are by Tracy Fahey
A long lost land by Ed Fortune
Tombstone by Emma Teichmann
Finding Home by Rahne Sinclair
Arnhild by Margret Helgadóttir
The Strongest Conjuration by Jenny Barber
Somebody Else by Ashley Fox
Stroppendragers by James Fadeley
Lianus Invaded by Christian D’Amico
Are You Listening? by Sarah Anne Langton
Reversal by Philip Thorogood

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Out Now! Things in the Dark

What lurks in the dark just out of site?
What horrors are waiting for the unwary?
What about mole people?

This latest Fox Pocket is a collection of strange, scary and sometimes humorous tales considering all manner of…things in the dark.

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Contents: Andre Reid – Rise of the Huntress, Stephen Poore – Junior Twilight Stock Replacer, Andie Percival – Running from Sleep, Ben Stewart – Close your Eyes, Carol Borden – Thomas Hobbes Vs The Mole People, Chloe Yates – The Devil’s Haemorrhoids, Craig Leyenaar – Down by the River, Danie Ware – Smile, Den Patrick – Occlusion, James Fadeley – Selachimorpha Caesar, Jennifer L Barnes – A Boomstick and Popcorn Seasoning, Jenny Barber – In Darkness Dreaming, Kit Marlowe – The Ransom of Red Witch, Margret Helgadottir – Nightmare, Rahne Sinclair – See you in the morning, Sarah Cawkwell – Things, Sarah Langton – Welcome to the Northern Line, W.P.Johnson – Shelob Headlines the Ox

Things in the Dark is the 6th Fox Pocket available now from Amazon, the remaining titles will be available soon.

The Fox Pockets are pocket sized books of short and flash fiction giving you a taste of some of the fantastic new authors hitting the shelves. pockets

 

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Jan Xu or ‘Werewolves in Singapore’

Am very pleased to announce that the re release of the first two Jan Xu novels ‘Wolf at the Door’ and ‘Obsidian Moon, Obsidian Eye’ by Joyce Chng writing as J. Damask are now available from Fox Spirit Books. These novels were previously available through Lyrical Press, but now, here they are in shiny new covers by S.L. Johnson to fit with book 3 ‘Heart of Fire’, after a few months off the market.

Wolf at the Door #1

Being an ex-teen vigilante comes with its own set of problems.

Housewife, ex-teen vigilante…and shape-shifting wolf…Jan Xu has enough problems without adding her sister’s to the mix. Marianne is returning to Singapore and she’s filled with strange ideas. She’s also not alone. She’s coming home with a new boyfriend who has a dark agenda of his own.

With sibling rivalry threatening the inevitable: a battle-to-the-death with fang and claw, Jan and Marianne must overcome their issues if they’re ever going to find peace within their troubled relationship.

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Obsidian Moon, Obsidian Eye #2

The world turns and the dragon catches its own tail.

Jan Xu, now alpha and leader of the Xu clan, faces more challenges when a past misadventure rears its head and threatens to tear her life apart. Added to this is a revelation about her role in her pack, which can make or break her, or potentially help her defeat an old foe, if she managed to hold onto her sanity.

Desperate to protect her family as her world turns obsidian, Jan is thrust in the midst of conflict between vampire, wolf, dragon and Singapore’s Myriad. What can one do when the past won’t let go?

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Heart of Fire #3

Jan Xu, wolf and pack leader, faces more dangers when she saves a foreign male wolf in love with one of her ancient enemies, a jiang shi, a Chinese vampire. Throw in a love-struck drake—and Jan finds her situation suddenly precarious, with her reputation and health at stake. How much is a wolf going to take when everything is out of control again and her world thrown into disarray? How is she going to navigate the complexities of Myriad politics while keeping her pack and family intact without losing her mind? The third book of the Jan Xu Adventures will see Jan Xu’s continual fight as pack leader, her clan’s Eye (seer) and mother of three young children. Her mettle, courage and love for her family will be tested to her utmost limit

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Launching Today! Always a Dancer & Other Stories

Always a Dancer and Other Stories by Steve Lockley is live today in paperback and ebook.

Cover art is by Steve Upham, model is Miss Doubtfire.

A collection of tall tales from author Steve Lockley that ranges from the whimsical to the horrifying, from wistful to chilling. There are dark tales of old rites and all manner of men and beasts to encounter. Featuring some established favourites and some never before released stories collected together for the first time.

‘… more than anything there are tales of Mystery and Imagination, trust me on this. This particular thing, this collection, has been too long coming. ‘ Steven Savile

“Always reliable, Steve Lockley spins tales to delight, disturb and horrify, and with this exciting new collection you’re in safe, capable hands.” Tim Lebbon author of The Hunt and The Silence

‘Good, solid story telling. Steve Lockley is a master craftsman.’ Simon Clark author of His Vampyrrhic Bride and The Night of the Triffids
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Contents:

Always a Dancer
Funny Weather
Wassailing
Life in a Northern Town
The First Time
This Masquerade
Fairground Attraction
The Mermaid’s Tears
The Long Wait
When Two Hearts Beat in Time
The Last Frost
Life and Life Only
Crow
Sea Monkeys
Imaginary Friends
Don’t Leave Me Down Here

 

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You Left Your Biscuit Behind : Table of Contents

You left your biscuit behind is our crime & crime mashup anthology due out in 2016.

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The running order is subject to change but currently looks like this:

Elf Prefix by Graham Wynd
Between Love and Hat by Jay Eales
Black Glass by James Bennett
No Mercy by Kate Hollamby
That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles by Penny Jones
Feeding the Fish by Carol Borden
Mermaids in Cape Town by Mame Diene
Patron by E.J. Davies
The Price of a Biscuit by Kate Coe
The Princess, The Pekingese and the Ivory Box by R.A. Kennedy

Cover art will be by Michaela Margett

 

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Submissions Update

Well that’s it then, our submission deadlines for Winter Tales and You Left Your Biscuit Behind are behind us, and for Fantastic Treats well behind us.

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Our various editors now have the lengthy and tough task of reading through all those submissions and making our decisions. Please be patient. The aim is to complete the process for all three titles by October and we will let you know if there is any change to that.

We will be posting updated lists of Fantastic Treats and Biscuit submissions this weekend on the submissions page, if you believe you have been missed off please contact submissions at foxspirit dot co dot uk

If you did not receive an acknowledgement for your submission to Winter Tales, please check your spam box and if it’s not there please contact Margret on narjegerredaktor at gmail dot com.

We will not be responding to individual requests for updates during June, July and August as we prefer to spend the time getting the submissions read so you can all have an official response as soon as possible.

For those of you waiting on novel submissions we will be getting back to you in July.

On Eve’s War, I will be in touch with everyone involved very soon, our apologies for the quiet.

We thank you for your understanding and patience.

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Cover Reveal : A Pack of Lies

The second Elkie Bernstein novel is coming out very shortly and will have a launch in its honour at Edge.Lit in July.

In the mean time here is the cover for A Pack of Lies by Jo Thomas

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A Pack of Lies is the second in the series and while it isn’t a requirement to read the first book to follow the story, we would still suggest you do, because it’s superb and they make a gorgeous pair. The artwork is by the fabulous Sarah Anne Langton.

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A Beginner’s Guide to Finnish Myth & Folklore

Astuvansalmi Rock Paintings ©K. A. Laity

by K. A. Laity

Today Fox Spirit Books brings out a shiny new edition of my tales inspired by Finnish myth and folklore, DREAM BOOK. Inside you’ll find short stories (including two brand new ones), a little poetry and even a play.

Let me tell you a bit about the mythology. The Kalevala and The Kanteletar are the twin tomes of Finnish myth and folklore. The stories and songs that make up these collections are very old, but were gathered together in the nineteenth century as a surging sense of national pride grew. The tiny nation straddles the dividing line between the Baltic and Scandinavia, and had been dominated alternately by its two larger neighbours, Sweden and Russia.

In the 19th century, a doctor with a fascination for folklore, Elias Lönnrot set out to collect examples of the old tunes and stories that people told to try to capture what he saw as a vanishing way of life. In The Kalevala, he arranged these stories in runos to link together story arcs. You can read an English version online, but let me acquaint you with some of the recurring characters who show up in my stories.

Väinämöinen is the eternal sage. After Ilmatar the goddess gives birth to the world, he is the first human born. He knows all manner of magic. I’ve always found it fascinating that much of Finnish magic comes from know the true names of things and being able to sing them. At one point, Väinämöinen faces a young challenger who thinks he can take on the old man, but he gets sung right into a swamp. The panicky Joukahainen offers his sister’s hand in marriage, which starts another theme for the old magician: he never gets the girl.

Aino is the sister offered to Väinämöinen. Her parents think it’s an advantageous marriage, but the beautiful young maiden finds little appeal in being joined to the ancient sage and finally drowns herself to escape. She comes back, however, as a salmon to taunt Väinämöinen, so she lives again. Väinämöinen’s mother suggests he should go north to find a bride instead.

Louhi is the witch of the northern lands. There’s a great split in the Kalevala between the people of the south in Kaleva and those in the north, so they’re always portrayed as adversaries. Louhi, while seemingly as powerful as Väinämöinen, inevitably the stories depict her as “evil” which just sat wrong with me. I used to play in a band called Louhi’s Daughters with my friends Minna and Kasha, who shared the opinion that we were getting a rather one-sided view of Louhi. In our performances we tried to give a more balanced picture of this amazing woman. Our very first performance together was a retelling of the Aino story, which also proved a resonant touchstone for DREAM BOOK.

While The Kalevala has a series of narrative threads, The Kanteletar is a looser collection of songs grouped by who sings them, i.e. men, women or children. There are also a number of ballads that would be sung by everyone. Not surprisingly, one of the songs is all about the kantele, the national musical instrument of Finland. The name of the collection is kantele plus the feminine ending, so you might think of “Kanteletar” meaning the spirit of the kantele, the source of all the songs.

Here’s a video of snapshots from my visit to the ancient rock paintings.
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Big News Day!

New Aquisitions:

Not that the Fox Spirit Skulk are aquisitions exactly, but we have just confirmed two projects that I have been hoping we could secure for a little while now.

First Ian Whates will be joining the Skulk with a collection of short stories to be released in 2016. The details are yet to be confirmed but we are delighted to have Ian on board.

Ian runs the wonderful NewCon Press of which I have long been a fan. NewCon does a fantastic job of drawing big name writers and slipping them seemlessly between the covers with new talent. If you’ve never checked them out you really should, I have quite a few of their books. Ian also did me the great honour of collaborating with Vincent Holland-Keen and I on an event/publication on the ‘Hauntings’ book back when I was reviewing.

Ian has also written innumerable short stories and several series of books including space opera series ‘The Noise’ and ‘The City of a Hundred Rows’ fantasy series.

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We also have Dana Fredsti coming on board to reissue some of her back catalogue. Dana has written in a number of genres but our first re relase will be the wonderful fun Noir tribute Murder for Hire : The Peruvian Pigeon. I am delighted to be able to bring a book I really love back to market.

Dana’s current releases are the ‘Ashley Parker’ novels set in the midst of a zombie outbreak.

Like Ripley, Dana always goes back for the cat!

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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
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