Reviews 3 : A few good men

Continuing the review round up series. More soon.

The Eloquent Page

Fox Pockets: Shapeshifters edited by Adele Wearing

‘Traditional horror rubbing shoulders with steampunk, dark fantasy and science fiction, I felt spoiled for choice. Fox Spirit have left the submission themes for the Fox Pocket series deliberately ambiguous and this ambiguity has paid dividends.’

Breed by K.T. Davies

‘Brash, bawdy and with more chases than you could shake a big northern hammer at, Breed is fantasy caper that’s bucket loads of fun. Davies’ writing continues to evolve and delight in equal measure always retaining that joyous, blissful escapism that drew me to her work in the first place.’

Tales of the Nun & Dragon collected by Adele Wearing

‘The best news is that each writer has brought their ‘A’ game and produced something that works well as a standalone but also fits seamlessly into the collection as a whole. I was spoiled for choice with all the differing, iconoclastic interpretations of the nun and dragon theme.’

Oasis by Joan De La Haye

‘Oasis treads classic Romero-esque ground and has a suitably downbeat ending that I really enjoyed. I have to admit I do enjoy my zombie stories to be grimmer than grim and I’m glad to say this novella delivers on that score.’

oasis cover 600x800

The Cult Den

Blood Bound by Sarah Cawkwell

‘Cue a totally unexpected plot twist and an eventual final battle worthy of any blockbuster movie, and you have a highly satisfying conclusion which still leaves enough questions and possible openings for a continuation.’

The Shockwave Writer

Tales of the Nun & Dragon collected by Adele Wearing

‘If you have ever lived in Britain then “Nun and Dragon” will  almost certainly make you think of a country pub, much like the name “The Vat and Fiddle” in Nottingham or “The Goat and Tricycle” in Bournemouth. I seriously suspect the many of the Nuns in this book would be more at home in “The Wicked Lady” in Wheathamstead.’

 

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

billys monsters - front coversmall

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

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000448_00023]

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

front-back-cover-final

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.

images

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.’

cover_ld02

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

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

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.

burning-v2

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

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

WEBHeartofFire

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!

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

Wolf at the Door web

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.

foxbites

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.

IMG_5455

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.

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

FoxGloves

A while ago Aunty Fox sat down with MMA coach Nathan Leverton and said ‘what if…’

Well you know how that goes here at Fox Spirit. We now have a new imprint and sister site www.foxglovesmartialarts.com or www.foxsglovesbooks.com focussing on martial arts for MMA. Vulpes will continue to focus on HEMA while FoxGloves will look at the more modern combat sport side of martial arts.

We have an amazing line up of coaches writing manuals and memoirs so please take a moment to check it out.

IMG_95794418453715