The first title in our FoxGloves martial arts range is Neil Adams MBE’s new autobiography ‘A Game of Throws’ available this summer.
This book charts the story of Neil’s career in Judo and life off the mats after his final Olympics. Neil will be commentating on the Judo in this years Olympics and we are delighted to be kicking off the FoxGloves line in this fashion.
This one has been in the offing for so long and has encountered so many hiccups, there were starting to be rumours about a curse. However we are finally getting close and I am pleased to finally announce that we have a provisional running order and that the book will have internal art by Kieran Walsh.
My apologies to everyone involved in this book for the delay once again, but we made it!
The Mouse and the Minotaur by Chloe Yates
Katabasis by K.T. Davies
Provoking Cerberus by James Bennett
Nada’s Promise by Nerine Dorman
Of Comedies and Tragedies by Jay Faulkner
Gilrain & The Minotaur by Sarah Cawkwell
Proof of Concept by Pat Kelleher
Such a Little Things by C C D Leijenaar
Medusa Rising by Joan De La Haye
Virtutis Gloria Merces by Andrew Reid
The Wisdom of King Weejun by Benjamin Stewart
The Labour of Stropheus by Catherine Hill
Mischief by Jan Siegel
The Bird-Woman of the Mediterranean by T.J. Everley
(If you are interested in writing for Waxing Lyrical please contact adele@foxspirit.co.uk)
For every fiction writer, the book shares roughly the same gestation period of a newborn infant. On arrival, both share the same fate; however special, individual and unique, it gets a label stuck on it.
At the submission stage the infant book must be allocated an age range, readership and genre(s), rather like, to quote the magnificent Della in Raised By Wolves, “pushing an enraged otter into a jumpsuit.” When I drew up the first submission letter, I admit I’d pushed the idea of writing for the market around the plate, until my writer’s stomach rebelled, but the book was what it wanted to be by then, characters and plot repeatedly hijacked by a story which wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Unpacking the phrase I admit I’d pushed the idea of writing for the market in the interests of explanatory splainy, my first experience of writing commercially was on the fringes of a big concept. I got sucked in, like that time the Millenium Falcon got sucked into the pull of the Death Star, then spent a lot of time in start-up production companies in Soho or whatever space the leading commercial creative could cadge for meetings. Mostly it was in cafés where I found I was paying the bill. My bit of the project was to adjust the story to accommodate various amazeballs marketing opportunities. So Billy wasn’t dyslexic, he was a skateboarder; it was partly manga so the production company could play around with a very cool technique they were developing, but the sound therapy and dynamic yoga had to get in there somewhere. We were up to seven interlocking universes by the time I said I was losing my way a little amongst the high-concept stuff and I’d like to write my own book.
I still had Billy and he was dyslexic but everything else was completely different. Until the obvious market demands were removed, I didn’t realize the biggest force on writing in any genre, even bigger than the Death Star, is the story, an unstoppable, sucky, manipulative force breaking and re-making the outline and carefully constructed arcs of the first few drafts.
At some point the story has to be shoved, kicking and snarling, into the constraints of commercial publishing and marketing. Readers are as wide and diverse as people, but books go on shelves. Which shelf? You have to get slotty, or shelvish which is the same thing but looks like Lionel Bloom and has pointed ears. First you are brave and upfront in describing the book as written for, well anyone really, then you use the word crossover, then you realise you’ve gone over to the dark side and in a couple of sentences you’re going to stab Han Solo your own father between the second and third ribs. Didn’t you hate that bit? I hated that bit.
It gets worse. Having removed a few genre crossovers because anything that difficult to shelve isn’t going to get past the first submission (good plan) you find that the label your story goes under, the shelf allocation for your genre, isn’t fashionable.
Orange is the new black in your genre.
There is only one label left, the one they tie on the body in the morgue? No. Genre is always a matter of labelling, and the market in publishing is subject to fashions. As labels go, my speculative fiction is mainly urban fantasy. Some months ago an agent told me they were “not taking urban fantasy”, which another source informed me was, well – dead. But whatever the label, and still under that label, urban fantasy exists.
You can choose another label, my submission letter now refers to ‘contemporary fiction’, or invent your own, or push it as retro-pastiche.
But don’t try and hack the unfashionable genre out of the story. The story knows what it is and fashions in genre apart, it is what it is. Stick whatever label on it you need to, what gets the book published is the story.
Trust the story.
We are pleased to be able to announce the running order for the Tales of Eve follow up anthology Eve of War.
A collection of stories visiting the battles of leading ladies, be they personal or epic welcome to the Eve of War
Co edited by Mhairi Simpson and Darren Pulsford
Eve of War
Contents
Miranda’s Tempest by S.J. Higbee
The Devil’s Spoke by K.T. Davies
Himura the God Killer by Andrew Reid
The Bind that Tie by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Et Mortuum Esse Audivit by Alasdair Stuart
Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick by Juliet McKenna
A Veil of Blades by R.J. Davnall
In Amber by Rob Haines
Skating Away by Francis Knight
Ballad of Sighne by Rahne Sinclair
The Crossing by Paul Weimer
Lucille by Alec McQuay
Born by G Clark Hellery
Repo by Ren Warom
One Sssingular Sssenssation by Chloe Yates
Some time ago Fox Spirit looked into the possibility of a line of books for younger audience members. The project was named ‘Fennec’ for the smallest fox, and we agreed we would very much like to publish G. Clark-Hellery’s novella ‘Ghoulsome Graveyard’.
Since then what was an idea has developed into a plan and in addition to being Fennec’s debut writer, we have asked Geraldine to take on the role of commissioning editor for future titles. Luckily for us she said yes and Fennec is going live !
Welcome then to ‘Fennec’ a line of books for children from nine to teen from Fox Spirit Books.
The website can be found at kitthefennec.co.uk and Kit is also on twitter @kitthefennec
Ghoulsome Graveyard will come out this Autumn to launch the press.
‘A reporter is asked to cover the redevelopment of the graveyard and interviews the local residents: vampires, witches and ghosts. She agrees to help them save the graveyard and they hold a fete, with some chaotic consequences. It’s a fun story with quirky characters which pokes fun at established beliefs and pop culture.’
We are looking forward to bringing the Fox Spirit sensibility to a younger audience.
Geri said ”I’m really excited to be involved with establishing Fennec. I am looking forward to bringing the Fox Spirit style of genre fiction to younger readers. The whole skulk has supported me in my own writing, broadened my reading while introducing me to new voices of genre fiction & given me some great opportunities which I hope to be able to now offer others. Come join us on this exciting adventure!’
I am very excited to finally announce a book that we have had bubbling away as a plan for quite some time!
Ian Whates of NewCon Press and author of multiple amazing series, novels and short stories is entrusting Fox Spirit Books with a collection!
Dark Travellings will be launched at Edge.Lit this summer with a stunning image from Michael Marshall Smith for the cover.
This project started with a conversation at Nine Worlds a couple of years ago and is a collection of thirteen new stories and reprints in multiple genres that I am delighted to see it come to life. With an introduction by Storm Constantine, these are Ian’s darker tales, so take a trip with us.
The Office of Lost and Found by Vincent Holland-Keen is officially re released today.
Thomas Locke can find anything. You know the hurricane that hit a while back? Word is he found the butterfly that started it. So, when a desperate Veronica Drysdale hires Locke to find her missing husband, it makes perfect sense.
Except the world of Thomas Locke doesn’t make sense. It puts monsters under the bed, makes stars fall from the sky and leads little children to worship the marvels of road-works.
This world also hides from Veronica a past far darker and stranger than she could ever have imagined. To learn the truth, Veronica is going to have to lose everything.
And that’s where Locke’s shadowy business partner Lafarge comes in…
As this is a re release with no substantive changes I refer you to the kind words of some of the early adopters of VHK’s line on the absurd.
The Eloquent Page The thing to remember is that this isn’t your typical, by the numbers, urban fantasy this is something completely different. This novel is going to challenge your perceptions and force you to use the old grey matter. Underneath this splendidly quirky detective story there is an interesting on-going commentary about the nature of belief and those that choose to be believers. The key thing to remember when reading this metaphysical mind-bender, to paraphrase The Matrix, is that ‘there is no spoon’.
Elizabeth A White was very kind about this and the YA follow on Billy’s Monsters : To call Vincent Holland-Keen’s debut novel The Office of Lost & Found merely “strange” is an understatement of epic proportions. Of course, in my world strange means creative, original, enchanting, challenging, and mind-blowing, which means the über strange of The Office of Lost & Found makes for an amazing read; one of my Top 10 of 2011 in fact.
Crime writer Luca Veste ‘The Office of Lost and Found’ is a novel unlike anything you are likely to read this year. Probably next year as well. It’s staggeringly different to anything else I’ve read since picking up a copy of a Douglas Adams book when I was a teenager, really enjoying it and then never reading anything in the same vein since. With character names which border on the ridiculous, situations which still make no sense to me and a plot which continually surprises right up to the end, ‘The Office of Lost and Found’ should find its way onto every readers shelf at some point.
Tony Lane I would recommend this book to anybody who is slightly unhinged or at least open to the possibility that pan-dimensional aliens are already walking amongst us. It is a wild and thoroughly enjoyable read that I will be recommending to my friends, and certainly reading again at a later date.
It might be fair to say this is not a book for those who like a safe predictable read. The book contains a short story in the same world, notes and sketches by the author along with the original cover as part of the back matter.
This is a quick ‘are you sitting comfortably’ post, as this coming week we seem to have numerous announcements.
Tuesday sees us launching the re release of a book that requires an act of faith in the early episodic chapters, but is adored by those who throw themselves into the journey, The office of Lost and Found by Vincent Holland-Keen. I’ll be linking to reviews from it’s original release in Tuesday’s post.
Later in the week I will be announcing the book to be launched at Edge.Lit. I’ve kept this very quiet so far, so it will finally be listed on the site. Right now, I’ll tell you it’s a collection and that we are sharing our launch space with the illustrious NewCon Press.
We also have news regarding our long planned line for younger readers, follow @kitthefennec for news as it comes on that. This is a busy week for us as lots of plans start to come to fruition.
We’d also like to remind everyone, that while it has been quiet on the FoxGloves front we will be launching that line with Neil Adams MBE’s autobiography covering the post Olympics years. This is an honest look at starting over and rebuilding after the day comes you discover you are no longer on the team and your sponsors have vanished. It’s a great insight into the world of top flight athletes when they have to confront life outside of competition and a tremendous story.
Finally a few updates.
Fox Pockets no. 7 is now out, 8 Piercing the Vale is in formatting and should be released at the end of this month with Evil Genius Guide and Reflections following swiftly on. We know you’ve been waiting for them, but they are all going to be with us this summer. Catch them all.
Eve of War is well underway and we are aiming for a mid summer release, we will announce soon on the exact date.
The Forbidden Planet signing event for African Monsters went very well in February, it was excellent to meet everyone for an enjoyable evening. There are a small number of copies, signed by the attending authors still available at the London store.
A few days ago, Hugo nominations closed. For those of you who don’t know, the Hugo Awards are one of the most prestigious awards in genre fiction. There was some kerfuffle, or to be more accurate, Epic Scale Bullshit Nonsense surrounding them last year. You may have heard. If not, well, we all kind of envy you right now.
Said ESBN may, possibly, be lessened this year. That, as a critic working in the field, is a huge relief. Last year felt like it maybe hit Peak Bullshit Nonsense as the industry degenerated into the written equivalent of that slappy fight Christian Slater and John Travolta have at the top of Broken Arrow. It was ugly and depressing and it shaved about 50 points off the industry’s collective IQ for a quarter of the year.
It had other effects too.
I noticed one this week.
There’s been a lot of discussion about the Best Fan Writer award recently and with good reason. It’s one of the several Hugos that balances precariously on multiple stools at once and also one that, when you look at its history, neatly encapsulates a lot of the problems with the system. The finalists list is essentially the exact same people for a very long time, then a slightly different group, then another slightly different group then variety finally breaks the walls down and apologises for being so late.
Full disclosure; that award is probably my best bet for ever picking up a Hugo. I’d love it. I’d also really love a Bigtrak, old Centurions toys and the volumes of the Time Wars series I was never able to track down. Those are what ebay is for. Winning a Hugo is a lot harder. And probably cheaper. The markup for Centurions toys is astounding.
Being in that field, and knowing just how unlikely it is I’ll get the near impossible levels of recognition my stupid brain craves is something I can and do deal with. But when it combines with the memory of last year’s slap fight and the colossal annoyance that goes with it? It makes me something I’m not.
Negative.
You see, there’s been a discussion about twitter feeds being eligible for Best Fan Writer nominations. My first instinct, which a bunch of other people I talked to had as well, was horror. And I’ve spent some time this week trying to figure out why. After all, there’s a lot that twitter does very well.
None of it is an edit button.
But it does enable a lot of really good stuff, not the least of which is the exact sort of word of mouth recommendations and discussion that every form of modern culture lives and dies on. Not to mention cat pictures, endless Hamilton quotes and the savage triumph that comes from marking a PPI fishing ad as OFFENSIVE and permablocking it.
So why did I respond so negatively?
140 character performance art
The internet is, well, this (http://screamintothevoid.com/) only with twitter other people can hear the screams. I’ve seen a ton of authors and critics create twitter personae to help market their work. In some cases it’s paid off. In others it’s made me cross the metaphorical street every time they’re mentioned. Something like this would, in the short term, not so much enable that sort of attention trolling as yell ‘GENTLEMEN, START YOUR KEYBOARDS!’
Echo chambers
If you predicted the last UK general election based on twitter than right now you’d be a few months into Good King Miliband the First’s rule.
Trust me, we’re not. I just checked.
Twitter is an echo chamber, a place where we violently agree with ourselves as much as we argue. And that can cause serious distance between perception and reality. If you and the 50 people you talk to most often agree about something then everyone else should do too, right?
Welcome to Planet Echo Chamber, Population: Everyone.
Or at least Everyone you talk to…
FOMO
What if I miss something? Which, when it all goes by at 140 characters a second is very easy to do?
Fatigue
I’m tired of looking at very nearly every governing body in genre fiction stumble, blinking, into the 21st century and realize that work published online might not even need to be viewed with suspicion anymore, let alone fear. So tired that when this very cool opportunity became apparent my first thought wasn’t ‘It’s about damn time!’ but rather ‘Oh GOD’.
Because if Twitter accounts can be nominated, and they can, then a vast panoply of options and writers is eligible for this vital, interesting award that’s been horrifically insular for most of its existence. How is that not a good thing?
How is that not an AMAZINGLY, dance break inducingly good thing?
So, let’s look at those problems again:
140 character performance art
This is a thing that happens. It’s a thing that’s happened as long as humans have communicated with one another and there’s nothing to be done except be discerning and open minded. Which is the intellectual equivalent of rubbing your stomach and patting your head simultaneously just SO much more worthwhile.
Echo Chamber City
Twitter is absolutely an echo chamber, but it’s one that can carry new voices a very, very long way. Pay attention to retweets, go looking for new people to follow.
Boldly go.
Yes millions of spoken word performances are happening at the same time. Yes it’s easy to just listen to the voices you know. Don’t do that. Find some new people to listen to as well.
Riding the FOMO train
This is a legit concern. But Storify and similar services are here to help you. Stay aware, push your boundaries, read up when you have to. It’ll be worth it.
Fatigue
Suck it up, you’re a ghostbuster.
This is a win. This is a massive win. There are so many hugely important voices out there doing work that’s enthusiastic, enlightening and positive. Twitter is a medium for those voices to speak to everyone. And now, finally, the Hugos are listening.
So should we.
Welcome to the waxing lyrical series in 2016. The series is open to any creative (writers, artists, publishers, editors, musicians etc) who want to air their opinions on the creative industries, from any perspective. If you are interested in contributing please contact adele@foxspirit.co.uk for more information. The only real rule is no personal attacks, we don’t have to agree with you but we won’t support attacking a person or group of people.
***
by Theresa Derwin
Women in Horror: Hear My Voice
This February the horror community celebrated Women in Horror Month 7, a month dedicated to recognition of women writing in the horror genre.
Let me repeat that. One month to celebrate women who write horror – one month out of twelve. So, I concur that women only write for one month a year. Maybe it’s a menstrual thing?
What? It isn’t so? They write every month of the year? No! You’re kidding!
Yes, there seems to be a perception amongst general readers, publishers and media that women just don’t write horror.
Unfortunately, this sometimes translates to misconceptions within the community too. And there are many reasons as to why. Reasons I hope to explore as part of a Creative Industries and Cultural Identities PhD Studentship commencing Sept 2016. So I want to share with you some preliminary findings, some thoughts, and insight into the research I hope to undertake including a suggested reading list.
Nov 2011 I attended a first time Horror con, Horror in the East created to get fans together of Horror and David Moody in particular. This con was predominantly organised by a woman. There were a few panels and some excellent items on horror in general, however, at the final round up of panelists/guest authors etc gathered together for a photo opportunity, I noticed that all, and I do mean every single one of the authors, panelists and moderators was male. So, I asked the question as follows; “I’m not a bra burning looney, just a woman who is concerned, so I wanted to know ‘where are the women?’ Every person standing up there, and I know they are a talented group, are male. What about female moderators or horror authors? Where are they?”
After a few embarrassed blank stares and looks exchanged it was with, ironically, a surmounting feeling of horror, that I received the following answer from the female organiser. “I didn’t ask any – female writers just write Mills & Boon s*** (cue expletive) Now, I stood up, and I didn’t retaliate, I just stood there in dumb awe as she continued to rant about the writing quality by female authors, when a friend interrupted with “Don’t bother, you’ve done what you wanted”, namely, because the organisers dug their own grave. And my argument was aided by Michael Wilson of ‘This Is Horror’, who raved about the female horror authors producing quality work.
So, within the horror community and beyond, there is by some (eejits dare I say?) a conception that ‘women don’t write horror’. In conjunction with this, and my personal experience at conventions and in the community, I pursued some informal initial data-gathering research.
Continue reading “Waxing Lyrical : Women in Horror by Theresa Derwin”
