…and I am doing mine via the medium of Dr Who.
How I feel about 2013
And the forthcoming year….
And how I feel over all about books and publishing and the whole mad thing
And a general thought to finish on..
Getting Foxy 4 – Sarah Cawkwell
Sarah Cawkwell is an established and fabulous writer of fantasy, comic fantasy and sci fi and probably anything else she wants when it comes down to it. She’s also a total games geek, which can really only be a good thing.
Sarah is also an utterly lovely human bean and a fantastic panelist so if you ever get the chance to hear her speak at a convention, take it!
Sarah has published a novella in a fairly traditional fantasy set up, Blood Bound, which has left audiences wanting more from the creepy mage and his warrior companion.
She also created the hapless but heroic Gilrain and his fatherly squire Therin, for Tales of the Nun and Dragon and will be revisiting the humorous fantasy world of this duo in Tales of the Mouse and Minotaur. We are also gently nudging her towards a collection of short adventures with these popular characters.
Updates
We have been working on the website and while there is still a lot to do I think it’s probably safe to update your links now. Under the shop are links to the places we sell books and where you can buy merchandise and books are now grouped into primary genre to make life a little easier for browsing, as you can tell over 2014 that may become helpful!
Getting Foxy 3 – Alasdair Stuart
Alasdair Stuart: ‘Ladies’ Geek, Geek’s Geek, Geek About Town’ with his encyclopedic knowledge of geekdom and everything in it has the distinction of being one of the very nicest people in all the nine worlds and our regular columnist here on the FS site bringing you views from outside the den.
Al does write fiction and we will be featuring some of his shorts in the forthcoming Fox Pockets, however what he is perhaps best known for is his genre journalism and hosting of Pseudopod and Escape Pod.
His first book for us ‘The Pseudopod Tapes Vol 1’ came out almost exactly a year ago and is a series of his outro’s for the much loved podcast. His honest and personal way of writing makes for compelling reading even if you don’t know all the references. The next volume in the series is to follow in 2014.
Things We Learned from Cult TV: A Call for Submissions
“Fortune favours the bold.”
It’s typical that what I learned from cult TV is a little wrong. I never get quotes right. I gave that quality to the main character in one of my novels (Owl Stretching) because it amused me. Fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer may recognise this mangling of the line from the chilling episode Hush, “Fortune favours the brave.” I like the Latin version which has been attributed to Virgil, Audaces fortuna iuvat. I say it to my students all the time.
They think it’s one of my ‘very intellectual things’ I try to cram into their heads.
The smarter ones soon realise that I am as likely to quote from Buffy as I am from Beowulf. In the end they’re similar narratives (hmmm, new course idea…): Heroes coping with monsters, calling on friends, fighting evil to make a better world. While the Anglo-Saxon poem may have more gravitas in our shared culture, more people are likely to have been inspired by the television series — partly because Beowulf is often so badly taught, but hey, tv+DVDs+streaming=a whole lot of fans.
Even in academia, the study of popular culture has a long history. It used to be primarily a way of feeling the pulse of the populace, but now as scholars embrace their own geekiness, they delve into the depths and breadth of popular culture across the world. But it’s the personal effect that matters most to me: all the times I have muttered to myself, “Fortune favours the bold,” when I hesitated from taking a step or putting myself out there. I wasn’t thinking of Virgil, I was thinking of Buffy. And I did it — I was bold. I dared. Thank you, Buffy (and Joss and Sarah Michelle and everyone).
Fox Spirit Books was founded on the power of cult TV: we suspect you know its power, too. So we had this idea to crowdsource a little guide from the skulk, THINGS WE LEARNED FROM CULT TV.
Have you got a little story or anecdote for us? Have you felt the power of cult tv? Share it here. Don’t be shy. After all, fortune favours the brave. Just add something short in the comments below (be sure we have a way to contact you) and we will be in touch.
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Note from Aunty Fox.. We will be running blogs under the ‘Things we learned from Cult TV throughout 2014 with a view to collecting them in an ebook in 2015.
Getting Foxy 2 – K.A. Laity
Kate Laity, The Prof, is not only a multi talented lady (university lecturer, writer, editor and the rest) but a multiple personality. She writes in various genres under various names, so you don’t get a shock expecting shamans vs aliens and discovering the raunchy adventures of Chastity Flame.
for us here at FS Kate is the editor of the ‘Noir’ Anthology series. Each time she thinks she’s done we pull her back in with another title she can’t resist. Muwahahaha. The Prof has also had some short stories with us and will be publishing a novella ‘Extricate’ as Graham Wynd and a novel’White Rabbit’ under her own name with Fox Spirit in 2014.
In the mean time you can find her fantastic stories under K.A.Laity (fantasy and fairy tales), Kit Marlowe (romance with the importance of pockets) and C.Margery Kempe (erotic with a thrilling spy story line).
Girl at the End of the World – Vol 2
and here are the covers and listings for volume 2.
I am crazy excited about these books and can’t wait to see the finished covers!
2,1 Dawn of Demons Eric Scott
2,1 Shirtless in Antarctica Justin Brooks
2,1 The Girls from Humanji Adrian Tchaikovsky
2,1 The Sharks of Market Street Michael Ezell
2,1 The Weed Wife C Allegra Hawksmoor
2,1 Under the Green Witch Colin Sinclair
2,2 The Winter After Michael Nayak
2,2 Girls Day Out Bruce Lee Bond
2,2 Hope Street Dylan Fox
2,2 I was Here Anne Michaud
2,2 Savage Times Paul Starkey
2,2 The Thirteenth Hour Michael Trimmer
2,3 Bunker Buster Alec McQuay
2,3 Halcyon High Gita Ralleigh
2,3 The Dragons Maw Cheryl Morgan
2,3 The eternal quest of the girl with the corkscrew hair David Turnbull
2,3 The Unbroken Line Kim Bannerman
2,3 Were Stars to Burn Kara Lee
2,3 Vanquish N.O.A Rawle
Girl At The End of The World – Vol 1
Each of the ‘Girl’ books will be split into three loose sections as well as available with two cover options.
Here are the rough sketches from the artist for Vol 1 along with the contents, broken into sections but not yet an exact running order.
1,1 Antichristine James Bennett
1,1 Change of Address Rob Harkess
1,1 Coming Back Tracy Fahey
1,1 Skin James Oswald
1,1 The Borrowed Man James S Dorr
1,1 The End of the Garden Catherine Mann
1,1 The Ending Plague Andrew Reid
1,1 The Wife of Watsorous Nathan Lunt
1,2 A Sailor Girl Goes Ashore Margret Helgadottir
1,2 Blueprint for Redwings Ruth E J Booth
1,2 Demon Runner Dash Cooray
1,2 Little Daughter Dayna Ingram
1,2 Rolling in the Deep Cat Connor
1,2 Sophie and the Gate to Hell Carol Borden
1,2 The Glaciers Stone Alexander Danner
1,2 The Last Rushani Jonathan Ward
1,3 In the Absence John Perkins
1,3 Only So Far Adam Rodenberger
1,3 Saint Salima Alex Helm
1,3 Somebody to Play with Geraldine Clark Hellery
1,3 The Beast Within Christian D’Amico
1,3 Zompoc in Nashville K.A.Laity
1,3 All things Fall Chloe Yates
Getting Foxy 1: Joan De La Haye
Fox Spirit is 18 months old or there abouts this Christmas, as it my nephew. So I thought it was a good time to remind you all what we’ve been doing the last 18 months, especially those of you who are new to the den and the freshly minted Skulk. Hopefully it’ll also distract from the deadlines I didn’t quite make in 2013. Over the next few weeks instead of an advent calendar I am going to do a series of posts highlighting the people and books we have out there for your delectation. I’ll come back to Nun & Dragon when I look at some of the other anthologies. First of all I want to spotlight Joan De La Haye. You can find reviews of Joan’s books on our publicity page 
Joan took a chance and threw in her lot with Fox Spirit when it was still little more than an idea. Really if she hadn’t we might never have done anything more than Nun & Dragon so you have her to thank/blame at least in part for all that has come after. First and foremost a horror writer Joan has also turned her hand to crime, drawing in the corruption rife in South Africa to a dark procedural. Joan has three books with us as well as some short stories and a fourth book slated for 2014. Shadows is a dark, unsettling psychological horror with cruelly dysfunctional relationships, personal demons (literally) and the horror of doubting your own sanity. 
Oasis crams a lot of story into 50 pages in a zombie novella with a fresh twist. 
Requiem in E Sharp is a serial killer story that is delivered with Joan’s trademark darkness. 
If you like to curl up with the fire lit and a blanket over you, the curtains pulled tight and indulge in some genuinely creepy reading check out Joan’s books.
Call for Stories: Drag Noir
“We’re born naked, and the rest is drag.”
― RuPaul, Lettin it All Hang Out: An Autobiography
Drag is a broad concept; noir is a fairly narrow one. Drag can be a way of playing with gender or it can be a matter of survival. In the noir world, it can be almost anything: camouflage, deceit, truth — or a skin to be shed at will.
Otto Penzler has always been really strict in his idea of noir:
Look, noir is about losers. The characters in these existential, nihilistic tales are doomed. They may not die, but they probably should, as the life that awaits them is certain to be so ugly, so lost and lonely, that they’d be better off just curling up and getting it over with. And, let’s face it, they deserve it.
Pretty much everyone in a noir story (or film) is driven by greed, lust, jealousy or alienation, a path that inevitably sucks them into a downward spiral from which they cannot escape. They couldn’t find the exit from their personal highway to hell if flashing neon lights pointed to a town named Hope. It is their own lack of morality that blindly drives them to ruin.
I don’t necessarily agree with everything he says, but I think noir ends up being a fairly bleak place — one where any bit of glamour or adopted power can be worth the gamble of discovery. It may even be worth flaunting it.
As RuPaul advises,”When the going gets tough, the tough reinvent.”
That’s what we want for DRAG NOIR: this is a call for stories where glamour meets grit, where everyone’s wearing a disguise (whether they know it or not) and knowing the players takes a lot more than simply reading the score cards. Maybe everyone’s got something to hide, but they’ve got something to reveal, too. Scratch the surface and explore what secrets lie beneath — it’s bound to cost someone…a lot.
An anthology is not a democracy; it’s a benevolent dictatorship. All editors have their tastes or quirks: if you want a clue to my sensibilities, check out my extensive bibliography and of course, read Weird Noir and Noir Carnival.
Stories should be:
- Previously unpublished anywhere
- Not submitted anywhere else
- Length 3-8K
- Formatted: Times New Roman, regular, 12 point; 1″ margins; 1 space after full stop; lines spaced 1.5; use paragraph formatting to indent first line not tabs; no header/footer
- Identified with a title, your name (and pen name identified as such), working email address on the first page: file name should include your surname & the title
- Submitted in RTF format via email to katelaity at gmail with your name, the story title and total word count included in the body of the email; make sure the Subject line includes “Submission: Drag Noir” + your name
- Due by March 20, 2014.
We will ask for world-wide print & ebook rights for a year and pay £10 via Paypal plus a copy of the paperback. The fabulous Stephanie Johnson has been persuaded to create another fabulous cover image! We plan to launch the book in July 2014.
