Author Archives - Page 3 of 4 -

December 23, 2013April 20, 2016

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.

December 20, 2013April 20, 2016

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).

December 11, 2013April 20, 2016

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.

Joyce Chng

Also writes as J. Damask

Joyce Chng lives in Singapore. Their fiction has appeared in The Apex Book of World SF II, We See A Different Frontier, Cranky Ladies of History, and Accessing The Future. Joyce also co-edited THE SEA IS OURS: Tales of Steampunk Southeast Asia with Jaymee Goh. Their recent space opera novels deal with wolf clans and vineyards respectively. They also write speculative poetry with recent ones in Rambutan Literary an Uncanny Magazine. Occasionally, they wrangle article editing at Strange Horizons and Umbel & Panicle, a poetry about and for plants and botany. Alter-ego J. Damask writes about werewolves in Singapore.

You can find them at http://awolfstale.wordpress.com and @jolantru on Twitter.

Tell us one thing you loved or found fascinating about a place you have lived.
There is a small beach/cove in Western Australia where I studied, completely covered with shells ranging from small to palm-sized. I found it while on a drive along the coast and was completely blown away by the sheer beauty of it. To top it off, the sky was awash with the colors of evening and tinged with a rainbow.

What did you want to be when you grew up (other than a writer if that was an option)?
A fighter pilot.

Which super hero would you most like to be and why?
Beast. Furry, feral, but brainy.

It’s finally happened! The zompoc is here! Name four things in your ‘go bag’ and your primary weapon.
1. My medication.
2. Aerosol can (air refresher) & lighter.
3. A thumb-drive of my memories and things.
4. Water.
Primary weapon: my longsword.

What is your go to comfort book or writer when you can’t settle into anything new?
I have so many! Charles de Lint’s Forest of the Heart.

What is the single most important thing to your writing process?
Belief. That keeps me going.
(Or sheer grit…)

If you could collaborate with any author who would it be and what would you write together?
Gosh, I have so many I admire!
Terri Windling.
Fairies and the fae in urban settings. The magical in the mundane.

Graham Wynd

A writer of bleakly noirish tales with a bit of grim humour, Graham Wynd can be found in Dundee but would prefer you didn’t come looking. An English professor by day, Wynd grinds out darkly noir prose between trips to the local pub.

(Graham is camera shy, so this street is filling in for him – Ed)

Goodreads author page

Amazon author page

The quick Q&A

Tell us one thing you loved or found fascinating about a place you have lived.

I love Galway Bay. There’s few better places for idling. You can look out at the clouds blowing in off the Atlantic and feel as if you’re on the edge of the world. Weird things wash up on the rocks: empty beer bottles, dead sea birds, the occasional pair of trousers.

What did you want to be when you grew up (other than a writer if that was an option)?

A spy.

Which super hero would you most like to be and why?

I can’t say I ever had much interest in superheroes, but if I had to choose, I’d choose one that didn’t really have any superpowers except motivation and dedicated work. So I guess that means Batman, but I hate rich people generally, so I don’t know if that would work.

It’s finally happened! The zompoc is here! Name four things in your ‘go bag’ and your primary weapon.

I’d want a Beretta, but if the apocalypse is here I suppose ammunition would be limited, so I’ll go with rope, an axe, a flask and a sustainable torch (one of those that you can shake to relight). And I’d need a book. Maybe Moby Dick, something long that rewards re-reading. Wilkie Collins The Moonstone maybe.

What is your go to comfort book or writer when you can’t settle into anything new?

Dashiell Hammett: I love the way he writes and he can be gritty or slick and make them both work.

What is the single most important thing to your writing process?

A good single malt just out of reach.

If you could collaborate with any author who would it be and what would you write together?

Dorothy Parker: we’d write witty, sad, gritty noir tales of a New York that’s long gone.

Graham Wynd is available for interviews and blog posts. Please contact adele@(nospam)foxspirit.co.uk.

July 1, 2013July 12, 2013

Author Post: Ruth Booth

Desert Islands

A few weeks ago I went to see an exhibition by Toby Phips Lloyd called Desert Island. Known for exploring self-conception, Lloyd had recreated his childhood bedroom, right down to the painted over-wallpaper and drawing pin holes in the wall. This sat in a giant wooden box in the centre of the exhibition, while on footage played in the background, Lloyd took the role of interviewer and interviewee to ask himself about his life and the records in the style of Desert Island Discs – also supposedly broadcast from the radio in the corner of the bedroom.

As a fellow teen in the nineties, I got a kick out of the possessions on show (Pitchshifter CD, Red Dwarf on VHS, Hunter S Thompson clippings…) – but what made me think was the contrast between what Lloyd-as-interviewee remembered, versus Lloyd-as-interviewer’s analysis of his teenage years. The bullying wasn’t as bad as he recalled it, and he considered that perhaps some of the choices of song or reading material reflected how he wanted to be seen more than anything else.

Most of us look back on our teenage years with mild embarrassment – things that we said or did. More often it’s that we so readily used XYZ to dictate what we thought or who we made friends with. Often we forget how important it was to us to have that grounding in common culture, a sense of community, when the ways we regarded ourselves and the ways we were regarded by others were first ripped from their moorings, and set in perpetual motion.

Yet we also forget that little has changed since then. Log on to your social network feed, and you’ll find friends linking to cool things they have found, sharing their opinions of this and that, demonstrating support of causes and struggles around the world. We share photos and videos of ourselves looking sexy and exciting – and hide the ones we don’t like so much. In many ways, engaging in social media is a lot like is a lot like decorating your teenage bedroom – hell, they’re even called walls. We communicate in books and movies and games. We present a picture to the world of a version of ourselves, and this is ever changing. Just as we did back then, we are still making ourselves, every single day.

With this in mind, it’s little wonder we fear control and monitoring of our online profiles. It’s not only about personal information getting into the open, it’s a violation of our sanctum, abusing and using the face we show without our permission. Think about the word we use to describe posting as someone else on Facebook – “frape”. And identity fraud isn’t just about stealing your credit, or your money. It’s about stealing you.

Memory is a fluid thing. We rewrite the stories of our lives as we go along. Often the use of cultural tropes as shorthand is considered a bit teenaged, or indicative of a lazy brain. In some creative contexts, sometimes it’s even frowned upon, or considered vulgar to be referential in this way. Some forms of art are considered “lesser” for doing this. But why is that? Cultural tropes are ways of exploring and sharing the world and how we interpret it. Like pirates, we should always treasure our own desert islands.

Jo Thomas

Jo Thomas writes speculative fiction, tending towards dark fantasy. She has taken the advice “write what you know” to heart and, as a result, werewolves now turn up in the strangest places. (None were harmed in the writing of “25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf” but friendly vets were pumped for advice.)To find out more about Jo, her pack of Hellhounds and her interest in swords along with the odd piece of fiction that _doesn’t_ contain werewolves, have a look at http://www.journeymouse.net/

You can also find her experimenting with steampunk and Dylan Thomas on her Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/jothomassff)

Goodreads author page

Amazon author page

The quick Q&A

Tell us one thing you loved or found fascinating about a place you have lived.

The way nature never stops and the landscape is always changing – yet stays the same.

What did you want to be when you grew up (other than a writer if that was an option)?

Alive. Happy – although the method of getting there has a habit of changing on a regular basis.

Which super hero would you most like to be and why?

I’d like Colossus’ powers without being as much of a [redacted]. Or Wolverine without the trauma that got him there. And female.

It’s finally happened! The zompoc is here! Name four things in your ‘go bag’ and your primary weapon.

Hellhounds – probably count as the primary weapon because they won’t go in a bag.

My weapons bag can be the ‘go bag’, into which I would put: My plastic wasters. After some consideration, I’ve decided that the best approach with zombies is probably extreme blunt trauma. My other weapons are either going to be too heavy for long-term use or rely on stabbing, which might not go so well with the undead thing. They can be replaced with appropriate sticks or broom handles as necessary.

My la crosse gloves. I don’t actually want to touch them when I’m fighting and these gloves are padded, which is why I use them for fencing.

A can opener. I will rely on scavenging for food and I’m going to need one of these.

My tablet and a charger (does that count as one thing?). Because I can’t live without something to read, something to write with, and some way of attempting to use the Internet. If it counts as two, I’ll jettison the gloves.

What is your go to comfort book or writer when you can’t settle into anything new?

Elizabeth Moon’s Deed of Paksenarrion

What is the single most important thing to your writing process?

Having ideas. Without an idea or a story to tell, there’s nothing to write.

If you could collaborate with any author who would it be and what would you write together?

Dylan Fox, so we could write Doctor Who spin-offs or inspired ideas. Foxie is very good at keeping track of shared world and expanded universe details!

Or Elizabeth Moon, simply because I admire her work, and hopefully something with dragons.

Sarah Cawkwell

Sarah is a freelance author hailing originally from the South of England, but who, after not taking a left turn at Albuquerque, now finds herself in the North East. Her first sci-fi novel, ‘The Gildar Rift’ was published by the Black Library in December 2011 and her first fantasy novel ‘Valkia the Bloody’ in July 2012. She appeared in the first Fox Spirit ‘Tales of the Nun & Dragon’ with a story about a hero so inept that he makes the British Government look competent.

Sarah finds talking about herself in the third person incredibly hard to manage and so generally prefers to spend her ‘free’ time reading, watching films, playing computer games and playing her music ear-bleedingly in the car.

Sarah’s Blog

The quick Q&A

Tell us one thing you loved or found fascinating about a place you have lived.
I always find something to love about the places I live and I’ve moved around quite a bit in my years. I suppose one thing that stands out is just how pretty the Vale of Evesham actually was and the regrets I have at leaving it at all!

What did you want to be when you grew up (other than a writer if that was an option)?
I still haven’t grown up and I still haven’t worked out the answer to this question. I did go through the throes of ‘journalist’ (not nosy enough), ‘teacher’ (not clever enough), ‘actor’ (not confident enough), ‘special effects guru’ (the chance never came up), though if that helps.

Which super hero would you most like to be and why?
Pyro, from Magneto’s Brotherhood of Mutants. Because, dude. Fire. Or Nightcrawler for the *BAMF* potential.

It’s finally happened! The zompoc is here! Name four things in your ‘go bag’ and your primary weapon.
Things in my ‘go’ bag:-
1) Tin opener. You can bet your life that someone somewhere will have an impenetrable bunker with a stockpile of tinned foodstuffs and will have forgotten a tin opener. I would become a veritable *god*.

2) Toilet paper. For the same reason as above.

3) Photos of my family to remind me what I’m fighting for.

4) ‘Now That’s What I Call Zombie Fighting Music Volume 5’ for some fighting choons.

My primary weapon would ideally be a chainsaw. Because, chainsaws.

What is your go to comfort book or writer when you can’t settle into anything new?
For comfort, ‘bubble gum for the eyes’ reading, I love Marian Keyes. I adore her engaging characters and gentle humour. In genre, I will gravitate back to Weis and Hickman’s Dragonlance series over and over again.

What is the single most important thing to your writing process?
The background music. When I’m in a OMG SO SRS writing mood, it needs to be film soundtracks. Streaming Soundtracks is my writing friend.

If you could collaborate with any author who would it be and what would you write together?
Jim Butcher or James Barclay and it’d be some sweeping fantasy epic. With dry humour and general awesomeness thrown in for good measure.

Failing that, any collaboration on a Star Wars project would be like a dream come true!

Alasdair Stuart

Alasdair Stuart is a genre fiction writer and pop culture analyst. His nonfiction has been published by Tor.com ,Uncanny Magazine, and Barnes & Noble. His game writing includes ENie nominated work on the Doctor Who RPG and the upcoming After The War from Genesis of Legend. He co-owns the Escape Artists Podcast Network and hosts their horror show, PseudoPod. His most recent publication is The PseudoPod Tapes Volume 2: Approach with Caution, the second collection of expanded essays from PseudoPod. He blogs at www.alasdairstuart.com, has a pop culture newsletter at The Full Lid and is on social media at @AlasdairStuart.

The quick Q&A

Tell us one thing you loved or found fascinating about a place you have lived.
When I went back to the Isle of Man after eight years away, it absolutely freaked me out that you can stand on the mountain in the centre, turn in a circle and see ocean everywhere around you.

What did you want to be when you grew up (other than a writer if that was an option)?
-Field tester for Action Force toys.
-Train driver.
-Astronaut (Duh).
-Clark Kent.
-Professional wrestler. But I was a nice kid and therefore not allowed to do anything rambunctious. Or that involved chair shots.

Which super hero would you most like to be and why?
Superman. I’m a big, polite country boy who writes things and wears glasses. Him and me have a certain commonality of design to us. Plus, part of me hopes, if I die well in battle, to wake up in the Daily Planet bullpen. That would be a fine Valhalla, I think.

It’s finally happened! The zompoc is here! Name four things in your ‘go bag’ and your primary weapon.
-Wind up/Solar radio. If there are other people out there I want to know. If nothing else the endless repeats of the Shipping Forecast will be a restful background accompaniment to slow motion zombie killing montages.
-Utility keyring. I am, to my mild shame, building this at the moment. I’ve got a thing for those ‘Here are eight tools on a penny!’ style keyring tools and am currently planning a keyring of them that’ll include a pen, a file, a pair of tweezers, a torch, a multi-screwdriver, a miniature lighter and so on.
-A solar powered torch. There’ll be a holdout on the utility key ring but I want a full size one, firstly because like the Navy SEALs say two is one and one is none and secondly because a decent sized solar Maglight or something similar is a hell of a melee weapon.
-A spare pare of waterproof, good shoes. I’ll be doing a lot of walking (At least until Marguerite and I can make it to the tank place in Market Harborough) so a spare pair is a good plan. Also good currency if needed.

What is your go to comfort book or writer when you can’t settle into anything new?
Here’s an awful admission for you. I don’t really re-read stuff. It tends to be one and done for me. That being said, there are several comic series I touch base with regularly. The Ellis run on Stormwatch is very important to me, as is Transmetropolitan. The latter is the book that taught me that one of the bravest things you can do is write. Nothing feels as bad if it’s captured and defined by words and the moment you do that is the moment you start getting control of your life back.
And yes, I’ve considered several of Spider’s tattoos more than once. But not yet…

Now, movies? Movies I come back to again and again. Speed is a go to for me simply because it’s ridiculously fun and you can play spot the Whedon dialogue. Scott Pilgrim gets a regular turn because it’s a musical with punching instead of songs and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang gets rewatched regularly because it’s the single most brilliant film of its sort in the last twenty years.
Pacific Rim as well, because I’m one of the people who liked it and because I suspect there’s no better ‘plucky humans beat the odds’ movie in existence or on the way anytime soon. Also the theme tune is EPIC.

What is the single most important thing to your writing process?
Knowing where I’m going and knowing what I don’t need to know yet. I’m a process guy and my issue is often that thinking something through feels like execution. If I can think something through to keep it interesting but not so much I feel like it’s done then I can actually finish it.

If you could collaborate with any author who would it be and what would you write together?
Henry Rollins, because his work taught me almost everything I know. We’d write either the single funniest novel about over articulate, tattooed dudes ever written or a cook book that somehow also discussed jazz and movies.#

Alasdair is available for interviews and guest posts. Please contact adele@(nospam)foxspirit.co.uk.

Interviews with and articles by Alasdair

Interview on The Eloquent Page with Alasdair Stuart

A lovely article about the launch of Fox Spirit on the SFX blog by Alasdair Stuart

Alasdair Stuart talks foxes in your pocket at SFX

Colin F Barnes

Colin F. Barnes is a writer of dark and daring fiction. He takes his influence from everyday life, and the weird happenings that go on in the shadowy locales of Essex in the UK. Colin likes to blend genres and is currently working on a Cyberpunk/Techthriller serial ‘The Tehcxorcist.’ which combines elements of Sci-Fi, Thriller, and Horror.

Like many writers, he has an insatiable appetite for reading, with his favourite authors being: Stephen King, William Gibson, Ray Bradbury, James Herbert, Albert Camus, H.P Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and a vast array of unknown authors who he has had the privilege of beta reading for.

Website: www.colinfbarnes.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/ColinFBarnes

Colin also runs our fellow micro publisher the very excellent Anachron Press