Amazing Breed Giveaway

Ok Breed fans we have an amazing giveaway for you to celebrate Breed being shortlisted for the BFS best fantasy novel award.

Breed Final Digital Cover for Upload

What do you need to do?

Well we want your fan art. Breed, our unlucky lead is never described in great detail in the book so we want to know what you think Breed looks like. Send us your sketches!
Just email them to adele@foxspirit.co.uk and title it ‘Breed Giveaway’ by 15th September.

What do you win? 

Well, this is where it gets really good.

First up you get a signed copy of Breed and we will send you a Fox Spirit Mug with your choice of one of the CafePress designs

Finally the grand prize is this amazing leather dragon mask made by K.T Davies

mask

 

How will we decide a winner?

Well simple, the creator K.T. Davies will be sent all the entries and will pick a favourite.

Is there any small print?

Because of the value of the prizes we will require a minimum five entries in order to run the contest.
That said the contest is open internationally and the prize pack will be sent by ‘signed for’ mail to the winner anywhere in the world.
Closing date is 15th September 2015 10pm London time.
Finally by entering you are agreeing to your entry being included in a gallery on the Fox Spirit website, just the site, we won’t use it for anything else.

British Fantasy Awards

It’s that time of year foxy folk.

Shortlisted for Best Small Press & Best Anth 2014

Well in our second year of running we were shortlisted for Best Anthology (Tales of Eve) and Best Indie Press. This year, our third as an entity, we have been shortlisted for Best Fantasy Novel ‘Breed’ by K.T. Davies and Best Indie Press for the second time.

Breed Final Digital Cover for Upload

 

We also made the shortlist for Best Short Story with ‘Change of Hear’t by Gaie Sebold which appears in our Wicked Women anthology (edited by Jenny Barber and Jan Edwards). Out of the six nominees for best artist we have worked with Ben Baldwin on King Wolf, Daniele Serra and Sarah Anne Langton on multiple titles and a number of other writers we have had the great pleasure of working with appear on shortlists this year including Den Patrick and Mark West. A big congratulations to everyone on the shortlists, we are in excellent company as always.

You can find the full shortlists here.

Cover by Sarah Anne Langton
Cover by Sarah Anne Langton

Edit

Gosh almost forgot our big Victory on Saturday. The North beat the South 6-0 at the Harrogate Crime Festival, picking up injuries and dishing out a few dirty tackles by the looks of the pics (or the South were soft and diving). Fox Spirit was the official team sponsor and proud to have the tough Northern crime writers join the skulk and display their fox spirit on the pitch.

skulkfooty

Revisited : Breed by K.T. Davies

I was reading an excellent article on gender and stereotyping in fantasy over at Fantasy Faction and thinking about our books.

K.T. Davies rightly pointed out her lead in Breed has no identifiable gender stated, although interestingly many reviews assign one to the character. I think we do this without even realising. I also think here at Fox Spirit we do pretty well on having varied approaches to our female leads, we’ve even had one who is a fish. In Drag Noir we focussed particularly on gender as a variable scale ecouraging writers to look at and challenge typical gender roles.

In amongst all this it occurred to me that many people who have started enjoying Fox Spirit over the last three years may not have picked up on all the things we have out there. So with our new third year of our existence starting, we are going to revisit our previous releases. Starting topically with Breed.

Breed Final Digital Cover for Upload

‘After Breed, a Guild Blade of small renown, is chased by a dragon, tricked by a demon, almost killed by a psychopathic gang boss and hunted by a ferocious spider-like arrachid assassin life really takes a turn for the worst. Sentenced to five years bonded servitude to a one-handed priest magician, Breed must find the hammer of the ancient hero known only as the Hammer of the North within a year and a day… or else. And so, with only a drug-addicted vagrant, a rat-faced child, and a timid priest for back up, Breed sets out for the mighty city of Valen and the tomb of the Hammer. What could possibly go wrong? I’ll give you a clue. Everything!’

You can read the amazon reviews in full here

‘I can’t recommend Breed enough. It hits the ground running (literally) and drags you happily with it until the end when you start screaming for MORE!’ Amazon reviewer.

The opening paragraphs for your reading pleasure:

Prologue

There’s nothing quite as exhilarating as headlong flight, when fear of the unknown is banished by the sure knowledge that whatever lies ahead cannot be as dreadful as that which is behind. It is liberating, like being a child again. Although, truth be told, as wild as my childhood was, this was the first time I’d ever been chased by a dragon.
Even though my situation was rapidly sliding from dire to fatal, every fibre of my being sang with the sheer joy of being alive. I let out a loud whoop! It was a challenge, an exultation. Not to be outdone, the dragon answered with an ear-splitting roar and spewed a mouthful of frosty bile in my direction. I dodged into a stand of knotted pines. A wash of ice glazed the copse, leaves shattered like glass, trunks and boughs cracked like old bones. I escaped all but the merest lick of cold fire but that slight splash was enough to peel the skin from my shoulder. I stumbled, arms windmilling, feet scrabbling for purchase. The second I regained my balance, I dug my claws into the ground, and propelled myself down the mountain. My thoasan father had blessed me with his race’s superior speed and agility, alas; my human mother had cursed me with the stamina of her breed. The pace was hard and the furious dragon was devouring my lead with every beat of its coriaceous wings.

Please join us next week for another ‘Revisited’ 

 

FantasyCon 2014

A number of FS authors will be at FantasyCon in York this September.

Aunty Fox will be attending that and doing the following:

FRIDAY
4.00pm – Rejectamentalist Manifesto
The gory details of building an anthology and why stuff gets rejected
Terry Grimwood (m), Jonathan Oliver, Adele Wearing, Ian Whates, Peter Coleborn
8:20pm Joan De La Haye Reading from ‘Burning’
 
and 
 
SATURDAY
11:00am – BREED LAUNCH with K.T.Davies
Breed Poster
12.00 Noon – Charlaine Harris in Conversation
Adele Wearing interviews one of our literary Guests of Honour
6.00pm – We’ve Got It Covered
What are the elements of great cover design? From artwork and design, through to cover copy and author blurbs.
Larry Rostant, Jim Pitts, Marc Gascoigne, Helen Marshall, Adele Wearing (m)

A number of the skulk will also be attending the awards ceremony as we have been shortlisted for Best Small Press and Best Anthology.

Shortlisted for Best Small Press & Best Anth 2014
Shortlisted for Best Small Press & Best Anth 2014