Party Time, Excellent!

It’s almost time!

Volume 9 of the Fox Pocket series ‘Evil Genius Guide’ edited by Daz Pulsford, is live, Reflections will be hot on its heels. We are close to the whole series of ten small and perfectly formed volumes of flash and short fiction being available.

pockets

To celebrate we are having a bit of a do at the Secular Hall on Humberstone Gate in Leicester.

We’ve got a panel to talk about writing and publishing and then to take audience questions, followed by local comedian Ishi Khan Jackson who will be doing part of her popular ‘I’mMigrant’ comedy set, then we will be opening the floor for people to do five minute readings. All for £5 including some refreshments.

Get your tickets here so we know how much wine to buy!

5:20-8:30 Thursday 25th August in Leicester

Congratulations Leicester City

Well, I have never been much of a football fan, but I am Lestah born and aside from a brief education based sojourn to Newcastle I’ve lived in the ‘shire all my life. So it is that I can’t help but feel some pride in the Foxes achievement and enjoy the holiday mood in the City.

Congratulations Leicester City Football Club on a job well done, from one skulk to another.

postcard - lcfc

 

African Monsters Launch & Other News

We are delighted to announce that an official launch party for African Monsters will be taking place on 3rd March at London Forbidden Planet, after which we will head off to the pub for more celebrating.

A number of the authors and artists will be attending along with Aunty Fox and both editors of the book. We will have badges identifying us just in case you haven’t met us before.

https://forbiddenplanet.com/events/2016/03/03/african-monsters-forbidden-planet/

The format will be relaxed and casual with a quick introduction then mingling and signing of books. If you would like to ensure a book is waiting for you in the signing area they are available to pre order on the Forbidden Planet website.

We hope to see lots of you there. It’s our first London launch and we are all very excited.

african monsters - small

 

In other news we are co hosting another Fox Bites with DMU Bookshop Leicester. At ‘Unromantic Tales’ on 11th Feb local writers will be reading short stories and excerpts that have nothing at all to do with romance and Valentines day. There may be something of a horror leaning. These are totally free events with drinks and nibbles, so do come along, enjoy some readings and support a local bookstore if you can.

For more information on this and other Fox Bites mini reading events please join the facebook group.

The last bit of news for now is that Fox Spirit are the Creative Leicestershire featured business this month. Creative Leicestershire are a local organisation supporting small creative businesses and helping bring them together. If you are in the region and are building a business in a creative industry it’s worth checking them out for opportunities for support and advice.

 

Events in May

Fox Spirit is helping to organise some local author events.

We have a couple of things happening in the next week or so.

This saturday 16th May at 3:30pm we have a Fox Bites reading hour with five minute readings from

Mayapee Chowdhury, Marianne Whiting, Jay Eales, Selina Lock, Carol Leeming, Hardeep Sangha, Leah Osbourne and Daniel Ribot

At Cafe Malveen (a few doors down from Bar Roma)

We also have a mid week event at Central Library with our friends at Boo Books and a Fox Bites erotica session we have called ‘Love Bites’

fox boo may event

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.

Leicester workshops

So I will be doing a couple of sessions aimed at unpublished writers, covering some of the basics at the Leicester Phoenix for Creative Leicestershire.

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Creative Leicestershire in partnership with Fox Spirit Books are offering ‘A Quick Guide to Your Publishing Options’ over two twilight sessions in October. These sessions are aimed at unpublished writers who want to explore their options with an introductory overview to the world of publishing. Join us for discussion and workshops and bring a layer of thick skin as you will need to be prepared to give and take some feedback.

Session 1 will focus on choosing your route; self, small or traditional big press publishing and the pros and cons of each. It will also cover contacting, querying and dealing with publishers.

Session 2  will explore having an online presence, managing your online identity and interacting publicly with fans and reviewers.

Both sessions will offer a Q&A opportunity.

Adele Wearing ran a book review site and was involved in literary events for a number of years before starting Fox Spirit Books. As a small publisher she works around her day job with a copy editor and book formatter to produce quality genre fiction and occasional non-fiction. Fox Spirit has been running for just over two years and this year was short listed for Best Small Press and Anthology for Tales of Eve by the British Fantasy Society.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-quick-guide-to-your-publishing-options-part-1-tickets-12579588889

http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/a-quick-guide-to-your-publishing-options-part-2-tickets-12579653081

The sessions are £10 each if you attend only one session or £15 to attend both.  This includes a free glass of wine or juice. Payment via PayPal is to Fox Spirit Books.

Places are limited to 12 per session.

Alt.Fiction does Everybody’s Reading

In 2013, provisionally the third weekend of May  Alt.Fiction will once again bring the proud purveyors and fans of genre fiction to Leicester. Under the supervision of Writing East Midlands the 2013 event will be run by Fox Spirit’s Adele Wearing and the omnipresent (at last years) Alasdair Stuart of Pseudopod and also ALL THE THINGS in geekdom. Having helped out so much on the weekend last year Al is now fully in place as co-cheese.

However if you really can’t wait for next year, or you’ve never done alt.fiction and want to test whether it’s for you before shelling out on tickets, we are having a small taster session as part of Leicester’s ‘Everybody’s Reading’ festival.

The event is on Saturday 6th October from 12:30 – 4pm at Leicester Central Library on Bishop Street. Nearest car park is probably the Newarke Street multi story and Bishop Street runs down one side of Town Hall Square so if you are new to Leicester it’s not too hard to find.

The event will feature a panel with Kim Lakin-Smith, Joseph D’Lacey, Nicola Valentine and Damien Seaman talking about publishing, their various experiences and taking questions. If there is time we may also discuss favourite and important titles in genre fiction, kicking off at 12:45 until 1:45.

After the panel Kim and Joe are offering 45 minute workshops, these are ideal for new writers honing their craft or people wanting to address particular concerns and are always very popular at our events. 2pm – 2:45pm

After the workshops, there will be some 10-15  minute readings and a chance to chat before we close. 3pm – 4pm

The authors have been invited to bring books to sell and sign so some time will be allowed for that, Damien’s novel ‘The Killing of Emma Gross’ is an ebook, so if you are a fan he can always sign your kindle.

This event is totally free and will be a really good friendly opportunity to get a feel for the sort of things that happen at our main weekender so do come along and bring your friends. There will even be free baked goods (a fine altfiction tradition is the baking table).

This was team Hagelrat at alt.fiction 2012 in March.