Cranky Ladies of History: the crowd-funding campaign

Cranky Ladies logoDuring March, FableCroft Publishing is running the Cranky Ladies of History crowd-funding campaign on the Pozible platform. The campaign goes live on March 1 and will close on March 31, running for the duration of Women’s History Month. Our goal is to raise enough to pay our wonderful contributors the professional rates they so rightly deserve, and to create the very best book we can.

It’s our very great pleasure to also announce that we have been successful in securing a brand new Arts Tasmania grant associated with our campaign. The Crowbar funding is ONLY awarded to successful campaigns, but is assessed in advance – we will receive an extra $2,000 for our project if the Pozible campaign fully funds, which is is extremely exciting. We were Crowbar’s very first applicants, so we’re absolutely stoked to be approved for this! The funding is linked directly to the success of the campaign, and although we are approved by Arts Tas as eligible, they are only able to award the funds to successful campaigns, which is a bit scary, but extra incentive to do a brilliant job on our campaign trail 🙂

We are so grateful to so many people who have already offered support to the campaign by way of commitment to the project, and to those people who are already planning to participate in our Cranky Ladies of History blog tour. During the month, people from all over the world will be posting about THEIR favourite Cranky Ladies, and we will be linking to those from the FableCroft blog, Twitter and Facebook, as well as rounding up all the links on our dedicated Cranky Ladies page. It should be loads of fun, and also a fantastic way to learn about all those wonderful, irascible, eccentric, CRANKY women of history who pushed the boundaries of the societal norms of their time and place, and deserve to be remembered.

We will have more information about the Cranky Ladies project and the creators who are on board over the next few days – hope you’ll join us for the ride!

If you would like to host, post or guest blog about one (or more!) of YOUR favourite Cranky Ladies, please let me know! We want to plaster the internet with cranky women, and the more the merrier!

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Reviews and news roundup

1890436_10202652074879534_690952886_oA few bits and bobs for linking!

  • Cheryl Morgan congratulates FableCroft and Twelfth Planet Press on their Aurealis Awards shortlistings, and links to the books for sale in the Wizard’s Tower Books store.
  • Over at 13 O’Clock, Alan Baxter reviewed Path of Night, calling it, “excellently written and very well paced” – thanks Alan!
  • Speaking of reviews, Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts was reviewed in the February edition of Locus! Can’t link to it, unfortunately, but Carolyn Cushman said the book is, “a fun fantasy adventure with considerable satire…that brings to mind Terry Pratchett’s Discworld” – thanks Carolyn!
  • Tansy and other Aussies Alex Pierce and Gillian Polack, along with several other well know folks were mind-melded over at SF Signal, on the topic of “secondary characters who take center stage” – some interesting thoughts presented!
  • We’re looking forward to our big Book Party in Hobart on March 9 – who will be there to celebrate with us?
  • While we’re on the topic of parties, don’t forget that tickets to the Aurealis Awards ceremony (and the preceding Conflux Writers’ Day) are on sale! It’s going to be a blast!
  • And finally, submissions to Insert Title Here close on February 28 – have you got your story in?

 

Speaking of book launches…

It seems I’ve managed to neglect to blog about our forthcoming book party in Hobart, Sunday March 9 from 4.30. Celebrating the launch and recent shortlistings of Tansy and Dirk’s novels, and the other FableCroft Aurealis Awards nominations, we will be at The Hobart Bookshop to wine, chat and launch with special guest Lian Tanner! Come along if you’re in Tassie that weekend…

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DK Mok book launch in Sydney

DK Mok, whose brilliant story “Morning Star” from One Small Step is shortlisted for an Aurealis Award this year, is officially launching her debut novel, The Other Tree (from Spence City), in Sydney next weekend. I was lucky enough to receive an advance review of the book (spoiler: I loved it!) and highly recommend it to you. If you are going to be around the area, why not check out the launch party – I reckon it will be great fun!

Date: 
2-3pm, Sunday 2nd March 2014

Location: 
Lvl 2 Meeting Room, Customs House Library, Sydney

News-2014-Invitation

Cover reveal for Kate Gordon’s new book

Today is apparently all about the covers! Our friend Kate Gordon, who penned a dark little tale for One Small Step, writes outside the speculative fiction field as well, and her new book, Writing Clementine, is out later this year from Allen & Unwin. Kate has revealed the cover on her blog, and we wanted to share it here too – it’s not spec fic, but Kate is one of ours, and it’s very pretty! For more information about Writing Clementine, visit Kate’s blog!

Clementine

Sneak peek: cover art for Jo Anderton’s “Unbound”

Dion Hamill is an amazing artist. I say this every time I see a new piece he has done, and I said it again when the cover artwork for Jo Anderton’s third Veiled World novel, Unbound, turned up in my inbox. Here’s a sneak peek at a tiny bit of it…

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Isn’t it beautiful? And that’s just a small piece of the puzzle!

Unbound is available for pre-order in print and e-book, at a discounted price and with special bonus content for orders received prior to publication.

With BONUS CONTENT ON ORDER
Print + international post $14.99 AUDEbook $7.99 AUD

 

The exclusive e-book will be sent to your Paypal email address in mobi, epub and PDF.

This PRE-ORDER pricing and bonus offer is available to readers all over the world, with no geographic restrictions. 

Photo used on ebook cover courtesy of Flickr user papalars and used under CC BY-ND 2.0

Aurealis Awards shortlists!

AA logoWe’re very excited to see the Aurealis Awards shortlists announced last night! It’s always lovely to see all the marvellous talent on the lists, but it’s particularly nice when some of our own work is there too!

Huge congratulations to Joanne Anderton, Tansy Rayner Roberts, Dirk Flinthart and DK Mok for their individual shortlistings, and to all the contributors to One Small Step and Focus 2012! None of our books are made in a vacuum, and all our writers, artists, designers and proofers play a huge role – thanks to you all!

Congratulations to all the finalists for the 2013 Awards. Look forward to seeing everyone at the ceremony in April!

More information about the shortlists and the Awards ceremony can be found at the website.

2013 publication information/awards eligibility

FableCroft Publishing

As the awards season for 2013 works gets underway, here’s a handy ready reference of FableCroft’s 2013 publications!

Novels

Path of Night by Dirk Flinthart

Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts

Collections

The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne Anderton

Anthologies

One Small Step, an anthology of discoveries edited by Tehani Wessely

Focus 2012: highlights of Australian short fiction edited by Tehani Wessely

Short Stories (<7,500 words)

“Mah Song” by Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories)

“Fencelines” by Joanne Anderton (The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories)

“The Ships of Culwinna” by Thoraiya Dyer (One Small Step)

“Winter’s Heart” by Faith Mudge (One Small Step)

“Sand and Seawater” by Joanne Anderton & Rabia Gale (One Small Step)

“Cold White Daughter” by Tansy Rayner Roberts (One Small Step)

“Number 73 Glad Avenue” by Suzanne Willis (One Small Step)

“Firefly Epilogue” by Jodi Cleghorn (One Small Step)

“Shadows” by Kate Gordon (One Small Step)

“Indigo Gold” by Deborah Biancotti” (One Small Step)

“By Blood and Incantation” by Lisa L Hannett & Angela Slatter (One Small Step)

“Daughters of Battendown” by Cat Sparks (One Small Step)

Novelettes (7,500-17,500 words)

“Original” by Penny Love (One Small Step)

“Morning Star” by DK Mok (One Small Step)

“The Ways of the Wyrding Women” by Rowena Cory Daniells (One Small Step)

“Baby Steps” by Barbara Robson (One Small Step)

“Always Greener” by Michelle Marquardt (One Small Step)

Original Artwork

Cover art (and design) for Ink Black Magic by Tania Walker

Cover design for Path of Night by Adam Branch

Cover design for The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Amanda Rainey

Cover design for One Small Step by Amanda Rainey

Other

Faith Mudge is eligible for the Ditmar Best New Talent award

For the William Atheling Jr. Award for Criticism or Review, David McDonald, Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely, for the Reviewing New Who series.

Kathleen Jennings and Tania Walker are eligible for all professional AND fan art awards, locally and overseas, and we highly recommend them both!

Book Review: The Other Tree by D.K. Mok

I don’t usually review books here on the FableCroft site, but like to periodically do so when it’s a book by one of the authors we have published in the past. D.K. Mok appeared in One Small Step in 2013 with the story “Morning Star”, a novelette length, far reaching, space-based science fiction story that is thoughtful and exciting by turns. The Other Tree is D.K.’s 2014 debut novel, from the publisher Spence City, and while I’ve seen it noted as urban fantasy, I’m not sure it quite fits that genre marker – it’s one of those books that is tricky to classify as anything but “put it on your to-read list”!

17314951If Seanan McGuire had written The Da Vinci Code, the outcome might have been a little like The Other Tree! Given I adore Seanan’s work and think The Da Vinci Code could have been quite fascinating in the hands of a different author, this is definitely a compliment.

I don’t know much about the heritage behind this story but the religious, scientific and geographic elements, whether real or invented, are believably written, and underpin an action packed yet inherently character driven story.

The book rollicks along very nicely, maintaining tension and gradually unpacking characters along the way. I absolutely loved cryptobotanist Chris and conflicted Luke, and their personal journeys are as important to the novel as the overarching plot. Even the secondary characters are multi-faceted and interesting, although I have to say if I have one nitpick, it was with the random head hopping of perspective in a couple of places. Otherwise though, an impressive debut for a very talented writer! Mok is most definitely on my “want more” list!

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of the book. It is available in ebook from your favourite e-tailer or ask your bookstore about the paperback.