FableCroft out in the world

June 24, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a busy time here at FableCroft, and I feel like a duck or an iceberg or something right now. Frantically paddling to keep serenely floating, with so much going on under the surface that you can’t see! However, there are a few things out in the world I wanted to share!

Jo Anderton was interviewed by the AntipodeanSF podcast after winning Best Collection at the Aurealis Awards in April, and the interview went live a couple of weeks ago. Check it out here. Oh, and Jo also won the Australian Shadows award for Best Collection last week! HUGE congratulations!

Suzanne J Willis’s story “Number 73 Glad Avenue” has been reprinted not once but TWICE now! The story became our second to hit the airwaves on the Starship Sofa podcast in April (the first was Michelle Marquardt’s “Almost Greener” back in Novemberlast year), and it will appear again in the anthology Time Travel: recent trips, edited by Paula Guran (Prime Books, October 2014). Well done Suzanne, it’s a fantastic story and we’re delighted to see it getting continued exposure!

I’m 98.3% (or thereabouts) done with story selection for Insert Title Here, and there’s been a somewhat interesting development on that front which I’ll be announcing very shortly – stay tuned for that, and (hopefully) a table of contents reveal real soon!

Cranky Ladies of History stories are starting to trickle in, and we’re looking forward to reading about the amazing women our authors are writing about. I’ve peeked at a few of them already, and WOW – can’t wait to read them all!

I’ve seen some new reviews of FableCroft works out and about on Goodreads and Amazon – thanks to those folks who take the time to write about our books!

Right, back to the grindstone! More news soon…

Buzzing about Guardian

June 22, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ 1 Comment

Two weeks ago we launched Jo Anderton’s third Veiled Worlds novel, Guardian, to a great audience at Continuum (photos by Cat Sparks), and there’s been some lovely buzz about the book around the traps too!

Jo shares her Big Idea over at John Scalzi’s Whatever.

At SF Signal, Jo discusses what finishing a trilogy taught her about the creative process.

And the story behind Guardian over at Upcoming4Me!

Donna Hanson interviews Jo here.

And Alan Baxter does so here.

Ventureadlaxre gives a great first review of the book here, saying: “…strength and wit in the face of adversity…gives this novel the edge that makes you unable to stop reading…”

And even our amazing cover artist, Dion Hamill, has been spreading the word!

HUGEST thanks to the wonderful Tansy Rayner Roberts for doing such a fantastic job of launching the book into the world (loved the line “bibliophile search and rescue”!), as well as Alex and Katharine for being big help setting up and selling during the launch; to Justin from Slow Glass who has been a rock for convention sales and distribution; to Cat for the (as usual excellent) photos; to the brilliant Continuum X team for a great convention and a really awesome launch spot; and to the fabulous con-goers who came along and supported – you all rock!

And so we are out in the world. All pre-order copies have been sent, so if you have not yet received one, please let me know! Everyone else, please ask your local bookstore to order copies if they don’t have them on the shelf, or purchase from your favourite online bookseller (obviously we recommend Slow Glass Books for print copies!).

Book Review: Kaleidoscope by Alisa Krasnostein & Julia Rios (eds.)

June 18, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ 1 Comment

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 or is something so brilliant from another small press that it deserves to be shouted from the rooftops! Like this one:

Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories

ISBN: 978-1-922101-11-2

August 2014, Twelfth Planet Press

Alisa Krasnostein & Julia Rios (eds.)

Kaleidoscope is one of the best anthologies I have read for a very long time. It’s not just the concept, which is both necessary and overdue; it’s not just the stories, which are engaging and beautiful and thoughtful and brilliant; it’s not just the way the authors explore science fiction and fantasy from perspectives all too frequently unseen in fiction; it’s all of these things, and that it seems so natural. In this anthology, every story takes a character (or two or three) who is often “othered” in fiction (and life), and makes their differences a part of the story. Readers will see themselves, they will see their friends, they will see their families, their cultures, their religious beliefs, their sexuality, their physical and mental states and they will see them as normal, as okay, as special. Not othered. Important and relevant and very very good, Kaleidoscope offers a powerful message to our society about difference, and about what we, as readers, want (and need) to see in our stories.

Some pieces, such as Tansy Rayner Roberts’ “Cookie Cutter Superhero”, offer a biting commentary on popular culture, couched in humour and teen spirit; others, such as “Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon” by Ken Liu, take a gentler approach, examining first love with a fantasical twist. Some stories shade darker, as with “The Legend Trap” by Sean Williams (set in his Twinmaker universe, an added bonus for fans) and “Kiss and Kiss and Kiss and Tell” by E.C. Myers; still others take a familiar trope and turn it sideways, like Faith Mudge’s “Signature” and “The Lovely Duckling” by Tim Susman. Some of my favourite works in the book were those that embedded the story in the protagonist’s nature, like the magic of Jim C. Hines’ “Chupacabra’s Song” and Karen Healey’s astonishingly good “Careful Magic”. There are so many wonderful stories in the pages of Kaleidoscope that every reader will find a favourite (or two or three), and every reader, teen or adult, will find at least one that speaks to them in deeper ways.

Thank you to the publisher for my review copy of the book. Kaleidoscope will launch on August 5, 2014 and can be preordered here.

Review cross-posted to Goodreads.

Continuum schedule

June 5, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

I’ll only be at Continuum X on Saturday and Sunday, but it’s going to be a busy couple of days! At this point, I’ll be hanging in the Dealer Room for most of the time during the day, except when enpanelled. And my panels look like this:

4pm Saturday – Book Launch: Guardian

Join the FableCroft Publishing team to officially launch Jo Anderton’s new Veiled Worlds novel, Guardian. Prizes, treats and special launch prices available!

Tehani Wessely, Jo Anderton, Tansy Rayner Roberts

6pm Saturday – Getting Involved In Awards

From Aurealis to Ditmars to Hugos, there are a wide range of Australian and international speculative fiction awards ad almost as many ways to participate in them. Our panellists discuss the awards they’ve participated in, and how you too can get involved.

PRK, Tehani Wessely, Justin Ackroyd, Alex Pierce

10am Sunday – Young Adult – All Grown Up

Is YA fiction just fiction with YA heroes? What is YA, what makes it good, what differentiates it from adult or “new adult” fiction?

Tehani Wessely, Ambelin Kwaymullina, Amie Kaufman, Leonie Rogers, Sue Bursztynski

2pm Sunday – The Crowdfunding Experience

Sites like Kickstarter and Pozible allow ambitious creators to fund projects through small contributions from vast numbers of curious consumers. When it works, it often works spectacularly – but projects can fail just as spectacularly. A look at pros and cons of the crowdfunding business model by creators who have tried it.

Tehani Wessely, Josh Vann, Laura Wilkinson, Ben McKenzie, Paul Nicholas

4pm Sunday – ~~Live~~ Slushpile

Ever wondered how that story got chosen – or rejected? Our panel of editors will ~~read out the openings of a few SF stories complete with realtime analysis, explaining at what point they would decide to keep or dump a story and why.~~ explain why some stories make it through and others don’t.

Cat Sparks, Tehani Wessely, Jack Dann, Sue Bursztynski, Amanda Pillar

5pm Sunday – Punching Above Their Weight: Small Press in Australia

They take chances. They go where no big press dares. They publish new writers and artists and veterans alike. They publish SF, fantasy, horror, humour, YA, children’s books, themed anthologies. Big press publishes FFT – fat fantasy trilogies. How and why can Australia’s vibrant small press do things large ones can’t?

Sue Bursztynski, Paul Collins, Edwina Harvey, Simon Petrie, Tehani Wessely

8pm Sunday – The Awards

Other than all that (more panels than I’ve EVER been on at a convention, I think!) I’ll hoping catch a few friends for dinner and see everyone in the Dealer Room!