Announcement: Table of Contents Insert Title Here

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We’re delighted to announce the table of contents for the forthcoming FableCroft book Insert Title Here, an unthemed anthology of speculative fiction. We read more than 250 stories (over 1.2 million words) and have selected a fabulous lineup of stories from both established and emerging authors, which range from science fiction to fantasy to some truly dark horror, with some of the most unusual and engaging genre-bending stories I’ve ever read. It was really tough to select from the great slushpile, and Insert Title Here will be our biggest anthology yet – check out this amazing lineup!

Kathleen Jennings The Last Case of Detective Charlemagne
Joanne Anderton 2B
DK Mok Almost Days
Matthew Morrison Sins of meals past
Tom Dullemond The Last Voyage of Saint Brendan
Dirk Flinthart Collateral Damage
Dan Simpson The Winter Stream
Darren Goossens Circle
Alan Baxter Beyond the Borders of All He Had Been Taught
Thoraiya Dyer The Falcon Races
Robert Hood Footprints in Venom
Caitlene Cooke Circa
Tamlyn Dreaver Reflections
David McDonald Her face like lightning
Marianne de Pierres Salvatrix
Dan Rabarts Oil and bone
Ian Creasey Ministry of Karma
Stephanie Burgis The art of deception
Marissa Lingen & Alec Austin Empty Monuments
Sara Larner Living in the Light
Alexis A. Hunter Always Another Point

We’re aiming for release at Conflux in October (all going well) and I can’t wait to share this book with you!

Young Adult, all grown up

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Image from http://jinleephd.com/2013/06/29/23-why-should-you-write-young-adult-literature/
Image from http://jinleephd.com/2013/06/29/23-why-should-you-write-young-adult-literature/

At Continuum X on the June long weekend, I had the privilege of moderating a panel called “YA: all grown up”, which featured Guest of Honour Ambelin Kwaymullina, and other YA writers Amie Kaufman, Leonie Rogers and Sue Bursztynski as panellists. We had a chat by email beforehand, so kind of knew the sort of things we wanted to talk about, but of course, you never know where the conversation will go. With such intelligent and well-read panellists, it went all sorts of great places!

We talked about why YA was both important and popular, with readers of all ages, with the panel suggesting that YA is important because “the young matter more” (Ambelin), and that it’s popular for reasons such as the fact it share qualities with genre fiction, the writing is pared back, and YA stories tend to be more diverse that adult-oriented fiction. The reasons why our panellists wrote YA were discussed, and we challenged the idea that YA was “easier” than adult fiction, to write or read, although it’s often shorter and more to-the-point!

Recommendations from the panel for quality YA:

Tehani said (though it would change on any given day) that top reads for her are: Laini Taylor (the Daughter of Smoke and Bone series), Liar by Justine Larbalestier and recommends Awards lists such as the Aurealis Awards, CBCA Older Readers, Inky Awards and various Premier’s literary awards.

Amie suggests Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo and Legend by Marie Liu.

Ambelin says to pick what you love and don’t worry about where it comes from in the bookstore. Read something you wouldn’t normally read – diverse and different perspective and challenge you and make you smarter.

Sue recommends anything by Melina Marchetta and Michael Pryor’s Laws of Magic series.

Leonie seconds Ambelin’s words, and adds Terry Pratchett’s The Wee Free Men, Brandon Sanderson’s Rithmatist books, and Bonnie’s story, a blonde’s guide to mathematics by Janis Hill.

I’d like to thank the panellists for being so darn awesome and smart, and for making the hour-long discussion absolutely fly by!

Please note that the notes I took were definitely on the run, and my memory is always suspect. Hopefully I’ve not misrepresented or misremembered anything here – I welcome comments from audience members and the panellists if I’ve got it wrong or missed anything super important!

FableCroft out in the world

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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!

BoneChimeCoverDraftJo 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

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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!).

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

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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:

kaleidoscopeKaleidoscope: 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

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c10coverTHI’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!

Speaking of book launches…

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It occurred to me recently, that given we have Jo Anderton’s launch next weekend, I probably should (finally) post about the OTHER book celebrations we’ve had recently. Well, in the past year. Hmmm, yes, it HAS been a busy 12 months! (more photos of events over at the FableCroft Facebook page)

First off the rank (gosh, was it really in APRIL last year?!) was the dual launch for The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories by Joanne Anderton and One Small Step, an anthology of discoveries at Conflux, the 2013 Natcon in Canberra in October. We had a great spot in the thoroughfare, and a good time slot too, and it was lovely to see so many con-goers in attendance. Kaaron Warren acted as launcher (for both our books AND Thoraiya Dyer’s Twelfth Planet Press Twelve Planets Collection Asymmetry!), and Joanne, Thoraiya and I said a few words too. Lots of fun!

Screen Shot 2014-05-31 at 3.24.21 PM
Photo courtesy of Cat Sparks
Screen Shot 2014-05-31 at 3.24.39 PM
Photo courtesy of Cat Sparks

So we had an intimate but fun launch for Dirk Flinthart’s debut novel, Path of Night, way back in November 2013. It’s the first book of ours that has been launched by the local mayor, which was exciting, and the author and cover designer both attended in fine style. Was lovely to meet some of the good people of Scottsdale, and we had a great evening.

Author reading book shoppers

Earlier this year, we had a FableCroft Book Party, hosted by the great folks at The Hobart Bookshop. The wonderful Lian Tanner said lovely things about Ink Black Magic and Path of Night, and Tansy and Dirk both got to read some of their novels too. Was a good turnout, particularly for the Sunday afternoon of the long weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Photo by Helen Merrick
Photo by Helen Merrick

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Just a few weeks ago (okay, okay, it was nearly two months – goodness me, the year is flying!) we celebrated two wins at the Aurealis Awards, with The Bone Chime Song taking out Best Collection and One Small Step sharing the glory with The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2012 in the Best Anthology category. With several other FableCroft works on the shortlists, including Path of Night and Ink Black Magic, we had a brilliant night, and enjoyed being able to spend the evening with the best and brightest of Australian spec fic.

Photo by Cat Sparks
Photo courtesy of Cat Sparks

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Now we’re gearing up for next weekend’s celebration of Jo’s new book Guardian, and I’m still a bit boggled that it’s been over a year since the launch of The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories! Hopefully it won’t take me so long to blog about the fun we have there… All attendees of Continuum X are welcome to join us for the launch, 4pm on Saturday 7 June. Hope to see you there!

Book launch! Guardian by Jo Anderton!

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Guardian coverJoin the FableCroft Publishing team at Continuum X in Melbourne to launch Jo Anderton‘s new Veiled Worlds novel, GUARDIAN. Tansy Rayner Roberts will officiate proceedings, Jo will be there to sign books, and there will be prizes, treats and special launch prices available!

We’ll be in “The Big Top” following the Fan Fund Auction and would love to see you there – let us know you’ll be coming by joining the Facebook event page or by commenting below.

FableCroft will have a presence in the Dealer Room most of Saturday and Sunday of the convention, with Slow Glass Books stocking our publications on Friday and Monday – come say hi!

Guardian has landed!

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Guardian BoxThe advance copies of Jo Anderton’s new novel Guardian have landed! We’re super excited to see them, because they are GORGEOUS! You can pre-order print copies from all your favourite physical and online retailers, but we are still honouring our pre-order special price (with BONUS ebook content!) which is the absolute cheapest way to get the book! Special pre-order offer ends on June 6, as the book will be officially launched at Continuum in Melbourne that weekend. So get in quick, for the best price (and exclusive Veiled Worlds content delivered straight to your email!).

PRE-ORDER Guardian by Jo Anderton, with exclusive bonus ebook (ended 5/6/14)

Linky goodness!

~ Tehani

The award-winning Starship Sofa podcast have worked their podcasty magic on another story from One Small Step – this time, Suzanne J Willis’ story “Number 73 Glad Avenue” has hit the airwaves – take a listen!

Marianne de Pierres’ novel Peacemaker is going to be made into an interactive game! The origins of the Peacemaker series are in the short story “Virgin Jackson”, which was reprinted in FableCroft’s Australis Imaginarium anthology in 2010!

Pozible have posted an interview with us about our Cranky Ladies crowdfunding campaign. Check it out here.

Guardian coverJo Anderton’s forthcoming book Guardian has been sent to the printer! Official launch will take place at Continuum in Melbourne during the June long weekend. It’s not too late to pre-order your copy (ebook or print) for special introductory price and get bonus exclusive Veiled Worlds content!

The voting for NAFF (National Australian Fan Fund) closes TODAY, and I’m running, with my fan hat on! The fund supports an Australian fan to attend the National Science Fiction and Fantasy convention in Australia (this year that’s Continuum), and I’m really looking forward to being able to attend in that capacity, should I be successful! I can hardly ever get to panels when I go to cons, and being there as NAFF delegate would mean I can do the full convention experience — I’ve also got lots of fun ideas for fundraising for NAFF (part of the delegate’s responsibility), which I’m looking forward to. You can find more information here, and once you’ve read about each candidate, if you’ve got $5 to spare for a vote, it would be appreciated (you don’t have to vote for me — the other candidate is also very worthy, or you can vote to hold over funds for the following year).

Speaking of Natcon, if you are a member of Continuum, or were a member of Conflux last year, you have Ditmar Awards voting rights! It’s a great ballot, so please exercise your democratic rights 🙂 We have posted some free fiction and discounts on our nominated books and stories, to help you make an informed choice 🙂