Huge congratulations to all the Aurealis and Ditmar Awards finalists!

February 19, 2016 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

We’re ecstatic to see several FableCroft mentions on the 2015 Aurealis Awards and 2016 Ditmar Awards (covering the same year of work…) shortlists.

In the Aurealis Awards, special mention to Dirk Flinthart, finalist for Best Collection for Striking Fire AND for Best Horror Novella with “Night Shift” from the collection, Joanne Anderton, shortlisted for Best Science Fiction Short Story with “2B”, and DK Mok, shortlisted for Best Fantasy Short Story with “Almost Days” (both stories being from Insert Title Here). It’s also super exciting to see Focus 2014: highlights of Australian short fiction on the Best Anthology list.

The complete shortlists are available on the Aurealis Awards website, and showcase some of the absolute best of Australian writing produced in 2015 – such an honour to be part of it!

For the Ditmars, it’s fantastic to see Joanne Anderton double up with “2B” on the Best Short Story ballot, alongside Deborah Biancotti’s creepy Cranky Ladies of History story “Look How Cold My Hands Are”. The Cranky Ladies anthology also made the Best Collected Work ballot, and Kathleen Jennings’ gorgeous cover and internals for the book are shortlisted for Best Artwork. Editor Tehani Wessely is also on the ballot for the William Atheling Jr Award for Criticism or Review for both the team efforts of “Squeeing Over Supergirl” (with David McDonald) and “Reviewing New Who” (with David McDonald and Tansy Rayner Roberts). If you were a member of Swancon last year, or of Contact 2016 this year, you are eligible to vote, so please do (for ANY of the fabulous work shortlisted!).

Congratulations to everyone appearing on these shortlists – it really shows the strength of Australian speculative fiction.

New bits and bobs

October 21, 2015 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

Author of the new short story collection Striking Fire, Dirk Flinthart, has been diving into his archives and posting some free fiction on his website. Highly recommended if you would like a taste of his work!

Dirk has also been posting some musings on the dimensions of storytelling:

Part 1: Telling Stories

Part 2: The Nifty Idea

Part 3: Make It Bleed

He says some pretty interesting things about writing and stories, and I recommend the posts highly!

Also around the traps, Matthew Morrison has reviewed Insert Title Here, saying: “There are some amazing, even must read, short stories within.”

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to review our books — it’s hugely appreciated!

Win a copy of Striking Fire by Dirk Flinthart (and other news!)

September 21, 2015 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Striking Fire

by Dirk Flinthart

Giveaway ends October 01, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway

https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/widget/154887

Pre-orders of the Striking Fire ebook are now available at your preferred e-tailer (Kindle / Kobo / Smashwords) and print pre-orders through the FableCroft shop!

Join us for the launch at Conflux in Canberra on Saturday October 3, 2015.

Dirk Flinthart’s STRIKING FIRE: cover reveal and TOC

September 12, 2015 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

We’re very excited to share the cover design for Dirk Flinthart’s forthcoming short story collection, Striking Fire. Designer Amanda Rainey has done a gorgeous job with it (as usual!) and we’re so pleased with the result!

We can now also announce the final table of contents for the book, which will be launched on Saturday October 3, 2015, at Conflux in Canberra. It’s a cracker of a book!

the first martian (original to collection)

the flatmate from hell

the ballad of farther-on jones

collateral damage

eschaton and coda

faith (original to collection)

truckers

fortitude valley station, 2.15am

a friend in the trade (original to collection)

granuaile

sanction

no hard feelings (original to collection)

the fletcher test

the last word

outlines

tough (original to collection)

walker

one night stand

gaslight a go go

parity check

night shift (original to collection)

Announcement: Dirk Flinthart collection

May 11, 2015 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

We are very pleased to announce that we are currently working on a collection of short fiction by Dirk Flinthart, who readers of Australian spec fic will no doubt be familiar with.

Flinthart has written for many FableCroft projects, and in 2013 we published his original novel Path of Night; we are huge fans of his work and are delighted to be bringing you his debut collection.

His stories have been shortlisted for several national speculative fiction awards and his young adult piece, “Vanilla”, from Twelfth Planet Press’s Kaleidoscope anthology, recently won the Best Young Adult Short Story at the 2014 Aurealis Awards.

The as-yet untitled collection will comprise reprinted work from Flinthart’s extensive short fiction career, as well as several stories original to the book. We anticipate a release date in September 2015.

Some fans of Flinthart’s work may be hoping for some new Red Priest work – those fans will be somewhat disappointed, but only in the short term! We are not including the Red Priest stories in THIS book… Yes, you may read that to mean there will be a future project that expands on the Red Priest’s adventures, and we look forward to bringing it to you.

This year’s collection will focus on Flinthart’s stories for adult readers, and ranges across science fiction, fantasy and horror, with some wondrous and bizarre genre-bending ideas. From award-nominated horror and science fiction to new pieces of urban fantasy and SF and everything in between, Flinthart will take you on a wild and crazy ride – can’t wait to share it with you!

We are currently working on the final lineup and look forward to announcing it in the near future. In the meantime, want an idea of what you’re in for? Below is a semi-comprehensive bibliography of Dirk Flinthart’s publication history – would love to hear from anyone who as amendments or additions for the list! Please note this is NOT the table of contents for the collection! We’ll announce that as soon as we’ve figured out how to whittle down a huge and amazing list to a sensible number for the book!

Gaslight a go go	AGOG! Smashing Stories
The Last Word	2012
One Night Stand	AGOG! Ripping Reads
Eschaton and Coda	After the Rain
The Fletcher Test	Epilogue
Collateral Damage	Insert Title Here
Outlines	Damnation and Dames
The stars like candles	ASIM 6
Parity Check	ASIM 9
Fortitude Valley Station, 2:15am	ASIM 18
Truckers	ASIM 30
Walker	Sprawl
The Flatmate from Hell	Encounters
Granuaile	Cranky Ladies of History
Sanction	Amazon short
The Ballad of Farther-on Jones	AGOG! Fantastic Fiction
Baited	??original publication? Was made into short film
Networking for Dummies	The Workers’ Paradise
Once and Future King	Darwin’s Evolutions (emag)
The Eighth Day	Use Only As Directed
The Bull in Winter	Bloodstones
Corpus Christi	ASIM 11
Fairytale	ASIM 12
Monochrome for two	ASIM 20
Invictus	ASIM 21
Head Shot	ASIM 54
The Big One	AGOG! Terrific Tales
The Red Priest’s Vigil	ASIM 25
The Garden of the Djinn (Red Priest)	ASIM 31
The Red Priest’s Homecoming	ASIM 17
This is not my story	ASIM 37
One Story, no refunds	Shiny #6
The Best Dog in the World	Worlds Next Door
Vanilla	Kaleidoscope
Angel Rising (New Ceres)	Novella
Debutante (New Ceres)	New Ceres Nights
She Walks in Beauty (New Ceres)	New Ceres #1

CRANKY LADIES OF HISTORY: The Pirate Queen of the Connacht

March 26, 2015 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

Welcome to Women’s History Month 2015, which has the theme “Weaving the stories of women’s lives”, which fits perfectly with our Cranky Ladies of History anthology project! After 18 months of work, including our successful crowd-funding campaign in March last year, we are proudly releasing the anthology on March 8. To celebrate, our wonderful authors have supplied blog posts related to their Cranky Lady, and we are delighted to share them here during the month of March.

To get your own copy of Cranky Ladies of History, you can buy from our website, order your favourite real world bookshop, or purchase at all the major online booksellers (in print and ebook).

The Pirate Queen of the Connacht by Dirk Flinthart

Grace O’Malley: a woman so swashbuckling and amazing that she really ought to be fictitious, because her actual-factual self makes most of us look like timorous, lazy slugs.

Look – I like pirates, okay? I’ve liked pirates ever since I was old enough to read Treasure Island for myself. (My mum read it to me first, but she was going too slowly for me. I kidnapped the book and read it in a day.) I know that in reality, most pirates were (and are) amoral, bloodthirsty, violent thugs… but every now and again somebody like Grace O’Malley crops up.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOR “Granuaile” AFTER THE CUT – check out the story in Cranky Ladies of History before you read! Continue reading “CRANKY LADIES OF HISTORY: The Pirate Queen of the Connacht” →

New Reviews

November 19, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

Some lovely new reviews around the internet!

Kyla Lee Ward at Tabula Rasa gives an entertaining review of Dirk Flinthart’s Path of Night, noting: “Flinthart delivers a thoughtful and entertaining take on his material.”

Elizabeth at Earl Grey Editing Service says of Phantazein: “The stories that make up the anthology had a nice mixture of cultures” and “…I’d definitely recommend it…” while Tsana Reads and Reviews declares: “there’s something here for all kinds of fairytalesque fantasy fans.”

We really appreciate all the reviews from our readers – if you have read one of our books, please post (or cross-post) a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as they do help!

FREE BOOKS FOR WORLDCON!

August 14, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ 4 Comments

I’m a bit under the weather, and I’m watching jealously as so many friends are making their way to Loncon3, this year’s Worldcon, so I’ve decided to express my pique with FREE BOOKS!

For the duration of Worldcon, the following FableCroft ebooks are ABSOLUTELY FREE to all readers! Go! Fetch them!

Worlds Next Door (anthology)

Focus 2012: highlights of Australian short fiction (reprint anthology)

Splashdance Silver (Mocklore Chronicles #1) by Tansy Rayner Roberts

The Aware (Isles of Glory #1) by Glenda Larke

“Flower and Weed” by Margo Lanagan

“Sanction” by Dirk Flinthart

Disclaimer: I’ve made the discounts on Smashwords only for the top four items (all formats available here!), but these will probably filter through to Amazon etc via price matching, if that’s your preference. “Flower and Weed” and “Sanction” are only available on Amazon, and the free pricing will kick in tomorrow for five days!

Roundup time!

August 7, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a busy busy couple of weeks for interviews, with the 2014 Australian Spec Fic Snapshot taking place. Many of FableCroft’s creators have been snapshot already, and it’s been great reading the interviews from all facets of the Aussie Spec Fic scene! I particularly enjoy seeing what people are working on, and what they’ve been reading.

Tehani

Katharine Stubbs (our wonderful intern!)

And many many more writers we have published are part of the Snapshot – check out the hashtag #2014snapshot on Twitter or follow the tag links in one of the posts to see them!

Some other reviews and interviews around the traps! Dirk Flinthart is interviewed as part of Simon Petrie’s Use only as directed series.

There’s a lovely review of Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts new on Goodreads, which says:

Tansy Rayner Roberts has a gift all her own that sets her apart from all other fantasy writers.

and

…it is a story marvellously complete in itself. So do read and love the Mocklore Chronicles in any order you like, because that’s what I intend to do.

Thanks Carol on Goodreads!

If you’ve reviewed any of our books, please let us know! And we really appreciate cross-posted reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

Reviews, interviews and things

July 15, 2014 ~ Tehani ~ Leave a comment

Alex Stephenson has written a fantastic review of Guardian in Aurealis #72 – among other things, Alex says:

Guardian is a tremendously satisfying conclusion to an already celebrated series.

…Anderton is to be commended for her ability to create such rich and original settings.

A fitting end, or entry, to the trilogy, Guardian is as excellent as Anderton’s fans deserve. It is a pleasure to read modern science fiction driven by a female lead as strong and nuanced as Tanyana.

Thanks Alex! You can read the whole review (and new fiction and other things as well!) in the issue, just $2.99 at Smashwords.

Another review of Jo’s Veiled World books comes from Paul Bonamy on Goodreads, who calls them: “…an excellent series, and well worth reading.”

Jason Franks has interviewed Dirk Flinthart over at his blog, talking a lot about Path of Night and what’s coming up next. Don’t forget that while you wait for book 2 in the series, “Sanction”, a short story set after the events of Path of Night, is available super cheap from Amazon!

Did we mention that The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories won Best Collection at the Australian Shadows Awards last month? It DID! Nice double with the Aurealis Award – congratulations Jo!

Speaking of The Bone Chime Song and Other Stories Dave Versace reviewed the book on Amazon, saying it’s full of, “Beautiful, dark stories of humanity on the fringes of normality or the verge of extinction.” Much appreciated Dave!

Elanor Matton-Johnson gave Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts five stars on Goodreads, saying it’s, “A brilliantly batty romp…” – we agree! And Cissa on Amazon said, “VERY recommended, especially if you like surreal mash-ups.” Thanks Cissa!

Let us know if you review a FableCroft book on Amazon, Goodreads or your blog, and we’ll happily link to it!