Jim C Hines took a look at Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Ink Black Magic and pronounced it as having “a healthy appreciation for the absurd, and a lively cast of ridiculous and entertaining secondary characters” with a plot that “was surprisingly layered, with mystery after mystery to be peeled back like an onion in which every layer of the onion is magical and might kill you or rewrite your mind or un-kill you or bring about a sudden rain of seafood. Or all of the above.” Thanks Jim!
Sue Bursztynski read Path of Night by Dirk Flinthart and thought it was pretty good too! She says: “Definitely a change from Dirk Flinthart’s usual swashbuckling fantasy, but still, action adventure”, and made particular note of the humour of the story. Cheers Sue!
If you review one of our books on Amazon, Goodreads, a reviewing outlet or on your blog, please let us know – we love to see what people are saying 🙂
Firstly, a link we should have posted a month ago and managed not to! We were very exciting to see (hear?) “Always Greener” by Michelle Marquardt podcast over at StarShip Sofa! “Always Greener” opens the One Small Stepanthology and is the first story from FableCroft (that I know of) to be republished this way. Very cool! Check it out at the Hugo Award winning StarShip Sofa website or on iTunes!
FableCroft got a lot of love from Marianne de Pierres when she mind-melded at SF Signal on the topic “What lesser known books deserve more attention?”, along with other great Australian small presses.
Tsana reads and reviewsInk Black Magic, noting “In the case of Ink Black Magic, I can honestly say that only the start — the set up for the rest of the story — put me in mind of Pratchett. And not early Pratchett either, more like middle Pratchett, with Moving Pictures springing to mind as an obvious comparison (with bonus thematic parallels). But once the story in Ink Black Magic really gets going, it becomes very much Tansy-ish and not at all Pratchettesque.”
Tansy has been pretty busy it seems. She guest blogged over at The Book Smugglers, chatting about great book ideas for Christmas. She also wrote a great post on diversity in YA for Tor.com – highly recommended.
Sean the Bookonaut reviewsPath of Night, calling it “a darkly humorous thriller with cracking one liners and plenty of action.”
Our friend Marianne de Pierres has revealed the cover of her forthcoming novel Peacemaker (coming in 2014 from Angry Robot Books). FableCroft had the privilege of reprinting “Virgin Jackson”, the short story that holds the seeds of Peacemaker in Australis Imaginarium – can’t wait to read the novel!
Rowena Cory Daniells interviews Dirk Flinthart on the release of Path of Night.
Jamie over at MDPWeb reviewsPath of Night, saying: “It’s raw and violent, sexual and powerful, chaotic and mesmerising. It’s also a hell of a lot of fun!” and also interviews Dirk at Spotlight Report.
Tsana examinesPath of Night and notes: “The pacing in this novel is brilliant.” She gives it 4.5/5 stars!
Dirk Flinthart reviewsInk Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts, and reckons it “is both an entertaining fantasy romp in the Pratchett mode, and an absolutely fascinating book for anyone who is interested in the art of writing and popular fiction.”
Let us know if you have reviewed any of our books – we love to hear about it!
If you are a book blogger interested in reviewing our novels or anthologies, please contact Tehani at fablecroft [at] gmail [dot] com.
Gorgeous cover art and design by the amazing Tania Walker
After a lengthy gestation period (really, REALLY lengthy…), we are absolutely delighted to announce the arrival of Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts!
Special Offer…
To celebrate the publication of Ink Black Magic, we have a super special, limited time discount on the very FIRST Mocklore book, Splashdance Silver! For the rest of 2013, you can get the FableCroft edition ebook of Splashdance Silver from your favourite e-tailer for only $0.99USD! Now, you don’t have to have read Splashdance Silver or Liquid Gold to love Ink Black Magic, but if that appeals to the completist in you, there will never be a better time to buy!
About Ink Black Magic…
Kassa Daggersharp has been a pirate, a witch, a menace to public safety, a villain, a hero and a legend. These days, she lectures first year students on the dangers of magic. The love of her life is missing, presumed dead. All the adventures are over.
But when an evil dark city full of villains and monsters appears from the pages of a student’s sketchbook, everyone starts to lose their grip on reality. Even the flying sheep.
No one is sure who are the heroes and who are the villains, but someone has to step up to save Mocklore, one last time.
True love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Happy endings don’t come cheap. All that magic is probably going to kill you. You really can have too much black velvet.
The Mocklore Chronicles begin all over again with INK BLACK MAGIC…
The details…
Find all the books in-store at Amazon, Kobo, iTunes, Wizard’s Tower Books, Weightless Books and Smashwords.
Don’t pay more than 99 cents for Splashdance Silver (until December 31, 2013),$3.99USD for Liquid Gold and $5.99USD for the ebook of Ink Black Magic!
The print book is in the hands of the printer, if that’s your preference, and will be showing up in bookstores everywhere soon, or you can buy directly from us here!
Tsaritsa Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, who inspired the cranky ladies…
GUIDELINES:
In 2014, FableCroft will publish an anthology of historical short fiction inspired by cranky ladies of history. Co-editors Tansy Rayner Roberts and Tehani Wessely are immediately seeking expressions of writerly interest in submitting to the anthology.
Authors are invited to submit a story pitch detailing story idea/historical personage. We are aiming for a diverse range of backgrounds, nationalities, time periods and reasons for notoriety in the book, and are particularly interested in stories that are firmly grounded in historical fact. We welcome stories that utilise elements known about the lives of the characters, but are not averse to artistic license either.
Some fabulous cranky women of history include (but definitely are not limited to):
Ada Lovelace, Ahhotep I, Amelia Bloomer, Amelia Earhart, Anne Bonney, Annie Oakley, Artemisia I of Caria, Bina Das, Boudicca, Caroline Chisholm, Caterina Sforza, Catherine de’ Medici, Catherine The Great, Daisy May Bates, Eleanor of Aquitaine, Elizabeth Kenny, Fu Hao, Fulvia, George Sand, Grace O’Malley, Gudit, Harriet Tubman, Isabella of Spain, Joan of Arc, Katharine Susannah Prichard, Livia, Lucrezia Borgia, Mary MacKillop, Mary Queen of Scots, Nancy Bird Walton, Nancy Wake, Nellie Melba, the Pankhursts, Rosa Parks, Sarala Devi Chaudhurani, Susan B. Anthony, Tamar of Georgia, Trieu Thi Trinh, the Trung Sisters, Tsaritsa Sophia Alekseyevna of Russia, Vida Goldstein, Vivian Bullwinkel, Zenobia…
From the list, you may note that our definition of “cranky” is rather broad, and stems somewhat more from a tendency to buck societal standards of the era than a true inherent crankiness. Though that’s good too!
HOW TO SUBMIT
Please email to fablecroft@gmail.com a story outline of no more than one typed page that clearly identifies your cranky lady of history and your proposal. In your cover email please use the subject heading CRANKY WOMEN PITCH [your chosen historical figure] and in the body include your own details and a short writing resume.
We will be regularly updating this page with historical women already spoken for, so please check back frequently, and get your pitches in as early as possible.
We are not specifically seeking young adult fiction, but we do want the book to be suitable for a high school audience, which will restrict explicit sex and graphic violence elements.
Open to authors worldwide.
Word count: fairly flexible.
Payment: 1 cent per word, capped at AUD$75.00 + contributor copy of print and ebook. Further royalties will apply for e-book revenue – information about royalties will be provided in contract negotiations with successful authors and is dependent on final book details.
Approximate timeline to publication
October 21, 2013 – December 31, 2013: open to pitches
January 2014: finalise pitch acceptances.
June 2014: deadline for stories to be submitted.
We are particularly looking for original work, but please query to fablecroft@gmail.com if you think you have a suitable reprint story.
FableCroft thanks Liz Barr for her inadvertent prompting of this project idea.
The final book of Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Mocklore series, Ink Black Magic, will be released just as soon as we finalise the very beautiful cover (soon…!). While this book is an excellent standalone novel, it does have ties to Splashdance Silver and Liquid Gold – have you read them yet?
What people have said about the Mocklore Chronicles (some of these reviews are from when the books were first released in paperback, 15 years ago!):
“…made me laugh out loud on a bus full of people…” (Fran, Goodreads)
“…an undiscovered gem in my opinion. Funny, intricate and exciting – Kassa and her band of merry pirates are such a wonderful team of misfits in a world for misfits.” (AlexEatsBooks, Goodreads)
“Magical. Such detail. A bloody blast.” (Lisa Gormley, Goodreads)
“…this is comic fantasy, and very much in the Pratchett vein. There are witches and pirates, eccentric characters, and other odds and ends – the novel even opens with a view of Mocklore from space ala Pratchett. What is important, though, is that Roberts entertains. This kind of fiction depends upon inventiveness and timing – the author has to be able to produce a non-stop flow of new and interesting characters and situations, while never forgetting that the point is to make us laugh. It is something that Terry Pratchett had made his stock in trade, and it’s a skill that Roberts is clearly learning.” (Jonathan Strahan, Eidolon)
“Tansy Rayner Roberts should be a name we’ll be hearing for a long time to come.” (Jonathan Strahan, Eidolon)
Ink Black Magic by Tansy Rayner Roberts is in the final stages of production here at FableCroft. Ink Black Magic is a Mocklore novel and we will be releasing it in ebook and paperbook very soon!
Kassa Daggersharp has been a pirate, a witch, a menace to public safety, a villain, a hero and a legend. These days, she lectures first year students on the dangers of magic, at the Polyhedrotechnical in Cluft.
Egg Friefriedsson is Kassa’s teenage cousin, a lapsed Axgaard warrior who would rather stay in his room and draw comics all day than hang out with his friends. If only comics had been invented.
Aragon Silversword is missing, presumed dead.
All the adventures are over. It’s time to get on with being a grownup. But when Egg’s drawings come to life, including an evil dark city full of villains and monsters, everyone starts to lose their grip on reality. Even the flying sheep.
Kassa and Egg are not sure who are the heroes and who are the villains anymore, but someone has to step up to save Mocklore, one last time.
True love isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Happy endings don’t come cheap.
All that magic is probably going to kill you.
You really can have too much black velvet.
All this and more in the third and final adventure of The Mocklore Chronicles!
I love that this book works very well as a standalone novel, but if you’re keen to find out more about Kassa and her past, you might like to start with Tansy’s first two books, Splashdance Silver and Liquid Gold, available for around $3.99 each from your preferred ebook retailer!
Jim C Hines took a look at Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Ink Black Magic and pronounced it as having “a healthy appreciation for the absurd, and a lively cast of ridiculous and entertaining secondary characters” with a plot that “was surprisingly layered, with mystery after mystery to be peeled back like an onion in which every layer of the onion is magical and might kill you or rewrite your mind or un-kill you or bring about a sudden rain of seafood. Or all of the above.” Thanks Jim!
FableCroft 