In Your Face … and then some

in your face anthology campaignThis anthology will not be an easy read, but it will be a rewarding one.

FableCroft Publishing is putting out the book, entitled In Your Face. The stories, publisher Tehani Wessely says, “will be provocative and/or confronting but with a firm purpose – they are pieces that will perhaps make readers uncomfortable because they are a bit too hard-hitting or close to the bone, but which interrogate these themes and ideas, and make a point about the world we live in”.

Writers in the anthology include Sean Williams, Cat Sparks, Kaaron Warren, Kirstyn McDermott and another dozen or so who are bound to get under readers’ skin — for good effect.

My story, ‘A House in the Blue’, is one of the current selection. It’s a fairly blunt response to the hideous health policy pursued by the soulless Abbott Government, since rejected, but sadly one that seems to still lurk in the shadows of government budgets. It is set in my climate-changed Brisbane, which is really where the speculative element kicks in. I suspect American readers wouldn’t find the rest of it that far fetched, and sadly, the climate element probably isn’t either, given the way our federal government continues to shy away from taking action. It’s possibly the angriest story I’ve written.

The reason for this blog post is to point you in the direction of FableCroft’s Pozible campaign, being conducted through January to take the anthology further.

Says Tehani, “This campaign is designed to expand the number of excellent stories we are able to include in the book from 12-15 to at least 20. As our goal is always to pay our contributors what their efforts deserve, our stretch goal once we reach our target will be to increase the amount we are able to pay per story.”

Check out the Pozible, which essentially allows preorders with other goodies besides. As Tehani has noted, the book is coming, it’s just how many writers get to be involved that hinges on the Pozible.

And Then — a brand new adventure

Figurehead illo by Vicky Pratt from And Then... adventure anthologyClan Destine Press (publishers of my Vampires in the Sunshine State duology) has announced a new adventure — And Then…. The Great Big Book of Awesome Adventure Tales, a mammoth two-title set of tales featuring dynamic duos.

So far, 26 writers have been announced — the preliminary list is below — with stories to 15,000 words: ‘old-fashioned rip-snorting action adventures’.
My contribution takes place in the same world as Night Blooming, published earlier this year in SQ Magazine. As CDP publisher Lindy Cameron says, ‘ooh what fun’.

Check out that TOC below: that’s some serious firepower.

Readers can be part of the adventure, too. The books — more authors are yet to join — are to be crowdfunded through Indiegogo, so you can essentially preorder a copy of these rollicking tales and get other cool stuff besides. Stuff such as other CDP ebooks and paperbacks (lots of ’em), notebooks and pens, and themed critiques on 1500 words (fight scenes, erotica, openings, Ancient Rome and MORE!).

The figurehead illo, by Vicky Pratt, with this post is from the title page of one of the yarns, ‘Come Now, Traveller’, by Amanda Wrangles. It just gets more interesting, doesn’t it?

AND THEN… PRELIMINARY CONTRIBUTORS

Peter M Ball ~ Deadbeats

Alan Baxter ~ Golden Fortune, Dragon Jade

Mary Borsellino ~ The Australian Gang

Lindy Cameron ~ The Medusa Code

Kat Clay ~ In the Company of Rogues

Emilie Collyer ~ The Panther’s Paw

Jack Dann ~ The Talking Sword

Sarah Evans ~ Plumbing the Depths

Jason Franks ~ Exli and the Dragon

James Hopwood ~ The Lost Loot of Lima

Kelly Gardiner ~ Boots and the Bushranger

David Greagg & Kerry Greenwood ~ Cruel Sister

Narrelle M Harris ~ Moran & Cato: Virgin Soil

Maria Lewis ~ The Bushwalker Butcher

Sophie Masson ~ The Romanov Opal

Keith McArdle ~ The Demon’s Cave

Jason Nahrung ~ The Mermaid Club

Andrew Nette ~ Save a Last Kiss for Satan

Amanda Pillar ~ It

Michael Pryor ~ Cross Purposes

Dan Rabarts ~ Tipuna Tapu

Tansy Rayner Roberts ~ Death at the Dragon Circus

Fin J Ross ~ Genemesis

Tor Roxburgh ~ The Boudicca Society

Amanda Wrangles ~ Come Now, Traveller