What is Tales for Canterbury?

Tales for Canterbury is a short story anthology loosely themed around survival, hope and the future. All profits of this anthology will be donated to the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.

The anthology will be released in April/May 2011 in electronic and paperback formats.  It features stories by RJ Astruc, Philippa Ballantine, Jesse Bullington, Anna Caro, Cat Connor, Brenda Cooper, Debbie Cowens, Matt Cowens, Merrilee Faber, AJ Fitzwater, Janis Freegard, Neil Gaiman, Cassie Hart, A.M. Harte, Karen Healey, Leigh K. Hunt, Lynne Jamneck, Patty Jansen, Gwyneth Jones, Tim Jones, Kim Koning, Jay Lake, Helen Lowe, Kate Mahony, Tina Makereti, Juliet Marillier, Angel Leigh McCoy, Linda Niccol, Ripley Patton, Simon Petrie, Grant Stone, Jeff Vandermeer, Mary Victoria and Sean Williams.

Pre-orders are now available from Random Static Press.

If you would like to contact us, you can email Cassie at winterchild9@gmail.com

Two weeks left!

Hello!

We know we’ve been pretty silent lately, and apologies for that. However sales have been ticking along and we’re close to the point where we should have a final figure soon.

Which is part of the point of this post. There are only just over two weeks (that’s til the end of the year) to buy the ebook version of Tales for Canterbury.

We can sell the paperback for a little longer, but only the current print run. We’d definitely love to sell that out though, so once again, here’s where to buy them from. We do offer gift wrapping, so last minute present buying? We’ve got it covered.

Thank you for all your support over the past months – you’re fantastic, you really are – and do pass this blog post along if you can.

An interview and an article

Hi folks We hope that Spring is treating you well so far. I, for one, am pleased to see a little more sunshine around the place.

Anyway, just a quick post to share a few more links with you.

Recently, Kate Krake of Vivid Scribe featured an article she wrote about Tales for Canterbury. It’s the first article I know of that’s been written, and Kate was a pleasure to work with.

Also, Kerryn Angell posted an interview she did with me (Cassie). If you haven’t picked up a copy of Tales for Canterbury yet, she’s actually giving away a copy, so why not head over and see what you need to do to be in to win?

Back in stock!

Hey folks, it’s been awhile since we’ve given you an update – sorry about that. Between the flu, school holidays and other fun stuff, we’ve been a little out of the loop. However, we just wanted to update you and let you know the first print run sold out a few weeks back, and we now have the second batch of books back in stock. So if you still haven’t picked up a copy, now is a great time to buy!

A few weeks ago Anna did an interview with one of the contributors, Tim Jones. You can have a read of that here; it gives some great behind the scenes insight into the project.

We’re still maintaining a 4+ star rating over at GoodReads, and if you need more convincing to go and order your copy I strongly suggest checking out Helen Lowe‘s ‘A Peek Inside Tales for Canterbury‘ series. So far she has posted snippets of her own story The Fountain, Tim Jones’ Sign of the Tui, Janis Freegard’s The Magician, Mary Victoria’s The Daughter of the Khan, and Juliet Marillier’s Juggling Silver. All great stories! What are you waiting for? Get reading!

Media round up

Hey folks! Well, it’s been a few weeks now since we released the digital and print versions of Tales for Canterbury and so far the feedback has been great! We thought we’d pull together the bits and pieces we’ve seen around the internet and share them with you.

First up, we have a couple of reviews. One from Goodreads, and the other over at LibraryThing. Both said really lovely things about the anthology, so thank you! It’s really great to get feedback, so if you have read the anthology why not write a few words about it? We’d love to hear what you thought.

Two of the contributors, Matt Cowens and AJ Fitzwater, talked to Lynn Freeman from RadioNZ, and the interview was aired on the 12th of June. If you missed it though, you can go to this page and download it

Also we’ve done a couple of interviews on blogs. I did one with Anna Scott Graham, which can be found here, and Anna and I both answered some questions for Wen Baragrey here.

If anyone else wants to help spread the word by hosting an interview or something, please drop us a line – with a resurgence of quakes in Christchurch, and yet more damage dealt, there is a huge need to raise funds. As you can see, we’ve reached half of our goal, but the more money we can get down there, the better.

Once again, a huge thanks for all the support!

It’s so pretty!

I got my print copy of Tales for Canterbury a few days ago now and am thrilled with how well it’s come out. Anna and I have been staring at bits and pieces of this book for months now on screen, so to see it in the flesh (a real live print book!) was surreal and amazing. I loved the cover on screen, but on the book? Oh, it’s just gorgeous.

See for yourself:

I think that all the pre-orders are in the mail now, so hopefully many of you have already got your copy – if not, they shouldn’t be too far away. And if you haven’t ordered yet? Go on! It’s a gorgeous book, for a great cause.

Paperback Update

We’re very pleased to say that the paperbacks are now printed – and they look very shiny indeed.

It will be a few days before they’re all sent out, but not long now.

And paperbacks will also be on sale at Context next weekend – so if you’re around, go ahead and get one – or more!

Ebook Release!

We’re very pleased to announce the release of the ebook version of Tales for Canterbury! Yep, 34 excellent stories all waiting to be read.

If you pre-ordered, follow the link in the original email to your detailed invoice, where you can download your copy. If you haven’t ordered go ahead and do so now.

Thanks everyone, you’ve been amazing. And we’ll update on the paperback soon.

And it’s off!

The final files for the print version of Tales for Canterbury are now with the printer! It was an exciting, and slightly nerve-wracking moment when Anna hit the send button, but we’re thrilled that it’s off. Hopefully it will only be a few weeks before we have the books back, but we will keep you updated along the way.

The digital version should be ready for release shortly. The final touches are just being put in place, and we will let you know as soon as it’s available for download.

It’s so exciting to have the ‘putting together’ part of the anthology work done, and we’re looking forward to getting stuck into promotion. More than anything though, we’re looking forward to getting it into your hands

Don’t forget that we need your help to spread the word! Check out our last post, which had some suggestions for ways in which you can help.

We Need You!

As we get closer to release date, some of you have been asking if there’s anything you can do to help. So we’ve put together a few ideas:

1) Spread the word! Face to face, twitter, carrier pigeon – whatever works for you. We’ve even made a handy button for your blog or website – just copy and paste the html in the box below:

<a href="http://randomstatic.net/index.php?main_page=product_info&amp;cPath=1_10&amp;products_id=51"><img src="http://annacaro.org/images/blog_button_Tales_for_canterbury.jpg" alt="Tales for Canterbury Blog button" /></a>

2) Interview us. We know many of you have your own blogs, and we’d love it if you can help us get the word out through them. Rather than a traditional blog tour, our preference is if you could send us a few (five or so) questions to which we’ll email you some responses. They can be on Tales for Canterbury, our own writing, or anything else you think your readers may be interested in. Please note that we’re unlikely to start answering these until TfC is at the printers, and will probably spread them out over a few weeks.
If you’re keen, email marketing AT randomstatic DOT net, remembering to state which of us you’d like to interview, including your questions and a link to your blog. And if there’s something a bit different you’d rather do please let us know – we’re not wedded to one particular format.

3) Display our poster. If you work – or even live – somewhere that gets a lot of foot traffic you can download and print this pdf.

Introductions, the last

We have the proof reading back! We’re just waiting to hear from a couple of authors, and finalize a few small things – so close now!

We have our last lot of introductions today, so without further ado…

Jesse Bullington is the author of the novels The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart and The Enterprise of Death. His short fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in various magazines, including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Chiaroscuro, Jabberwocky, and Brain Harvest, as well as in anthologies such as Ekaterina Sedia’s Running with the Pack, James Lowder’s The Best of All Flesh, and Robin Laws’s The New Hero II. He currently resides in Colorado and can be found online at www.jessebullington.com.

Philippa Ballantine is the author of Geist with Ace Books, with another three books in that series coming out shortly; and Phoenix Rising: A Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences Novel, coming out from Harper Voyager this Spring. She is New Zealand’s first podcast author, and a Sir Julius Vogel winner for her podiobook Chasing the Bard. You can find out more about her at pjballantine.com

RJ Astruc’s fiction has appeared in like a billion places including Abyss & Apex, Strange Horizons, and Basement Stories. Her latest novel is A Festival of Skeletons; her new novel, Harmonica + Gig, is coming out in 2011. You can find RJ (and piles of free fiction) online here: www.rachelastruc.com