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.

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.

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

Have you ordered your copy?

Hi folks! As we approach the point at which we can release the digital version, we also get closer to sending the print files off to the press. So far sales have been great, and we’ve got a nice sized order to place. That said, there is always room for more!

The bigger our initial print run, the less expensive the cost of printing is, so if you haven’t placed a pre-order yet, now is the time to do so. Remember, the cheaper the cost of printing, the more money makes its way to Christchurch, and that’s what this is all about.

If you could please spread the word this week – send links, talk to friends, make your pre-order – that would be fantastic!

The last section is out with proof readers and we’ll be getting that back over the weekend – it won’t be long now!

Thanks for your support 🙂

Welcome to May

We had hoped to have the e-book version live by now, but it won’t be too much longer. We just have one section left to be proofread now – it’s so close! Thank you all for your patience with this. It was a huge task to undertake, but we’ll be there soon.

We only have a few more introductions to go, so without further ado:

Brenda Cooper is a Seattle-area futurist and writer, and also the CIO for the City of Kirkland. Brenda writes a monthly column for Futurismic called Today’s Tomorrows, and is the author of the Endeavor award winner for 2008: The Silver Ship and the Sea, and of the sequels, Reading the Wind and Wings of Creation. She co-authored Building Harlequin’s Moon with Larry Niven. Her next book is Mayan December, coming from Prime Books in August 2011. See her website at http://www.brenda-cooper.com.

Brenda wrote the story, “Phoenix Dogs,” during the response to the Haiti earthquake, and is pleased to see it included in an anthology dedicated to helping Christchurch.

Cat Connor left her native Christchurch when very young and now lives in Wellington. This blue eyed, brunette mother of 7 and nurse maid to Missy the cat and a rabbit called Milly, has found the time to author 11 novels. Her latest being The Byte series featuring FBI agent Ellie Conway and published by Rebel e Publishing, South Africa. Her short stories have appeared in many magazines and ezines in the USA and the UK. If you were to ask Cats family and friends about how they feel about her taking on the writing industry they will tell you that they are not surprised. She has an attitude that is never neutral and that means never being satisfied with just one accomplishment.

Cat is a member of Backspace.org, International Thriller Writers, Inc, Masters of Horror, and Kiwi Writers.org. She is active on Twitter and Facebook and blogs frequently at http://catconnor.blogspot.com

Anna Caro lives and writes in Wellington, NZ. Her short fiction has been published in M-Brane SF, Full of Crow, Antipodean SF and Khimairal Ink and she is the co-editor of A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction. Her blog is at http://blog.annacaro.org

I’ll put the last ones up in the next few days, and then we’ll hopefully be able to give you some more information about release dates. Take care and thanks again for all your support 🙂

Introductions: Bumper Issue

Hi folks! I just thought I’d let you know that two sections of the anthology are currently out with proof readers. We’ve also started sending stories back to authors so they can take a look at the final layup. It’s looking good! We can’t wait to share it with you.

I’ve been a little slack in the posting department, so we’re doing a bumper issue of introductions today.

Neil Gaiman has long been one of the top writers in modern comics, as well as writing books for readers of all ages. He is listed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography as one of the top ten living post-modern writers, and is a prolific creator of works of prose, poetry, film, journalism, comics, song lyrics, and drama. You can visit his official website at www.neilgaiman.com

Janis Freegard was born in South Shields in the UK and grew up in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. She writes fiction and poetry and is a past winner of the BNZ Katherine Mansfield Award. Her work has appeared in many journals and anthologies, including Landfall (NZ), the New Zealand Listener, Home: New Short Short Stories by New Zealand Writers (Random House), Takahe (NZ), Brittle Star (UK), Cadenza (UK), the Momaya Press Annual Review 2009 (UK) and Harlem River Blues (Fish Publishing, Ireland).

Several of her stories have been broadcast on radio. Her poetry collection, Kingdom Animalia: the Escapades of Linnaeus, will be published by Auckland University Press in May 2011. She lives in Wellington and blogs at http://janisfreegard.wordpress.com ‘The Magician’ was first published in Cadenza (UK).

AJ Fitzwater resides in Christchurch, New Zealand, knows no hobbits, and has recently become adept at skipping cracks. The author blogs at pickledthink.blogspot.com about attempts to be published and other mind detritus.

Merrilee Faber lives in Australia, when she isn’t living in her head. Her fiction has appeared in Hint Fiction and Shock Totem, and is upcoming in Shimmer and Space and Time Magazine. She is an avid naturalist (not the ones who run around in the nuddy, the other ones), a humanist and a pessimist, and staunchly defends her right to be so whenever she likes. She blogs about writing at notenoughwords.wordpress.com

Matt Cowens is a high school English and Media Studies teacher and writer. He has illustrated and designed card games, self-published several comics, recorded podcasts for Every Day Fiction and Librivox, and is an enthusiastic amateur film-maker. He occasionally blogs at http://mattcowens.livejournal.com

Debbie Cowens lives on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand with her husband and son. She is an English teacher who has taught in Japan as well as in New Zealand high schools. Her stories have been published in the New Zealand School Journal, Enchanted Conversation, Every Day Fiction, Prinkipria, Sentient Online and Andromeda Space Inflight Magazine.

Quick update + more intros

Hi folks! Just a quick update to say that we are still making sure everything is perfect behind the scenes, but hopefully it won’t be too much longer until we can release the digital version. We’d like to thank everyone for being so patient – putting together an anthology is a huge task, and while we want to do it as quickly as possible, we also want to make sure that the end product is as good as it can be.

In the meantime, here are some more introductions from our contributors.

Leigh K. Hunt considers herself a dreamer. She disappears into worlds created within her head, and every now and then she’ll re-enter the real world for a little while before delving back in again. Leigh writes for the love of writing, the creation of new worlds, and creating new characters that she eventually considers as her ‘internal friends’. Leigh has written a number of unpublished novels, and some short fiction. Leigh supports her passion for writing by working in the world of New Zealand Treaty Settlements. At home, she is based on the Kapiti Coast, in the lovely world of marriage and the motherhood of a lonely oversized tomcat. To get to know Leigh a little more, please visit her world: http://parchmentplace.wordpress.com/

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Karen Healey is the author of GUARDIAN OF THE DEAD and the forthcoming THE SHATTERING. She attended the University of Canterbury for five and a half years, and would like to dedicate “The Unicorn Bell” to the University of Canterbury Drama Society. You can read more about and by her at her website, http://karenhealey.com

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A.M. Harte writes twisted speculative fiction, such as the zombie love anthology Hungry For You. She is a writer and practical joker, is excellent at missing deadlines, has long forgotten what ‘free time’ means, and is utterly addicted to chocolate. Find out more at http://amharte.com

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Cassie Hart is a full time mother and part time writer living in New Plymouth. She has been published in A Foreign Country: New Zealand Speculative Fiction, and the Masters of Horror Anthology. She is the vice-president of kiwiwriters.org, and a founding member of SpecFicNZ. Cassie blogs about life, writing and whatever else takes her fancy at just-cassie.com