What is Tales for Canterbury?

Tales for Canterbury was a short story anthology loosely themed around survival, hope and the future. It raised 4,132.00 for the Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.

It featured 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.

 

Table of Contents – Survival

1. Broadwing by Simon Petrie
2. Inventing Aladdin by Neil Gaiman
3. Extract by Lynne Jamneck
4. The Last Brother  by Merrilee Faber
5. Phoenix Dogs by Brenda Cooper
6. Almost Perfect by Cassie Hart
7. Second Sight by A.M. Harte
8. The Straw Garden by Phillipa Ballentine
9. When Her Wings by Grant Stone
10. My Dad, The Tuatara by AJ Fitzwater

 

Still technically subject to change, but we expect this to be the final shape of the first section. Today we finished editing our last lot of stories – we’re just waiting on approvals from a few authors and then it’s layup, proofing and release!

Line up: Complete!

Yes, folks. We have the final line up sorted now! We have a grand total of 34 stories, and once we’ve decided on the ordering, we’ll be able to announce the full contents of the anthology.

VERY exciting.

We are still working our way through the editing, but the contributors are being wonderful and getting their stories back to us really quickly. It makes our jobs, as editors, so much easier when we get to work with such lovely, professional, and enthusiastic writers.

Today we’d like to introduce a few more of those writers to you.

LINDA NICCOL – WRITER/DIRECTOR: Stories from Linda’s collections The Geometry of Desire (2005) and The Temperature of Water (2008) have been well reviewed, broadcast and anthologized. She won the 2006 Kaos Films British Short Screenplay Competition with The Handkerchief. She co-wrote New Zealand’s 2007 box office smash Second-Hand Wedding. She has directed three short films – The Poets, 2008, The Making of Dead Girl, 2009, MovieFest category winner, and Collision, 2010. Her script Looking for Lila Ray reached the top 25 of the 2010 Kaos Films British Feature Film Screenplay Competition. Linda lives in Raumati with her husband, daughter and dog. She is currently employed as Marketing and Communications Manager for City Gallery Wellington. www.lindaniccol.com

Kim Koning is a writer who calls two countries home. Born in South Africa, she grew up on fantastic tales of African creatures and myths, which first gave her a love for tales of all kinds and led her to study freelance journalism, specialising in travel. Following her family to New Zealand in her early twenties, she finally found her writers voice and has been using it ever since, while working in various customer service industries.

She is a published poet in two anthologies: “Emotional Journeys” and “Lines of Light and Shade“. Her first novel is in the submission process, and she is currently working on her second.

Tim Jones is a poet and author of both science fiction and literary fiction who was awarded the NZSA Janet Frame Memorial Award for Literature in 2010. He lives in Wellington. Among his recent books are fantasy novel Anarya’s Secret (RedBrick, 2007), short story collection Transported (Vintage, 2008), and poetry anthology Voyagers: Science Fiction Poetry from New Zealand (Interactive Press, 2009), co-edited with Mark Pirie.  Voyagers won the “Best Collected Work” category in the 2010 Sir Julius Vogel Awards. Tim’s third poetry collection Men Briefly Explained, will be published by Interactive Press in late 2011. For the latest news on Tim and his writing, see http://timjonesbooks.blogspot.com

Filling in the gaps

We have just one story left to read! It’s wonderful to be so close to finalizing the line up. At some point after the weekend we’ll have the contributors page updated to its final form!

Editing is ticking along nicely. I’m hoping to get through a decent chunk of it this weekend. Anna is away until Monday, so hopefully when she gets back our thermometer will jump up a little 🙂

Because we’ve slotted some names into the bottom end of the alphabet, I’ll be putting the bios up for those authors who have filled in those gaps, as I get them. We don’t want to miss anyone out 😉

Mary Victoria lives in Wellington, New Zealand and writes fantasy stories. One of her ancestors started the trend long ago, spinning yarns to entertain a certain manic-depressive sultan over the course of 2.74 years. Contrary to the tale as it is commonly told, the sultan did not fall in love with his loquacious bride, but died of exhaustion waiting for the sequel to come out: and so modern fantasy was born.

Jay Lake lives in Portland, Oregon, where he works on numerous writing and editing projects. His 2011 books are Endurance from Tor Books, and Love in the Time of Metal and Flesh from Prime Books, along with paperback releases of two of his other titles. His short fiction appears regularly in literary and genre markets worldwide. Jay is a past winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer, and a multiple nominee for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.

Updates and Introductions: Part 5

Things are still chugging along behind the scenes. We are knee deep in edits and proofreading, and very close now to finalizing the line up, with just one story to come in, and a few left to read/confirm. It looks like there will be over 30 stories included in the anthology which makes it a real bargain!

In just a few short weeks now, we’re hoping to have the digital version available. It’s endlessly exciting thinking about that. I can’t believe that time is passing so quickly – April will be here in no time, and you’ll all be able to read the wonderful stories we’ve selected.

Speaking of stories, I’d like to introduce you to two more of our authors. It’s great we have so many fabulous female writers on board!

Kate Mahony has an MA in Creative Writing from Bill Manhire’s course at Victoria University. Her short fiction has been published in Best New Zealand Fiction Vol. 6, Turbine, Her magazine and the online International Literary Quarterly, Issue 14. Disoriented was previously published in Takahe 71. She teaches classes in short story writing at the Adult Community Education Centre at Wellington High School.

Helen Lowe is an award-winning novelist, broadcaster and poet. Her latest novel, The Heir of Night, the first in The Wall of Night quartet, is newly published in the USA, the UK, Australia and NZ, with recent foreign rights sales into the Netherlands and France. Helen’s first novel, Thornspell, was published by Knopf in 2008 to critical praise from Kirkus and Booklist, amongst others, and won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel: Young Adult in 2009.

Introductions: Part 4

Here we are again, with our fourth post about our lovely contributors. Today we have two more wonderful female writers: one whom I’ve long been a fan of, and one who I am a new fan of. You should definitely check out their books if you get a chance.

Juliet Marillier was born and brought up in Dunedin and now lives in Western Australia. Her historical fantasy novels have been translated into many languages and have won a number of awards including the American Library Association’s Alex Award, the Aurealis Award, the Sir Julius Vogel Award and the Prix Imaginales. Juliet is a member of the druid order OBOD (the Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids). She lives in a hundred year old cottage which she shares with a small pack of waifs and strays. Find out more at her website: www.julietmarillier.com

Tina Makereti writes fiction and creative non-fiction. Her first collection of short stories Once Upon a Time in Aotearoa, was published in 2010 by Huia Publishers. In 2009 she was the winner of the non-fiction category of the Royal Society Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing and the Best Short Story in English at the Pikihuia Awards for Maori Writers. She is currently writing a novel inspired by her mixed heritage and Moriori culture as part of a PhD Creative Writing at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters. You can find out more at: http://www.tinamakereti.com

Introductions: Part 3

Well, pre-orders are going better than we expected – it’s wonderful to see the buzz across the internet with people blogging and tweeting about the anthology. Thanks so much! Did you see we cracked our first $1,000? Excellent stuff!

I thought it was time to get back to some introductions, so next on the list we have two lovely ladies:

Ripley Patton is an American speculative fiction writer living smack in the middle of earthquake-torn Christchurch. Ripley’s short fiction has appeared in numerous on-line and print magazines. Her story “Corrigan’s Exchange” tied for the Sir Julius Vogel Award for best short story, 2009. Her story “The Future of the Sky” won the 2010 Au Contraire Short Story contest. She is also one of the founder and President of SpecFicNZ, the national association for New Zealand writers of spec-fic. Currently, Ripley is working on her first novel, a YA urban fantasy, the first in a three book series.  You can find out more at her website, or her blog.

Angel Leigh McCoy writes speculative fiction. her stories fall primarily within horror, dark fantasy, and steam-punk. Her fiction has appears in numerous media, and in 2011, she has stories in the anthologies: Beast Within 2, Fear of the Dark, Growing Dread: Biopunk Visions, and Clockwork Chaos, among others. During the day, she is a writer/game designer at ArenaNet, where she is part of the vast team effort to make the coolest MMORPG ever: Guild Wars 2. At night, she’s the head editor at WilyWriters.com and recently edited Night Mantled: the Best of Wily Writers, Vol. 1. SFWA & HWA active member.

Promo Video

Well it’s been an exciting day. The number of sales in the first 24 hours have exceeded our expectations – you can see the approximate amount raised for Canterbury on the thermometer in the side bar (and yes, I will be upping the goal very soon…)

A lot of this has been due to the number of people who have been enthusiastically spreading the word. One of our contributors, Matt Cowens, has made this excellent promo video:

Transcript: Tales for Canterbury is a short story anthology from Random Static Press edited by Anna Caro and J.C. Hart. All funds raised through the sale of ebook and print copies will go to the New Zealand Red Cross 2011 Earthquake Appeal. The anthology features stories by New Zealand and international authors, including Neil Gaiman, Karen Healey, Gwyneth Jones, Jay Lake, Cat Connor, Helen Lowe, Sean Williams and more. For more information visit talesforcanterbury.wordpress.com.

Pre-orders are now live!

We are so excited to have pre-orders open! Check out our new page “Get Your Copy!” or go straight to the source and head over to Random Static.

The print copy is priced at $24.95 (including postage within NZ) and the digital version is a mere $12.00! At those prices, you might as well pick one up for a friend too 😉

 

Introductions: Part 2

Next up on our contributor list are the wonderful Grant Stone, and Simon Petrie – two writers with oodles of talent.

Grant Stone‘s fiction has appeared in Shimmer, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine and Semaphore, and is forthcoming in Strange Horizons and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand.

Born on the South Island of New Zealand and now living on the North Island of Australia, Simon Petrie is a Canberra-based research scientist and writer of speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, and occasionally horror). Since 2007, his stories have appeared in magazines such as Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, Aurealis, Borderlands, Kaleidotrope, Sybil’s Garage and Yog’s Notebook, webzines such as AntipodeanSF, Ticon4 and Semaphore, and anthologies such as Masques (ed. Polack & Hopkins, CSFG),Destination: Future (ed. Adani & Reynolds, Hadley Rille Books), and Belong (ed. Farr, Ticonderoga Publications). His first collection of short fiction, Rare Unsigned Copy: tales of Rocketry, Ineptitude, and Giant Mutant Vegetables (Peggy Bright Books) was published in March 2010.

Simon is an active member of the Andromeda Spaceways Publishing Co-operative, the Canberra Speculative Fiction Guild, and the SpecFicNZ core collective. He has served on three different judging panels for the Aurealis Awards, in the SF Novel, Anthology & Collection, and Fantasy Short Story categories. In August 2010, he was awarded Best New Talent in the Sir Julius Vogel awards.