Lauren Zurchin, managing editor for fantasy and SF blog lytherus.com, has launched an ambitious project: photographing fourteen of the world’s most famous fantasy authors in custom hand-crafted costumes, and putting the photos together into a fantasy calendar for charity. The authors involved are Brandon Sanderson, Brandon Mull, Christopher Paolini, Gregory Maguire, Tad Williams, Patrick Rothfuss, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black, Lauren Kate, Lauren Oliver, Maggie Stiefvater, Gail Carriger, Tessa Gratton, and Brenna Yovanoff.

Lauren writes: “This project is huge, and with the support of these authors I’ve taken to Kickstarter to raise the bare-minimum funds needed to make this project a reality. Every author involved in the project has offered limited edition exclusive items up for grabs — prizes that are only offered this one time and never again. Kickstarter contributors can find limited edition prints of their fantasy calendar photo (signed), wall posters (signed), “personalized packs” (containing prints, autographed calendar, and more — personalized and signed by the author), and calendars signed by all fourteen of the project’s participants. There are several high-end prizes up for grabs, including Skype chats with a few of the participating authors.”

“I truly believe in this project and the good that it can do for two amazing charities — “First Book” and Patrick Rothfuss’ “Worldbuilders“. Each author on the project has pledged not only prizes, but to promote the project during its run on Kickstarter and again once it goes on sale. We’re off to a great start, receiving almost 2/3 of the funding in a little over a week. The Kickstarter runs through the end of February and aims to raise $15,000.”

For more info you can check out the Kickstarter page HERE and Lauren’s page HERE.

David Sutton’s Shadow Publishing is delighted to announce the publication of Horror! Under The Tombstone: Stories from the Deathly Realm selected by David A. Sutton

Imagine the Sixties and Seventies… Hammer films and American International Pictures… The time of Plague of the Zombies, Lust for a Vampire, Quatermass and the Pit, Tales of Terror, The Haunted Palace and The Masque of the Red Death. Imagine we’re back there now. No mobile phones, no videotapes or DVDs, no personal computers. And iPads and Kindles are decades away. Where we are now, music is played on vinyl records with a stylus picking up the recorded sound on an old fashioned “radiogram” or a “portable” record player.
Horror stories had their emphasis on strong supernatural themes; this was an era when you could believe in vampires and strange otherworlds. Ghosts, demons, monsters, maniacs, black magic. These are the subject matter of this anthology of yarns from the deathly realm. A stage magician and his horrific secrets revealed to a meddling assistant. The bizarre appearance of an Arabian market in a Surrey garden. A railway station from which none of the ill-fated travellers can escape. A man searching for his lost wife in a dreamlike realm. A film director trying to capture the essence of a witches’ coven and its sacrifice. The writers in this book offer up their weird and peculiar offerings for your reading pleasure.

Twenty-three short stories,  including fiction by Ramsey Campbell, David A. Riley, E. C. Tubb, Kenneth Bulmer, Robert Holdstock and Rosemary Timperley… start your journey now!

Ordering & more Information: http://www.shadowpublishing.webeasysite.co.uk

Kraken Press has signed with author Richard Thomas and will be releasing his short story collection, “Staring into the Abyss” in the first quarter of 2013 in digital and print.

As Friedrich Nietzsche said, “Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you.” In this collection of short stories Richard Thomas shows us in dark, layered prose the human condition in all of its beauty and dysfunction. A man sits in a high tower making tiny, mechanical birds, longing for the day when he might see the sky again. A couple spends an evening in an underground sex club where jealousy and possession are the means of barter. A woman is victimized as a child, and turns that rage and vengeance into a lifelong mission, only to self-destruct, and become exactly what she battled against. A couple hears the echo of the many reasons they’ve stayed together, and the one reason they finally have to part. And a boy deals with a beast that visits him on a nightly basis, not so much a shadow, as a fixture in his home. These 20 stories will take you into the darkness, and sometimes bring you back. But now and then there is no getting out, the lights have faded, the pitch black wrapping around you like a festering blanket of lies. What will you do now? It’s eat or be eaten—so bring a strong stomach and a hearty appetite.

Richard was the winner of the 2009 “Enter the World of Filaria” contest at ChiZine. He has published over sixty stories online and in print, including the Shivers VI anthology (Cemetery Dance) with Stephen King and Peter Straub, Murky Depths, PANK, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Pear Noir!, Word Riot, 3:AM Magazine, Dogmatika, Vain and Opium. His debut novel Transubstantiate was released in 2010. In his spare time he is a featured book critic at The Nervous Breakdown, as well as a columnist at Lit Reactor. He is represented by Paula Munier at the Talcott Notch agency.

For more information, check out their website www.krakenpress.com as well as Richard’s website, www.whatdoesnotkillme.com.

Fever Dreams, a new online fantasy, horror and SF magazine, is available now: http://www.fever-dreams.co.uk/

They’re also on the look-out for more British talent! Check out #1 for an idea of what they’re about and then take a look at their submissions page for more details: http://fdezine.fever-dreams.co.uk/Submissions.html

Issue #2 of Fur-Lined Ghettos is now available for order over at http://fur-linedghettos.weebly.com/purchase.html.

Featuring poetry/fiction from Serena Cooke, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Peter Friedman, Daniella Geary, Howie Good, Kyle Hemmings, P A Levy, John W Sexton, Ryan Swofford, Douglas Thompson and Steve Wheat. With cover art by Simanion.

Incidentally, issue #1 is almost sold out so grab it while it’s still available!

Edited by Sophie Essex and Andrew Hook who say they’re very proud of this issue which features some fantastic work, so please consider buying a copy (or two) so that they can continue!

They are currently open to submissions for #3. Check out their website for more details: http://fur-linedghettos.weebly.com/index.html

Kraken Press are set to release Recovery, a novella-length story of psychological terror set at a remote drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, it’s a story about one man’s battle against demons inside and out. If you enjoy tales like The Shining, The Thing, or Jacob’s Ladder, then Recovery is for you.

Adam Aresty is an award winning screenwriter who lives in Los Angeles. In 2007 Adam won first place in the Screamfest Film Festival’s writing competition for his screenplay The Palace, about a haunted palace in Iraq.  In 2011, his original pilot, Uncivilized, a cop show set in post-apocalyptic Texas, took first place in the Slamdance Film Festival’s writing competition.

2013 is a big year for Guy Haley and it starts with his Interzone debut in the January 2013 issue of Britain’s premier science fiction magazine. This will bring his name to an international audience, ahead of four books of his which are due to be published this year: Baneblade, Skarsnik, and the Death of Integrity from Black Library plus The Crash from Solaris.

Guy’s story, iRobot, wryly picks apart our reliance on modern technology andis illustrated by award winning, world famous, SF artist Jim Burns.

Interzone 244 will be in UK newsagents and some bookshops in January.

An email will shortly going out to BFS members with download links for issue four of Shelflings, the BFS’s electronic reviews zine. In response to popular demand there is now a pdf version available as well as the usual mobi and epub ebook versions.

This 150pp issue collects reviews originally appearing on the British Fantasy Society website in October, November and December 2012, by Carl Barker, Catherine Mann, Chris Limb, Craig Knight, David Brzeski, David Rudden, Elloise Hopkins, Glen Mehn, Guy Adams, Jim McLeod, Katy O’Dowd, Laurel Sills, Mario Guslandi, Matthew Johns, Pauline Morgan, Phil Ambler, Phil Lunt, R.A. Bardy, Rebekah Lunt, Steve Dean and Stewart Horn.

They consider the work of (deep breath) A.E. Rought, Alexander Mackendrick, Allen Ashley, Amanda Carlson, Arkane Studios, Benedict Jacka, Billie Sue Mosiman, Brent Weeks, C.L. Werner, Chris Butler, Chris Pauls and Matt Solomon, Chris Wraight, Christian Dunn, Christopher Hivner, Corey Grant, Dale Fabrigar and Everette Wallin, Dan Abnett, Danie Ware, Darius Hinks, David Hair, David Tallerman, Dean M. Drinkel, Eddie Robson, Edward M. Erdelac, Eric Brown, Eric J. Guignard, Esan Sivalinhgam, Evie Manieri, Frank P. Ryan, Freddie Francis, Gary McMahon, Geoff Nelder, Graeme Hurry, Graham McNeill, Guy Adams, Hannah Simpson, Hannu Rajaniemi, Hayao Miyazaki, Jaine Fenn, Jake Arnott, James Swallow, Jason Arnopp, Jasper Fforde, Jeani Rector, Joe Knee, John Ajvide Lindqvist, John Charles Scott, John Dorney, Jonathan L. Howard, Joseph Khan, Juan Martinez Moreno, Julie Armstrong, Kate Griffin, Kevin Connor, Laini Taylor, Laura Lam, Laurell K. Hamilton, Lee Collins, M.E. Brines, Marcel Schwob, Mark Morris, Martin Powell, Martin Smits and Erwin van de Eshof, Massimo Dallamano, Maynard Sims, Michael A. Nickles, Michael Croteau, Nicholas Ahlhelm, Nicholas Briggs, Nicholas McCarthy, Paco Plaza, Percival Constantine, Peter Heller, Peter Mark May, Philip José Farmer, Philip Purser-Hallard, Rachel Kendall, Ramsey Campbell, Rhys Hughes, Robert Hamer, Ross M. Kitson, Rowena Cory Daniells, Saladin Ahmed, Sam Stone, Sarah Newton, Scott K. Andrews, Sean Egan, Stefan Grabinski, Stephen Deas, Stephen Jones, Stevan Mena, Suzanne Johnson, Terry Brooks, The Butcher Brothers, Theresa Derwin, Toshiya Fujita, Val Guest, Will Hill and William Meikle.

The Alchemy Press has opened their submission windows for the next three anthologies: Astrologica (edited by Allen Ashley), Urban Mythic (edited by Jan Edwards and Jenny Barber), and Pulp Heroes 2(edited by Mike Chinn). In brief:

The Alchemy Press Book of the Astrologica is looking for stories about the signs of the Zodiac, the characteristics associated with those signs and/or people born under them. They will also consider stories involving the mythical characters and creatures of the astrological signs, perhaps their history and origin, perhaps their present and future state. Note: Alchemy PRess are not saying that one has to believe in the paraphernalia associated with modern astrology; but authors should seek to use some of this as inspiration and underpinning of their narratives. http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/astrologica.html

The Alchemy Press Book of Urban Mythic is seeking contemporary tales with all the magic and wonder of myth and legend, blending modern life with the traditions of folklore from around the world. Whether lurking in dark alleys or brash shopping malls; from shanty towns to the floating cities of Venice, Bangkok or Dubai; swanky riverside penthouse lofts or humble suburban semis, they want to see how the mythic is woven into the everyday. Think Charles de Lint, Terri Windling, Robert Holdstock, Seanan McGuire, Jim Butcher, Kate Griffin, Simon R. Green, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman… http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/urban-mythic_2.html

The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes 2 is after tales from the arid plains of Mars to the canyons of Manhattan; the foetid jungle to the naked jungle. Demented criminals versus dark heroes with sinister powers. The flash of steel in the palaces of long-forgotten civilizations or along the sterile corridors of impossible spacecraft. Swords against sorcery or sword and planet. http://alchemypress.blogspot.co.uk/p/pulp-heroes-2_1.html

This year also sees the launch of Alchemy Novellas: these will cover almost all areas of Fantasy – that’s heroic fantasy, alternate world fantasy, urban fantasy, supernatural, dark crime and horror. Comic fantasy will be considered but not if it’s a parade of puns or bad gags. Alchemy Press are not fans of zombies or heroic vampires and will not publish hard science fiction. Essentially, acceptance will be based on how well the novella works for them. http://alchemypress02.blogspot.co.uk/p/blog-page.html

Visit the above links for full details.

The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself, Book two of the Apollo Quartet by Ian Sales, is set to be published in January by Whippleshield Books.

For fifteen years, Earth has had a scientific station on an exoplanet orbiting Gliese 876. It is humanity’s only presence outside the Solar System. But a new and powerful telescope at L5 can detect no evidence of Phaeton Base, even though it should be able to. So the US has sent Brigadier Colonel Bradley Elliott, USAF, to investigate. Twenty years before, Elliott was the first, and to date only, man to land on the Martian surface. What he discovered there gave the US the stars, but it might also be responsible for the disappearance of Phaeton Base…

The Eye With Which The Universe Beholds Itself will be available in limited signed hardback, paperback, ePub and mobi formats.