Raven Waiting is a new British fantasy adventure film being made in the North West by fantasy film fans. Dan Rowbottom is the director and brains behind the film which he hopes will entertain people as well as provide opportunities for UK talent.

Dan is a comics book illustrator and filmmaker whose inspiration for Raven Waiting comes from his love of films like The Dark Crystal, Pan’s Labyrinth, Lord of the Rings and Brazil.

The story of Raven Waiting takes us within the confines of a decaying Dickensian town where the inhabitants live in fear of creatures attacking in the night. The film follows Juliette as she is drawn into a story of underground societies and creatures that protect the night.

“The film at first appears to be a Dickensian drama but quickly reveals itself to be a fantasy adventure full of creatures, sprites and adventurers,” says director Dan Rowbottom.

The film will work with local talent in the North West, and is currently featured on www.sponsume.com as part of a crowd funding campaign.

Check out the film’s blog HERE

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation has announced the top five finalists in each category of the 2012 Locus Awards. The winners will be announced during the Science Fiction Awards Weekend to be held in Seattle, USA in June 2012.

View the full list of finalists HERE

Wormwood Issue 18 (Spring 2012) – Tartarus’ magazine of writings about fantasy, supernatural and decadent literature edited by Mark Valentine – will be published on 30 April 2012. It contains articles on H.P. Lovecraft, William Sharp, Frances Oliver, Robert Aickman, Randolph Stow and F. Marion Crawford, with contributions from Joel Lane, Mark Valentine, Mike Barrett, Reggie Oliver and others.

Full details, including pre-order information, are available HERE

Gollancz has acquired a three-book fantasy series by Stephen Hunt.  The first novel is titled In Dark Service, while the trilogy is called The Far-Called.  The first volume will be published in 2013.

Stephen is the author of six fantasy novels published by HarperCollins Voyager in the UK and Tor in the US, as well as in various translation editions, and runs the SF Crowsnest news and reviews site.

Here is Stephen’s introduction to the world on which this series takes place:

“Plenas has two unique characteristics worth noting, the first – and most significant of which – is that it’s a world on a mind-boggling scale where peddler caravans can take a thousand years to complete a limited circuit of their trade territory, a land where the guild of radio signallers can relay messages between their stations for multiple lifetimes and still never make a clean circumnavigation of the globe.

It is a world where, should a youngster be gripped by wanderlust, they can simply head off and travel with merchant nomads for their entire lifetime, taking in thousands of exotic nations, strange races and mysterious wonders, while still only travelling across a minute fraction of the globe.

The second distinctive facet of Plenas is that the land has no mineral resources worth mining except around the stratovolcanoes dotted across the world, massive shield volcanoes that stand about three times the elevation of Mount Everest above sea level. These vomit out great gobs of ore-bearing rocks into the air for harvesting by sky mines, and this wealth is always jealously hoarded by the empires that rise to pre-eminence around the stratovolcanoes, growing rich with their monopoly over metals, crystals and coals.

Reliance on sustainable resources means that most societies, races and nations on Plenas are throttled somewhere between a Roman and Victorian level of progress, with only the great empires of the stratovolcanoes reaching a higher level of development.”

The deal for World Rights was brokered by the John Jarrold Literary Agency.

Brought to you by the FrightFest convention organisation team, issue 10 of FrightFest, the UK’s free online fantasy and horror magazine, is now ready to download.

This issue contains a feature on the much-hyped Cabin in the Woods, which hits UK cinemas on 13 April 2012. In the first of two reports from the sets of upcoming horror films, Alan Jones recalls his trip to Italy to the set of Dario Argento’s Dracula 3D, while Nina Romain looks at the Count’s popularity with moviegoers. Russ Gomm travelled to America to speak to the Blair Witch team on the set of their latest film Lovely Molly. There is also a preview of the upcoming Terracotta Film Festival, and many other articles of interest to fantasy and horror film fans.

Download a free copy HERE

New small press publisher Nightscape Press (established by Robert S. Wilson and Mark C. Scioneaux) will open to submissions immediately following the World Horror Convention on 2 April 2012. They are seeking quality novellas (15,000 to 50,000 words) and novels (50,000 to 120,000 words) in the following genres: horror; science fiction with a strong horror element; and fantasy with a strong horror element.

They will not accept submissions for short story collections, graphic novels or erotica.

Full details on how to submit your manuscript HERE

Pledges are sought for a Kickstarter project to fund a shared world fantasy anthology entitled Beyond the Black Gate. Part of the Tales of the Emerald Serpent project, this project will only be funded if at least $10,000 is pledged by Wednesday 18 April 2012.

Kickstarter describes itself as “the world’s largest funding platform for creative projects… On Kickstarter, a project must reach its funding goal before time runs out or no money changes hands.” This allows project creators to test the market without risk, since no project will be started without the necessary funds.

Regarding Beyond the Black Gate:

“This anthology takes readers to the Free City of Taux, a fantasy port of cursed stones, dark plots, and a core of rich characters who share space inside the infamous Black Gate District.

This rich anthology links characters and tales in an interwoven mosaic that helps draw the reader on, and with authors like Lynn Flewelling, Harry Connolly, Juliet McKenna, Martha Wells, Robert Mancebo and Julie Czerneda sharing characters with newcomer Michael Tousignant and iconic fantasy artist turned writer Todd Lockwood, the book plumbs the depths of dark city-born fantasy.

Editor and contributor R. Scott Taylor helps create the shadowed metropolis of Taux, where Razor Duelists and mailed and heavily armed Sturgeons try to hold back the tide of ghosts, Moon Cultists, and shadow magic that lurks inside the slithering coils of Wizard’s Mist.  Rogues, harlots, and merchant princes share the same streets, and all watch their backs as the stones of the city call out to the living in a never ending game of cat and mouse for the true ownership of the great port.”

If you would like to pledge funds to this project please visit the Kickstarter website HERE

The Minister of Chance is an audio podcast Doctor Who spin-off written and produced by Dan Freeman of Radio Static. Freeman first created the Minister (then played by Stephen Fry) in the award-winning Doctor Who drama Death Comes To Time.

“Now in his fourth incarnation, defrocked Time Lord, The Minister Of Chance, finds himself saddled with Kitty – an assistant he apparently cannot get rid of – and perilously entangled in the court intrigues and military politics of a forest planet on the brink of war. Jenny Agutter, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann and Paul Darrow join Julian Wadham (The Iron Lady) and Lauren Crace (EastEnders) in a mould-breaking audio adventure that will take you to a spectacular world where science is heresy and magic is law…”

What’s more, downloads are FREE! For more information, visit the website HERE or download Episode 1: The Broken World from HERE

This July, QUAD in Derby brings together a host of leading science fiction, fantasy and horror writing for Edge-Lit, an exciting new day event for one of the city’s leading venues. The ideal day out for fans, readers and aspiring writers of genre fiction, Edge-Lit gathers together over thirty authors, agents and speakers for a wide range of workshops, panels, readings and much more.

There are many more leading names to be announced for the event, with the first two Guests of Honour for the 2012 event confirmed as Christopher Fowler and Geoff Ryman.

Christopher Fowler is a multiple award-winning author with thirty novels and twelve short story collections to his name. He is best-known for his Bryant and May mystery novels, with his most recent title in the series being Bryant and May and the Memory of Blood. Christopher has also written a number of successful thrillers, as well as the highly succesful graphic novel Menz Insana. His other credits include creating the War of the Worlds video game for Paramount, as well as running a successful film marketing company and writing for TV and film stars such as Kenneth Williams, Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, Leslie Neilsen and the stars of Monty Python.

Geoff Ryman is an acclaimed author of science-fiction and fantasy, with his most recent title, The King’s Last Song, drawing stellar reviews. Other leading titles include Was…, Lust and Air, with his novels having claimed a host of awards including the British Science Fiction Award, World Fantasy Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award, The Philip K. Dick Award and many more. He is also a lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester University.

Edge-Lit runs from 10am – midnight on Saturday 14 July 2012, with tickets just £25, including access to all activities on the day. For more information, and to book your tickets, visit the website HERE

A new imprint, Prologue Books, has acquired more than 250 out-of-print novels from the 1940s to the 1970s which they are re-issuing as ebooks. They include crime, science fiction and fantasy novels written by authors such as William Campbell Gault, Vin Packer, Robert Colby and Richard Deming.

Ben LeRoy, publisher of Tyrus Books, who is spearheading the project says: “I envision Prologue Books not simply an e-book publisher for out-of-print titles, but as a living record of the crime, science fiction, and fantasy genres. There’s a great opportunity to shine the spotlight on authors who may have been significantly influential on the current state of publishing, but who have never really received their due for one reason or another.”

See the catalogue HERE