Monthly Archives: May 2014

Announcing Heartbeats: Voices Against Oppression.

We’ve been working furiously to meet our targets on this anthology, which is why we haven’t been talking about it in public as much, but I have just finished the last major edit of the book, and, as soon as a few minor bits of information get back to me, will be sending it to Kristen Duval at Fey Publishing so that she can start the process on that side of things.

For those who haven’t been paying attention, Heartbeats: Voices of Oppression was created as a collaboration between M. Kate Allen, Jax Goss of Solarwyrm Press, and Kristen Duval of Fey Publishing. We wanted to create something that would speak powerfully for the many thousands of men, women and children worldwide who live enslaved and oppressed, while simultaneously raising funds for those who fight trafficking and slavery.

Every person who worked on this project, including all the writers, the editor, our amazing cover artist, Luke Spooner, and the publisher, is doing it for free, so that absolutely all the profits made from the book can go to notforsalecampaign.org, and the excellent work they do.

The stories in the book are stories of oppression and liberation, of empowerment and the stripping away of power, of enslavement and escape. Many are hard to read, many will break your hearts or make them soar, all are united in the idea that the use and abuse of humans must stop.

The book should be available at the end of May, if all continues to go more or less to schedule. But in the meantime, I am very honoured and excited to be able to share the amazing cover that Luke created for us. Just look at this:

Heartbeats front cover

 

Rest assured we’ll be keeping you posted about the progress on this project, and as soon as the book becomes available for purchase, we’ll let you know. In the meantime, look at that cover a bit more. Because man, it is amazingly powerful.

I’m so proud to be associated with this project. And would like to publicly thank everyone who has jumped on board to help make it happen, giving freely of their time and talent for this really important cause. Our people are amazing. ❤

 

Latchkey Tales 1.1: Elementals: Fire and Ice

I am thrilled to announce the very first edition of Latchkey Tales – Elementals: Fire and Ice!

For those who don’t know, Latchkey Tales is an experimental project playing with the idea of a subscription model for a fiction and poetry journal. I am very lucky in that I have access to some incredibly talented artists, writers and poets who have been willing to explore this rather experimental form of crowdfunding with me, and now all we need is readers!

You can subscribe to Latchkey Tales at our Patreon page. If you’re among the first 25 subscribers to the electronic journal, you’ll be able to snap up our early adopter discount, meaning that you will get not only this edition but all subsequent editions of the journal for one single small change measly dollar per issue.

The first edition will be released on the 1 June, which is less than two weeks away, so you need to get in soon! You have to have subscribed to the journal BY THEN in order to receive it.

The cover was designed and illustrated by Jeremy Jayme, and it is beautiful. Let me show you!

latchkey cover (corrected)
The Table of Contents: 

Stories
Strays by Tom Trumpinski
After Flames by Chloe Clark
The House Off Wedgemere Road by John Grey
Exile on Portage and Main by Dean MacPherson
The Urn by Holly Day

Poems
Bursts by M. Kate Allen
Dragon Tamed by Jax Goss
Songs in the Air (The Ice Queen Lights My Fire) by Ian Loughran

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Once again, get in early and net yourself this and future editions for a discounted price by being one of our first 25 subscribers to the eJournal. 

Submission Call – Not For Sale Anthology

Honoring the Missing Girls in Nigeria: A Collaborative Call for Submissions

In a unique collaboration between Fey Publishing and Solarwyrm Press, and thanks to an idea put together by M. Kate Allen, a new anthology of short stories will be produced at the end of May 2014 in honor of the over two-hundred Nigerian girls who were kidnapped at gunpoint by the religious terrorists of Boko Haram on April 14, 2014. All proceeds from sales of this anthology will be donated to http://www.notforsalecampaign.org, an organization that seeks to uncover and put a stop to human trafficking and slavery of all kinds.

The stories in this anthology will address enslaving and enslavement. To the extent that you, the writer, are free from the dangers and enslavement that these Nigerian girls and millions of others presently suffer, you are asked to take great care in considering your own privilege as you weave your tale. The stories in this anthology will seek to name the dynamics of privilege and unjust, unearned power and also seek to highlight ways in which those who are powerless may be thwarted or lifted up by any number of outer or inner forces. Writers are particularly encouraged to explore silence, indifference, and ignorance as forms of oppression.

This is a chance for people whose voices are free to join together to speak powerfully for the sake of those whose voices have been stolen away. The money raised from the sales of this anthology will do financially what the stories of this anthology aim to do narratively: contribute to a culture of liberation that reveals, names, and destroys all forms of oppression.

All short stories should be between 1,500 and 5,000 words long. All submissions are due to Jax Goss (solarwyrm at gmail dot com), editor at Solarwyrm Press and the editor of this anthology, by May 18, 2014 at 11:59PM Pacific time. The anthology is due to be published on or around May 31, 2014 by Kristen Duvall of Fey Publishing. Any questions about the content of the short stories, the fundraiser for the Not For Sale Campaign, or any other aspect of the anthology may be directed to M. Kate Allen at lifeloveliturgy at gmail dot com or athttp://www.lifeloveliturgy.com.