Matthew Ledrew's Blog, page 10

Swamp| Kit Sora’s Storytime

For the first time in a while! Gosh! Drew abandoned me for Gander, and I’ve been busy shooting, editing, prepping to stand, and prepping for my own wedding! I’ve also completed artwork for an upcoming show (tonight/tomorrow @ vertical xpression actually!), shot a Mer’By’s month for the new calendar (y’all are gonna die when you see it!), attended a bachelorette, worked my regular dayjob & slept a little in between! The hecticness isn’t gonna go away anytime soon, so you get extra snaps this week to make up for the lack of updates!

This weeks image started with a sketch on the back of a gallery business card- it just came to me! Why be a mermaid when I could be a strange humanoid tentacle creature thing? Mixing it up a little is okay, right? So the same day I came up with the sketch we adventured to find POOL NOODLES, and I was determined to make them look like tentacles (They were bright orange, and more photos of that exist,… somewhere..Thanks to Louisa for the single one I have so far!~ )! I youtubed for a good while before I found something -similar- to what I wanted, and along the way it was modified!

I took my precious pool noodles to Dave’s house for our regular weekend chills, and myself & Amanda sculpted the points of the tentacles to look like the proper pointy shape, while her darling fiance strung wire through them to help them hold shape! Once they were point, I coated them in saran wrap to hide any exposed noodle texture, as spray paint would eat that right up!

When they were wrapped, I took some giant bubble wrap and cut it into strips, and then adhered that to the noodle base!

Once that was done, into the creepy murder basement I went with my awkward af pointy pool noodles aiming in every direction (and hitting everything on the way down),and prepped to spray paint. I started with white on the suckers, then added lime green, dark green, & dark blue. It was touched up a few times to blend & hide bits that were uneven, but from a distance they were starting to look pretty awesome!

I also needed my helmet full of water, which I managed to find at dollarama thanks to Hamilton , and I had plans of grandeur to print off images of fish to make it look like I had actual water in there, but I dropped the ball on that.. So the slight tint of blue had to do the job!

The Sunday I decided to shoot this just happened to be the same weekend as Gander Geekfest (so Drew wasn’t around to help!), two weddings, and my girlies bachelorette! It was full of love and magic, but not of sleep, so it was a sleepy go! Post bachelorette I arrived home to find my tribe of tired darlings staring into every corner of the room eating pizza! I began the process of figuring out makeup (literally slapped it onto my face and hoped for the best- Thanks to Amanda for the net suggestion!~), and then dug through the closets to find wig that I could mess up under the helmet, and a dress or something I wouldn’t mind getting wet/being seen in!

Once that was completed, Dave, Louisa, Amanda & myself set off to what I Was hoping would be Middle/Outer cove!.. buuuuut the Capelin were rolling, so we did too! I panicked to come up with a new location, and remembered Torbay Beach- so we adventured there next!

We unloaded the car, gathered ourselves and headed for the ocean. Unfortunately, the swell was a great deal too strong to have been able to hold up the tentacles/not float away/die, so we opted out of my original plan. We were in luck however, as there was a river that was leading into the ocean, that was under a bridge that we crossed getting to the ocean!

Into the river I went to size up the current, temperature, and angles, and it turned out to be the spot! Dave was my camera spotter (mine too I guess), and I started setting up the tripod/camera/remote setup in the centre of the river just under the bridge. The tripod was wedged between 4 giant rocks so it wouldn’t tip with the current, but it thankfully wasn’t overly strong!

Once that was ready to go, Louisa loaded me up with tentacles & my water helmet, and I sat on the big rock in front of the white one, and having given Dave my trigger so it wouldn’t drown and I had two free hands, the shooting commenced! The tentacles were pinned under my legs, but they still wiggled a little bit, and if I breathed at all my helmet would fog up, so there was a lot of tensing and holding my breath to hold positions! I saw an eel, and lost my balance a few times, but it was successful in the end!

Once we were done and everything (including me) was out of the water, I had to get changed! The beach had started to fill up with people for bonfires, so we had to be slightly sneaky. Dave & Amanda got to hold up 3 towels at once, while Lousa was guiding my numb body out of my satched nighty/leggings/socks/boots and into my cozy soon to be damp forever stegosaurus onesie! The towel only fell once, I stepped into the arm and hood of the onesie, and I only almost toppled one time!

We piled into the car and adventured to Tims for a round of french vanillas (and a black coffee), and grilled cheese sammitches as a thank you

It was an amazing experience with 3 insanely amazing people who I will note didn’t complain even once about anything!~

Kit Sora: The Artobiography

A stunning, hundred-plus page hardcover collection of over 80 of Kit Sora’s most ambitious photographs, paired with short fiction inspired by the art by Canada’s best authorial talents. Includes stories by USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Sparkes, USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Barbour, and Bestselling Author Amanda Labonté.

C$75.00

 

Amazing Fall releases from Engen Books!

2019 has been a roller-coaster so far for Engen, but we’re in no way through yet! We’ve got huge new titles, sequels to some of your all-time favorites, and shocking new reveals coming your way!

First, as many of you already know and have preordered, Zombies on the Rock: The Republic of Newfoundland will be released on September 6 to eBook and print platforms. This astonishing third entry in Paul Carberry’s Zombies on the Rock series brings Eric and Dana closer to the destruction of the community they’re established than ever before! Who will live — and who won’t — in this third volume? Read to find out!

[image error]Next, fall in love with Amanda Labonté again, as the next few months give us not one, but two sequels from both her renowned series. In September we get Supernatural Causes: The Second Season, a serial novel in four parts that will tell the increasingly heated story of Liesel Andrews and Jax Halloran. After the explosive first season went bestseller, we’re looking forward to seeing how Labonté follows up.

Then in November we get the thrilling conclusion of her Call of the Sea mermaid trilogy, with the incredible third installment hitting shores soon! More details to come!

Also in November, our first Young Reader’s fantasy novel, The Last Tree by Michelle Churchill, hits bookstores everywhere! The Last Tree tells the story of Gus, a young boy struggling to find his place in a world of fantasy, fairies, pirates, mermaids and magic! With art by the legendarily talented Ariel Marsh (Super Galactic Space Explorers, Emma Awesome), The Last Tree is going to be an adventure for young and old alike to enjoy! The story is already getting rave reviews from those inside the industry. Churchill’s short fiction had been prominently featured in Chillers from the Rock, Dystopia from the Rock, and Kit Sora: The Artobiography, but now she prepares to take center stage and bring her masterpiece to the world!

[image error]The final four books of the Coral Beach Casefiles series will see their reboots, including Inner Child, Gang War, Chains, and, The Long Road, bringing these early tales of Xander Drew to their end! Then creator Matthew LeDrew’s latest novel, Fate’s Shadow, will release at the end of 2019 “bringing this part of Xander’s journey to a shocking conclusion that’s not to be missed,” says LeDrew.

Finally, author Ali House returns with a new fantasy series: Choose Your Own Adventurer, which takes dedicated readers down one of four dangerous paths, all combining to tell one epic adventure! Campaign One: Origin Story hits your inbox soon!

The Good, The Bad and The Zombie #3

The Good 

I know it’s long overdue but I’m finally posting another blog. I haven’t done this in so long, but I remember the last blog was written in my son’s room long before it was ever going to be his room. So last week I attended Fan Expo in Toronto. I was completely blown away by the entire experience. I’ve never seen so many people in one place before, let alone so many fans of all things geeky. They had everything from Star Wars to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to Micheal Myers and everything in between. Paul Gossler, i.e. Zach Morris, John Travolta, Johnathan Frakes, Jeff Goldblum, Brendan Frazier and many more were guests. There were artists and cosplayers for as far as the eye could see. If you are ever in Toronto I’d reccomend attending, there’s something there for everyone. However, since this is the good, the bad and the zombie, this leads me into the bad.

The Bad

At fan expo, where there were hundreds of vendors and artists, many who were local, I was very disappointed to find there were only two tables selling books. Two lonely tables, tucked away in the quietest section. I went over to have a chat with them, discussed about how hard it is to attend any convention. Its always difficult to attract people over to your tables because of all the vendors who sell liscence merchandise. We also talked about each others success stories and how much fun it is discovering other authors at these conventions. While Fan Expo was an amazing experience, it was a little disappointing to see such a small portion of it dedicated to authors.

The Zombie

This week my latest novel, Zombies on the Rock The Republic of Newfoundland was available for pre-order. In a very stiff market, my book managed to top two very important categories, over two very established authors. In the hot new releases zombie horror, I managed to best Robert Kirkman’s The Walking Dead issue 32. A major accomplishment for me and the second time one of my novels has managed to do so. In the Hot New Releases for Fiction Horror I bested Stephen Kings latest novel. Seeing my novel above his was the biggest accomplishment as a writer and I couldn’t have done it without help from a lot of people. The entire Engen team was amazing, as they always are, every step of the way. My family is always extremely supportive and understanding, especially my wife who deserves more thanks than I can ever give. Of course I didn’t forget about you, my growing number of fans. You made this possible because of your support. Without you there would be no reason for me to keep writing. So I owe you all my honest, heart felt thanks. I’d love to hear what you think about my newest novel, so please let me know by leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Thanks for reading my rambling thoughts and until next time, keep a few steps ahead of the shuffling board of zombies.

Getting Back on the Writing Horse | House Blog

I had started 2019 so full of hope.

This was going to be the year when I wrote more, submitted more, was rejected more, and (hopefully) accepted more. And I was prepared. I had a calendar where I could highlight the dates of deadlines (pink for “hell yeah, I’ll submit” and yellow for “if I have time/an idea”), with a monthly reference sheet for which deadline was for which publisher/idea, plus links to their website and guidelines.

And then May and June happened. For part of May, I was travelling with my sister, so I didn’t have a lot of free time for fiction writing. After that, I was acting in a musical, which went up at the end of June. Between work, rehearsals, learning lines, and music, I didn’t have a lot of free time where I could be productive*.

Once July came, I wanted to return to my big plan, but it was tough. I’d lost my groove. I’d missed deadlines, and I was struggling to catch up with the submissions whose dates were getting ever closer. Not only did I feel like I was starting from scratch, but I also felt way behind everyone else**. The more I tried to Be Productive, the less productive I felt.

I wondered if I should give up, crawl under the covers, and watch Dimension 20 all day. I’d never catch up to the people who were out there getting stuff done, so I might as well give up***.

And although I may have done that for a couple days or so****, eventually my groove came back. Since July, I’ve submitted to 3 anthologies, wrestled a story into submission, had a really fun idea for a horror story, wrote 2 short stories, and finished editing a story that had needed work for a long time.

It helped to stop thinking of the big picture and concentrate on one thing at a time. Just get this one story written, or this one edited, or this idea thought out. Instead of insurmountable odds, it was one step at a time (but keep your eyes down and don’t look at the giant mountain ahead).

Maybe someday I’ll be able to look back on a year and think ‘Wow, I submitted a lot in the past year’, but it won’t be 2019. C’est la vie.

_______________

*’free time’ was basically ‘recovery time’.

**seriously, how are you all so productive?

***I even missed submitting a Kit Sora drabble that I wrote 2 days before the end of the month, because I wrote it on the plane and forgot about it when I landed.

****sometimes you have to ride out the non-productive days (without beating yourself up) and take advantage of any and all moments when you feel productive.

Why we kill [CENSORED] in fiction | Writing and Publishing advice from Engen Founder Matthew LeDrew

[image error]This past near has been interesting for me, nostalgia-wise, as Engen Books has been re-releasing my original 10-part urban thriller series as Coral Beach Casefiles with some wonderful covers by Kit Sora. As such I’ve been taking the time to go back and tweak and adjust some goofs in the original texts.

There’s some things you can only write when you’re young I think, and last month and this month were a very anxious time for me because they saw the release of Ghosts of the Past and Ignorance is Bliss… both of which have plots which revolve chiefly around children in peril, and one in which said child meets a (spoilers) very bad end.

This is the type of thing I would rarely do today, and even looking back on it I find it… squeamish. Have I lost my edge? I went back a re-read these books with a kind of half-grimace, because all I remember are the outcomes… but then I remembered, these were actually half decent books. I actually started to like the writing again and get back into the mindset.

All this begged the question for me: why was this plot necessary for young me? Why do kids die in fiction?

The easy answer is: because of Stephen Spielberg and Jurassic Park.

No, really. Specially, this scene:

via GIPHY

This entire sequence, and a few others in the film, was a huge cultural moment for my generation. Despite being a movie about wonder and science and thrills, any scenes with the children were essentially horror movies where we constantly feared for Lex and Tim’s lives… and they lived.

And because they lived, when this seminal work was copied — because of course it was — they also often featured children in peril, and those children in peril didn’t die. These were handled with such repetitiveness and by such inferior directors that all the tenseness was now gone. It became a trope: you no longer feared for the fate of the characters, because you knew they’d live. It was a foregone conclusion. To the point that it was mocked as a plot point:



via GIPHY

This is how fiction works. There’s a renaissance, a truly original idea, and then there are copies. Once the copies become prevalent enough there a parodies, as if in answer to those parodies there are deconstructions, and then after its been thoroughly worked over there are responses.

I think Ghosts of the Past and Ignorance is Bliss are responses* to the paradigm that was started in Jurassic Park and movies like it: stories where the tension was gone because the fate of the characters were always known. I think kids die in fiction for the same reason Gwen Stacy died: to shock readers out of complacency and get them to wake up and realize nobody is safe.

And, after all, it is all fiction.

Ghosts of the Past and Ignorance is Bliss are both out now, with the rest of the Coral Beach Casefiles series releasing throughout the year.

Matthew LeDrew is the author of the bestselling Coral Beach Casefiles series, the Xander Drew series, and the Infinity series. He is the publisher at Engen Books, the largest producer of genre fiction in Atlantic Canada.

*(I say they are ‘Responses’ because I don’t think they’re quite up to the stuff of Deconstructions. Good stories, better than I’d remembered, but not quite to that level.)

On to Round 2! | House Blog

I did it, everyone! I managed to wrestle my short story into a first draft!

[image error]

(click here if you haven’t read my previous post)

Now, don’t get me wrong – it’s a rough first draft, but 1,645 words and a shaky ending are better than 475 words that dwindle off into nothingness.

Think of it as: I’ve won the preliminary fight and I’m ready to go for the belt! There’s still work to be done, but I’m in a much better place than I used to be.

To get to this point, I had to question a lot of things about this story:

Is the narrator the only person who knows the truth?
Does everyone else also know the truth? And how does that change the narrative?
What exactly is ‘the truth’?
Is the ‘protagonist’ the first?
Have there been others? If so, how many?
How does this character compare to everyone else?

I mean, I basically had to question the whole darn plot, but sometimes you gotta do that (especially if you’re the kind of person who gets hung up on pedantic things, like yours truly). I’m not throwing words down and hoping that they’ll make sense – I’m making sure that the mythology of the world I’m creating fits the kind of story I want to tell.

And now that I have a better idea about what this story’s made of, the next round should go a lot smoother. Fights are always easier once you’ve sussed out your opponent’s weak points*.

So to anyone out there who thinks that stories can’t be tamed or thinks that they have to be perfect the first time – think again! It can be difficult putting down words you aren’t confident in, but sometimes you’d got to push past that feeling and get something – anything – on the page. You can always re-write it later.

As I mentioned in the footnote of a previous post: “Sometimes you’ve got to write a lot of wrong to figure out what’s right.”

____

*Is this analogy still working?**

**I’ve now come to realize that the title relates more to Boxing than Wrestling, but titles are hard, guys…***

***Also, I tried to make a point about ‘killing your darlings’ but then it didn’t fit with the edits, so I had to kill it. Gotta walk the walk, my friends.****

****ALSO, I make a reference to ‘killing your darlings’ in that blog post I referenced, so… coincidence?

Got the Time? Make the Time! | Dobbin’s Blog

For a lot of us writers working a “real job”, finding the time (and motivation) to sit down to write is a chore. Real jobs are exhausting. If you’re anything like me, coming home from a day at the office leaves you wanting two things: food and sleep. That’s right, I just want to eat and go to bed. Unfortunately, I don’t have that kind of leisure time. When I come home I have three kids, a wife, a dog, and my wife’s cat. Napping has become impossible, and I’d be lucky if there was any food left in the house by the time I got home from work. Of course then there is supper time, bath time, and bed time routines. Hanging out, homework, and, if we’re lucky, a few minutes to catch up with my wife before sleep drags me down into its sweet, sweet depths. Did you notice I didn’t work in any writing time in there? Yeah, about that…

So, finding time to write is hard. Finding time to read is hard. Finding time to work out is hard. Finding time to anything is hard. I hate finding time. Time is like the hide-n-seek world champion. No one has ever found him and they never will. The only reason we think we can find time is because some old man told us he found time to clean his attic that one time. Remember that old man? Yeah, he was a character. Seriously, stop trying to find time. It can’t be done. If you spend all of your time trying to find it, you will only waste the precious little time you already have. How about, instead of finding time, you make time.

Some of you might be giving your computer screen the middle finger right now. Some of you might even be cursing my name, casting it to the bones, readying a voodoo doll. “But,” you may be saying, “Making time and finding time are the same thing.” Well, I respectfully disagree, and who’s writing this blog post anyway?

Listen, no one has time. Everyone is busy with their day-to-day crapola, and it’s just a lot easier to deal with that than it is to add one more thing to the agenda. So, make the time. Make the time is an act of will. It’s a struggle, a challenge; something that you have to wrestle into submission. It’s as much of an accomplishment as the act of writing. But, how is it done?

There are a lot of ways to make time, it’s just about finding the method that works for you. Stephen King, in his seminal On Writing, talks about how he treats writing as a 9-5 job. He goes on to say that he sets himself up to write as if he were going to work for the day. Taking breaks and lunches as if he were in an office setting. It’s his way of getting the work done. Obviously most people are not at Stephen King’s level, but it gives you an idea of how people schedule their writing time. I’m not a successful writer like Stephen King, but I manage.

I didn’t come up with my strategy overnight, I had to figure it out as I went; I had to put in the work. My strategy is built around goals. I set a word count and try to meet that word count each day. Either that or I set a word count that I want to meet by the end of the month. I like goals; assignments. They give me something to strive and work towards. Sure, it’s not actually making time, but it helps to do that. For instance, I regularly set my daily word count at 1000 words. I want to meet that goal, it motivates me. As I said above, I don’t have a lot of time to spare, so how do I get 1000 words a day? I get creative. If I have to put my kids to bed, I’ll load my WIP on Google Docs and type on my phone while they fade off to dreamland. If I work all day, I’ll try to write on my breaks/ lunch. If I have to pick up the kids at school, I try to bolster my word count while I’m waiting in the car. I do what I have to do to get my words down, and get that story on paper.

Writing is hard work. You don’t believe that when you grow up dreaming to be the next J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, or Tom Clancy, but that doesn’t make it any less true. A huge chunk of that hard work is dedicated to finding the time. When you can’t find the time, you gotta make the time. Professional writers work their butts off. I’d bet my bottom dollar that they made the time, and so can you. Tackle that schedule, elbow drop that calendar, and give an atomic wedgie to that bloated agenda. Make an effort. Write.

Flights from the Rock launch: a huge success!

Click to view slideshow.

Flights from the Rock launched on July 14 2019 to huge success from The Admiralty House Annex in Mount Pearl. Authors and fans from across the province gathered in The Annex to celebrate the launch with cake, lemonade, readings and games.

Readings included Nicole Little reading from her story ‘Far Out’ about people exploring a distant planet in a space-faring plane, to Jeff Slade’s partial reading of his story ‘The Flight of the Puffin,’ revolving around the work of a very special aircraft.

“The space was beautiful and the people wonderful,” said Engen founder Matthew LeDrew. “We’re blessed to have such wonderful fans of our work, and Admiralty House has all our gratitude for allowing us to use the space and the Field to Flight exhibit.”

Flights from the Rock was the third collection in a row to go bestseller in its categories on Amazon dot CA, each based on the strength of preorder sales alone.

Engen Books would like to congratulate editors Curtis, Daly & Vance on this achievement, as well as thank author Brad Dunne for help with last-minute edits. The From the Rock staff thank its fans and peers who helps make this possible. We also extend gratitude an congratulations to authors and contributors: Ali House, Paul Carberry, JRH Lawless, Michelle F Goddard, John Burnham, Sara Burke, Shannon Green, Sherry D. Ramsey, Jennifer Shelby, Matthew Daniels, Heather Reilly, Peter Gillet, Amanda Labonté, Paul Moffett, Jennifer Combden, Jeff Slade, Bronwynn Erskine, Peter J. Foote, Lindsay Kitson, Stacey Oakley, Teresita Dziadura, Nicole Little, Carolyn R Parsons, and Brad Dunne!

Flights from the Rock

27 short stories celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the first Trans-Atlantic Flight! Stories by wonderful bestselling authors as well as new talent, and edited by Erin Vance, Lisa Daly, and Ellen Curtis!

C$25.00

Winner: “Head in the Clouds” by Melissa E. Wong | Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest

After much deliberation, Engen Books is proud to announce the winner of the April 2019 Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest: Melissa E. Wong with his story, Head in the Clouds!

There were two judges for this month of the contest:

[image error]Matthew LeDrew has written twenty novels for Engen Books, Black Womb, Transformations in Pain, Smoke and Mirrors, Roulette, Ghosts of the Past, Ignorance is Bliss, Becoming, Inner Child, Gang War, Chains, The Long Road, Cinders, Sinister Intent, Faith, Family Values, Touch Your Nose, Jacobi Street, Infinity, The Tourniquet Reprisal and Exodus of Angels.

[image error]Kit Sora Photography. Kit Sora is an artist and photographer from St. Johns, Newfoundland. Her photography draws inspiration from fantasy, dystopia, and thrillers to create evocative imagrey that startles, inspires, and excites.Kit signed with Engen Books in 2018 as head photographer, producing the thrilling image for Chillers from the Rock and re-imagining the covers to the entire Black Womb series into the Coral Beach Casefiles series. Drew Power is a currently seated member of the Sci-Fi on the Rock committee. He was recently featured as the model on the cover of the bestselling collection Chillers from the Rock.

Runners up include Nimbus by Daniel Burton and I’m Fat by Amanda Evans.

The Flash Fiction Photography Contest is sponsored in part by FictionFirst Used Books, which specializes in previously enjoyed Sci-fi & Fantasy Novels, Roleplaying Manuals and Graphic Novels. It is run out of the Annapolis Valley and open by appointment only. Their inventory is currently over 5000 titled strong and they ship within Canada, USA and Europe. You can find them on Facebook, here.

The winning entry will be featured on this website as well as on the Fantasy Files newsletter (click to join!). Both runner-up entries will also be featured.

The first year’s worth of these amazing short stories have been collected in a lovely hardcover edition from Engen Books, featuring photos from the author and flash fiction stories from some of Canada’s top talent! Order your copy today!

Kit Sora: The Artobiography

A stunning, hundred-plus page hardcover collection of over 80 of Kit Sora’s most ambitious photographs, paired with short fiction inspired by the art by Canada’s best authorial talents. Includes stories by USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Sparkes, USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Barbour, and Bestselling Author Amanda Labonté.

C$75.00

Winner: “The First Light of Summer” by Kyle Higgins | Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest

After much deliberation, Engen Books is proud to announce the winner of the April 2019 Kit Sora Flash Fiction Photography Contest: Kyle Higgins with his story, The First Light of Summer!

There were two judges for this month of the contest:

 

[image error]Matthew LeDrew has written twenty novels for Engen Books, Black Womb, Transformations in Pain, Smoke and Mirrors, Roulette, Ghosts of the Past, Ignorance is Bliss, Becoming, Inner Child, Gang War, Chains, The Long Road, Cinders, Sinister Intent, Faith, Family Values, Touch Your Nose, Jacobi Street, Infinity, The Tourniquet Reprisal and Exodus of Angels.

[image error]Kit Sora Photography. Kit Sora is an artist and photographer from St. Johns, Newfoundland. Her photography draws inspiration from fantasy, dystopia, and thrillers to create evocative imagrey that startles, inspires, and excites.Kit signed with Engen Books in 2018 as head photographer, producing the thrilling image for Chillers from the Rock and re-imagining the covers to the entire Black Womb series into the Coral Beach Casefiles series. Drew Power is a currently seated member of the Sci-Fi on the Rock committee. He was recently featured as the model on the cover of the bestselling collection Chillers from the Rock.

Runners up include Dandelion by Abby Caines and Untitled by Meredith Katz.

The Flash Fiction Photography Contest is sponsored in part by FictionFirst Used Books, which specializes in previously enjoyed Sci-fi & Fantasy Novels, Roleplaying Manuals and Graphic Novels. It is run out of the Annapolis Valley and open by appointment only. Their inventory is currently over 5000 titled strong and they ship within Canada, USA and Europe. You can find them on Facebook, here.

The winning entry will be featured on this website as well as on the Fantasy Files newsletter (click to join!). Both runner-up entries will also be featured.

The first year’s worth of these amazing short stories have been collected in a lovely hardcover edition from Engen Books, featuring photos from the author and flash fiction stories from some of Canada’s top talent! Order your copy today!

Kit Sora: The Artobiography

A stunning, hundred-plus page hardcover collection of over 80 of Kit Sora’s most ambitious photographs, paired with short fiction inspired by the art by Canada’s best authorial talents. Includes stories by USA Today Bestselling Author Kate Sparkes, USA Today Bestselling Author Victoria Barbour, and Bestselling Author Amanda Labonté.

C$75.00