Francesca T. Barbini's Blog, page 4

Children of Mu - YA Fantasy Enters Pre-order!

On the 1st of December 2017, Italian writer Daniele Azara joined the Luna family with his debut YA Fantasy, Children of Mu.It was also our first experience of foreign rights acquisition and, as well as gaining the talented Daniele, we also established a lasting relationship with Astro Edizioni, run by Francesca Costantino. I must say, working with another Roman Francesca, who is also running a press, makes it quite special too!Translating a manuscript from another language is quite a task, constantly checking that you remain true to the author's voice, rather than your own, while at the same time catering for an English speaking audience. Our translators and editors did us proud, and today we are thrilled to announce the pre-order phase for Children of Mu.The book will be released on Thursday 18th of April at Eastercon Ytterbium, where Daniele will share the book party launch with another our own, Elizabeth Priest, who is releasing the second book in the Troutespond Series, The Changeling's Choice.Children of Mu is an adventurous urban fantasy, delving into the mythology of Atlantis and Mu, with themes of loss, friendship, honour and sacrifice.Daniele told us:"CoM was born to answer a single question: why are human beings the only unhappy animal on Earth? Studying anthropology, I knew that the answer lay in the continuous battle between nature and culture.As a professional creative, I just decided to re-write history in order to give a personal answer to it. The result is a realistic-fantasy book in which our everyday life is ruled by forces we aren't able to understand. And it's all about human beings, nature, and all the mysteries from our past that scientists can't explain."You can pre-order the book in our store and have it shipped for free at Eastercon! Also, if you subscribe to our newsletter, before the 1st of February, you will find an extra discount voucher to use on the already discounted pre-order price.Pre-order the book now and we hope to see you at eastercom for the party!

Introducing "Murmured in Dreams" by Stephen Bacon

Murmured in Dreams by Stephen Bacon is the third book in The Harvester Series. All the books in this series will include excellent stories from the past and some brand new ones, along with special bonus material. For Murmured in Dreams, Stephen has included personal reflections for each of the stories.Ben Baldwin is the man behind the cover. Visit Ben's website for more art.Important dates for you:1. Murmured in Dreams will enter pre-order on the 2nd of April 2019 - so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive an extra discount on the already discounted pre-order price.2. The official release date is Tuesday 7th of May 2019.3. The launch party will be held at Fantasycon 2019, and we really hope to see you there!A word from Stephen on his collection:"I'm extremely excited to be working with such a dynamic new publisher like Luna Press, and thrilled that my second collection, Murmured in Dreams, will be released as part of the Harvester series. The stories contained in this book will include both originals and reprints that first appeared in such outlets as Black Static, Cemetery Dance, Shadows & Tall Trees, and Postscripts. Several of the stories were subsequently chosen by Ellen Datlow for her Best Horror of the Year series, although it's fair to say they straddle all of the branches of speculative genre - horror, science fiction, fantasy and crime.These stories will hopefully take you to new worlds, or to areas of the planet that perhaps you wouldn't want to visit, or to encounter characters you might not necessarily want to meet."You can find out more about The Harvester Series by clicking on the Harvester tag on the News page.

Introducing "The Last Ghost and Other Stories" by Marie O'Regan

The Last Ghost and Other Stories by Marie O'Regan is the second book in The Harvester Series. All the books in this series will include excellent stories from the past and some brand new ones, along with special bonus material. For The Last Ghost and Other Stories, Marie has included plenty of never-seen-before material, from early drafts, to hand-written notes from along the way.Daniele Serra is the man behind the cover. Visit Daniele's website for more art.Important dates for you:1. The The Last Ghost and Other Stories will enter pre-order on the 1st of March 2019 - so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive an extra discount on the already discounted pre-order price.2. The official release date is Tuesday 9th of April 2019.3. The launch party will be held at Fantasycon 2019, and we really hope to see you there!A word from Marie on her collection:"It’s no secret that I love ghost stories – I’ve written quite a few myself. I also edited The Mammoth Book of Ghost Stories by Women… there is nothing quite like reading a ghost story, preferably when it’s cold outside, and the lights are on, and the curtains drawn. They evoke an atmosphere that’s quite unlike any other type of tale; a feeling of sadness and longing, and at times even sympathy for the poor deceased creature so desperate to impart their story to the living. What I haven’t done, so far, is collect any of my own ghost stories into one volume, so I’m very grateful to Francesca and Robert of Luna Press for giving me the chance to do just that. Here you’ll find ‘The Last Ghost’, a young girl’s tale of loss; ‘In The Howling of the Wind’, a small boy waiting for his parents in a house suddenly grown strange; ‘Someone To Watch Over You’, the story of a protective phantom; ‘The Cradle in the Corner’, a slightly different haunting; ‘Play Time’, a cautionary tale on the dangers of playing out alone at night, and ‘Sleeping Black’, a tale of spirits awoken by a house’s new tenants – and they want to play. One thing I hadn’t realised, until now, was quite how many of my ghost stories involve children, in one way or another – perhaps it’s because children see more, and judge less; perhaps it’s that they’re more empathetic than the rest of us, or easier for us to empathise with. Who knows? Either way, you’ll find within these pages some of my favourite stories from those I’ve written; I hope you find something that becomes a favourite of yours."You can find out more about The Harvester Series by clicking on the Harvester tag on the News page.

Introducing "The Controllers" by Paul Kane

The Controllers by Paul Kane is the first book in The Harvester Series. All the books in this series will include excellent stories from the past and some brand new ones, along with special bonus material. For The Controllers, Paul has included plenty of never-seen-before material, from sketches, to illustrations, early drafts, and hand-written notes from along the way.Ben Baldwin has created a truly daunting cover for The Controllers. I'm sure you'll agree he has once again shown what a talented artist he is. Visit Ben's website for more art.Important dates for you:1. The Controllers will enter pre-order on the 1st of February 2019 - so make sure to subscribe to our newsletter to receive an extra discount on the already discounted pre-order price.2. The official release date is Tuesday 5th of March 2019.3. The launch party will be held at Fantasycon 2019, and we really hope to see you there!A word from Paul on his collection:"I’m delighted that Francesca and Robert liked my work enough to take this collection – and even more delighted to be a part of the Luna family, which includes some fantastic authors.For those who don’t know me already, my name is Paul Kane and I’ve been writing professionally now for 21 years – for my sins. I work in all kinds of genres, in all kinds of formats; last year, for example, I did my very first full cast audio drama for Bafflegab, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I’m probably best known for my Hooded Man novels, though, published by Abaddon, which revolve around a post-apocalyptic version of Robin Hood. And also my association with Clive Barker and his work, in particular Hellraiser: I wrote The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy, co-edited Hellbound Hearts with my better half Marie O’Regan, and wrote the 2016 crossover novel Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell for Solaris, which saw the world’s greatest detective take on the Cenobites.This new collection, however, focuses on another mythos; one I’ve been writing about and building up myself for the entirety of my career. I penned the very first Controllers' tale, ‘Astral’, back in the late 90s and the most recent one, ‘Reflections’, last year. I find the whole idea of whether we have free will or not fascinating, which you’ll also find explored in stories of mine like ‘Signs of Life’ and ‘Men of the Cloth’ – both included in my Best of… collection for SST, Shadow Casting. But it is with the Controllers that this reaches its peak: cyclopaedic otherworldly beings who manipulate every aspect of our lives from beginning to end, for their own secret purposes – loyal to a god they call The Beholder.Anyway, you can read more about all this when the book actually comes out through Luna, filled with exclusive extras. But until then, I’ll again wish you a prosperous and enjoyable 2018… if the Controllers let you have one, that is!"You can find out more about The Harvester Series by clicking on the Harvester tag on the News page.

Announcing the 'Harvester' Series!

One year ago to the day, we introduced you to our brand new project, The Harvester Series. We spent a whole year working hard with our six magnificent authors and their respective amazing cover artists.Today we share the official cover reveals with you. Clockwise, from the top left:1. Ben Baldwin for Paul Kane - The Controllers2. Daniele Serra for Marie O'Regan - The Last Ghost and Other Stories3. Ben Baldwin for Stephen Bacon - Murmured in Dreams4. Fangorn/Chris Baker for Ian Whates - Wourism and Other Stories5. Daniele Serra for Tim Major - And The House Lights Dim6. Joey Hi-Fi for Wole Talabi - Incomplete SolutionsWe’re sure you’ll agree that our artists have done us proud!Over the course of January, starting from the 5th, we will announce all the pre-order and release dates for each of the books, so stay tuned!As always, our Luna subscribers will be able to receive an extra discount voucher for each book, to use in our store. If you haven’t subscribed to our monthly newsletter yet, now’s the time.Here! Take a look at those gorgeous covers again!

New Year Tweet Pitch is back!

XpoNorth and the Association of Scottish Literary Agents present…Scottish Writers’ Tweet Pitch 2019! 9am–9pm, 11 January 2019 WRITERS – YOUR NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS DELIVERED IN JUST ONE TWEET! After the astonishing success of the last three years, XpoNorth’s Writers’ Tweet Pitch is back! On Friday 11 January 2019 (9am–9pm) writers from across Scotland can tweet pitch their work to a panel of Scotland’s finest literary agents and publishers. We’re opening our twitter channels to pitches of unpublished fiction, non-fiction and writing for children from writers living and working in Scotland. Our panel of eager literary agents and publishers will read your tweet pitches as they come in, and if they like what they read they’ll make contact with the pitching writer directly to find out more with a view to potential representation or publishing. XpoNorth’s Tweet Pitch 2018 received more than 2500 tweets pitching hundreds of unpublished books, and we know that as a consequence many writers started the New Year with the keen attention of agents and publishers! Tweets are a maximum length of 280 characters, and this year pitching writers use just one hashtag: #xponorth. Writers – to pitch your work, compose a pitch that really sells your books and include the hashtag #xponorth in your tweet. XpoNorth commented, ‘There is no better way for a writer to start the new year than to pitch their work to a panel of Scotland’s agents and publishers. This is a great way for writers to start the new year as they mean to go on and to make 2019 the year in which their work is really available to the book market. Constructing a pitch in 280 characters is a hard task, but if you know your work inside out and really understand its core purpose and storylines, then the tweet pitch is for you. It’s fun, it’s free, it’s fast and it works!’

'About Writing' Enters Pre-Order!

We are delighted to announce that About Writing, by Gareth L Powell, will be launched at Cymera, Edinburgh’s first Fantasy and SF convention. The official release date will be Friday 7th of June 2019 (free delivery to Cymera, if you are coming to the event!).As of today, you will be able to pre-order your print or digital copy of About Writing from all the usual retailers, as well as from the Luna store. The book will carry the discounted pre-order price across all retailers and, as always, our Luna subscribers will receive an extra discount voucher, starting with the 1st of January newsletter. If you haven’t subscribed to our monthly newsletter yet, there’s never been a better time.We fell in love with Gareth’s field notes on writing, as they felt genuine and truly useful to new writers. This isn’t a classic ‘How to write a book’ type of guide, but a companion that covers all aspects of a writer’s journey, based on the successful experiences of an author who has truly mastered the art of writing and inspiring new writers on their path.Gareth told us:"There are some things nobody will ever teach you on a creative writing course. Lessons I had to learn the hard way, and things I wish I’d known when I was starting out as a writer. So I put this book together in the hope of passing on the insights I’ve gained in over a decade of writing professionally. This isn’t an English textbook. These are notes taken in the field and accounts of lessons-learned."Gareth L. Powell is an award-winning novelist specialising in science fiction and horror. He was born and raised in Bristol, UK, and was once fortunate enough to have Diana Wynne Jones critique one of his early short stories over coffee. Later, he went on to study creative writing under Helen Dunmore at the University of Glamorgan.He is now a freelance creative writing tutor, and has run workshops and given guest lectures at several UK universities, including Aberystwyth, Bath Spa, Bucks New Uni, and York, as well as at the Arvon Foundation in Shropshire, and the Bristol and Stroud Literature Festivals. In addition to his fiction, Gareth has written for The Guardian, The Irish Times, 2000 AD, and SFX. He has also written scripts for corporate training videos, and is currently at work on a screenplay.And while we wait for the 7th of June 2019, you can get in touch with Gareth here:TwitterPatreonInstagramFacebookWebsitePRE-ORDER NOW!

Academia Lunare's New Logo!

It was about time, I hear you cry! Well yes. You know we have a soft spot for AL here at Luna, and with the help of Ben Keen, our designer extraordinaire, we now have a brand new logo to grace our non-fiction books!And it's not all! Academia Lunare will now be open to general non-fiction as well as speculative. True to the style of Luna Press Publishing, we are looking for projects that examine aspects of society and humanity, spanning across a wide range of topics. We are looking for curious and interesting works that shed new light on our past, present and future. AL is open all year round to submissions: email us and share your ideas with us. We'll take it from there.More details on the Academia Lunare page. Come see us!

Our International Family

On Sunday, in between walking Luna Space Beagle and swimming in admin, I was working on the website updating a few pages.When I reached the Luna Family page I found myself looking at all the wonderful biographies of our accomplished writers and artists. Alongside the bio's text, their pictures told more of the story.Their clothes, their smiles and locations added to the individual vibes. And that got me thinking about their background, the places they grew up in, and how each culture influenced their writing or drawing.And so, since I really have a lot of time on my hands (---__---) I decided to add an entry for each of the countries represented.It turns out that our family is truly multi-cultural! Here they are, by number and alphabetically:England: 22USA: 5Italy: 4Scotland: 4Finland: 3Spain: 3Czech Republic: 2Nigeria: 2Russia: 2South Africa: 2Brazil: 1Canada: 1Cuba: 1Germany: 1Ireland: 1Mexico: 1Netherlands: 1Northern Ireland: 1Peru: 1Puerto Rico: 1Romania: 1Over the course of three years, we have been truly blessed to work with such talented people, and may our family continue to grow!And now, why don't youtake a look at the website? See the list with the names and the pictures to go with it.Enjoy!

New Edinburgh Publishers do the Double at Prestigious British Fantasy Awards

Edinburgh publishers Shoreline of Infinity and Luna Press Publishing win at the prestigious annual British Fantasy Society Awards 2018.Shoreline of Infinity Science Fiction Magazine, edited by Noel Chidwick, wins for best magazine/periodicalLuna Press Publishing wins best non-fiction with Gender Identity and Sexuality in Current Fantasy and Science Fiction, Edited by Francesca T BarbiniThe British Fantasy Society Awards are presented annually for a whole range of genre categories including best fantasy novel, film/TV production and audio (this year awarded to Neil Gaiman for a BBC Radio 4 production)By coincidence Shoreline of Infinity and Luna Press Publishing started publishing in 2015, both specialising in the growing and energetic science fiction and fantasy markets.Recently established Edinburgh publishers Shoreline of Infinity and Luna Press Publishing performed a rare double winning awards at the British Fantasy Awards 2018 ceremony held in Chester.Edited by co-founder Noel Chidwick, Shoreline of Infinity Science Fiction Magazine was awarded the prize for Best Magazine/Periodical.Noel Chidwick says: “This was our first nomination, and we were up against some tough competition; we are, as you can imagine, dead chuffed.” He went on to say: “This award is for the team who work hard on Shoreline, especially Mark Toner my co-founder and Art Director; Russell Jones, Deputy Editor and Poetry Editor; and all the folk who give up their time to help us with all the other tasks involved in getting a magazine out.”The prize for best non-fiction went to Gender Identity and Sexuality in Current Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Luna Press founder Francesca T Barbini.Francesca T Barbini says “I’m absolutely thrilled, as you can imagine. We knew this was an important topic that needed to be examined and discussed as widely as possible. It’s testament to the fantastic articles from the contributors that it has struck such a chord in the community. We are so grateful for this award.”To bring a brace of award to Scotland is good news for Scottish PublishingAbout Luna Press Publishing™Luna Press Publishing™ is an independent UK press, founded in 2015 by author Francesca T. Barbini. We deal with Science Fiction, Fantasy and Dark Fantasy, in both fiction and academia. We are a proud member of Publishing Scotland.We work with agents, published authors and new writers. We take pride in our family – the Luna family – and we work hard to promote and support it.We are very keen to create writing opportunities and to give back to the community. Some of our books are affiliated to charities, so when you buy a book in our store you are also giving to charity. The donations are taken from Luna’s own share of the profit.Website: www.lunapresspublishing.com Twitter: @LunaPressGlobal Contact: Francesca T. Barbini email: lunapress@outlook.comAbout Shoreline of Infinity®Shoreline of Infinity is an independent Edinburgh based publisher founded in 2015 by Noel Chidwick and Mark Toner.Shoreline of Infinity publish a quarterly science fiction magazine featuring new short stories, poetry, artwork, reviews, interviews and articles. Writers we’ve published include: Iain M Banks, Jane Yolen, Nalo Hopkison, Charles Stross, Eric Brown, Ken MacLeod, Aliette de Bodard, Ada Palmer, Gary Gibson, Jeannette Ng, Adam Roberts, Jo Walton, Pippa Goldschmidt, Adrian Tchaikovsky. We’re equally proud of all the new writers we’ve published and helped to launch.Shoreline of Infinity also hosts our highly regarded Event Horizon® – a monthly live science fiction cabaret in Edinburgh.Shoreline of Infinity science fiction magazine is published in print and digital formats. It is available from the website and all good bookshops worldwide.Shoreline of Infinity website: www.shorelineofinfinity.com Twitter: @shoreinf Contact: Noel Chidwick email: editor@shorelineofinfinity.com phone 0131 443 9723