Winners of the #NoirFire microfic writing contest and giveaway

Our lovely judges Valeria and Fábio have picked the winners of the speculative noir micro-fiction contest. Here to shock us, thrill us and chill us, are the prize-winning stories.

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The Winner

The winning story is this lovely, paranormal crime vignette from @Sarah_I_Jackson, who receive two FFN anthologies in paperback plus an e-book of Dan Grace’s Winter from Unsung Stories:

The Runners-up:

In no particular order, the two runners up, who each win e-books of three FFN anthologies plus Winter, are…

This horror-noir with a funebrous twist from @cj_dots:

And this fierce cyber-rebellion moment from @snowysil:

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All these micro-stories are worthy of the Noir Fire title, and we loved reading them and all the other entries! If this has whetted your appetite for more of this sort of thing, why not pick up the anthology…?

Noir Fire contest and giveaway

To celebrate Noir Fire, a gritty speculative fiction anthology that combines the spirit of Noir with the fantastical, futuristic and progressive genres that we love, we are running a micro-fiction writing contest and book giveaway.

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The rules:

To enter the writing contest, write a micro-fiction in the Noir genre, as inspired by the aesthetic and tropes of Noir crime and thriller, from black & white Hollywood classics to cyberpunk novels, which should be both complete and short enough to include in a single tweet with the addition of the hashtag #firenoir. Bonus points if the story has speculative and progressive elements, in addition to traditional noir.

Eligible stories must be tweeted to the hashtag by midnight (any time zone) on Sunday June 19, 2022.

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The prizes:

All entries will be read by the contest judges, Valeria Vitale and Fábio Fernandes, who will pick one winner to receive paperback and e-book copies of the Noir Fire anthology, any one other Futurefire.net Publishing paperback of their choice, and e-book of Dan Grace’s mythical dystopian novella Winter, and up to two runners-up to receive e-books of the Noir Fire anthology, two other FFN anthologies of their choice, and Dan Grace’s Winter.

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(Editors and authors of the anthology, and staff of Futurefire.net Publishing, may post micro-fiction to the hashtag, but will not be entered into the giveaway.)

Interview with Juliet Kemp

Juliet Kemp is a queer, non-binary writer (pronouns they/them). They live in London by the river, with their partners, kid, and dog. Their recent works include the fantasy novel The Deep and Shining Dark (featured on the Locus 2018 Recommended Reads list, under ‘first novel’), and this year’s sequel Shadow and Storm, also published by Elsewhen Press. They also published the YA SF novella A Glimmer Of Silver in 2018. When not writing, child-wrangling, or dog-wrangling, Juliet knits, indulges their fountain pen habit, and goes bouldering.

In 2019 we published Juliet’s short story “I Thought of You” in TFF, and eighteen months later “Dragon Years” also graced our pages. This week they came by to talk to us a bit about their work. Stick around to the end for a chance to win a copy of the two Marek novels.

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The Future Fire: You recently published a new novel in the Marek saga. Was the first book, The Deep and Shining Dark, always meant to be part of a longer story? How many books will compose the Marek series ultimately? Do you already know how events will unfold after Shadow and Storm, or will you follow your characters where they take you? 

Juliet Kemp: I always knew that there could be more books — I’d started drafting a second one when I was first sending The Deep And Shining Dark out. But I wasn’t sure at that point if it would be possible to publish that one, never mind more! I have a plan in mind for two more books (so four total), and I think I might then be done, at least for now. 

I usually start off with a rough outline, and then end up going off on various tangents while I’m writing. The editing process is about making another outline that fits what I now have, and making that work. Often that means cutting out things that won’t fit, or saving them for later. I really enjoy those sudden bursts of inspiration, even if they end up not being what I wanted or what the book needed. I always get something useful out of them. However I’m going to have to plan book 4 more tightly as book 3 is going to set up some things that I need to be able to resolve in book 4. I don’t want to write myself into an impossible corner! I imagine I’ll still end up following characters off into the weeds while I’m writing and having to pull it all back together during the editing process. I do really enjoy those sudden bursts of inspiration while I’m writing. 

TFF: Can you give us any sneak previews of what readers can expect to find in the third Marek book?

Juliet Kemp: Radicals, refugees, and more of the nascent printing industry (which goes well with radicals, historically speaking). And one of my characters gets pregnant. I’m keen to write about that, and about dealing with a young baby, as parenting is not something we see all that often in trad SFF.

TFF: This year, we published ‘Dragon Years,’ a delicate story about doing things only when we feel that they are right. Do you feel like your dragon is still waiting for you, or you have already taken off together?

Juliet Kemp: Part of the seed for that was realising that if the TARDIS turned up on the doorstep, or a portal to another world opened in the back garden, I’d wouldn’t want to accept the opportunity, because I have a young child. But kids grow up, and things change again, so in another decade I’ll start keeping my eyes and ears open again. You never know your luck…

I am sadly still awaiting an actual real dragon, with wings and all; but in a more metaphorical sense I think I’m doing pretty well on pursuing the things that are important to me.

TFF: If you woke up having forgotten all you knew before, what would be the first thing that you’d start learning again? 

Juliet Kemp: Typing would be high up the list — I learnt to touch type as a kid and it has stood me in very good stead ever since. But if I was relearning I might take the opportunity to switch to Dvorak or another non-Qwerty layout to see if it did anything good for my dodgy shoulders! I did try Dvorak once for a couple of months and got up to about 50wpm but I was so tense all the time it made things worse. Of course, on further reflection, if I’d forgotten skills as well as factual knowledge presumably I might have forgotten how to read, and that would have to be right at the top of the list. But I was a very early reader and I genuinely don’t know what my brain would be like without being able to read so I’ll assume I get to keep that one!

TFF: What can you be found doing when you’re not creating/writing?

Juliet Kemp: In the Before Times I used to go bouldering, but although my local climbing gym has reopened I’m not comfortable yet going back there, and central London is not a place with much outdoor bouldering (though there is a big rock over the river in Shoreditch Park!).

I read a lot, of course; and I knit. I’m currently working on a shawl, but it’s nearly time to start on the Christmas knitting (nice and early so I don’t wind up knitting in a panic on Christmas Eve!). I sew as well, but sewing is more a practical than a fun thing. I also have a kid and a dog to wrangle — my kid is home educated so that’s a fair time commitment in itself!

TFF: Thank you Juliet, we look forward to reading your latest novel, Shadow and Storm!

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To celebrate the release of Shadow and Storm, Juliet is offering a paperback copy of both novels in the Marek series, The Deep and Shining Dark and Shadow and Storm, as a giveaway to one reader of this blog post. Simply leave a comment below this post with your own answer to the question, “If you woke up having forgotten all you knew before, what would be the first thing that you'd start learning again?” and if we have received at least 10 replies by Wednesday September 30, one will be chosen to receive the books. Make sure that we have a way to get in touch with you, if you want to receive your prize! Add your Twitter handle, FB page, email or any other way we can contact you in your comment, so that we can notify you if you are the lucky winner. 

Interview with Hayley Stone (and giveaway)

We welcome to the TFF Press blog novelist and poet Hayley Stone (whose poems “Daphne’s Grove” and “Results of Your Quiz: Which Survivor of the Trojan War Are You?” appeared in TFF last year, and we will publish one more later in 2019), whose Weird West novel Make Me No Grave was released a few weeks ago. She answers a few of our questions about her writing. Make sure to stick around to the end for a chance to win one of three signed copies of the novel!

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Hayley Stone is a writer, editor, and poet from California. She is best known for her adult sci-fi novel, Machinations, which was chosen as one of Amazon’s Best Sci-fi & Fantasy Books for 2016, and her cult hit, Make Me No Grave, a weird western. Her short fiction has appeared in Fireside Fiction, Apex Magazine, Flash Fiction Online, and various anthologies, while her speculative poetry is widely available online. Hayley loves to hear from readers and writers. Find her at hnstoneauthor.com and on Twitter @hayley_stone.

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Make Me No Grave

Marshal Apostle Richardson faces off against bloodthirsty outlaws, flesh witches, ruthless vigilantes, and more in this gritty, magical re-imagining of the Old West.

Almena Guillory, better known as the Grizzly Queen of the West, has done plenty to warrant the noose, but US Marshal Apostle Richardson enforces the law, he doesn’t decide it. When a posse tries to lynch Almena ahead of her trial, Apostle refuses their form of expedited justice—and receives a bullet for his trouble. Almena spares him through the use of dangerous flesh magic but escapes soon after saving him.

Weeks later, Apostle fears the outlaw queen has returned to her old ways when she’s spotted terrorizing Kansas with a new gang in tow. When cornered, however, Almena makes a convincing case for her innocence and proposes a plan to take the real bandits down. Working with a known killer opens Apostle up to all sorts of trouble, not the least being his own growing attraction toward the roguish woman. Turning Almena away from vengeance may be out of the question, but if he doesn’t try, she’ll wind up right where the law wants her: at the end of a rope.

And if Apostle isn’t careful, he’ll end up joining her.

If you like Red Dead Redemption and Lila Bowen’s Wake of Vultures, you'll love this gun-blazing weird western.

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Interview

TFF: It strikes me that the trope of Almena in Make Me No Grave brings together seventeenth century witch-hunts with modern lynchings, especially of minorities. Is this intersectionality deliberate in the novel, and if so what other axes does it work on?

Hayley Stone: Absolutely.

Throughout the novel, as more of Almena’s background comes to light, we see in her personal friendships and associations that she feels most comfortable among those likewise considered to be “outsiders” in society. In much of Western fiction, there is the theme of civilization (i.e. society) versus the individual (i.e. the lone gunfighter, the outlaw, etc.). Almena’s experience of not only being a woman in a nontraditional role, but one with magic specifically addresses feminist issues such as the persecution of the nonfeminine and the frequent unease surrounding female power. For as much as she is feted as the Grizzly Queen of the West and celebrated for her violence, she is also feared and mistrusted for the same.

Of course, there may be more axes than that, depending on which theory is applied to the reading, but I leave that up to my audience! It’s always fun when a reader makes a connection I myself didn’t necessarily intend.

What was your first love, poetry or prose? And how often do you move from one form to the other?

HS: Definitely prose. I only began writing poetry in earnest a couple years ago, near the end of college. However, now the two are intricately connected, at least in my own mind, frequently informing one another. I often draw on poetic technique for my prose, especially for description or to set the mood of a scene. Verbs rule in poetry, and they provide spectacular energy to prose as well. In the past, I’ve also deconstructed story ideas and turned them into poems when they refused to work as short fiction.

Some of your poems seems to draw inspiration from female characters in old mythologies, Classical as well as Nordic. What fascinates you about these ancient women?

HS: For me, it is two things. First, I feel a strong sense of solidarity with these women. When you strip away the magic and mythos, their lives are not much different from our own; they experience passion and hope, while also suffering from many of the same fears and insecurities. They are lovers, fighters, and everything in between.

Second, in many instances, theirs is the story I most relate to and actually want to read! Historically, the male perspective has been the dominant one, so for me it is interesting to look at the same event from a less obvious point-of-view.

The covers of your novels seem to emphasize the figure of the lone hero. Are strong characters (and especially female ones) doomed to be alone?

HS: There is a special irony there since I’m actually not a big proponent of the lone hero narrative! I even think there is something a little toxic about the idea of solving all your problems on your own, rather than reaching out for help.

One of the themes I explore in both of my series is how easy it is to become isolated by a sense of personal responsibility or past failure. Rhona Long (Machinations) and Almena Guillory (Make Me No Grave) are very different personalities, but both women end up strengthened by their relationships to others, not weakened by them. If anything, the covers represent their initial feelings of loneliness, not their ultimate reality.

With whom, alive or dead, would you most like to collaborate, and on what?

HS: Let’s just say that if J.R.R. Tolkien wanted to invent some languages for an epic fantasy of mine, I would not say no! Otherwise, I would love to co-write a story with Margaret Atwood or Kameron Hurley, as they are two of my favorite writers alive today.

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Contest

Enter to win a signed copy of Make Me No Grave!

To enter the contest, comment below by midnight, February 6, 2019, with your own Weird West story or poem in 280 characters or less. Stories and poems must incorporate tropes of the Western genre, while also including a speculative element (i.e. fantasy, sci-fi, or horror). They need not take place in America, or even on Earth.

Up to three entries will be chosen by Hayley, and the winners will receive a signed paperback and bookmark. You may also post your stories to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, or your blog—just remember to post the link below (and make sure we have a way of getting in touch with you)!

Giveaway: post images of ancient magic

Our friends at the Institute of Classical Studies (who helped fund and publish the Making Monsters anthology), and our co-editor Emma Bridges, are running another public engagement event at the end of this month—on Hallowe'en, no less!—on the theme of Ancient Magic. (See poster to right for registration information: it's free, but booking is required.)

You may remember that the monster-themed anthology came out of a similar public event last year ("Why do we need monsters?"), so we have fond memories and high hopes for this evening!

To celebrate the Ancient Magic event, which will include presentations as well as hands-on activities, and will be family-friendly, we are offering a free paperback copy of the Making Monsters anthology as a prize in the social media image contest. Simply post an image (it can be an archaeological object, ancient or modern artwork, painting, character, or your own work) that makes you think of ancient magic, with the hashtag #ICSmagic by midnight on Wednesday Oct 17th, and tell us why you like it, and we'll choose a winner right after that. There are some examples there already, if you're looking for ideas of the sort of thing that might work.

(I note that they're encouraging ancient magic-themed fancy dress at the Hallowe'en event, so maybe they're looking for inspiration for costumes in the images people send!)

Map of the Monsters of London (with giveaway!)

One not very well known fact about monsters is that they love cities. We tend to imagine them in caves and forests, but, really, when asked, most monsters confess that they quite enjoy the urban life. It maybe that they like window-shopping. Or it maybe because of their centuries-old fondness for buildings.

If you think about it, monsters really look at ease on top of grandiose monuments. Temples, churches, banks, bath houses. I guess they like to look down at us humans, walking on the streets. Some, you can tell, feel a sense of ownership of the building and look like they would do anything to protect it. Others know they were more of an aesthetic choice, so it’s another kind of vanity that you can read in their eyes. And there are some that look like they have been put there just to mock you. Or to make you smile.

There are very many of them, peacefully inhabiting our cities. You don’t believe me? If you live in London, just try looking around when you take a walk. I bet you will see at least two monsters that you never noticed before: on a big door knocker, on a statue in the park, to the sides of a gate. Unlike more rural kinds, city monsters really like to be seen. Actually, if you wave at them when you spot one, you’ll definitely make their day! We have decided to compile a map of the monsters of London, to see how many we can collect. At the moment, the map only shows the location of a tiny fragment of the very large family of London monsters, but we definitely hope to keep adding information. Feel free to browse it, to read the short news about our city monsters, to use it to organise monster-themed walks. Or, you could become a monster watcher yourself and help us spot city monsters in their natural  habitat (without disturbing them, of course!). You can join the Map of Monsters of London team by taking a picture of a monster anywhere in London and tweeting it with some geographical information (postcode or address) and the #MakingMonsters hashtag.

To the best picture of a London monster, the editors of the Making Monsters anthology will award an e-copy of their monstrously gorgeous book. Now, some simple rules to contribute to the map and participate to the give away

1. Don’t forget to use the #MakingMonsters hashtag otherwise we won’t see your tweet!
2. We only accept entries for monsters located in London. We will be delighted to see city monsters from other places, but they won’t be placed on the map (for obvious reasons) and won’t participate to the giveaway.
3. If you don’t live in London (or don’t have time for an excursion) you can always send us a pre-existing picture, as long as it has the appropriate copyright and credits.
4. What monsters do we want? All classical monsters like mermaids, sphinxes, dragons, chimeras, unicorns. But also green men, monstrous gargoyles, horned and goat-footed demons. And all hybrids. Yes, including angels.
5. If you could add a couple of lines of information about the monster you photographed that would be even more awesome.

So, let’s go out looking for monsters! I suspect they are all excited now! Check the dragons on old buildings, the mermaid on the local swimming pool logo, the gorgon painted on an old vase in a museum. We are especially interested in all ephemeral depictions of monsters that are doomed to disappear, like graffiti or advertising hoardings.

P:S: We didn’t manage to spot a Medusa yet. Can you?

Send Joyce Chng to ICFA!

To boost Singapore author Joyce Chng/J. Damask’s goal to get to the International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts in Orlando this year, Futurefire.net Publishing and Fox Spirit Books are offering some incentives to support the fundraiser. The first five people to back the campaign—for any amount—may claim:

1. Your choice of e-book of any one of the three Futurefire.net anthologies in which Joyce has work (We See a Different Frontier, Accessing the Future, TFF-X); and
2. Your choice of e-book of Starfang: Rise of the Clan or Weird Noir from Fox Spirit.

*BONUS* If your support is for $25 SGD or more (approx $18 USD), you will receive all three e-books from Futurefire.net and both e-books from Fox Spirit Books

*BONUS 2* If five people support the fundraiser between now and the end of January 10th, or if the campaign is 100% funded in that time, one backer will be selected at random to receive a paperback copy of Starfang plus one of the FFN anthologies of their choice.

Go support Joyce here!

#FaeVisions Giveaway

To celebrate the release of the Fae Visions of the Mediterranean anthology of horrors and wonders, we’re going to give you a chance to win a copy just by sharing your dreams or fears of the Mediterranean on social media.

The rules:

Post on Twitter or Facebook, before midnight on May 31st, 2016, using the #FaeVisions hashtag in either case, some text or image that evokes your dream or fear about the Mediterranean. The post may be beautiful or terrible, may be personal or universal, may be autobiographical or fictional. A dream or nightmare, a holiday photograph, a news item. There’s lots to say about the Mediterranean—and you can say it in as few words (or images) as you like! (You do not need to reply or tag us in the post, just include "#FaeVisions" in the text; we’ll follow the hashtag and spot it that way.)

The Prizes:

For every ten people who post a Mediterranean vision on the hashtag between now and the end of the month, we'll give away one copy of the e-book of Fae Visions (in the format of your choice) to a randomly selected poster.

If 20 people take part before the deadline, we will also give a copy of the trade paperback of Fae Visions to one randomly selected poster.

If 50 people take part before the deadline, we will give two copies of the paperback to randomly selected posters.

If 100 people take part, we will give three copies of the paperback to randomly selected posters, one of whom will also receive any one other Futurefire.net anthology of their choice.

For example, if 100 people were to enter the giveaway, the prizes would include:

• 1 x Fae Visions paperback + any other anthology
• 2 x Fae Visions paperback
• 10 x Fae Visions e-book

Small print: this is a fun giveaway not a contest or a raffle: entrants will not be judged, no purchase or other expenditure is required to enter, no cash alternative will be offered and no correspondence will be entered into. Authors and editors of the anthology may join the fun, but will not be eligible for prizes.

Re-opened: "Number 10"-themed writing challenge

Re-opening this writing contest due to insufficient numbers of entries the first time around. Let's try and make this more fun, shall we?

As part of The Future Fire’s tenth anniversary celebration, blog tour, anthology and fundraiser, we are holding a flash writing game / book giveaway with great prizes to be won. Thanks to the fabulous generosity of Jennifer Marie Brissett and Stephanie Saulter, you can win a copy of the Dick- and Locus-nominated Elysium or the first two novels (Gemsigns and Binary) of the acclaimed ®Evolution trilogy.

To play: write a micro-short speculative story on the theme of the Number Ten. This can be anything from a single tweet, FB post, or cartoon image, up to a maximum of 500 words. The shorter, snappier and more inventive use of the number 10, the better! It needs to be read and enjoyed in a single visit. What's the scariest thing about the number ten? What's the most futuristic/sensawunda concept ten can evoke? Why is ten such a big deal…

To enter either:

1. post your text or image to a blog, tumblr, twitlonger, pastebin etc., or screencap the text, and tweet the link or image with the hashtag #TFFX; please also post a separate tweet in your own words asking people to support the fundraiser at igg.me/at/tffx;
2. or post it to Facebook, tagging facebook.com/thefuturefire so we see it; also like and share the FB post (here) promoting the fundraiser.

Given enough interest this time around, all qualifying stories submitted by midnight Pacific on Sunday, August 30th will be read by the judges, and a winner or winners will be chosen to receive the books. The criteria for judging will include the quality of the fiction and how cunningly the number ten is integrated in the story. Winners will be contacted as soon as possible thereafter for contact details. No correspondence will be entered into.

(Editors of TFF and others affiliated with the giveaway are welcome to join in the fun of writing and posting stories, but will not be entered into the contest.)

Writing contest for TFFX celebration

As part of The Future Fire’s tenth anniversary celebration we are holding a flash writing contest with fabulous prizes to be won. Thanks to the generosity of Jennifer Marie Brissett and Stephanie Saulter, you can win a copy of the Dick- and Locus-nominated Elysium or the first two novels (Gemsigns and Binary) of the acclaimed (R)Evolution trilogy.

To enter, write a speculative fiction story of less than 500 words based on the theme of the Number Ten, and either:

1. post it to a blog, tumblr, twitlonger, pastebin etc., or screencap the text, and tweet the link or image with the hashtag #TFFX; please also post a separate tweet in your own words asking people to support the fundraiser at igg.me/at/tffx —again using the #TFFX hashtag;
2. or post it to Facebook, tagging facebook.com/thefuturefire; also like and share the FB post (here) promoting the fundraiser.

All qualifying stories submitted before midnight UTC on Sunday, August 23rd will be read by the judges, and a winner or winners will be chosen to receive the books. The criteria for judging will include the quality of the fiction and how convincingly the number ten is integrated in the story. Winners will be contacted as soon as possible thereafter for contact details. No correspondence will be entered into.

(Editors of TFF and others affiliated with the giveaway are welcome to join in the fun of writing and posting stories, but will not be entered into the contest.)

Guest post: Come For the Science Fiction, Stay For the Romance

Guest post by Heather Massey

Chances are high you know about a genre called "science fiction." Chances are even higher you're familiar with a genre that goes by the name of "romance." And chances are astronomically high that you've heard of—wait for it—women!

Now put romance, science fiction, and women into a blender (umm, not for realz!), and then pour out the contents. What's the result? A genre called science fiction romance (SFR).

What is SFR? Basically, it's a type of story that focuses on the intersection of romance and science and has an upbeat ending (a.k.a. the "Happily Ever After," another ubiquitous story element I'm betting you've encountered a time or two thousand). There's a whole bunch of women (and a few men) who write SFR. It's a genre for everybody, but is currently often written by women and frequently harnesses the female gaze. So it tends to be a female-centric genre.

Now, if you'll kindly recall, half of the global population is female. Let's just sit and chew on that for a minute. Okay, go ahead and swallow.

One last book giveaway

We're coming up to the home straight now. Just four days to go on the We See a Different Frontier colonialism-themed anthology fundraiser, and although we've already passed the enhanced funding target of $4000, the Peerbackers site will carry on accepting donations until some time on Sunday night, and all money donated will be put to use making the anthology as big and as great as possible. All our authors will be paid a professional rate, and no money will be taken home by us. The word-count will just get bigger.

To celebrate the last few days of the appeal, and thanks to several generous donors, we're running another book giveaway. Everyone who donates to the We See a Different Frontier fundraiser in the next four days will go into a hat to win one of the following titles:

• Steve Berman & Joselle Vanderhooft, Heiresses of Russ (hardcover)
• Kari Sperring, Living with Ghosts (signed)
• Inanna Arthen, The Longer the Fall (signed and personalized)

We'll do the draw on Monday. If you don't want to be entered (but why wouldn't you!), just let me know when you donate.

Thanks again to the many people who have supported the project so far, in all capacities. You all rock.

And the Winners Are...

We did the draw for the signed books giveaway last night, and the lucky winners (all drawn from generous donors over the past five days) are as follows:

• Kelly Jennings’s Broken Slate goes to Alicia Cole
• Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon goes to Siobhan NiLoughlin
• Tim Maughan’s Paintwork goes to Ryan Baumann
• Sophia McDougall’s Savage City  goes to Heidi Cautrell
• Ian Sales’s Adrift on the Sea of Rains goes to Dylan Fox

Congratulations to all of our winners, and thanks to the generous authors and publishers who donated and signed the books, as well as to everyone who has backed the We See a Different Frontier fundraiser so far. We'll have more prizes and incentives coming soon!

Signed books giveaway draw

Several fantastically generous and supremely talented authors have donated signed copies of books for us to give away to help encourage donations to the We See a Different Frontier peerbacker. We're holding a prize draw to let you win one of these titles, and all you need to enter is to back our (very worthy) project—we plan to publish a colonialism-themed anthology of new speculative fiction from outside the first world perspective, guest edited by Fábio Fernandes—to the tune of a few dollars.

Prizes:

• Kelly Jennings’s Broken Slate (about; donated by Crossed Genres)
• Catherine Lundoff’s Silver Moon (about)
  
• Tim Maughan’s Paintwork (about)
• Sophia McDougall’s Savage City (3d pt of Romanitas trilogy)
• Ian Sales’s Adrift on the Sea of Rains (about)

How to enter:

Email or comment to let me know when you donate to the Peerbacker. You will be assigned one "ticket" for every $5 you donate; if this is not your first donation to our appeal, you will receive one extra ticket as a thank you. This is in addition to the usual rewards for donating to peerbacker, of course. If you already own or for any other reason are not interested in receiving one of these titles—e.g. you wrote it!—let me know in advance and I'll try to make sure you get something else if you win. The draw will be made, using the tried and tested method of scraps of paper in a battered top hat drawn out by a disinterested and innocent party, on or shortly after May 1st. Each ticket drawn from the hat will win one of the signed books, to be sent in the mail. Judges' decisions are final, and all other usual disclaimers.

We hope there will be more giveaways and other fun to be had in the next few weeks, so visit this blog or the peerbacker site regularly for updates. If you have anything you'd like to contribute to a future contest, giveaway or promotion, please get in touch!