Oct 17 2019

Author Spotlight: KELLY MATSUURA

Continuing our Author Spotlight series, I’d like to share my own interview this week! (Excuse the following use of third-person…)

 

Kelly-profile-2015-BW

 

Kelly Matsuura grew up in Victoria, Australia, but always dreamed she would live abroad.  She has lived in northern China, Michigan in the US, and over ten years in Nagoya, Japan, where she now lives permanently.

Kelly has published numerous short stories online; in group anthologies; and in several self-published anthologies. Her stories have been published by Visibility Fiction, Crushing Hearts & Black Butterfly Publishing, A Murder of Storytellers, and Ink and Locket Press.

She majored in Asian Studies at university, and (sometimes) studies Japanese, Chinese and German. Her other hobbies include cooking, knitting, sewing, and traveling.

As the creator and editor for The Insignia Series, Kelly uses her knowledge of Asian cultures to help other indie authors produce great diverse stories and to share the group’s work with a new audience.

Kelly’s blog/website: www.blackwingsandwhitepaper.com

Facebook: Kelly Matsuura-Author

Twitter: Kelly Matsuura

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TWENTY-FIVE QUESTIONS

 

  1. Author Name/s: Kelly Matsuura & Kelly Noro (romance, 18+)
  2. Years active as a writer: 8
  3. What genre/s you write: mostly fantasy, some scifi and literature.
  4. Favorite genre to write: YA fantasy
  5. Favorite length of story to write: short story length (1500-7500).
  6. Your nationality: Australian
  7. Country you live in: Japan
  8. Number of Asian countries visited: 6
  9. Favorite Asian country (visited): Japan, of course 😊
  10. Favorite place in Asia (visited): Terracotta Warriors in Xian, China. Incredible!
  11. Place (city or country) you most want to visit in Asia: Angkor Wat, Cambodia
  12. Favorite Asian cuisine: Indian
  13. Favorite Asian dish: Really hard to say…but, Okonomiyaki (Japanese).
  14. Favorite Asian movie (any genre): Raise the Red Lantern (Chinese). My dream is to see the ballet version!
  15. Favorite Asian book (any genre): A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth.
  16. Favorite Asian celebrity: Li Lianjie aka Jet Li
  17. Best thing about being a writer: Always having something to do and new things to try. There are always short story markets open, or you can make your own projects, etc. And you can be as busy as you want to be with it.
  18. Worst thing about being a writer: Having to give up on a story that you love but can’t get right.
  19. Day writer or night writer: Night. I write better when all my housework and other jobs are over for the day.
  20. Drink/snack of choice (while writing): Endless cups of tea! No snacks at the computer.
  21. Number of short stories/poems submitted each month (av): 2-3 per month.
  22. I dream to be published with/in (publisher/publication): Daily Science Fiction (flash stories), and Harlequin for paranormal romance.
  23. Most active on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): Facebook.
  24. Self-published, traditionally published, or both: Both.
  25. Currently working on: editing a paranormal romance (as Kelly Noro) and I’m putting together some dark fantasy stories of mine for a new ebook.

~~~

Stories included in The Insignia Series Anthologies:

‘Moon Shadow’ and ‘The Waiting World’ (Insignia: Japanese Fantasy  Stories)

‘The Great Qilin’ and’The Ghost Bride’ (Insignia: Chinese Fantasy Stories)

‘Never Seen’ (Insignia: Southeast Asian Fantasy)

‘Ribbons & Bones’ (Insignia: Asian Fantasy Stories)

‘Apsaras’ Dance’ (Insignia: Asian Birds & Beasts)

‘Stay Silent’ (Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry)

~~~

Interested in publishing with us? We are now open for poetry submissions to a new online series, Insignia: Instincts. See full details on the Submissions (Poetry) Page.

We’ll also have an open anthology call. If you love to drabble, or want to give a try, get ready for Japanese Fantasy Drabbles here.

~~~

Oct 13 2019

INSTINCTS #1: A Haiku by Stewart C. Baker

 

Today we’re sharing the first poetry contribution to our new online series,  Instincts: Asian Speculative Poetry. (‘Instincts’ for short).

Haiku are wonderful expressions of thought and beauty: adding speculative elements is especially difficult in this form, so I love the creativity of this piece. And if you’re into haiku, you’ll get the frog reference…

A Haiku (Untitled)

By Stewart C. Baker

Basho’s death day

the neural network stops

to watch the frogs

~~~

Stewart C Baker is an academic librarian, speculative fiction writer and poet, web editor for The Heron’s Nest, and editor-in-chief of sub-Q Magazine. Stewart was born in England, has lived in South Carolina, Japan, and California, and currently lives in Oregon with his family­­—although if anyone asks, he’ll usually say he’s from the Internet. You can find him online at https://infomancy.net

~~~

 Stewart’s work in The Insignia Series Anthologies:

‘Love and Relativity’ (Insignia: Asian Science Fiction, July 2018)

‘Raising Words’ (Insignia: Asian Birds & Beasts, Aug 2018)

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If you’re inspired by Stewart’s words and want to give Asian speculative poetry a go, check out our submission details here.

We also have an open anthology submission call for 100-word (drabbles) Japanese Fantasy stories.

We’d love to read your work!

Have a great week,

~Kelly~

~~~

*Frog image by Samuel Giacomelli on Unsplash

 

 

Sep 15 2019

Author Spotlight: ANITA GOVEAS

Happy September everyone!

Continuing our Author Spotlight series, let me introduce UK writer, Anita Goveas.

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Anita Goveas is British-Asian, based in London, and fueled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, most recently in  Lost Balloon, Terse and JMWW. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction,  a reader for Bare Fiction and tweets erratically @coffeeandpaneer

TWENTY QUESTIONS

  1. Author Name/s: Anita Goveas
  2. Years active as a writer: 4 years
  3. What genre/s you write: Mostly literary fiction, some magic realism/speculative. Unless ‘samosas’ are a genre because I write about them a lot
  4. Favorite length of story to write: Most of my stories accidentally end up about 500 words
  5. Your nationality: British-Indian
  6. Country you live in: UK
  7. Favorite Asian country (visited): Vietnam
  8. Favorite place in Asia: My Nana’s house (in Mumbai)
  9. Place (city or country) you most want to visit in Asia: It’s a tie between Laos and Nepal
  10. Favorite Asian cuisine: My Nana’s cooking
  11. Favorite Asian dish: Pho
  12. Favorite Asian movie (any genre): Lagaan
  13. Favorite Asian celebrity: Juhi Chawla (Bollywood actress)
  14. Best thing about being a writer: When someone enjoys something I wrote, that’s thrilling!
  15. Worst thing about being a writer: Imposter syndrome
  16. Day writer or night writer: Night writer
  17. Drink and snack of choice (while writing): Coffee and toast
  18. Number of short stories/poems submitted each month (av): 3-4
  19. Most active on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): Twitter
  20. Currently working on: A novella, allegedly (am mostly on Twitter)

~~~

COMING SOON:

Watch out for Anita’s debut flash fiction collection, being published by Reflex Press, in 2020!

~~~

Anita’s stories included in The Insignia Series Anthologies:

‘Night Mares’ (Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, 2019)

‘Looking at the Stars’ (Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, 2019)

~~~

Interested in publishing with us? We are now open for poetry submissions to a new online series, Insignia: Instincts. See full details on the Submissions (Poetry) Page.

We’ll also be opening a new anthology call October 1st. If you love to drabble, or want to give a try, get ready for Japanese Fantasy Drabbles here.

~~~

Aug 28 2019

OPEN for Poetry Submissions :)

We would like to invite poets to contribute to a new online publication series!

Insignia: Instincts

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We hope to publish 1-4 poems on The Insignia Series blog per month, depending on the volume of submissions.

Reading Period: Open now and ongoing.

Format: Poetry only

Length: No limit, however no epic poems please.

Theme: Must have both Asian and speculative elements (fantasy, scifi, etc). Due to the short format, you do not need to specify which country your poem is about within the poem itself, but the Asian setting/people/culture should all give good hints. The Asian elements are more important that the speculative ones, for this call. (It’s a challenge, but we believe in you!). We also have a broad view of ‘Asia’ and would love to see poems stretching far west across the Silk Road and to Persia, etc.

Payment: Sorry no payment at this time. We will do our best to build up this new series and be able to pay for poems in the near future.

Contract: We offer a basic contract, asking solely for permission to publish your work this one time on our site. If we wish to include your poem/s in an anthology at a later date, a new agreement will be made.

Submissions: Reprints are very welcome! Please include the first publication details in your cover letter. Simultaneous submissions are also fine. Please submit no more than TWO poems at one time. You may submit again once a decision has been issued. If you have a poem series that you’d like us to publish, please query first.

Send submissions to: insignia.submissions(at)gmail.com. Your submission should include a brief cover letter about your work, a short author bio (2 links only), and your poem/s attached as a Word doc. Please include [ Submission – Instincts – YOUR NAME ] in the email subject line.

For queries, use the same address, with [ Query – Instincts ] in the subject line. For quick questions, post a comment below or on the Submissions (Poetry) Page,

Good luck with your poems! We look forward to reading your submissions. 🙂

We also have an upcoming anthology call for Japanese Fantasy Drabbles here.

~~~

Aug 27 2019

Author Spotlight: MARY SOON LEE

 

Today we bring you a second author interview, with new contributor, Mary Soon Lee.

We are all passionate, cross-genre writers who love Asian cultures and stories. Get to know us a little better through our Answers to 20/25 Questions challenge!

~~~

Mary Soon Lee was born and raised in London, but now lives in Pittsburgh. She writes both fiction and poetry, and has won the Rhysling Award and the Elgin Award. Her work has appeared in Analog, Daily Science Fiction, F&SF, Science, and Strange Horizons. She has an antiquated website at http://www.marysoonlee.com and tweets at @MarySoonLee

TWENTY QUESTIONS:

  1. Author Name/s: Mary Soon Lee
  2. Years active as a writer: 28
  3. What genre/s you write: fantasy, science fiction, science, mainstream
  4. Favorite length of story to write: poems or stories under 2000 words
  5. Your nationality: American
  6. Country you live in: USA, but I grew up in England.
  7. Number of Asian countries visited: 1
  8. Favorite place in Asia (visited): Singapore
  9. Place (city or country) you most want to visit in Asia: China
  10. Favorite Asian cuisine: Indian
  11. Favorite Asian dish: aloo gobi
  12. Favorite Asian book (any genre): The Journey to the West
  13. Best thing about being a writer: writing the first draft of a story or poem
  14. Worst thing about being a writer: uncertain, often low, income
  15. Drink and snack of choice (while writing): tea to drink, no snacks
  16. Number of short stories/poems submitted each month (av): 15 submissions, with poetry often being sent in batches of 3 to 6 poems in a single submission
  17. Most active on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): Twitter
  18. Self-published, traditionally published, or both: traditionally published
  19. Currently working on: a sequence of astronomy poems with the working title “How to Navigate Our Universe.”
  20. Coming soon: Elemental Haiku, a book containing a haiku for each element of the periodic table, will be published on October 1st 2019, by Ten Speed Press, and may be pre-ordered from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.

~~~

Poems included in The Insignia Series Anthologies:

‘Training: Stances’, ‘The Horse Lord’, ‘Tsung’s Battle’, ‘The Matter of the Horses’, and ‘Respect’ (Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, 2019)

~~~

COMING SOON!

LEE_ElmentalHaiku_Cover_FINAL

Pre-order from:

Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Indiebound

~~~

Thanks for joining us!

We’ll have more author interviews coming

approximately every two weeks 🙂

~~~

Interested in publishing with us? We are now open for poetry submissions to a new online series, Insignia: Instincts. See full details on the Submissions (Poetry) Page.

We’ll also be opening a new anthology call October 1st. If you love to drabble, or want to give a try, get ready for Japanese Fantasy Drabbles here.

Aug 25 2019

Featured Book: ‘Magical Women’ Anthology (Sukanya Venkatraghavan)

If you love short stories and love Indian/South Asian fantasy writing, you might want this one on your TBR list 🙂

MAGICAL WOMEN (Anthology)

Edited by Sukanya Venkatraghavan

MagicalWomen-cover

Blurb:

A weaver is initiated into the ancient art of bringing a universe into existence. A demon hunter encounters an unlikely opponent. Four goddesses engage in a cosmic brawl. A graphic designer duels with a dark secret involving a mysterious tattoo. A defiant chudail makes a shocking announcement at a kitty party. A puppet seeking adventure discovers who she really is. A young woman’s resolute choice leads her to haunt Death across millennia. . . A compelling collection of stories that speak of love, rage, rebellion, choices and chances, Magical Women brings together some of the strongest female voices in contemporary Indian writing. Combining astounding imagination with superlative craft, these tales will intrigue and delight in equal measure.

My (Kelly’s) Review:

This anthology includes 14 stories, all by South Asian women. Many stories focus on social and environmental issues, and a few were too feminist for my own taste, but overall I enjoyed the variety and quality of stories in this collection.

My personal favorites:

  1. ‘Rulebook for Creating a Universe’ by Tashan Mehta. This is the 3rd story in order, and I just loved the storytelling and prose. It’s also original mythology, which I like to see in short stories.
  2. ‘Bahameen’ by Asma Kazi. This is a very intriguing story about a ‘time-hopper’, closer to fantasy than scifi.
  3.  ‘The Girl Who Haunted Death’ by Nikita Deshpande. I liked that this was a modern retelling of the Hindu story about Savitri and Satyavan, and was easy to read (after a few heavier mythology-based stories in the book).
  4. I can’t leave out the editor’s contribution, ‘The Rakshasi’s Rose Garden’. A rakshasi is a ‘man-eater’, similar to a succubus, and I quite liked the storytelling of this piece too.

And regarding the book production: I think the cover art is amazing–it captures both the fantasy and science fiction imagery of the different pieces. However, the font inside is very hard to read; both the headings and italic fonts are thin and light lettering. I read the kindle format and had to change the font and text size setting (first time ever). I had to read the whole book set to Large Print just so the italics was readable. It was distracting, and I only read a couple of stories at a time because of it.

~~~

View ‘Magical Women’ on Amazon.com

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I would love to feature more Asian fantasy books here on The Insignia Series blog. If you have a review you’d like to share, or are an author with a new release, feel free to get in touch with me! Send email enquiries to: blackwingsandwhitepaper@gmail.com, or post a message to @InsigniaStories (Twitter) or The Insignia Series (Facebook).

 

 

Aug 14 2019

Author Spotlight: RAY DALEY

 

Welcome all, to a new blog series: ‘Author Spotlight’  will feature short interviews with our wonderful Insignia Series contributors.

We are all passionate, cross-genre writers who love Asia and Asian cultures. Get to know us a little better through our Answers to 25 Questions challenge!

First Up….

Ray Daley was born in Coventry & still lives there. He served 6 years in the RAF as a clerk & spent most of his time in a Hobbit hole in High Wycombe. He is a published poet & has been writing stories since he was 10. His current dream is to eventually finish the Hitch Hikers fanfic novel he’s been writing since 1986.

https://raymondwriteswrongs.wordpress.com/

@ RayDaleyWriter

TWENTY FIVE QUESTIONS:

  1. Author Name/s: Ray Daley
  2. Years active as a writer: Ever? 40. Selling stuff? 5.
  3. What genre/s you write: SF, Horror & Fantasy. Literally anything if the mood takes me.
  4. Favorite genre to write: SF.
  5. Favorite length of story to write: Short. I’m lazy.
  6. Your nationality: British. Half Welsh, half English.
  7. Country you live in: The United Kingdom
  8. Number of Asian countries visited: None at all.
  9. Favorite Asian country (visited): N/A
  10. Favorite place in Asia (visited): N/A
  11. Place (city or country) you most want to visit in Asia: I’d love to go to Japan.
  12. Favorite Asian cuisine: I couldn’t pick just one.
  13. Favorite Asian dish: Thai Green Curry.
  14. Favorite Asian movie (any genre): Battle Royale. It’s awesome!
  15. Favorite Asian book (any genre): The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin.
  16. Favorite Asian celebrity: Ming-Na Wen.
  17. Best thing about being a writer: I get to sleep when I want.
  18. Worst thing about being a writer: Not enough money!
  19. Day writer or night writer: Mostly night. I blame the RAF, I used to work in a bunker.
  20. Drink and snack of choice (while writing): Any cold drink. Ginger biscuits.
  21. Number of short stories/poems submitted each month (av): Maybe 10-20? It varies a lot, depending on what’s open.
  22. I dream to be published with/in (publisher/publication): F&SF or Clarkesworld.
  23. Most active on (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram): Twitter.
  24. Self-published, traditionally published, or both: Traditionally.
  25. Currently working on: Not dying of heatstroke. Oh, you meant writing? A story inspired by a terrible Paul Newman movie.

~~~

Ray Daley’s Stories in The Insignia Series Anthologies:

‘Uncle Ping’s Farewell’ (Insignia: Asian Science Fiction, July 2018)

‘How Have the Mighty Fallen?’ (Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry, July 2019)

~~~

The Parting

NEW STORY OUT AUG 14!

Read Ray’s latest dark fantasy publication,

‘The Parting’, over at

electricathenaeum.com

~~~

Thanks for joining us!

We’ll have more author interviews coming soon 🙂

 

Jul 1 2019

INSIGNIA Anthologies are FREE at Smashwords!!

Hi everyone, welcome to July!

What’s the best thing about July every year? The SMASHWORDS SUMMER SALE of course!

I’m into it this year, and putting the Insignia Series anthologies – all seven – on FREE promo all month long !!!

It’s a great chance to fill out your collection, or recommend the series to a friend. If you’re already a fan of the series, please help spread the word. 🙂

FREE at SMASHWORDS!!

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LINK TO THE INSIGNIA SERIES BOOKS ON SMASHWORDS

*Enter the coupon code (under the regular price listing) to claim your free download*

~~~

Jun 13 2019

To Subscribers…

Hi,

I just want to apologize to those people who are subscribed to our blog and received the new post today – the book images are a mess! They look fine on the blog page, so I didn’t see any problem with it when I checked the preview.

As soon as I realized, I changed the graphics in that post.

Please forget you saw it!

~Kelly~

 

Jun 13 2019

INSIGNIA SERIES Kindle Sale: June 13-16!

Hi everyone,

I think it’s time for a sale! From June 13-16, getting any anthology in The Insignia Series for just US$1.99!

 

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*Sale price will be available for all books on all Amazon sites

Amazon USA link (to series list)

Amazon UK link (to series list)

All Amazon links to ‘Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry’

| Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon AU | Amazon CA |

| Amazon DE | Amazon FR | Amazon ES |

| Amazon IT | Amazon NL | Amazon JP | Amazon BR |

| Amazon MX | Amazon IN |

~~~

View The Insignia Series on Goodreads

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Our latest anthology, ‘Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry’ was just released on June 6th. If you would like to view the list of stories and contributors, and find more purchase options, please go to the Insignia Vol.7. page on this site.

Have a great week/weekend!

~Kelly~