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

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

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COMING SOON:

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

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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)

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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.

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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!

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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:

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

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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)

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COMING SOON!

LEE_ElmentalHaiku_Cover_FINAL

Pre-order from:

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Indiebound

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Thanks for joining us!

We’ll have more author interviews coming

approximately every two weeks 🙂

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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 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:

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

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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)

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The Parting

NEW STORY OUT AUG 14!

Read Ray’s latest dark fantasy publication,

‘The Parting’, over at

electricathenaeum.com

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Thanks for joining us!

We’ll have more author interviews coming soon 🙂

Jan 18 2019

Cover Reveal for ‘Insignia: Asian Flash Fiction & Poetry’

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had an amazing winter/summer break!

I’d like to kick off 2019 with the cover reveal for our 7th Insignia Series anthology:

ASIAN FLASH FICTION & POETRY

INSIGNIA VOL. 7. includes 12 stories and 8 poems with Asian characters and settings.

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CONTRIBUTORS:

| Russell Hemmell | Toshiya Kamei (Translator) |

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Visit the Insignia Series Vol.7. page

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I will announce the anthology publication date and details about other Insignia Series projects for 2019 in the next blog post.

Have a great weekend, friends!

~Kelly~

Oct 4 2018

October News: Cover Contest & more

Hi everyone! How are those preparations for Halloween going? I’m an ESL teacher here in Japan, so I have quite a few Halloween parties on my calendar this month. 🙂

After releasing 2 new Insignia Series anthologies in July and August, I had a bit of a break in September to work on my own stuff. But I have a few things happening in October to share.

~Kelly~

Firstly, ‘Insignia: Asian Birds & Beasts’ is in All Authors’ latest cover contest:

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Click here to go to the voting page!

You do NOT need to register to vote (like some sites require). Also the first round closes in 3 days, then voting will re-open again for Round 2 which is the Top 100.

Please VOTE for us and help spread the word about our series! And a big thanks to those of you who voted for ‘Insignia: Asian Science Fiction’ in the August contest!

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Recently I’ve added all The Insignia Series anthologies to Draft2Digital, an ebook distribution site. They distribute to most of the big ebook sellers (Apple, Barnes & Noble, Amazon too) where I already have the series listed, but there are a few new sites where our books will be available: 24 Symbols, Scribd, Playster, and Bibliotheca.

I haven’t added the buy links to all the Insignia book pages (on this blog) just yet, but I’m working on making universal URL links to include ALL the sites where our books are available.

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And I’d just like to post a reminder here for any writers following: we have an OPEN SUBMISSION CALL for Asian fantasy flash fiction and poetry! Deadline is December 17th, so there’s plenty of time to write and submit!! We also gladly consider reprints. For more details, see our SUBMISSIONS PAGE.

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I’m also planning to post some new book recommendations and/or reviews this month, AND hope to have some kind of SALE later in Oct too. Stay tuned!

Sep 1 2018

Submissions are Now Open!

It’s September 1st, and that means we have a new submission call open!

It’s for a new anthology: volume 7 in The Insignia Series.

See our Submissions Page for instructions on how to submit.

If you’re not familiar with our series, please browse our previously published anthologies – there are six volumes, which you will find links to in the top menu. You could also browse ‘Excerpts’ as a post category (from the side menu) to see samples from some of the stories included in our anthologies.

And if you do submit work, please follow this blog: I’ll be posting updates every few weeks during the reading period to let writers now how submissions are going. Closer to the deadline, I may have special requests for certain types of stories, or we might be short on poems, etc.

Thank you for your interest in The Insignia Series. We hope to read your work soon!

Cheers,

Kelly Matsuura

(Chief Editor)

Aug 9 2018

August News

Hello everyone, and a warm welcome to our new blog followers!

Well, it’s been sweltering here in Japan for the past few weeks. We’ve had several days over forty degrees and still with high humidity! I’m ver glad I bought a new air-conditioner for my office this year. How’s the weather where you guys are?

I’ve been using my summer break to work on a few Insignia projects, so thought I’d post a summary here of what’s happening for anyone interested…Cheers! ~~Kelly~~

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1) Insignia: Asian Science Fiction was published in July, and is currently in Round 2 of a cover art contest over at All Author. If you like our cover design and would like to support us, please pop over and vote! No need to be a member or register on the site to do so.

VOTE HERE!

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2) Insignia: Asian Birds & Beasts will be released on August 20! I did an announcement post about it a few weeks ago, but if you missed it, you can check out the book details HERE.

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3) Next Insignia Series anthology?

A few people have asked about the next project: I’d like to open a new submission call in September or October, so would be curious to hear from you writers out there what themes would interest you…Or readers, what would you like read about next?

One of my ideas at the moment is to do ‘Flash Fiction & Poetry’, accepting work up to 1000 words in length, and open to poetry for the first time. I’ve been writing 100-word stories recently, and love how much story you can tell in just a few paragraphs.

All stories would still be required to be set in Asian countries (or a fantasy version of) and have leading Asian characters.

My second idea is to do a ‘Best of Asian Fantasy 2018‘. Submissions will then be open until year-end, and I would select maybe the Top 5 stories from those nominated. Stories would have to have been published this year by a journal or small press anthology etc, NOT self-published pieces.

Lastly, my best idea for a story-themed anthology is to do ‘Asian Ghost Stories’. I think we have ghost stories in every Insignia anthology to date, so I feel it would be easy to fill with great submissions.

Of course, I’d love to hear your ideas! Leave your suggestions in the comments below, or chat with me on Twitter sometime! Our Twitter link is: @InsigniaStories and my personal account is @KellyMatsuura

That’s enough typing for me tonight (I’ve been proofreading and formatting all day). Enjoy the rest of the month, and Happy Travels to those of you on summer vacation 🙂

Aug 14 2017

Update to Submission Call

Hi everyone! If you’re on summer vacation at the moment like me, hope you’re relaxing. (Or, getting lots of /editing done!).

In an effort to attract more submissions and be able to fill the first open anthology call sooner, I have opened the theme to ALL Asian science fiction. Your story must still satisfy the general submission requirements, so please check the Submissions Page for further details. Our ‘Birds & Beasts’ anthology call is still open too – so get writing!

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And I’d just like to say a quick thank you to all the authors who have already submitted and/or have helped share the submission call. Every new contact helps this tiny imprint grow!