Flame Tree Fiction

Last week saw authors from our upcoming Lost Souls anthology reveal the inspirations behind their story in the book. The collection, due to make its appearance in the world in the next couple of weeks, complements the selection of new writers with classic masters from the genre such as M.R. James, F. Marion Crawford, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and more. In this second part of the Author Q&A, we asked authors from the anthology to share which existing ‘Lost Souls’ tales they like best, and what sorts of processes they use to produce their own work:

Joining the ranks of our Gothic Fantasy short fiction anthologies, two exciting new books will be published in September: Lost Souls, and Robots & Artificial Intelligence. In anticipation and celebration of these upcoming releases, we asked the featured authors to tell us a little more about their story, their approach to writing, and the tales from the genre that have affected them the most. In this first part of the Q&As, authors from the Lost Souls volume share what led to the creation of their haunting stories...

Searching is the new thriller that features Jon Cho as a father in distress and Debra Messing as a stern police officer trying to help him. The story plays out entirely on a computer screen as Cho chases leads to find his missing daughter.

Incredibles 2 is the long awaited sequel to the 2004 smash hit superhero movie. I think it’s easy to forget how good of a superhero film the first Incredibles was. It came in era when the only real superhero films were the Sam Rami Spiderman films and the X-men series. It predated the Marvel Cinematic Universe and even the Christopher Nolan Batman films and doesn’t get quite enough credit as a superhero film separate from being an animated film.

Skyscraper focuses on a drawn out fight between Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson and his latest nemesis: an extremely high-tech skyscraper filled with fire. It’s a battle for the ages filled more plot lines than a guy Ritchie Gangster flick.

Animals play key roles in the myths and legends of many cultures around the world. In Babylon and Ancient Egypt animals can be found in multiple forms throughout art and religious worship. Often these creatures will be part animal, part human or comprised of many different animals. Sometimes certain characteristics are prescribed to an animal that causes it to be considered either evil or holy. In this blog post we’re going to take a look at a couple of examples of this from Egyptian and Babylonian culture.

UPDATE: SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED FOR THESE ANTHOLOGIES

We're excited to open for submissions to the first two of four anthologies set for publication in 2019: Haunted House and Cosy Crime. These will join a thriving list of Gothic Fantasy titles, including Supernatural Horror, Robots & Artificial Intelligence, Dystopia Utopia, and more. Again, we are looking for around twenty to thirty short stories by contemporary writers to complement a selection of classic tales in these anthologies. We are keen to encourage new writers, without prejudice to age, background or previous publication history. It’s the story that matters, and the quality of writing.

Submit by email to 2018@flametreepublishing.com

The first scenes of the new Sicario film set the tone for the whole feature. They are gritty, violent and difficult to watch. It pulls no punches with the visuals, which, in an age of action films being dominated by superheroes and The Rock, feels increasingly unfamiliar. You expect the camera to pull out or cutaway but it holds and lets you see everything as it happens.

Often, the best way to understand a text is to understand the context in which it was written. A central part of this involves the story of the writers themselves. As such, learning about their lives, or what led to their writing of a text, can be very important in fully appreciating what they wrote. In our new editions of essential Gothic, Sci-Fi and Dark Fantasy books, we have included biographies of the authors so you can learn more about them and see how their life may have affected the tales they told. We thought, for this week’s blog, we would pick out singular moments in each author’s life that highlight the influence their background might have had on their work…

It’s always intriguing when a film is met with rave reviews from critics but a lukewarm reception from the public. At the time of writing this Hereditary holds a 91% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and only a 58% with audiences. I’ve read some reviews that put this down to audiences expecting a different kind of horror that they’ve been conditioned to want by countless Purge and Final Destination movies. I’m not sure that that’s very fair.