New Fairy Tales Issue 6 now online

Here's the trailer to tempt you to read...



And here is the issue itself...

(this is a flash version of the magazine, there is also a PDF version available on our website)

Lovely things in the post...

I get very excited when lovely things arrive in the post. A few days ago Su Mwamba from Enchanted Times sent me these...


The pictures really don't do these fairy tale newspapers justice. The attention to detail is wonderful, contents include articles like 'Baba Yaga still at large', a supplement on contemporary fairy tale literature, patterns and small ads, and each issue comes with a free gift, like an enchanted needle and thread or pre-enchanted nettle yarn. Su has an Etsy shop and you can find out more about Enchanted Times and read some content online here.

And then yesterday this arrived:


The Wychwood Fairies is the first book by Faye Durston, a good friend who is responsible for the fantastic art direction on Issue 5 of New Fairy Tales, the beautiful picture on our homepage and the banner on this blog.

This is like the Jolly Postman for lovers of stunning illustration and all things faerie—envelopes have letters in them, bits pull out, fairies pop-up. It is a beautiful thing. Again the pictures don't do it justice, you have to have it in your hands to appreciate how good it is.

And look, can you spot the New Fairy Tales picture anywhere?

And if I haven't tempted you enough yet, maybe this will...

New Fairy Tales - call for submissions

We are now inviting submissions for our sixth issue. You can find the full submission guidelines here. The deadline is the 20th October and the issue is due out at the end of November. Looking forward to reading your tales!

The beautiful picture above is by our very lovely art director Faye Durston.

When I went to play at the Manchester Children's Book Festival...

(click on the image to see a larger version)

... I had an amazing time. I ran three family fairy tale workshops, in which everyone, from toddlers to adults, had fun dressing up, drawing and creating new fairy tales together. The picture above was drawn by festival illustrator Dai Owen, who came in and magically captured four of the participants in just a couple of minutes (they were busy trying to work out which key would unlock the bird cage in the golden castle, at the top of the glass mountain—they decided a feather key would do it in the end).

I owe a lot of thank yous; to the festival organisers for such a lovely day, to friends Carys Bray and Elaine Wilson, who did a fantastic job running the New Fairy Tales stall, giving away postcards, badges and selling some handmade chapbooks of our stories to raise money for Derian House Children's Hospice. And, to various members of my family (Mum, Dad, Aunty T & Grandma), who were dragged into making everything from crowns and keys to capes and banners! And thank you to Dai for allowing me to share his wonderful drawing.

The festival website is still online, so if you missed it you can still have a nosey at what went on, and the good news is the festival will return in 2012.

New Fairy Tales: Issue 5

The trailer...




and the issue itself...



We hope you enjoy it!

Visit the website if you'd like to download the PDF version or find out more about New Fairy Tales. And please help us to spread the word about this issue; share the YouTube trailer with friends or 'Like' us on Facebook. Thank you :-)

New additions and call for submissions

Firstly, I want to welcome the newly expanded New Fairy Tales team:

Associate Editor for Fiction: Andy Hedgecock
Associate Editor for Poetry: Anna McKerrow
Art Director: Faye Durston

Andy, a freelance writer and researcher, is also the Co-Fiction Editor for leading UK science fiction and fantasy magazine Interzone. Anna is a poet, whose first collection The Fast Heat of Beauty came out in 2008. She's also recently been working on a writing project called Bookbite. Faye is a writer and children's illustrator whose first book is due out from Macmillan in September. She has also done some lovely work for the magazine before (the illustration above is one of hers as is my blog banner).

I'm incredibly excited about working with them all, and we're now looking for some fantastic new fairy tales for Issue 5.

The call for submissions is below:

New Fairy Tales call for submissions
www.newfairytales.co.uk

We are currently seeking submissions for our fifth issue. We are looking for new fairy tales in short story format (max 3000 words), and in other formats such as poetry, flash fiction and comic strip.

We welcome works inspired by a love of traditional tales but we are not looking for retellings or reimaginings of existing tales. Show us what you think a new fairy tale can be.

For full submission guidelines please visit our website: www.newfairytales.co.uk/pages/submissions.html

All submissions should be sent to the editors at newfairytales@googlemail.com

The deadline for submissions to our fifth issue is 20th April 2010.

New Fairy Tales vacancy

New Fairy Tales is seeking an assistant editor:

• You can live anywhere in the world as long as you have a reliable internet connection.
• You must be passionate about fairy tales and related fiction.

Duties will primarily involve reading submissions and discussing them with the editor although there may be opportunities to do some marketing work too. Time-wise it shouldn’t take up more than a couple of hours a week, with perhaps a little more time required close to submission deadlines.

Unfortunately we can’t pay - the magazine run on a voluntary basis and tries to raise money for charity - but you will gain valuable experience from working on a growing online magazine.

Please send an email to Claire at editor@newfairytales.co.uk detailing a little bit about yourself, your creative experience, and what you love to read.

Deadline:
15th February 2010

The image is a postcard which uses an illustration the lovely Cate Simmons did for 'La Chureca' in Issue 4.

New Fairy Tales Competition - winners picked...

...from inside my favourite pair of socks.




The wonderful 'New Fairy Tale Nymph' will be winging its way to Samantha in the UK.




The fantastic fairy tale Ream will be flying to Christina in Australia.




Congratulations to the winners!!! And thank you so much to everyone else who took the time to donate to Derian House.

As a special thank you runners up will also be receiving a little set of New Fairy Tales postcards.

I'd also like to say thank you to Particle Article - without their generosity the competition wouldn't have been possible. You can see more of their fantastical creatures here and if you'd love one for yourself (I would!) you'll find a list of their stockists here.

And thank you also to Oona Patterson, who has sent a beautiful signed card to go with Ream to make it extra special. If you'd like a copy of the book (a new year treat!) you can buy it here and you can see more of her amazing work here.

Happy New Year! May the new year bring you what you wish for - and remember to wish wisely!

New Fairy Tales Competition

To celebrate the launch of our fourth issue, and to help raise money for our nominated charity Derian House Children's Hospice, we are holding a fantastic competition and offering readers who make a small donation the chance to win one of two fantastic prizes...

For readers in the UK, the prize is a beautiful, specially commissioned, fairy tale creature called the 'New Fairy Tale Nymph', which has been created by artists Amy Nightingale and Claire Benson of the wonderful Particle Article (who create the magazine's 'Creatures from the Curiosity Cabinet'). The creature, who has a retail value of £130, will thrive in a fairy tale loving home. We can only offer this prize to readers in the UK for fear that the delicate creature might not survive the ravages of international posting.

I hope readers outside the UK won't be too disappointed though, for them the prize on offer is a beautiful hardback illustrated fairy tale called Ream, by paper artist Oona Patterson, whose work features on the front cover of, and inside, the new issue. Oona's delicate papercuttings are truly enchanting and this is a wonderful book (I know because I have a copy). Oona has also signed a lovely postcard which will fly to the winner too.

So, if you'd like to enter: first, to be eligible, you need to make a small donation to Derian House via our JustGiving page here - this is quick, totally secure and all major cards are accepted (from inside and outside the UK). The minimum donation the site accepts is £2. Please note that because your donation is linked to a competition it won't be eligible for GiftAid so make sure you tick the boxes appropriately. Then, and this is really important, you must come back here and fill out your name, email address and country on the form I've linked to below, JustGiving doesn't automatically send all of your details to me so if you don't do this you can't be entered. I will use your details only to enter you into the competition, they will not be passed to anyone else, and will be securely deleted once the competition has been drawn. Please don't fill out this form unless you've made a donation.

The form is here:
http://newfairytales.co.uk/tinc?key=YAgOl70g&formname=competition

The competition will close to entries at midnight GMT on the 30th December. The draw will be made in front of witnesses on the evening of 31st December and the winners will be notified by email on the 1st January 2010.

If you've got any questions please feel free to post a comment below or email me.

Thanks,
Claire

New Fairy Tales Issue 4

Issue 4 of the online magazine I edit is launched today!

Thanks to the very exciting flash based technology we've just started using for the magazine I can display it right here:


There is also a PDF version available on the website and I'd also recommend a visit to the site if you want to find out more about the magazine or to sample the delights of our audio collection.

There is also an amazing competition linked to this issue, more details will follow in my next post...