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State of the Crow - Morrigan Books Update
by Mark S. Deniz
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 It
seems unthinkable in many ways that
Morrigan Books
has only been in existence since 25th February this year and
when I think of all that has been achieved since then, I can
only think that we are really going to be an independent
press publisher to be reckoned with in the future.
Back in
February it was the task of Amanda Pillar (our in-house
editor) and myself to make the transition from my role at
Eneit Press to Morrigan Books as smooth as possible. After a
successful debut anthology at Eneit Press, In Bad Dreams –
Volume One: Where Real Life Awaits, (which received five
honourable mentions in Ellen Datlow's best of for 2008), it
was clear that the ideas of those working within Eneit Press
differed and this prompted the set up of Morrigan Books.
Morrigan Books was an obvious name for me, due to my
fascination with Celtic mythology, primarily the goddess of
love and war, two interesting aspects to be under the ward
of one deity. I wanted dark fiction, fiction that explored
the human soul, brought out our worst fears, cradled them,
nursed them, made them into something to be feared, yet
welcomed, the way in which we generally treat horror as a
topic. |
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Amanda and I started off with Voices, the anthology released
this October, before deciding on our flagship anthology, The
Phantom Queen Awakes, dark Celtic tales, concerning
themselves with our namesake, The Morrigan. Not content with
only concentrating on open submissions, we also contacted
several bestselling authors, four of which: Anya Bast,
Elaine Cunningham, Katharine Kerr and C. E. Murphy agreed to
take part in the project.
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Adding
to that the fact that we have names such as Ed Greenwood and
Ramsey Campbell on other books published by the company
next year, shows that we mean business. |
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However, this was only half of our goal at Morrigan Books,
to showcase established talent, for we were keen to
encourage new names too, names that would be making
their way from
indie press to larger publishing houses. Among them I am
proud to have: Carole Johnstone, T. A. Moore and Gary
McMahon, who feature on more than one of our titles and who
have gotten high praise for the work they have produced so
far.
The team of Morrigan
Books grew from the initial team of myself and Amanda when
talented artist Reece Notley agreed to first be graphics
consultant, before taking on a role as in-house graphic
designer and now, co-editor of Three Crow Press, the
Morrigan Books ezine you have on your screen.
Not content with merely being a promising new author at the
company, T. A. Moore decided to come on board as business
and query administrator, swiftly followed by J. Lee Moffatt,
web designer and also co-editor at Three Crow Press.
Our first few months have
been massive, with much going on behind the scenes to get
the company established and a name within the indie press
scene. We think we've achieved that and we are pretty sure
that books with the Morrigan Books logo upon them are going
to be making waves in 2009, considering the attention they
have received within only a couple of months of the first
three books (Voices, How to Make Monsters and The Even)
being released.
Keep an eye on us, as
there is much more to come!
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How to Make Monsters
by Gary McMahon |
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The Even
by T.A. Moore |
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Voices Anthology |
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