BFS Online: The Book Journey – Readings

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We have seven readings from a range of authors – fantasy, science fiction and horror – to help you find your next book (or add to that beautiful TBR pile). Bring your favourite tipple and enjoy some first-rate readings from the SFFH community.

Readings from Readings from Paul A. Green, Anna Smith Spark, Marve Michael Anson, Shona Kinsella, Eden Royce, J E Hannaford, and Leia Talon. Find out more about them below.

Paul A. Green: Paul A. Green’s work includes The Gestaltbunker – Selected Poems (Shearsman Books 2012), Shadow Times (QBS Productions 2019)and the novels The Qliphoth (Libros Libertad 2007) and Beneath the Pleasure Zones I and II (Mandrake 2014, 2016). His plays for radio been broadcast by CBC, BBC Radio 3, RTE Eire and Resonance FM and/or staged both in London and regionally. The Magus of Klook’s Kleek, about occultist jazz rocker Graham Bond, was performed at the 2023 Manchester Folk Horror Festival. A selection are collected in Babalon and Other Plays (Scarlet Imprint 2015). Short fiction has appeared in Canadian Fiction Magazine, New Worlds, Small Worlds, Brand, Unthology 2 (Unthank Books), Deep Ends (Terminal Press) and numerous on-line magazines, most recently Abridged and The Fortnightly Review. He’s read at everything from festivals to open-mics. You can learn more about Paul on his website or listen to him on Soundcloud. He’s also on Facebook and YouTube. Buy Paul’s book here.

Anna Smith Spark: Anna Smith Spark is the author of the Empires of Dust grimdark epic fantasy series The Court of Broken Knives, The Tower of Living and Dying and The House of Sacrifice; the standalone A Woman of the Sword; and A Sword of Bronze and Ashes, book one of her folk horror high fantasy series The Remaking of This World Ruined. Her work has been described as ‘a masterwork’ and ‘awe-inspiring’. She’s dyslexic, dyspraxic, ASD, PhD; previous jobs include English teacher, fetish model and petty bureaucrat. You may know her by the heels of her shoes. Find out more about Anna on her website. Or connect with her on Facebook and Twitter. Get a copy of Anna’s book here.

Marve Michael Anson: Marve has been writing for over a decade and has self-published a thriller, His Dark Reflection, to critical acclaim. She was shortlisted for the Future Worlds Prize in 2023, winning mentorship from a top UK editor. Her debut fantasy novel, Firstborn of the Sun, was shortlisted for the 2022 Jericho Writers Friday Night Live Competition and the 2022 Kit De Waal Bursary, was longlisted for the 2023 REVPIT competition, and won the 2023 Jericho Writers’ Self Edit Course Bursary. In addition, Marve is a filmmaker who wrote and produced an award-winning short film in 2016 and is a recipient of the 2017 AFRIFF Film School Scholarship Program. She works as a technology consultant during the day and a storyteller at night. She is a member of the Society of Authors, Alliance of Independent Authors and the British Fantasy Society. She is a mentor for Black Girl Writers. When she’s not weaving fantastical tales, you can find her exploring life as a serial hobbyist, delving into everything from obsessing over myths and histories, collecting books and passionately assembling her own personal library to indulging in an unapologetic obsession with all things Christmas. She is represented by Kesia Lupo, Bindery Agency. She can be found on her website or on Twitter. Learn more about Marve’s books on Goodreads.

Shona Kinsella: Shona Kinsella is a multiple-award-nominated Scottish fantasy author. Her works include The Heart of Winter, The Vessel of KalaDene series, The Flame and the Flood, and non-fiction Outlander and the Real Jacobites: Scotland’s Fight for the Stuarts. She was the editor of the British Fantasy Society’s fiction publication BFS Horizons for four years and is now the Chair of the Society. She lives with her husband and 3 children on the bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. Find out more about Shona on her website. Or you can follow her on Facebook and Bluesky.

Eden Royce: Eden Royce is a Shirley Jackson Award finalist and her short stories have appeared in a variety of print and online publications. She has also written articles for Writer’s Digest, The Horn Book Magazine, Western Colorado University, and We Need Diverse Books. Her debut novel, Root Magic, is a Walter Dean Myers Award Honoree, an Andre Norton Nebula Award Finalist, an Ignyte Award winner, and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award winner for outstanding children’s literature. Read more about eden on her website. Or you can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Bluesky. Treat yourself to Root Magic here.

Leia Talon: Leia Talon writes fantasy and speculative fiction with romantic elements. She’s the author of several novels and is a contracted writer for Heart’s Choice, the romance division of Choice of Games. She lives in the mountains of British Columbia, Canada, where nature sparks her imagination to run wild. Learn more about Leia on her website. Or on any of her socials: Twitter, Tumbler, TikTok or Instagram. Get her interactive novel here.

J E Hannaford: J E Hannaford is powered by coffee, dragons and whisky. She teaches Biology in the real world and invents fantasy beasts to populate her own. She lives in Suffolk, UK, and pines for the coast and mountains of Wales. A love of nature, biology and the ocean permeates through the pages of J E Hannaford’s stories and pours out of the characters who live in it. She lives with her husband, son and an elderly dog who now believes he has written three books. Her debut series was The Black Hind’s Wake Duology, a journey into alt-future folklore fantasy. Her Aulirean Gates series continues with Gates of Sorrow releasing on 19th April 2024, and sees her take a detour from the ocean to travel through a portal into epic fantasy with portals and telepathic hounds. Find out more about J E Hannaford on her website. Buy Gates of Sorrow here.