Cupán Fae’s 2019 Advent Calendar – Day 12, Pocket Prompts

12th December 2019Leave a comment

Time for some shameless self-promotion! In October, I launched a new product, called Pocket Prompts – writing prompts and creative thinking tools to help stories develop and blossom.

A deck comes with 25 double-sided cards, providing a total of 50 prompts across three categories: Character, Plot and Setting.

For the sake of creating something that would offer the most amount of options to people, each card comes with a Plot prompt, and the remaining 25 prompts are split between Character cards and Settings.

My aim with the cards was to be a genre-neutral as possible, which I expand upon on my blog when writing about the cards – a simple prompt of ‘Something explodes’ can mean so much more than a literal explosion, for example.

In 2020, I will be resuming the blog with an expansion of more cards, and exploring ways of using more than one card in a story to turn things on their head.

In the meantime, if you want to get your hands on a deck, they are available through my Gumroad store – otherwise, you can ask about them IRL at a Cupán Fae meet-up or at events whenever I’m tabling. (Like DCAF this Saturday!)

I may be biased, but I think they’ll make an excellent gift for the writers in your life.

Cupán Fae’s 2019 Advent Calendar – Day 1

1st December 20192nd December 2019Leave a comment

Christmas is practically around the corner. Many of us spent the last month taking part in NaNoWriMo, so we’re looking forward to winding down for a while. Not one to go quietly into the night, we’ve assembled an advent calendar of blog posts and short stories to count down the days.

We have a ton of books to recommend for writers over the next few weeks among short stories and other pieces from a few of our members. In the meantime, we want to take the opportunity to remind you about our anthologies – our gift to the writers that joined us and needed the push to get their first stories into the public eye.

Between October 2018 and July 2019, we published three collections: Dublin’s Fierce City, Fierce Might, and Fierce New World. You can read more about all three here.

The anthologies are a special part of how Cupán Fae operates. The greatest gift you can gift a writer is confidence in their work. Whether you choose to buy our books or spark an interest in the work of the writers in your life, remember that even a small act can make a big difference in the lives of those around you.

6 Christmas Reads to Get You in the Mood

18th December 2018Leave a comment

With Christmas right around the corner, I turned to the Cupán Fae Facebook group to ask for recommendations of books to read to get in the mood for the upcoming holiday. With a couple to throw in myself, here are six Christmas reads!

1. Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett

IT’S THE NIGHT BEFORE HOGSWATCH AND IT’S TOO QUIET.

Where is the big jolly fat man? Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker…

Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning, otherwise there won’t be a morning. Ever again…

The 20th Discworld novel is a festive feast of darkness and Death (but with jolly robins and tinsel too).

As they say: You’d better watch out…

Recommended by Roisín Tuohy.

2. Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares, by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan

A whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist!

“I’ve left some clues for you.
If you want them, turn the page.
If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.” 16-year-old Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on her favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. Dash, in a bad mood during the holidays, happens to be the first guy to pick up the notebook and rise to its challenges. What follows is a whirlwind romance as Dash and Lily trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations all across New York City. But can their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions, or will their scavenger hunt end in a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions? Co-written by Rachel Cohn (GINGERBREAD) and David Levithan, co-author of WILL GRAYSON, WILL GRAYSON with John Green (THE FAULT IN OUR STARS), DASH & LILY’S BOOK OF DARES is a love story that will have readers scouring bookstore shelves, looking and longing for a love (and a red notebook) of their own.

Recommended by Ellen Brickley.

3. The Night of Wishes: Or, the Satanarchaeolidealcohellish Notion Potion, by Michael Ende

Told partly in rhyme, this account of the adventures of sorcerer Beelzebub Preposteror introduces a host of unusual and compelling characters. By the author of The Neverending Story.

Recommended by Lelya Telli.

4. I am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas, by Adam Roberts

Marley was dead. Again.

The legendary Ebenezeer Scrooge sits in his house counting money. The boards that he has nailed up over the doors and the windows shudder and shake under the blows from the endless zombie hordes that crowd the streets hungering for his flesh and his miserly braaaaiiiiiinns!

Just how did the happiest day of the year slip into a welter of blood, innards and shambling, ravenous undead on the snowy streets of old London town?

Will the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future be able to stop the world from drowning under a top-hatted and crinolined zombie horde?

Was Tiny Tim’s illness something infinitely more sinister than mere rickets and consumption? Can Scrooge be persuaded to go back to his evil ways, travel back to Christmas past and destroy the brain stem of the tiny, irritatingly cheery Patient Zero?

It’s the Dickensian Zombie Apocalypse – God Bless us, one and all!

Recommended by Paul Carroll. See also: A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.

5. Let it Snow, by John Green, Maureen Johnson & Lauren Myracle

An ill-timed storm on Christmas Eve buries the residents of Gracetown under multiple feet of snow and causes quite a bit of chaos. One brave soul ventures out into the storm from her stranded train and sets off a chain of events that will change quite a few lives. Over the next three days one girl takes a risky shortcut with an adorable stranger, three friends set out to win a race to the Waffle House (and the hash brown spoils), and the fate of a teacup pig falls into the hands of a lovesick barista.

A trio of today’s bestselling authors – John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle – bring all the magic of the holidays to life in three hilarious and charming interconnected tales of love, romance, and kisses that will steal your breath away.

Recommended by Paul Carroll.

6. Dreamspinner Press’s Advent Calendar

Dreamspinner’s annual advent calendar is a chance for readers of gay romance fiction to explore different genres published by the company, all relating to Christmas, one published every day. Chosen for this post, Hero for the Holidays, a Spandex and Superheroes story.

Recommended by Jenn Quinn.