Helen Fray (she/her) is an author of Fantasy Romance books with fated, yet fatal, love stories and life-or-death, secret society situations. She lives in Manchester, England, with her children and unpredictable, fluff-ball cat. She likes to put her English degree to good use, writing novels whilst relying on her editor to fix her commas. Transcendent, […]
Blog Posts
Cover Reveal: Embers of the Empire by Logan D. Irons
Blurb The Lothlian Empire is a corpse, and the Wyrm Lords have come to feast. On the crumbling frontier of the Reaves, three lives collide: a Nothman sword-maiden who must choose between a cage and a war, a horse lord who sustains his people through monstrous necessity, and a disgraced imperial bodyguard drowning in a […]
Cover Reveal: And Then There is the Bard by D. W. Walters
Blurb A party of heroes, who are far from zeroes. Quests to slay a dragon, so join the bandwagon. But with such high stakes, do they have what it takes?
SFF Addicts Ep. 210: Cover Art & Book Design with Jeff Brown, Rachel St Clair, Philip C. Quaintrell & Scott Palmer (Indie Appreciation Month)
Join host Adrian M. Gibson and guest authors/artists Jeff Brown, Rachel St Clair, Philip C. Quaintrell and Scott Palmer for an Indie Appreciation Month panel on Cover Art & Book Design. During the panel, Jeff, Rachel, Philip and Scott discuss what cover and book design are, creating a visual brand, the importance of typography and fonts, interior formatting and design, what makes a good vs. bad piece of art, due diligence and art/design no-nos, cover legibility and visual impact, evolving cover trends, setting reader expectations, commissioning artists, book titles, costs/budgeting, communication, timelines and more.
Guest Post: Self-Pub: A Very Merry Midyear Report by Michael Michel
Luck is nice, being willing to tirelessly grind is better. Since I started my publishing journey over three years ago in 2023, I’ve managed to stay in the green every year. Not only that, but I increased my income in each subsequent year. It’s not necessarily because I’m “one of the lucky ones” but that […]
SFF Addicts Ep. 209: Portal Fantasies with Seanan McGuire & Micaiah Johnson (Masterclass Panel)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson and Greta Kelly for a masterclass panel on Portal Fantasies, featuring guest authors Seanan McGuire and Micaiah Johnson. During the panel, they open the door to portal fantasies, discussing what a portal fantasy is, the appeal of this subgenre, fundamental elements of portal fantasies, age markets and genre fatigue, portal sci-fi and secondary worlds, who has access to portals, establishing the rules of your portal, differentiating the “real” world and the “other” world(s), revealing the “new” of the portal world to readers, reflecting our own world through alternate worlds and more.
COVER ART REVEAL: Memories of Fire (Book One – Faithless Gods) by L.L. MacRae
Title: Faithless GodsSeries Title: Memories of FireAuthor: L.L. MacRaeCover Art: Andrew MaleskiGenre: Epic FantasyRelease Date: Q4 2026 Something new arises… SPFBO7 Finalist, L.L. MacRae is about to unleash a new series following the completion of the Dragon Spirits trilogy! Her new series includes dragons like you’ve never seen before, meddling gods, flintlock vibes, and an […]
SFF Addicts Ep. 208: Incorporating Music into SFF with Peter Orullian (Writing Masterclass)
Join host Adrian M. Gibson as he delves into a writing masterclass on Incorporating Music into SFF with author/musician Peter Orullian. During the episode, Peter strikes a narrative chord, discussing the intersection of music and storytelling, novelizing concept albums for bands, lyricism and the musicality of prose, copyright and including songs or lyrics in a story, adding music/songs to audiobooks, writing characters who ARE musicians, music in our world vs. secondary worlds, musical magic systems and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 207: Peter Orullian talks Songs of the Dead, Collabing with Brandon Sanderson, Xbox & More
Join host Adrian M. Gibson as he chats with author Peter Orullian about his new novel Songs of the Dead, collaborating on the book with Brandon Sanderson, rock and metal culture, history and multi-layered worldbuilding, musical magic and factions of the living vs. the dead, creative fluidity, video games and working at Microsoft/Xbox, the publishing industry and corporate culture, Unbroken and Kickstarter success, the triumphs of community, Christmas movies and sincerity, understanding your antagonists, metalheads, starving artists and more.
SFF Addicts Ep. 206: The Art of the Short Story with Isabel J. Kim (Writing Masterclass)
Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson & Greta Kelly as they delve into a writing masterclass on The Art of the Short Story with award-winning author Isabel J. Kim. During the episode, Isabel gets to the short of it, discussing what a short story is, examples of masterful short stories, short fiction as a testing ground, comparing short-form vs. long-form fiction, approaching theme, plot and structure in short stories, characterization/worldbuilding in a condensed word count, conciseness and pacing, editing and trimming stories down, selling your short stories on the professional market, the role of short story collections and anthologies and more.
COVER REVEAL: Stranded (Sanguine Stars) by Nicholas W. Fuller
Blurb Poey Targe is stranded. His skug-sucking captors dragged his ass all the way across the galaxy to who-the-hell-knows-where instead of just killing him when they forced him to watch his home planet’s destruction. Fortunately, even on this mud ball in the middle of nowhere there’s a bit of civilization; enough that there’s a bar […]
Review: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu
Continuing on my string of reviewing some things other than just books for once. I’ve been enjoying branching out a bit; I hope you’ve enjoyed checking them out! First, I reviewed some movies, like Primitive War, Predator: Badlands, and 2025’s Frankenstein, and even a dissection of War of the Rohirrim; then some interesting games, like Still Wakes the Deep; then even […]