Interviewing Francesca T Barbini of Luna Press Publishing

Hellooo!

This month saw the release of six great novellas from Luna Press Publishing. Their third exciting year of novellas. As my TBR challenge involves short fiction I thought it may be worth asking Francesca T Barbini who is Founder and Editor In Chief about this year’s choices, the advantages of novellas and what else this award winnign publishe rhas in store for us.

How was 2022 for Luna Publishing? How is small press publishing doing?

It was exciting! And full of feelings and emotions. A strong year of releases, novellas, novels and non-fiction, with two awards. Can you feel emotionally filled up and drained at the same time? Is it possible?

This year sees the third cycle of novellas. What led to the choice of tales this year?

No plan. Just listened to my heart. What moved me? What clicked within me when I was reading it?

Eugen Bacon’s Broken Paradise immediately captured me with the writing style – almost poetic and always evocative. The tropical waters in which Namulongo grows up and relate to her Mum really connected with me.

Andrew Knighton’s Ashes of the Ancestor felt so fresh and original. Walking through the isolated monastery with Magdalisa, I felt enveloped in soothing ashes, comforting yet stifling at the same time. I love traditions and they play a huge part in my life, but I struggle everyday with them. I would be so much freer without them, yet I recognised how much of me has been shaped by them with often positive results.

Abigail F Taylor’s debut The Night Begins, hooked me right from the start. The opening of her novella was pure perfection. Like in 20 lines she was able to snap me to attention, and to sit there for the rest of the novella without a break. I felt threatened, as much as Darcy was in the story. The way she used small details to bring an environment to life is astonishing. I felt the cosiness and the flirting in the garage; I felt unsafe in the dirty, old house and very much threatened in the woods. What a debut! No wonder M.R. Carey said of it, “…so raw it’s still bleeding.”

Jess Hyslop’s Miasma had a fabulous young boy as lead. The way he spoke, what he felt, the way he interacted with the people around him – it was great. I always warn writers that there is a fine line between a Teen/YA story and a General Trade one with a young person as protagonist. Jess was able to nail that, as well as dealing with intimate family relationship in an original setting.

LK Kitney’s The Lies We Tell Ourselves, packed a punch. It is written in 2nd person, which is not to everyone’s taste. Yet to me was one of the things that gave the story its ‘epic’ proportion. And there was more. As I was reading I felt like I’d dropped into a black and white world, with a very vivid black. It was stark and it was created by powerful words. And that name, Fiaer Dradorn, sounds so sexy… (move along here… nothing to see…)

Last but not least, Chloe Smith’s Virgin Land. If you say to me, ‘Francesca, here is your one-way ticket to the Moon/Space Station’, I’d take it. The idea of living off Earth has always been a real dream for me (see my personal Twitter image). I get completely teary eyed any time a shuttle takes off or Professor Cox starts talking about the universe. So following Shayla to this new ‘virgin land’ and watch her live there, with a lot of very real and human problems, just clicked with me right away. I particularly loved how Chloe dealt with the impact on a new ecosystem – movies often skip that part and easily relocate entire species like it was nothing!

The novella seems ever more popular is it having a strong revival? What are the attractions of novellas?

It’s a more immediate vessel. I started planning Luna Novella the year before Covid, already realising that time was my most precious commodity, and therefore a novella was able to let me travel on the wings of a story in a much shorter time than a novel, but with the same impact.

Then Covid came, and I think a lot of people came face to face with fatigue and the inability to focus for long periods of time. As the lockdown started, I was opening submissions for the first time. A novella has great appeal in these types of circumstances, and we were flooded with submissions.

I still struggle for time, and I have stopped reading series, or watching anything longer than a mini-series. So novellas have a real appeal to me. Even our novels’ submissions are for standalone. It’s how I feel at this point in my life, you know?

Another reason why I believe novellas have a rightful place in the publishing life of an author, is because they are a perfect way (different in format but similar in use, to a short story) to keep an author’s name out there, while they write their novels, which generally take a lot longer.

So yes, novellas come with a lot of pros, not least because they are a beautiful genre in their own right.

What else can we look forward to seeing from Luna Press in 2023?

We’ve already released Tolkien’s Library Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, by Oronzo Cilli. This reference book has already won awards and found its rightful place in the world of Tolkien’s Studies, and I couldn’t have been prouder of Oronzo.

The new Luna Novellas are obviously out already, but we have more. Tiffani Angus and Val Nolan wrote a super-useful and fun non-fiction book, called Spec Fic for Newbies: A beginners’ guide to writing subgenres of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror. It’s out on the 28th of March and the YouTube launch will premiere on the 9th of March at 7PM, UK time. The title is self-explanatory, but honestly, I have learned so much by reading this book, it’s unbelievable. Tiffani and Val have taught Creative Writing at various universities for decades, and their knowledge has been distilled for the benefit of writers and curious of the genre alike.

Then of course we have Anna Smith Spark’s new novel, A Woman of the Sword. This book will be out on April the 4th, and the YouTube launch will premiere on the 23rd of March at 7PM UK time. Anna’s captivating story of a woman dealing with motherhood, and struggling between her loyalties to family and army really has a strong, original message to convey.

Both these books will be launched at Eastercon 2023, this coming Easter.

In the summer we will release Follow Me: Religion in Fantasy and Science Fiction, Luna’s Call for Papers 2022.

In September we will be releasing a book that will find a special place in the heart of many people, as it involves the fabulous writings of Maureen Kincaid Speller, whose untimely death has really robbed us of a gorgeous critical mind. The book, A Traveller in Time: the critical practice of Maureen Kincaid Speller, is edited by the superb Nina Allan. We will host a launch at Fantasycon.

In between all of this, there will be releases for the Tolkien Society, and we are very excited about them. Seminar and conference proceedings coming your way!

What great books have you read recently?

As usual, a lot of amazing submissions, which I cannot discuss!