Chapbooks:

Ascendancy of Blood, Scrybe Press, 2004. SOLD OUT This chapbook is out of print, but “Ascendancy of Blood” is now available at anthologybuilder.com. Combining elements of Sleeping Beauty and vampire tales, Ascendancy of Blood is a quick, sharply-told, gorgeously-described chapbook by up-and-coming author, Eugie Foster. Her strength here lies in the lush prose and seductive imagery that permeates the pages. —Michael M. Jones, SF Site “Ascendancy of Blood” is Eugie Foster’s retelling of the fairy tale, “Sleeping Beauty.” But this retelling is sinister, a children’s tale no more, fraught with peril and filled with blood. —Michael Gabriel Bailey, Tangent A refreshing look at a traditional tale. Eugie Foster has written an enchanting little tale that keeps the reader interested until the very last word. —Lesley, The Eternal Night Click for more

Inspirations End (reprint)/Still My Beating Heart, Scrybe Press, 2005. SOLD OUT This chapbook is out of print, but “Inspirations End” and “Still My Beating Heart” are now available at anthologybuilder.com. Eugie Foster’s vampire stories have everything a good vampire story needs to have . . . The author is a great story-teller, who pays attention to details, creates great characters, and uses a highly enjoyable style. Her choice of words and her use of language gives a very special flavour to these writings, which makes it hard to put this book down.For those who enjoy vampire fiction, this book is highly recommended. —Ilona Hegedus, Novelspot these two vampire short stories are beautifully written and darkly unsettling, each with a twist on accepted conventions that makes them at once familiar and new . . . Beautiful, and recommended. —Amanda A. Gannon, Shadow Muse: Naamah’s Journal

RETURNING MY SISTER’S FACE AND OTHER FAR EASTERN TALES OF WHIMSY AND MALICE

Enchantment, peril, and romance pervade the shadowy Far East, from the elegant throne room of the emperor’s palace to the humble teahouse of a peasant village. In these dozen stories of adventure and magic from the Orient, a maiden encounters an oni demon in the forest, a bride discovers her mother-in-law is a fox woman, a samurai must appease his sister’s angry ghost, strange luck is found in a jade locket, and dark and light are two sides of harmony.

Introduction by Vonda N. McIntyre.

Table of Contents:
  1. Daughter of Bótù
  2. The Tiger Fortune Princess
  3. A Thread of Silk
  4. The Snow Woman’s Daughter
  5. The Tanuki-Kettle
  6. Honor is a Game Mortals Play
  7. The Raven’s Brocade
  8. Shim Chung the Lotus Queen
  9. The Tears of My Mother, the Shell of My Father
  10. Year of the Fox
  11. The Archer of the Sun and the Lady of the Moon (listen to me read this story)
  12. Returning My Sister’s Face

212 pages
Hardcover (March 2009): $23.95 (£16.00)
ISBN-10: 1-60762-010-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-60762-010-5

Trade paperback (July 2009): $11.95 (£9.00)
ISBN-10: 1-60762-011-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-60762-011-2

Press release

Whimsy and malice—yes—also mystery, a very female sensuality, and wit. An elegant and entertaining book.
—Ursula K. Le Guin, Hugo, Nebula, Pushcart, and Newbery Award-winning author.

The tales are beautifully written, elegant, passionate, funny and moving. The entire collection is a delightful, magical bridge across cultures. I hope many readers find their way to it.
—Patricia A. McKillip, Locus, World Fantasy Best Novel, and World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award-winning author.

Noted short story author Foster offers a dozen enchanting and sometimes chilling tales alive with elegantly sketched characters and sensibilities drawn from Asian folklore…Readers who long for a break from European medieval fantasy will be charmed and entertained by Foster’s tales.
—Publishers Weekly

Up till now, fans of Eugie Foster’s clever, crystalline fairy tales, drawn from Chinese and Japanese mythology, had to seek out single instances of her stories in various magazines and anthologies. However, with the March publication of Returning My Sister’s Face: And Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, old aficionados can relish 12 of her tales all in one place…I wholeheartedly recommend this collection of tender and well-written stories.
—Elizabeth A. Allen, The Fix

In this elegant collection of stories Eugie Foster bridges the gap between the traditional fairytale and historical fantasy. Throughout the collection she alternates between re-tellings of Chinese and Japanese legends and original stories with elements drawn from the same deep wells. There is a formality to the writing that suits the traditional strain, giving a timeless authority to all the stories without making them unapproachable. On the contrary, they are charming to read.
—Holly Phillips, Fantasy Magazine

Lovers of fairy and folk tales who crave, as I do, stories from cultures not their own will delight in these deceptively simple tales. They are layered with tragedy and superstition, with spirituality and most importantly, with a fine sense of the marvelous.
—Erzebet YellowBoy, Cabinet Des Fées

Foster’s tone ranges from dark to light and whimsical…Lovers of fairytale fiction will find much to enjoy.
—Craig Laurance Gidney, Fantasy With Bite

Among collections by relatively new writers, I found Deborah Biancotti’s A Book of Endings, Eugie Foster’s Returning My Sister’s Face, and Cat Rambo’s Eyes Like Sky and Coal and Moonlight the most compelling.
—Jeff VanderMeer on The Best of 2009, Locus

[Eugie] tells her tales with such energy, grace and heart that one feels instantly transported and moved…I recommend this collection highly.
—Ken Schneyer

The writing is filled with both the graceful simplicity I have come to associate with Far Eastern literature and poetry as well as the modern edginess which comes with the meeting between two cultures…Returning My Sister’s Face remains one of the brighter sparks in the output of published writing for the year.
—Nin Harris, M/C Reviews

ASCENDANCY OF BLOOD

In a magic forest where deep shadows pulse across the surfaces of lace-veined leaves, and night blooms ripple in shades of swirling indigo, there is an enchanted castle. Courtiers, pages, cooks, and stable boys slumber as still as death, and a golden princess languishes in her rose-strewn bower, waiting for her prince charming.

But the princess sleeps with a black wood stake through her heart, and her petal-soft lips conceal a pair of razor fangs. Is the prince savior or her ill-fated prey, lured to sinister purpose by a night fiend ruling a castle of the damned?

This is not the fairy tale you remember.

32 pages
Chapbook (2004): SOLD OUT
ISBN-10: 0-9748340-7-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-9748340-7-8

This chapbook is out of print, but “Ascendancy of Blood” is now available at anthologybuilder.com.

Combining elements of Sleeping Beauty and vampire tales, Ascendancy of Blood is a quick, sharply-told, gorgeously-described chapbook by up-and-coming author, Eugie Foster. Her strength here lies in the lush prose and seductive imagery that permeates the pages.

—Michael M. Jones, SF Site

“Ascendancy of Blood” is Eugie Foster’s retelling of the fairy tale, “Sleeping Beauty.” But this retelling is sinister, a children’s tale no more, fraught with peril and filled with blood.

—Michael Gabriel Bailey, Tangent

A refreshing look at a traditional tale. Eugie Foster has written an enchanting little tale that keeps the reader interested until the very last word.

—Lesley, The Eternal Night

Foster’s got this style, this way of phrasing that makes you forget that you know what’s going to happen, and instead get lost in the flow of her words . . . . She’s a very good writer and I hope we start to hear a lot more from her.
—C. Dennis Moore, The Swamp

Just when readers think nothing new can be done to an old fable, along comes Foster. She reinvents sleeping beauty. Her take entertains and her twist, surprises . . . A fast, horror read that will surprise fable lovers.
—Christina Francine Withcher, Yet Another Book Review Site

INSPIRATIONS END

Cybele is inspiration incarnate, a lissome goddess who metes out passion, releasing the words and melodies that seethe, locked in Rail’s mind. She is everything he desires, and gives him everything he’s ever dreamed of having. But she requires payment, her fair due. The coveted attention of a muse does not come without a price. And the price is high.

STILL MY BEATING HEART

William’s heart thrums in his chest, a rhythm his mistress abhors. Not dead enough, not cold enough to walk the night at her side, but too bloodthirsty to dwell with men. Redemption pounds in his chest, echoing the beat of his undead heart. He yearns to escape the monster, the vampire he has become, but must he learn instead to discard what remains of the man?

36 pages
Chapbook (2005): SOLD OUT
ISBN-10: 1-933274-06-9
ISBN-13: 978-1-93327-406-5

This chapbook is out of print, but “Inspirations End” and “Still My Beating Heart” are now available at anthologybuilder.com.

Eugie Foster’s vampire stories have everything a good vampire story needs to have . . . The author is a great story-teller, who pays attention to details, creates great characters, and uses a highly enjoyable style. Her choice of words and her use of language gives a very special flavour to these writings, which makes it hard to put this book down.For those who enjoy vampire fiction, this book is highly recommended.
—Ilona Hegedus, Novelspot

these two vampire short stories are beautifully written and darkly unsettling, each with a twist on accepted conventions that makes them at once familiar and new . . . Beautiful, and recommended.
—Amanda A. Gannon, Shadow Muse: Naamah’s Journal