The Tangled Forest

Hello everyone.

Announcing this fine book for sale in paperback and e-format.

The trees whisper stories in the deep, dark woods.

This is the retelling of three ancient fairy tales by the women who lived them. Stories that at first seem unrelated become twisted together like the branches above.

One night, a little boy appears at the window of a girl’s cottage. Birthed by rain and thunder, he is motherless and hungry. Their friendship will lead them deep into the woods, where years later a girl draped in donkey skin will beg for their protection. Two sisters, a bear, and a man of undetermined height form the link in this chain, as they journey between the mountain’s legs to a castle far, far away.

From the witch and the wolf to the king and his courtiers, no one leaves the tangled forest unchanged.

It's a retelling of three fairy tales: 

• Wolfish - Red Riding Hood
• Red & White - Snow-White & Rose-Red
• Skin - Donkeyskin

The first, Wolfish, was originally a novella. It was longlisted for the Leapfrog Press Award last year and picked up by Ghostwoods, who published Rosy Hours. They asked for two more stories to turn it into a collection, then hit some problems and had to drop the project. I put it out on submission and received some lovely responses, but no one who would take a novella or a short story collection, so I decided to use the manuscript to take my first shot at self-publishing.

I've really enjoyed having full creative control over layout and cover art. The cover was designed by Victoria Cooper, who is very talented. I'm really pleased with it and I can assure you, it looks sumptuous in print.

So, I hope you will enjoy reading.

It's a project that was done for pleasure rather than prowess. All the same, it's the first new work I've released in three years and I appreciate reviews, ratings and getting the word out. 

It's available through Amazon in all territories, but here's the UK/US paperback link and the UK/US Kindle link. If you purchase the paperback, you get the Kindle version for around 99c.

The Constant Editor

Had a lovely day editing in the CasaKeza garden with cheesecake and too much coffee. Then came home to continue, but ended up sitting through a four-hour blackout. Thank goodness for Paperwhite's screen lighting. Reading a stunning book at the moment. Looking forward to posting the review soon.

These are the three novellas: Wolfish, Red & White and Skin.

"Just one copy?" I said to the guy at Right Click as I waited for it to print out.

"Yes. It's almost four hundred pages."

"Oh."

Going to take me a few days to get through this, in between editing jobs for other people (one of which I get paid in cat food for, so it's a top priority for the kitties). I think I probably am going back to finish off Still Life after this. Then on to something slightly different. Feels good to be creating again.

Skin

And for my next trick...

Just finished my 5,000 for the day. Submitted Red & White (Snow White & Rose Red) to Ghostwoods last night, now cracking on with (Donkey)Skin / Peau d'Âne. Sort of a forerunner of Cinderella, but with more incest and dead animals. Urm... it's not as bad as that sounds.

Feeling cheerful. My writing's been a bit hit and miss this year due to other projects, so it's nice to know I'll have achieved something solid. The three stories together should make a decent-sized collection, and three stand alone stories with interweaving themes for those reading closely.

Unfortunately, it has given me pause for thought over the other novel I was writing, Still Life. I still think it's a good idea, and it's half written already, but I've stumbled upon something else which looks like an even better idea.

Keeping it under my hat for now. I'll see how I feel once Skin is submitted.

It's been interesting writing multiple stories these past few months, but I think one book at a time might be the way to go. It's nice to have another story to write when you're getting annoyed with the one you're looking at, but if you get annoyed with both, that's twice as much reason to goof off.

On with the donkey story!