Moonsleep and Other Stories is a collection of fantasy, horror and science fiction stories.
Most of them have been previously published in various anthologies and I have collated them into one collection. Three of the stories, “The Temptation of Charlotte Bronte”, “A Tall Tree Tale” and “The Young Woman in the Yellow Bikini” have not been published before.
I’ve been asked what was the inspiration for the different stories.
“Mirror in Her Hand” and “Cinderfeller” are retellings of classic fairy tales. “Mirror in Her Hand” is a diesel punk retelling of Snow White. It was written especially for the anthology, Fairytales Punk’d. “Cinderfeller” (surprise, surprise) is a gender swapped version of Cinderella. And no, it has no connection to the Jerry Lewis film. I wrote it just for fun and then to my surprise, it was accepted for the anthology, Stories for the Thoughtful Young.
“The Mysterious Mr Fox” was inspired by the Hoosier’s song, “Run Rabbit Run”. While there is an English fairy tale called “Mr Fox”, it has no connection to my story.
The two horror stories were inspired by actual events. “A Monster Met” by a cruise that I went on and “Scared of Girls” by events in my street.
“Tall Tree Tales” and “The Young Woman in the Yellow Bikini” were inspired respectively by a trip to New England where I did the Foliage Trail and, by a trip to the Caribbean.
“The Temptation of Charlotte Bronte” was written as an exercise for a writing class.
“A Dead Mermaid on Eel Pie Island” was written specifically for an anthology, MSCI: Magical Crime Scene Investigations. and was my first story accepted that I received payment for. I just love the name of Eel Pie Island which, actually exists.
“The Boom Show” is a dystopian SF story. I was inspired by all the reality game shows on TV and by thinking about our large ageing population.
Moonsleep and Other Stories is available on all the major online book retailers, Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google Play and Smashwords etc. books2read.com/u/med6rz