The Forgotten and the Fantastical 3



https://www.mothersmilkbooks.com/index.php/shop/product/218-the-forgotten-and-the-fantastical-3-edited-by-teika-bellamy

Last Saturday, I had a wonderful night out in Nottingham, at the launch of The Forgotten and the Fantastical 3, an anthology of fairy tales for grown-ups.

As one of the contributing authors, it was great to meet my fellow writers, sign books together and listen to readings from each other's stories.  It was particularly special for me, as I missed last year's launch for The Forgotten and the Fantastical 2 due to illness.  It was also great to spend Sunday's journey home reading everyone else's stories, along with notes on the inspiration behind them, and of course the wonderful illustrations by Emma Howitt.

I'm not going to go through every story here, but I will mention some of my favourites:

The Web and the Wildwood by Lynden Wade
I LOVE the Lady of Shalott, and medieval romance, so this story was ideal for me.  It has a woman in a tower, a unicorn and a tapestry.  Oh, and a monkey!  What more could you want?

Iron Man by Claire Stephenson
I won't say much about this story, since it's very short, only that as a fellow fibromyalgia sufferer I appreciated a story that took this illness as its inspiration.  Also, Iron Man was my husband's nickname, many moons ago...

Bearskin and Bare-skin by Carys Crossen
One of two Bear stories in the collection.  (The other is Melissa's Bearskin by Ronne Randall).  It tells of a girl brought up with a bear for a sister, and what happens next.

Midnight Riders by Dan Micklethwaite
This story kept me guessing for a good while about the identity of the mysterious coach driver.  Particularly relevant since I was on a National Express bus at the time.

My own story in the collection is The Lost Children of Lorenwald.  Narrated by a woman called The Storysinger who goes into forests to gather her songs, she is told the forest of Lorenwald is forbidden. It stole the village's children.

Supporters on Patreon will be able to see the full video diary of my trip in April's update.  Click the big orange button for more details on becoming a patron.


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