I invite you into a world of fairy tales where the lines between fiction and reality blur, and melt and burst into flames. A selkie leaves the sea for the first time to go to university; three young boys find a genie in a can of Irn-Bru; two friends think they see a firebird in an old housing estate; a boy discovers that people are not always who they seem to be; a man is spirited away by a snake charmer into a dark maze; goblins crawl through mirrors; an unwilling princess is "saved" from a tower; and Rapunzel is kidnapped by an automaton. A series of original short stories to amuse and entertain. Recommendation: "I especially enjoyed the story called Brick Lane Gang! I really liked the use of the firebird myth, and I noticed that particularly in the second half, as is noted within the story, it follows the path of the myth up to the success of the three trials. 'Yeah, this is the real world' contrasts effectively with the fact that what Uncle Reza has done is almost a metaphor for Ivan Tsarevich's death in the myth. Even better, it ends there before reaching the end of the myth, leaving the reader to decide whether it follows the myth or deviates from it." Sam E L Parfitt is a long-time an admirer of Pratchett, King and Scottish authors such as Maggie O'Farrell and John Burnside. You can find her avoiding polite company while writing in coffee shops, parks... and well, that would be telling. Author of Temptation & Mozzarella, Shattered Roses and Seascape, Emma was honored to study creative writing from Douglas Dunn and John Burnside at St Andrews and went on to plan and implement creative writing courses for a diverse range of places such as Scottish Widows, Exeter and Warwick University and Huntercombe Hospital (a clinic for young girls with eating disorders). She also holds a Bsc, MA and PhD in biology, literature and storytelling. She would like to write for a living and research storytelling but life has a way of demanding the bills are paid first! Keep an eye out for the forthcoming book: Young people, learning & storytelling (2018).
