I am looking for reviews for my tale "The Golden Tup" - which is an adult fantasy story for those who like to think about what they are reading - and is one in a collection of tales called “The Red Grouse Tales”.
It is an intriguing novella length contemporary folk story, quiet horror story, which contains mystery, a hint of the supernatural, together with a passing nod towards philosophy and religion. Although it contains fantastic elements, it is not what is generally regarded as main-stream fantasy - in this story the fantastic happens in relatively ordinary, everyday circumstances! - and although it contains philosophy and religion it is not purely about these either. And as for the horror, this not the in-your-face type but rather the in-your-mind type, somewhat as in Henry James' “The Turn of the Screw” or W W Jacobs' “The Monkey's Paw” stories. Is it realistic fantasy, paranormal or just straight forward fiction? Simple classifications are not easy to apply or a reliable guide.
To date the story has received a few very favourable four and five star reviews, but as ever I am looking for more. At present it is only available as an ebook.
The blurb:- The Golden Tup “But whom sent I to judge them?” Can evil be in a place? The tale opens with Verity, a farmer's wife, recalling how a young couple were arrested a few years previously for killing their new born baby. How could such a nice young couple have done such a dreadful thing? Through a series of flashbacks we learn how they had created their rural idyll, how an enigmatic man had come into their lives and how their idyll and relationship had gradually fallen apart - how, with references to Milton's Paradise Lost, their paradise was lost. Gradually the young wife reveals a dreadful past, but Verity realises that she is holding something back, but what? What is the terrible truth that caused her and her husband to kill their baby? A dreadful tale of a young couple's paradise being cruelly taken from them by latent evil.
It is an intriguing novella length contemporary folk story, quiet horror story, which contains mystery, a hint of the supernatural, together with a passing nod towards philosophy and religion. Although it contains fantastic elements, it is not what is generally regarded as main-stream fantasy - in this story the fantastic happens in relatively ordinary, everyday circumstances! - and although it contains philosophy and religion it is not purely about these either. And as for the horror, this not the in-your-face type but rather the in-your-mind type, somewhat as in Henry James' “The Turn of the Screw” or W W Jacobs' “The Monkey's Paw” stories. Is it realistic fantasy, paranormal or just straight forward fiction? Simple classifications are not easy to apply or a reliable guide.
To date the story has received a few very favourable four and five star reviews, but as ever I am looking for more. At present it is only available as an ebook.
The blurb:-
The Golden Tup
“But whom sent I to judge them?”
Can evil be in a place? The tale opens with Verity, a farmer's wife, recalling how a young couple were arrested a few years previously for killing their new born baby. How could such a nice young couple have done such a dreadful thing? Through a series of flashbacks we learn how they had created their rural idyll, how an enigmatic man had come into their lives and how their idyll and relationship had gradually fallen apart - how, with references to Milton's Paradise Lost, their paradise was lost. Gradually the young wife reveals a dreadful past, but Verity realises that she is holding something back, but what? What is the terrible truth that caused her and her husband to kill their baby?
A dreadful tale of a young couple's paradise being cruelly taken from them by latent evil.
Any takers?