Wizards, Woods and Gods

Ravens are devious and they love a good story.

You never know what a wizard will do, so it’s best to be prudent. Concocting a nasty poppet might get you hunted by a wolf. Turning spring to winter will certainly get you turned into a grasshopper and fed to a frog. But whatever you do, don’t ever shapeshift into a cat and eat a wizard’s crow.

Strange and full of shadows, woods are a staple of every good tale. Trees hide things, wondrous, tricky things best to avoid. Witches like forests, where they wait for wily lovers and knit spells with ash needles. And if you're lucky, you’ll find an ancient tree that knows many wicked things indeed.

It’s a good bet that if you encounter a god, you’ll be changed in some way. But once, in the dawn of a forest grove, it was the other way around. It’s also generally wise not to awaken a sleeping god, especially a warrior the world has forgotten. And of course, falling in love with a god is, well, daft for a start.

This collection, available in ebook and print, includes thirteen dark fantasy tales exploring the mysteries of the Otherworld through tree and animal lore, magic, cosmos, love, war and mysticism. Some of these stories inspired my novels; others were inspired by them; and some take place in the same worlds.

Many of these stories were originally published in fantasy/scifi magazines; the first edition ebook of Wizards, Woods and Gods was published by Wild Child Publishing, 2012. The Sea Witch's Bargain is based on an excerpt from The Wolf Lords, Book Two in The Fylking. And Raven of the West is a standalone novella in the Chronicles of Ealiron.