Cirrus@Austlit

'Survival can be achieved in the face of seemingly impossible odds, hope found in the most unexpected places, and new futures slide into view where once was nothing.

'Tales for Canterbury is an opportunity for readers everywhere to give support to the people of Christchurch, who have shown resilience and bravery as they work to rebuild their lives and city. This charity anthology features tales by more than two dozen writers from New Zealand and beyond who have generously donated their works.

'Whilst most of the real writing about the earthquake is still to come, and best undertaken by Cantabrian writers themselves (some of whom we are very pleased to include herein), you will find some apposite themes in these pages. Worlds are shattered and rebuilt. Families determined to stay together. Pieces of the past given new meaning. And the future brings with it things never anticipated.

'Tales for Canterbury brings you a variety of stories set in past, present, and future times, worlds touched by disaster, magic, and the otherworldly; where everyday truths are explored, and you never know what shape the future might hold. Explore the depths of what it means to be human, escape the real world, and find hope in these pages.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Prickle Moon is a collection of short fiction. It contains eleven previously published stores and five new ones. Included are the Sevenwaters novella, ’Twixt Firelight and Water', the epic Nordic story, 'Otherling', and 'In Coed Celyddon', a tale of the young man who would one day become King Arthur.

The title story, especially written for the collection, concerns an old Scottish wise woman facing an impossible moral dilemma. Other new stories in the book include 'By Bone-Light', a contemporary retelling of the Russian fairy tale 'Vasilissa the Wise', and 'The Angel of Death', a dark story about a puppy mill rescue.

Source: Author's website (Sighted 18/6/2013)