Moon Falling Short Stories (Gothic Fantasy)

With tales from myth, folklore and modern writers, Moon Falling Short Stories brings a potent mix of superstition and belief that reaches back to the gods of Babylon, Ancient Egypt and Greece. Khonsu, Innana, Artemis and Thoth are just a few of the deities who brought a mix of love, sensuality and war to the ancient perceptions of the world. In one tradition regarding the Ancient Japanese Tsukuyomi-no-Mikoto, the moon, he was the estranged husband of the sun goddess Amaterasu, ever to chase her across the sky. From the Cherokee there are tales of the Moon being held captive, with Coyote hurling the moon each night out of reach of rescue, and for the Celts of Ireland the Moon Goddess Rhiannon was a symbol of rest and wisdom, the Queen of the Fairies. And of course the moon brings to mind curses, howling wolves, the wolf moon and the harvest moon, while offering a guiding light at night for the weary traveller. There are so many inspirations for the modern storyteller, many of whom submitted wonderful tales to this intimate portrait of the seductive, powerful moon.

New, contemporary and notable writers featured are: Colleen Anderson, V.M. Ayala, Hannah Birss, Elou Carroll, Alex Dartnell, Lauren D. Fulter, Lora Gray, Sydney Paige Guerrero, Brandon Ketchum, Annika Barranti Klein, Amanda Cecelia Lang, A.Y. Lu, Sean MacKendrick, Tara Macpherson, R. Jean Mathieu, Soumya Sundar Mukherjee, Lee Murray, Nartana Premachandra, Corrine Pridmore, R.J. Ren, Zach Shephard, Ginger Strivelli, Kate Wilmot, Cassondra Windwalker, and Nemma Wollenfang. These appear alongside classic work by Hans Christian Andersen, Algernon Blackwood, the Brothers Grimm, H.G. Wells and more, as well as folklore, myths and indigenous tales from around the world.

The Flame Tree Gothic Fantasy, Classic Stories and Epic Tales collections bring together the entire range of myth, folklore and modern short fiction. Highlighting the roots of suspense, supernatural, science fiction and mystery stories the books in Flame Tree Collections series are beautifully presented, perfect as a gift and offer a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Ben Moore is a professor of astrophysics at the University of Zurich. His research is focused on the origin and evolution of the Universe, stars, planets and galaxies. He communicates science to the public through books, music and art collaborations, writes a regular column for Das Magazin and is the author of Moon: Past, Present & Future.

Brandon Ketchum is a speculative fiction writer from Pittsburgh, PA who enjoys putting a weird spin or strange vibe into every story, dark or light. He is a member of SFWA and the Horror Writers Association, and his work has been published with Air and Nothingness Press, Perihelion, Mad Scientist Journal, and many other publications.

Amanda Cecelia Lang is a horror author and aspiring recluse from Colorado. Her stories haunt the dark corners of many popular podcasts, magazines, and anthologies, including Gamut, Ghoulish Tales, Cast of Wonders, Uncharted, Dark Matter, and Flame Tree’s Darkness Beckons.

Lee Murray is from Aotearoa-New Zealand and is a Shirley Jackson Award and five-time Bram Stoker Award winner with more than forty titles to her credit. Murray holds a Prime Minister’s Award for Literary Achievement in Fiction and is an Honorary Literary Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Authors.

Zach Shephard lives in Washington state, where he dreams up fantasy, science fiction and horror stories. His fiction has appeared in places like Fantasy & Science Fiction, the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series, and several of Flame Tree Publishing's Gothic Fantasy books. For a full list of Zach's stories, check out zachshephard.com.