As we prepare to mark Halloween, a dark fantasy horror anthology with a contribution by Ceredigion author Catherine McCarthy is about to be released.
Into the Forest, due out early November, features exclusive stories inspired by the Baba Yaga – the witch of Slavic folklore.
Catherine, who lives just outside Newcastle Emlyn, on the Ceredigion side of the river, had her story accepted from thousands of entries from around the globe, including ones from New York Times bestselling authors and Bram Stoker Award winners.
She has a love of folklore and mythology and grew up in the south Wales valleys listening to her mother’s retelling of fairy tales.
Later, she nurtured her love of literature within her role as a primary school teacher responsible for literacy.
She now lives in Ceredigion and has written several novels that encompass her passion for fantasy and Welsh folklore such as the hounds of Annwn entwined within her favourite historic spiritual sites such as disused quarries, cemeteries and ancient Celtic locations.
Into the Forest features 23 new and exclusive stories inspired by the Baba Yaga, written by some of today’s leading women-in-horror.
Featured contributors include Bram Stoker Award winners and nominees Gwendolyn Kiste, Mercedes M Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley and R J Joseph, among others, as well as New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline West, and an introduction by novelist Christina Henry.
The collection also features a poem from Bram Stoker Award-winning poet Stephanie M Wytovich and pieces penned by “freshly hatched” voices of women-in-horror from around the globe.
Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the Baba Yaga.
A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes.
Those who come across the Baba Yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror.
She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.