The weather is filling me with hope this week, but with the faintest niggling of uncertainty that just like a sibling, it’s merely softening me up to play a trick.
It’s consistently been above zero on my way home from work this week. Canadian that I am, I’ve been so warm I’ve left my winter jacket undone. Snow still coats pretty much everything I can see, but its the grey and shrunken kind, so I’m cautiously optimistic that spring and all that it entails is on the way.
St. Patrick’s Day is this weekend and my new anthology, Mischief
https://www.amazon.com/Mischief-Clovers-S-Wilkes-ebook/dp/B07NYH8F5G/
I enjoyed writing these stories even though it was challenging to find a topic for short fiction regarding the holiday. Other then drinking and parades, St. Patrick’s Day isn’t something I’m overly familiar with. So I did a little bit of research (on Google of course) and in the process discovered leprechauns are actually other than what I believed.
Traditionally, Leprachans are quintessentially Irish. They wear green, play tricks, and grant you a pot of gold from under the rainbow if somehow you manage to do things right.
But I discovered that they most likely originated in Scotland!
Along with the Picts, who we get the concept of pixies from, they would most likely have been earlier settlers of the British Isles and were driven westward by the invading Celts.
The word itself, leprechaun, means “half shoe” in Gaelic. Leprechauns also have a career apparently – they were shoemakers. Of course, the minute I put two and two together, I recalled a fairytale from something I’d read in my childhood.
(Possibly in one of those big colored books the fairies I was so fond of. I’m guessing it was the green book, but I digress.)
The story was Shoemaker and the elves, of course.
Well, once I recalled that, my story flowed and ended up being a little longer than the strict guidelines had asked for. The organizer for the anthology was gracious and allowed me some wiggle room, and that is how the leprechaun story in this anthology was born.
(I probably will turn it into a novella, possibly an entire novel. It’s been added to my list of stories to write lol)
For now, I hope you enjoy the Shoemaker’s sweetheart in this collection of St. Patrick’s Day themed short stories.
The other upcoming release I’m excited about is book one in the Legends of the Fallen series. I mentioned the prequel already, but the kickoff to our series officially launches on March 19.
Currently available for preorder, I’ve had a chance to be to read it and absolutely loved it. It has everything you could want in fantasy;
a strong heroine, family drama, magic, dream walking, healers, monsters, and a man who could be a hero- or is he the
This means that I’m frantically working away on edits for my first book in the series, Soul Goblet, which is Book 7. I’ve finished the rough draft for book 8, and am currently working on book 9.
If you would like to follow us in the excitement and even read and review this book, please join us in our Facebook group for up-to-date information!
https://www.facebook.com/LegendsoftheFallen/
With spring hopefully here, I’m eager to get outside. Inspiration through long walks is my favorite way to get my ideas, but I have to take the winter off. Even if it weren’t for the cold, the ice makes walking anywhere in my neighborhood treacherous.
The moment sidewalks are safe I plan to be out there. My best ideas come when I walk with the sound of silence in my ears. Hopefully soon! Until the next time, I hope you enjoy St. Patrick’s Day and the second half of March, stay safe tomorrow,
talk soon,
HM Gooden