A short story – Rocked Awake

Earthworm by Judy Darley
I’m chuffed to bits that my mini myth Rocked Awake has been published as part of Dear Damsels‘ nature theme.

In the story, a mother attempts to solve the riddle of why her baby daughter is usurped in her crib by wild flora and fauna. Nature’s clues lead her to a fresh interpretation of the changeling myth. 
Here’s a fragment from the centre of the tale:

This morning, it was an earthworm, fleshy and pale, curled into a shape like a shepherd’s crook.Sometimes it wasn’t even a creature that breathed – last week my daughter had been usurped by an acorn.

You can read my full story, and the other fabulous words published by Dear Damsels, here.

Tunnelled – a short story

Redcliffe Caves. Photography by Paul BullivantI’m thrilled to have my short story Tunnelled published as part of dear damsels Youth theme, as their #FridayRead in their Back to School week.

The story took seed while playing my own version of the Tunnel Game with my nephew. It provided a fun way to get from A to B, him with his eyes closed and me murmuring descriptions of the tunnel we were supposedly walking through into his ear.

“She knows he likes it best when she tells him they’re in terrible danger, like when a grizzly bear rushes by, its breath hot and sudden on his neck. Other times the path threads alongside a crevasse so deep and sheer that she has to pull him suddenly one way or another to prevent him falling. His body in her arms feels small and trusting, and she vows that whatever happens, she’ll keep him safe.”

But what if someone else had joined in with the game? And what if the story had become a little too real for comfort?

Sent shivers down my own spine with this one…

Read Tunnelled on the dear damsels website.

This is my second story published by dear damsels. Read my story Two Pools of Water. And yes, in case you were wondering, Redcliffe Caves are real.