Botany Bay, 1790 – One by one, a colony of white-skinned pioneers disappear from their camp. Did the legendary rainbow serpent of the Dreamtime, Goorialla, wreak revenge on the ghosts for disturbing its sacred watering hole?
North-east coast of Japan 2011, vicinity of Fukushima Nuclear Plant – Seismic waves on the Pacific Ocean floor cause a catastrophic tsunami. The mythical giant catfish, Namazu, is believed to seek retribution for human greed by creating earthquakes. Could it be to blame?
Door and other twisted tales is a collection of ten, dark portal stories, each set in a different time, a different place, yet woven together by supernatural visitations which result in the death, destruction and disappearance of humans in recompense for their actions.
From Plague – the embodiment of the 14th Century Black Death, to Shams – a contemporary tale of the mysteries of quantum physics and the mind, Door and other twisted tales will lead you on a journey through time and place as the consequences of greed, loneliness. fear and impulse, are exposed.
Do you ever toy with the idea that creatures of myth or supernatural forces may, throughout history, have influenced the lives of us here on earth without us even realizing it?
From deep within the wild Welsh countryside, Catherine McCarthy spins dark yarns that deliver a sting in the tail.
She is the author of the collections Door and other twisted tales, Mists and Megaliths, and the novella, Immortelle (published by Off Limits Press July 2021): a Gothic tale of grief and revenge, set on the West Wales coast.
Her short stories and flash fiction have been published in various places online and in anthologies, including The British Fantasy Society Horizons, Flame Tree Press, Kandisha Press and Curiosities.
In 2020 she won the Aberystwyth University Prize for creative writing for her magical realism story, The Queen’s Attendant.
When she is not writing she may be found hiking the Welsh coast path or huddled among ancient gravestones reading Machen or Poe.
This being my third publication is the one whereby I truly feel I have 'found myself' as a writer. The voices in this collection of dark, short stories truly resonate and will connect with many different types of reader for many different reasons.