Faeries and Fate

Mischievous tricksters or benevolent guardians? Faeries crop up in mythology time and time again but their morality can never be taken for granted. Maybe it’s not a question of good or bad, but what the fair folk stand to teach us about ourselves. Today’s stories do exactly that, scrutinising the effects of messy fairy magic on human ambition.

Featuring

‘Weave Us A Way’ by Nemma Wollenfang (03.59), read by Sabrina Robinson. A story about fate and what it means to change it. This one can be found in our Epic Fantasy collection.

‘The Wishing Skin’ from Hungarian folklore, originally published by Baroness Orczy (19.01), read by Shilpa. This one also deals with a character seeking to change their life, but this time ambitions lead them awry. Borrowed from our brand new Faeries & Nymphs Myths & Tales book.

Biographies

Nemma Wollenfang is an MSc Postgraduate and prize-winning short story writer who lives in Northern England. Generally she adheres to Science Fiction – perhaps as a result of years in the laboratory cackling like a mad scientist – but she has been known to branch out. ‘Weave Us a Way’ was originally published in the winner’s anthology for the Felix Dennis Creative Writing Competition at the Stratford Upon Avon LitFest, where it was Highly Commended.

Baroness Orczy (1865–1947) was a Hungarian-born British novelist, playwright, and artist. Her successful play and novel The Scarlet Pimpernel established the popular “hero with a secret identity trope”.

Sabrina Robinson is an award-winning American actress and lover of whimsical stories. She most recently performed as The Bride in Blood Wedding at Tower Theatre and in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time at Putney Arts Theatre. For her role in Breakfast of Champions (streaming on Amazon Prime), Sabrina received the Best Actress award at the ÉCU European Independent Film Festival in Paris.

‘Weave Us A Way’ is ©2017 Nemma Wollenfang and was first published in Sharing Stories but more recently appeared in Epic Fantasy (Flame Tree Publishing, 2019).

‘The Wishing Skin’ from Hungarian Folklore was first published in ‘Old Hungarian Fairy Tales’ by Baroness Orczy in 1895, but more recently appears in Faeries & Nymphs Myths & Tales (Flame Tree Publishing, 2026).

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Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator), Shilpa Varma and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.