A Little Twist To Your Fairytales by Andra Ashe

I hate feeling like I'm missing out on something, especially when my friends are participating so it was a no-brainer that I'd write a story for a box set planned by my awesome writing group - Twisted Fairytales with a paranormal twist.. Novella length was doable and we were so organised that we had almost a year to put it all together.

Sure, I had a couple of stories already on the go but nothing with a deadline so I gave my attention to deciding which fairytale to mix with what paranormal being.

I never know where my ideas come from, they just bubble up from the depths of my imagination and somehow my paranormal heroine told me she was a Selkie. A shapeshifter from Irish/Scottish folklore. A woman who changes from seal to human.

Unlike other shifters, Selkies shed their seal skins when they transform to human. That skin is the only way to return to their seal form, so keeping it safe is imperative. 

Selkies were popular in romance ages ago, and while I'm not trying to rekindle the trend I(but if it did,that'd be fabulous), they do fit in with the current popularity of shapeshifters. I figured as my heroine was a water-based character, I'd loosely (very loosely) match her with The Little Mermaid fairytale.

It's fascinating what we sometimes have to research for our stories. I watched Youtube videos about teaching someone to surf, videos of surfers so I could (hopefully) describe it accurately and finding just the right Irish name for my Selkie. I was so excited to find that Ireland actually hosts an annual surf and music festival which was exactly what my characters needed!

My heroine, Aislinn, ('Caught In') shares the box set with 8 other paranormal fairytale based stories including Cinderella, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood  and Aladin.

Collaborating on a box set was a great experience. Under the guidance of our fabulous and extremely knowledgeable  'project manager' Tamsin Baker, we got our act together and finished our stories more or less on time (mine is in the 'less' category and cut it fine for the deadline) and the whole process required minimal whip cracking.

We're all very excited that our hard work has resulted in such a diverse collection of gorgeous looking set of books, so if you love a bit of  paranormal romance with some heat thrown in, Twisted Fairytales has just been released!