Who knew riding a unicorn would be so much fun?
If Scottish teenager Corinne MacArthur had known what the Feyland computer game really was, she might have found a different way to escape her everyday life... But, with a majestic faerie King, a magical unicorn and a handsome bard, why wouldn't she want to play?
However, it's a game that comes with dangerous adversaries—like the Wild Hunt, who pick up Corinne's trail, their ghastly hounds baying for blood. Her blood.
Escaping their slavering fangs will take all her gamer skills—and perhaps hitching a lift on a nearby unicorn. Will galloping on a mythical beast be anything like riding a horse in real life? To survive, she may just have to find out...
:: Unicorn Magic introduces the characters in the Celtic Fey series set in Anthea Sharp's Feyland universe (with her kind permission). A stand-alone short story with a full plot arc, Unicorn Magic was first published in the anthology Chronicle Worlds: Feyland. This is a clean portal fantasy which is set in Scotland (and the faerie realm) and uses British English spelling and grammar. Start reading this magical series today!
Keywords: Paranormal, Clean & Wholesome, Myths & Legends, Coming of Age, unicorn, horse riding, teenage girl, rider, fae, fey, faerie, faery, fairy tale, fairytale, elf, elves, Scottish, Scotland, celtic, celt, pony, beauty and the beast, YA, Feyland, Anthea Sharp, gamer, nerd, geek love, romantic, contemporary, British, PG, online friendship, virtual reality, VR, RPG, MMORPG, mythology, folklore, myth, legend, minstrel, Elphin
At last year's Edinburgh International Book Festival, I picked up a book on Scottish myths and legends. I was spellbound. Some of those stories kindled my imagination and made me look at my homeland through fresh eyes.
Living in Scotland is awesome. Soaring mountains, inky lochs, thousand-acre skies - just looking at our scenery is an inspiration in itself. And folk tales abound - perhaps a relic of a time when the only thing to do in the long dark winter nights was to sit around the fire and spin a yarn.
It was around this time that I was reading Anthea Sharp's Feyland, and thinking about a contribution for Samuel Peralta's Chronicle Worlds anthology. Nearly everything I write is set in Scotland, so it seemed natural to combine the two, and to use some of our stories about the 'fairy folk' to inspire my Feyland piece, Unicorn Magic.
But as I wrote about Corinne and Elphin, I realised that their full story couldn't be told in five thousand words. They had a bigger tale to tell - a tale that will awaken ambitions, enmity and sleeping kings.
In the end, I drafted outlines for a six-part series, The Celtic Fey. This book begins the saga, which continues with Kelpie Curse, and, with the publication of Merlin's Army, the full series is now complete.