Short Stories
Storm has collected most of her short stories into collections. A complete list of stories, including forthcoming, uncollected and unpublished can be found by clicking on the link below.
Short Story Collections
For a complete list of Storm Constantine's short stories, click here.
Mythangelus
The stories in this book have a very loose angelic theme. Some are set in the worlds of Storm's novels – Wraeththu, Magravandias, and the Grigori. Most were inspired by the legends of angels and fallen angels and associated mythology, and some are fairy tales.
"This story was written for the Midnight Rose anthology The Weerde (1992). The Weerde were a race of shape-shifters, hidden among humanity. Later, in a much reworked form, this piece became the opening chapters of the first Grigori novel, Stalking Tender Prey’. As I was writing the story, I knew there was more to it than the constraints of the short form allowed. I can see novels in many of the short pieces I write, but in this case, the ideas became reality and I was able to expand upon the original version. I’d always wanted to write a novel about the fallen angels in a modern setting, and ‘A Change of Season’ was perfect for the beginning of the book." - Storm Constantine from the introduction to 'A Change of Season'
Cover by Danielle Lainton
Immanion Press, 2009
Contents
Paragenesis
The Law of Being
The Green Calling
Angel of the Hate Wind
The Feet, They Dance
Return to Gehenna
A Change of Season
How Enlightenment Came to the Tower
By the River of If Only...
Fireborn
Heir to a Tendency
Spinning for Gold
The Nothing Child
Living with the Angel
The Oracle Lips
Afterlude: Story History
Mythophidia
Mythophidia’s
theme is the serpentine and the exotic. The snakes in these pages are seducers and deceivers, whose pretty jewelled coats might attract the eye, yet ultimately poison the heart.
This is the earliest completed story I still possess. Although I wrote compulsively from childhood, my writing was meandering and lacked narrative structure. I never actually finished anything, or thought about the most important of story techniques: that everything has to have a beginning, a middle and an end. I wrote this particular piece in 1976, just before the Punk explosion, and it was the first story I ever completed properly. Back then, I never showed my work to anyone, and certainly didn’t consider trying to sell it. A typescript of ‘Curse of the Snake’ lay hidden in an old folder in my filing cabinet for over twenty years, unread by anyone except me, until it made its first appearance in ‘The Oracle Lips’ collection, published by Stark House. It makes me feel a little odd to think that this can be seen as the original piece that inspired and gave birth to everything I’ve written since. - Storm Constantine on 'The Curse of the Snake'
Cover by Peter Hollinghurst
Immanion Press 2008
Contents
Introduction
Kiss Booties Night-Night
An Old Passion
Just His Type
Remedy of the Bane
Sweet Bruising Skin
Curse of the Snake
Nocturne: The Twilight Community
Night’s Damozel
The Heart of Fairen De’ath
Poisoning the Sea
Such a Nice Girl
The Oracle Lips
Mytholumina
Mytholumina
is the third volume in a series of books collecting all Storm's published and unpublished short stories. She loosely themed each of the first three volumes – although a few stories were difficult to categorise, so were placed where they seemed most comfortably to sit. Most of the stories in this collection are science fiction, although there are a couple that could be termed dark fantasy.
When I wrote Immaculate I’d just bought my first ‘proper’ computer after writing two novels on a basic Amstrad word processing machine. I wanted to write about this new technology I was experiencing, even though I didn’t know much about it. However, as a writer, I could make assumptions and invent. Immaculate was also inspired by a news story concerning women who wanted children without the inconvenience of having sex with men. A woman had experienced a virgin birth, thanks to IVF treatment. My writer’s ears immediately pricked up as I read this piece. There’s no escaping the religious aspect of a virgin birth.
- Storm Constantine on 'Immaculate'
Cover by Lucas Swann
Immanion Press 2010
Contents
Introduction
Immaculate
The Pleasure Giver Taken
As it Flows to the Sea
The College Spirit
Last Come Assimilation
Time Beginning at Break of Day
Did You Ever See Oysters Walking Down the Stairs...?
The Vitreous Suzerain
The Rust Islands
Built on Blood
God Be With You
So What’s Forever
The Germ of Life
Mythanimus
The fourth collection of Storm's published and unpublished short stories and a few surprises – in the form of half finished stories she was able to complete and include.
"Some of the pieces here were first written way back when I was a teenager – since rewritten, naturally – and all of them to me speak of the ‘myth inside’. We create our own mythologies constantly; we are drawn to archetypes and live out archetypal dramas. In the depths of our dreams and our most soaring imaginations, we are creatures of myth, capable of anything."
- Storm Constantine
Cover by Danielle Lainton
Immanion Press 2011
Contents
Introduction
Owlspeak
An Elemental Tale
Dancer for the World’s Death
Panquilia the Ruins
The Preservation
Priest of Hands
Joy in Desire
The Fool’s Path
The Time She Became
Where the Vampires Live
The Deliveress
Candle Magic
Of a Cat But Her Skin...
The Silver Paladin
The Farmer’s Bride, Poem by Charlotte Mew
The Farmer’s Bride
Mythumbra
The fifth collection of Storm's short stories, including one tale previously unpublished.
"This story appeared in Dreams from the Witch House, edited by Lynne Jamneck, which is an anthology of Lovecraftian stories by female authors. I thought that if any hint of Lovecraft’s mythos was to exist in the British Isles, Cornwall would be one of the places where it could be found – memories of an older race haunting the ancient landscape, and strange progeny bred from denizens of the sea. In the Lovecraft stories – and others since written for the Mythos by other writers – the hybrids of land and sea are typically grotesque, monstrous. I wanted to write about people who weren’t that different, but were unnervingly not quite normal, either."
From Storm's introduction to 'From the Cold Dark Sea'
6 b/w illustrations by Storm Constantine & Danielle Lainton
Cover by Danielle Lainton
Immanion Press, 2018
Contents
The Drake Lords of Kyla
Long Indeed Do We Live
A Winter Bewitchment
The Saint’s Well
At the Sign of the Leering Angel
Master of None
In the Earth
From the Cold Dark Sea
In Exile
The Secret Gallery
The Foretelling
A Raven Bound with Lilies
Naturally magical, often possessing unearthly beauty, and sometimes deadly, the Wraeththu have captivated readers since Storm Constantine’s first novel, The Enchantments of Flesh and Spirit, was published in 1988.
Since then, the author has completed three trilogies, three novellas and numerous short stories. This anthology collects all her published Wraeththu stories into one volume, and also includes extra material, including the author’s first explorations of the androgynous race and their world, dating back to the late 1970s.
From the ‘creation story’ Paragenesis, through the bloody, brutal rise of the earliest Wraeththu tribes, when hara fought for control and power, (Pro Lucror), and on into a future where they have overcome their savage beginnings, and strange mutations are starting to emerge from hidden corners of the earth, (Painted Skin), the fifteen stories within this book explore different shades and colours of the Wraeththu world.
With sumptuous illustrations by official Wraeththu artist Ruby, as well as pictures from Danielle Lainton and the author herself, A Raven Bound with Lilies is a must for any Wraeththu enthusiast, and is also a comprehensive introduction to the mythos for those who are new to it.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2017
Contents
The Stories
Paragenesis
Pro Lucror
Poem: The Resting Place
By the River of If Only, in the Land of Might Have Been
Beneath my Skin, a Vein of You
Poem: Battle Call of the Beast King
Clouds Like Hair
Without Weakness
A Social Incident
Painted Skin
The Elle Har
Beyond a Veil of Stars
A Tour of the House
Wraeththu Juvenilia and Curios
The First Inception
The Ruins Walker
The Lion of Oomar
A Raven Bound with Lilies
Glossary of Terms
The Thorn Boy and Other Dreams of Dark Desire
Darien is the king’s favourite – cool, aloof and quick to conspire. Akaten is warm, sensuous and full of life – and a captive of war. Darien is driven by desire. Akaten by love. This is the story of their passion – and what happens when the king chooses a new favourite. Set in the world of the Magravandias trilogy, ‘The Thorn Boy’ is a tale of love and revenge and of the lessons in survival learned hard in the dangerous territory of a royal court, where everyone seeks to secure their place in a fragile and treacherous hierarchy.
This anthology collects all of Storm Constantine’s stories set in the world of her acclaimed Magravandias trilogy (‘Sea Dragon Heir’, ‘Crown of Silence’ and ‘The Way of Light’). Spanning different periods in the history of that world, some inspired by well-loved fairy tales, the dreams of dark desire to be found within this book take the reader on feverish and heady journey, from the exotic land of Mewt to the royal courts of Cos.
This edition includes two stories not found in the previous edition and a revised introduction by the author.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press 2010
Contents
Introduction
The Thorn Boy
Spinning for Gold
The Nothing Child
Living with the Angel
The True Destiny of the Heir to Emiraldra
My Lady of the Hearth
Night’s Damozel
The Face of Sekt
The Island of Desire
Blue Flame of a Candle
The Heart of Fairen De’ath
Splinters of Truth
A collection of Storm's stories published by NewCon Press, including 4 previously unpublished tales and several rare pieces from small press publications.
Authors are magpies. Whatever we see, hear, experience, feel, taste or smell is a glittery thing to be hoarded away – all of it stored in the vast bio-computer of our brains. Sometimes only small chips of these collectings find their way into stories, evanescent as dreams. Other times a tale is influenced strongly by one particular event, one particular person. As a writer, my instinct is to embellish, dramatize and enhance the sparkling story fragments I come across in life – to scramble the glittering jewels together and create an ever more shimmering artefact from the parts.
The stories in Splinters of Truth are just that – tales born from real life but transformed into dreams.
From the introduction to the book by Storm Constantine
Cover by Danielle Lainton
NewCon Press, 2016
Contents
Introduction by Ian Whates
Author’s Foreword
Return to Gehenna
Violet’s House, or Songs the Martyrs Sang
Do As Thou Wilt
They Hunt
The Order of the Scales
Kiss Booties Night Night
Colin’s Cough
Spirit of Place
The Fool’s Path
Haven
The Farmer’s Bride
Fireborn
Just His Type
A Tour of the House
When the Angels Came
Paragenesis
Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu
Edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling
The stories in this collection are set in the very early days of Wraeththu history. Struggling to come to terms with their new condition, fighting to survive amid the hostile humans who remain, and the often equally-hostile hara of other tribes, Wraeththu must learn quickly how to master their powerful abilities or succumb to the same fate that destroyed humanity.
With an introduction by TV producer Brad Carpenter, and stories from ten writers, many of whom are well-known within Wraeththu fandom, and including a new story from Storm herself, Paragenesis expands upon the mythology of the novels, telling the stories of the prime movers whose lives altered the fate of Wraeththu for ever and the hara whose tenacity and strength helped shape the future of their race.
Featuring stories by Storm Constantine, Wendy Darling, Christopher Coyle, Fiona Lane, Maria Leel, Martina Luise Pachali, Gwyn Harper, Suzanne Gabriel, Kristi Lee and Andy Bigwood. With cover by Ruby and illustrations by Ruby, Danielle Lainton and Andy Bigwood.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2010
Contents
Introduction – Brad Carpenter
Paragenesis – Storm Constantine
The First – Wendy Darling
A Sickle Blade – Christopher Coyle
The Dawn of Hope – Suzanne Gabriel
The Burned Boy – Gwyn Harper
Building Immanion – Martina Luise Pachali
Specimen 16 – Andy Bigwood
You Can Never Go Back – Christopher Coyle
Conservation of Momentum – Fiona Lane
Song of the Sulh – Maria J. Leel
The Rune-Throwing – Kristi Lee
Something’s Coming – Wendy Darling
Pro Lucror – Storm Constantine
The Future of our Dark, Delirious Imaginings
– Wendy Darling
Early Wraeththu Inspirations- Storm Constantine
Para Imminence
Stories of the Future of Wraeththu
Edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling
The stories in this collection explore different, intriguing aspects of Wraeththu’s possible future. Whether that is leaving the earthly realm to explore the uncharted reaches of the multiverse via the Otherlanes, raising the ancient lost continents of humanity’s myths and legends, surfing the psychic equivalent of the Internet, coming to terms with their race’s human past, or simply revisiting earlier territory where pain and disappointment might still lurk, Para Imminence offers a vibrant and colourful compendium of visions of the future of harakind.
Para Imminence features an introduction by TV producer/writer Brad Carpenter, and stories from eleven writers, some of whom are well known within Wraeththu fandom and/or have written Wraeththu Mythos novels published by Immanion Press.
Featuring stories by: Storm Constantine, Wendy Darling, Martina Bellovičová, Andy Bigwood, Victoria Copus, Suzanne Gabriel, Fiona Lane, Maria J Leel, Martina Luise Pachali, Daniela Ritter and E S Wynn.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2012
Contents
Preface – Storm Constantine
Introduction – Brad Carpenter
A Tour of the House – Storm Constantine
The Etherline – Wendy Darling
The Lakes of Lunil – Andy Bigwood
Ascension – Maria J. Leel
The Lady – Daniela Ritter
The Bridge – Martina Bellovičová
The Dehara of Navisalam – E S Wynn
The Colour of Words – Victoria Copus
Antiques – Wendy Darling
Give Us This Day – Fiona Lane
Destiny of Choice and Chance – Suzanne Gabriel
Ai-Cara 1515 – Martina Luise Pachali
The Skies of Miyacala – Andy Bigwood
Beyond a Veil of Stars – Storm Constantine
History Lesson – Maria J. Leel
Afterword: We Might Be Doomed, but That Aside -
Wendy Darling
Para Kindred
Enigmas of Wraeththu
Edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling
This collection focuses upon the enigmas that might be found within the disparate tribes – how Wraeththu could have – or will – develop in strange and unimagined ways.
The stories explore different, intriguing aspects of bizarre mutations and specialisations that have arisen, hidden within the developing Wraeththu tribes and throughout the corners of the world. Shape-shifters, semi-mythological beings, or hara who have evolved in other unexpected ways, Para Kindred expands the horizons of the Wraeththu world, touching upon countries – such as those of the Far East and the African continent – that have not appeared in the Mythos before.
Para Kindred
features stories from ten writers, some of whom are well known within Wraeththu fandom and/or have written Wraeththu Mythos novels published by Immanion Press. Also included are two new stories each by Storm Constantine and Wendy Darling.
Featuring stories by: Storm Constantine, Wendy Darling, Martina Bellovičová, Ash Corvida, Nerine Dorman, Suzanne Gabriel, Fiona Lane, Maria J Leel, Daniela Ritter and E S Wynn.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2014
Contents
Introduction – Storm Constantine
Painted Skin – Storm Constantine
Sea and Shore – Wendy Darling
Agunua – Suzanne Gabriel
Dread Kin – Fiona Lane
Wolf – E. S. Wynn
Dreamhunters – Ash Corvida
Refugium – Daniela Ritter
The River Flows – Nerine Dorman
Threads – Maria J. Leel
Dysphoria – Wendy Darling
A Matter of Honour – Martina Bellovičová
Without Weakness – Storm Constantine
Songs to Earth & Sky
Stories of the Seasons
Edited by Storm Constantine
Now that humankind is on the edge of extinction and the androgynous Wraeththu have inherited the earth, hara have developed their own spiritual systems, often based upon ancient beliefs that developed when humanity had been closer to the earth.
For Songs to Earth and Sky, Storm Constantine invited some of the Wraeththu Mythos writers to explore the eight seasonal festivals of the year, (plus the ninth minor celebration in early December), to dream up new beliefs and customs, new myths, new dehara – the gods of Wraeththu. These stories delve into magic, nature, the supernatural, and local folklore. As different communities develop among Wraeththu, so fresh legends spring up – or else ghosts from the inception of their kind come back to haunt them.
From the silent, snow-heavy forests of Megalithican mountains, through the lush summer fields of Alba Sulh, into the hot, shimmering continent of Olathe, Songs to Earth and Sky explores nine festivals within the Wheel of the Year, bringing its powerful spirits and landscapes to vivid life.
Nine brand new tales, including a novella, a novelette and a short story from Storm herself, and stories from Wendy Darling, Nerine Dorman, Suzanne Gabriel, Fiona Lane and E. S. Wynn.
The Deharan system of magic explored in these stories reinvents the Pagan Wheel of the Year with an androgynous focus, and will be fascinating both to fans of the Mythos and those who are new to it.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2017
Contents
Preface: Who and What are Wraeththu?
The Wheel of the Year and its
festivals – Storm Constantine
Arotohar – the Seasonal Cycle of the Dehara
The Calendar of Wraeththu
Natalia
Summer’s End – Fiona Lane
Rosatide
A Message in Ashes – Storm Constantine
Bloomtide
The Dreamstone – Nerine Dorman
Feybraihatide
Marked – Wendy Darling
Cuttingtide
Isangxa’s Gift – Nerine Dorman
Reaptide
The Old Fierce Pull of Blood – Storm Constantine
Smoketide
Of Promise, Of Plenty, Of Shortening Days –
Suzanne Gabriel
Shadetide
He Who Stands at the Crossroads – E. S. Wynn
Adkaya
Solarisel’s Covenant: A Sequel to Summer - Storm Constantine
Glossary of Terms
Para Animalia
Creatures of Wraeththu
Edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling
Para Animalia focuses upon Wraeththu’s relationship with the animal kingdom – creatures both real and imaginary.
The stories in this collection explore how various Wraeththu tribes interact with animals, have spiritual or working relationships with them, or have encountered zoological mysteries out in the world. From the wolves of frozen forests, and a har’s obsession with spiders, to the snakes of parched deserts and the hunting dogs of what was once the African plains, hara confront a strengthening natural world that is now free of humanity.
Para Animalia features stories from nine writers, some of whom are well known within Wraeththu fandom and/or have written Wraeththu Mythos novels published by Immanion Press. Also included are two new stories each by Storm Constantine and Wendy Darling.
Featuring stories by: Storm Constantine, Wendy Darling, Martina Bellovičová, Nerine Dorman, Amanda Kear, Fiona Lane, Maria J Leel, Daniela Ritter and E S Wynn.
22 b/w illustrations by Storm Constantine
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2015
Contents
Introduction – Storm Constantine
Beneath My Skin a Vein of You – Storm Constantine
The Bird Har – Wendy Darling
Running Under a Cold Moon – Nerine Dorman
The Heart’s Howl – E. S. Wynn
Liminality – Amanda Kear
Eight Legs – Daniela Ritter
Dream Dragon – Maria J. Leel
Medium Brown Dog – Fiona Lane
A Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing – Wendy Darling
Harbinger – Nerine Dorman
Two Kinds of Pain – Martina Bellovičová
Clouds Like Hair – Storm Constantine
Glossary of Terms
Para Spectral
Hauntings of Wraeththu
Edited by Storm Constantine & Wendy Darling
Para Spectral is the fifth Wraeththu Mythos anthology. Authors from around the world have contributed stories, exploring Storm Constantine’s alluring and mysterious Wraeththu: the androgynous, enhanced race that have come to replace humanity upon earth.
Hara are by nature acutely psychic, able to perceive far more beyond physical senses that humans ever could. In a haunted spot – whatever its nature, if only a lingering sense of guilt or terror from a past conflict – hara are more susceptible to witness whatever might have remained hidden to the majority of human eyes.
What ghosts might haunt a Wraeththu har? Phantoms of the dead – whether humans, hara or something else? Perhaps they perceive ‘stone tape’ memories of the past that have soaked into buildings, fields and forests to replay ancient events at certain times? They might face chaotic entities that cause havoc, or manifestations from etheric realms, beings that leak into earthly reality from the otherlanes. They could even experience inner hauntings, where a har harbours secrets of which he’s never spoken that come to plague him. All these and more manifest in Para Spectral.
Ten previously-unpublished short stories and novelettes of the eerie and uncanny from Storm Constantine, Wendy Darling, Martina Bellovičová, Nerine Dorman, Zane Marc Gentis, Christiane Gertz, Amanda Kear, Fiona Lane, Maria J. Leel and E. S. Wynn.
Includes 7 b/w illustrations by Storm Constantine.
Cover by Ruby
Immanion Press, 2018
Contents
Introduction – Storm Constantine,
The Wraeththu: A Brief Definition of Their Origin
Recalled to Life – Maria J. Leel
A Handful of Sea Coins – Nerine Dorman
The Museum – Amanda Kear
The Kinder Lie – Fiona Lane
The Hardest Hue to Hold – E. S. Wynn
The Ghost of Who I Was – Zane Marc Gentis
Winds of Vengeance – Martina Bellovičová
The Strangest Ghost of Apaley – Christiane Gertz,
The Emptiness Next Door – Storm Constantine,
Alas, What is Done in Youth – Wendy Darling
