We are delighted to welcome to the Luna family, Scottish writer Lyndsey Croal! Her fantasy folk collection, Dark Crescent, will be published in June 2025.
About the collection:
An omen of spirits dance across the sky. A lonely woman befriends a sea witch as the world ends. The last whale in the world travels north in search of hope. A grandmother seeks revenge on the sea monster that took her family.
DARK CRESCENT is a collection of seasonal tales inspired by Scottish folklore, landscape, superstitions, and omens. In this book, readers will find reinterpretations of common folklore creatures and phenomenon, like the Kelpie, Selkie, and Will-o’-the-Wisps, as well as lesser known, such as the Sea Mither, Ceasg, Marool, Sluagh, Ghillie Dhu, Nuckelavee, Baobhan Sith, and The Frittening, all with dark and strange lore around them.
Moving through the seasons, from a darker Autumn and Winter to a more optimistic Summer, the often-interconnected stories cover a wide range of genres, including gothic, weird horror, speculative, dark fantasy, and solarpunk. Many of the tales are also inspired by nature, climate, and the environment, with feminist and eco themes throughout.
Lyndsey on Dark Crescent:
I’ve always been fascinated by folklore and mythology. Growing up in Scotland, in the Highlands, and often by the coast, I would often be hearing stories inspired by the Scottish landscape, of Selkies, Kelpies, fairies and the otherworld (among other tales!) I also loved spooky stories and superstitions, even if I often had an overactive imagination for them.
During the pandemic and lockdown, I got back into reading and learning about folklore and the occult and joined a few online courses and writing groups – including with Cunning Folk Magazine, and from authors Sandra Ireland, Claire Askew, and Alice Tarbuck. I then started writing more tales inspired by folklore and became increasingly fascinated with the dark and strange creatures and phenomenon that are so prominent in Scottish folklore – some I had known about since I was little, and other stories were newer to me.
I also started writing a young adult eco-fiction novel in 2020 inspired by Scottish folklore, which I received mentoring for from Julie Bertagna as part of the Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award. During our sessions, we talked a lot about inspiration, including the tale of the Cailleach and Bride from Scottish mythology. Julie, during the writing process, suggested I explore one of the character’s back stories, which then turned into the audio drama “Daughter of Fire and Water”. This came out in 2021, and I was delighted it was a BFA Finalist for Best Audio. I expanded this story into a novella which is in this collection too, as I still didn’t feel like I’d explored Bride’s story enough.
Overall, because a lot of the collection was written during the pandemic, isolation is a recurring theme in many of the stories – but so too is finding connection against difficult odds. There are also a lot of nautical stories in the collection, which I think reflects my love and obsession with the sea – my mum attributes this to the fact I was born “in the caul”, which carries superstitions around an inherent connection to water. The sea is often the place where I find most writing inspiration, and my head is always clearer by the sea. The sea also symbolises constant change, mysticism, and the unknown (and often fear of it) – another common thread throughout the book.
Otherwise, I put together and wrote the final few stories of the collection during a month writing fellowship at Hawthornden Castle at the end of 2022. The atmosphere of an old castle, often snow-clad, in a secluded spot was perfect, and having the time to focus on only writing for a whole month was a real luxury. For the collection, it gave me dedicated time to think deeply thinking about the flow and arc, the themes, and how to position stories together. I hope the result is a collection with cohesion and connections between stories, as well as themes that overlap, and settings that everyone who has visited Scotland will recognise. To be able to bring the collection to life with Luna Press is a dream opportunity, and I’m excited for Dark Crescent to be out in the world!
About Lyndsey Croal:
Lyndsey is a Scottish author of strange, ecological, and speculative fiction, often inspired by Scottish folklore. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in several magazines and anthologies, including Apex, Flash Fiction Online, Analog, Weird Tales, PseudoPod, Shoreline of Infinity, and Mslexia’s Best Women’s Short Fiction 2021. She’s a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Awardee, British Fantasy Award Finalist, former Hawthornden Fellow, and a Ladies of Horror Fiction Writers Grant Recipient. Her debut novelette “Have You Decided on Your Question” was published in 2023 with Shortwave Publishing, and her debut short story collection “Limelight” is forthcoming in September 2024, also with Shortwave. “Dark Crescent” will be her second collection. Find out more about her and her work via www.lyndseycroal.co.uk.
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Dark Crescent will be released in 2025 - keep in touch through our newsletter to follow the publication progress.
Once again: Welcome, Lyndsey!
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