Linda Talbot

Biography

Linda Talbot has written fantasy for children and adults and for many years reviewed art, theatre and books in London. She now lives in Crete. She published "Fantasy Book of Food"; rhymes, stories and recipes for children and "Five Rides by a River" - about Suffolk, seen from a bicycle! She contributed a chapter to a book about Conroy Maddox, the British surrealist and features on art to "Topos" the German landscape magazine. She published short stories with the British Fantasy Society as well as stories and poetry in other magazines. And she launched "Wordweavers", an online supplement of poetry and fiction, published in conjunction with The Cretan International Community.

Smashwords Interview

What is your writing process?
I may be prompted by a place, some incident or a strong idea. I will have a vague plot - never too stringent because the story usually takes over at some point. I write fast, leave the story, then re-read a few days later and make adjustments. I've never completely revised a book - I think spontaneity is essential and too much revision depletes this.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
One of the first was called "Clary Coot" - about a coot that gets trapped and then escapes from a fire in a mill. I don't know who wrote it but it was the wonderful illustrations that had an impact.
Read more of this interview.

Where to find Linda Talbot online

Books

Poems from the Edge
Price: Free! Words: 2,120. Language: English. Published: January 14, 2021 . Categories: Poetry » Contemporary Poetry, Poetry » African Poetry
Poems from the Edge is a pensive selection, exposing memory, loss, bewilderment and longing within the vulnerability of the natural world. The shocks we encounter are sharp. And beneath the setbacks lies a defiance destined for defeat but which will die retaining the timeless hope of possible fulfilment within our universal turmoil.
The Nivashi and Other Stories
Price: Free! Words: 27,610. Language: English. Published: March 4, 2019 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
Is what we see real? Or mere illusion? In The Nivashi and Other Stories - mostly improbable probes into transformation - the mundane moves rapidly off the radar. Read about what happens in tales about gipsy ghosts,women becoming fish and a child swapped for a fairy changeling.Enjoy numerous illusions to unsettle assertions.
The Muffkins and the Magic Fernseed
Price: Free! Words: 2,670. Language: English. Published: October 13, 2017 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
"The Muffkins and the Magic Fernseed" is a tale of ill-treated toys who hear about a magic fernseed that can cause invisibility. After being washed away in a flood, they decide to find it and search for items they need to cast the spell; a pewter plate and a forked hazel branch. After Willie has a hair-raising adventure with a hungry cat, the items are found and the Muffkins gain invisibility.
The Jinni of Dreams
Price: Free! Words: 5,250. Language: English. Published: September 11, 2016 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
(2.00 from 1 review)
What would you do if a Jinni from the desert appeared in your back garden declaring he could make your dreams come true? In "The Jinni of Dreams", Lissie and Brin agree to carry out some tricky tasks to realise their dreams - from tackling a destructive giant toad to seeing off a sorceress. They even confront a headless horseman.
On the Island of Fire - Four Tales of Santorini
Price: Free! Words: 5,490. Language: English. Published: April 2, 2015 . Categories: Fiction » Cultural & ethnic themes » Cultural interest, general
Fantasies are spawned by the volcanic Greek island of Santorini in this collection "On the Island of Fire" - four fantasies for children - from the dream of Alizides, a donkey who thinks he is Pegasus fighting the Chimaera, to harpies swooping through as they move home - unlikely happenings emerging from the island's black sand and simmering core.
Fifi and the Swiftifoots and how they found the Flowers of Paradise
Price: Free! Words: 12,920. Language: English. Published: November 20, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories, Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
Fifi and the Swiftifoots and how they found the Flowers of Paradise, tells of Fifi, a lost fairy, who lands in the forest of the Swiftifoots - small people resembling mushrooms - and their search for a new home and the flowers of immortality. They travel back in time, collecting colourful creatures en route, until finally finding the flowers and their extraordinary queen.
The Dipsy Dream House and The Fleeting Fame of Benjamin Sprockett
Price: Free! Words: 6,400. Language: English. Published: October 17, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
In "The Dipsy Dream House", Bobette, tired of her crumbling house, searches with her nephew Scrotty for a house that will look after itself. But, pitched into the past, they meet ghostly orphans and their pets instead. Later restored to life, they happily return home. "The Fleeting Fame of Benjamin Sprockett" tells of Benjie, a boy with wings who joins the circus.
The Bamboozling of Bazalob and The Flying Shoes
Price: Free! Words: 6,930. Language: British English. Published: April 2, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Action & Adventure / Pirates, Fiction » Fantasy » Contemporary
In "The Bamboozling of Bazalob", Derry and Jude are carried in a giant travelling pot to rescue their cousin Katie, from Bazalob, a gross mix of beast, bird and fish. In "The Flying Shoes" Sissy and Sam find two giant shoes in a field, in which they fly to the horrible home of Slobsky, a child-eating giant. Will they be able to rescue Milly and Moll, the giant's daughters and prisoner, Wendy?
Clumsilla's Flight Through Time and Taming of the Tokhashi
Price: Free! Words: 8,500. Language: English. Published: February 26, 2014 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Action & Adventure / Pirates, Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
"Clumsilla's Flight Through Time" and "Taming of the Tokhashi" are two stories whisking children from their everyday lives to lands of unlikely dangers and delights. Clumsilla time travels with the help of Zigana, a celestial gipsy. In "Taming of the Tokhashi", Topsy and Turvy see the demise of a monster after adventures with exotic creatures and terrifying gods.
Gods and Green Fingers
Price: Free! Words: 31,230. Language: British English. Published: January 22, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » Home & Garden » Gardening » Flowers / General, Fiction » Anthologies » Short stories - single author
The magic and mythology of plants and how to grow them is explored in Gods and Green Fingers - this anthology for plant lovers. There are insights into familiar flowers, climbers, trees and temperamental oddities. And a selection of perturbing short stories - from the fate of someone lost in a maze, to a fairy figure in a flower border.
A Walk on the Weird Side
Price: Free! Words: 26,350. Language: English. Published: November 17, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
Take a step away from the everyday. In A Walk on the Weird Side get steeped in the mysterious, the quirky, the outrageous. This collection of stories veers from a bizarre being related to an orchid and the reforming of a harpy, to a barbaric ritual burning.
Heidi's House and Other Rhymes
Price: Free! Words: 4,790. Language: English. Published: July 29, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Stories in Verse, Fiction » Children’s books » Poetry
A little girl is bewitched by the Fairy Queen - but in "Heidi's House and Other Rhymes", her house is worried enough to grow feet and set out to find her! Strange events surface throughout this collection for children - from a Fish called Fred who turns into a rainbow, to Solomon Tucket, who lives in a bucket. But other poems are simple observations, as in "The Camel" and "The Spider".
The Trial of Green Toby
Price: Free! Words: 2,860. Language: English. Published: June 13, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Imagination & Play
(4.00 from 1 review)
Toby is getting ready for school when he notices his feet have turned GREEN! Alarmed and thoroughly mystified, he pulls on his socks and sets off. But he is waylaid by a little man who is green from head to toe! As Toby turns even greener he is whirled away by other little green men, is finally arrested and charged in court with being green in a public place. What will become of him?
Granny Pegg's Great Chase&Granny Grinalot's Day in the Desert
Price: Free! Words: 2,850. Language: English. Published: May 12, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Imagination & Play
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
When a crocodile at the zoo snaps off one of Granny Pegg's legs she is not daunted. She simply gets a wooden one in "Granny Pegg's Great Chase."It proves invaluable in her pluckily offbeat capture of a thief... In "Granny Grinalot's Day in the Desert", a game granny - a keen keeper of pets, favours a camel and, while riding one at the zoo, has a disturbing dream about crossing the desert...
The Starflash Opal
Price: Free! Words: 8,410. Language: English. Published: April 22, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Children’s books » Imagination & Play, Fiction » Children’s books » Visionary & Metaphysical
Swot and Gemma - two unsuspecting schoolchildren - are chosen by enchantress Zophenas, to help her escape from the Underearth. They have to bring her three items that might do the trick; the soul of Waldo the warlock, the magic ointment that enables a witch to fly and a woman who has turned into a two-tailed cat. In return they will receive a starflash opal and six wishes.
In the Eye of the Storm
Price: Free! Words: 3,840. Language: English. Published: March 10, 2013 . Categories: Poetry » Contemporary Poetry
"In the Eye of the Storm" is a collection of verse in three sections, from "Demeter's Dance", where aspects of nature are sometimes threatened by neglect or interference and "Breakages" - emotional responses to love and life, to poems prompted by Greece in "Moonbirds and Wild Water." They are hopefully impressions and thoughts of more than merely personal relevance.
Time Trance of the Gods (Book Two)
Price: Free! Words: 55,420. Language: English. Published: February 9, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
In Book Two of Time Trance of the Gods, the past, with its mythical characters and events, is freed to influence the present and future.These stories re-iterate the power of myth created by man and explore its potential for disquieting parallels through the movement of time.
The Soul Shadow and Other Tales of Tomorrow
Price: Free! Words: 17,850. Language: English. Published: January 29, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
The Soul Shadow and Other Tales of Tomorrow are stories that fancifully defy the everyday. People are plunged into unpredictable events that amuse, amaze, terrify. They are sometimes the retaliation of man's ingenuity and sometimes the result of baffling outer influences. So don't take your reassuring routines for granted!
Time Trance of the Gods (Book One)
Price: Free! Words: 66,000. Language: English. Published: January 18, 2013 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » Short stories
Book One of Time Trance of the Gods is a collection of stories, where ancient Greek gods and mortals mingle as they move through time. The people appearing in plots that often parallel the improbable myths, live in lands and circumstances that are worlds away from those where man was immersed in magic. Yet the past has not perished.
Gift of Green Fire and Other Strange Encounters
Price: Free! Words: 31,230. Language: English. Published: December 16, 2012 . Categories: Fiction » Fantasy » General
(5.00 from 2 reviews)
Earth has been ravaged by some catastrophe. But strange happenings and communities are emerging in these three tales - Gift of Green Fire, The Water Watchers and The Sun Steps of Shunai. People have fled, been overwhelmed or are reappearing bizarrely transformed. What future will unfold? These are ventures into fantasy, but also food for thought.