Sarah Connell
Fantasy, and Historical Fantasy in particular, brings us back to a time where tales were passed down through songs and spoken traditions. The prophecies, the magic, the life or death choices all feel visceral because they come from a place of shared ancestry. The collection below features coming of age Fantasies. Each explores the mysteries surrounding women who come up against the political machinations of the powerful. What the protagonists find, is that they too have a strength that cannot be ignored.
Hild by Nicola Griffith
Engrossing and powerful portrayal of the mythical deeds of the very real child mystic Saint Hilda of Whitby who lived in the 7th C, a time of superstitious kings always at war amongst themselves.
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
A girl grows up in an arctic village that is on the cusp of transition between the old ways of house fairies and a new priest’s superstitions.
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
A child priestess discovers she is the prophesied leader of her sacred order and she alone can traverse her peoples’ sacred labyrinth at the end of which is foretold to be an unknowable treasure.
Sabriel by Garth Nix
A coming of age tale of a young sorceress who must use her ancestral magical powers to save her father.
Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher
Marra, a shy third-born daughter, leaves the convent to go on a quest and save her family and her people from an abusive prince.
About the Author
Sarah Connell is the author of the science-fiction trilogy Project Awakening. Her short stories have appeared in magazines and anthologies around the world. Her writing evokes the places where she’s lived and worked, from ranches on the outskirts of Yellowstone to the southern gothic cityscape of Charleston. Growing up, some of her earliest memories are sitting by the wood stove in her grandfather’s studio, surrounded by the smell of oil paint and canvas. She began to write while studying in Strasbourg, France. The city on the edge of Alsace lends itself to storytelling with winding streets of centuries-old tanner houses leading to the medieval cathedral. Her experiences there are the seed for Pay the Piper. She currently lives in the Carolinas with her person and their cat, Lyra.
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About Pay the Piper
Pay the Piper
Release Date: April 1st, 2025
Publisher: Speculation Publications
Paperback ISBN: 979-8-9918553-2-7
Ebook ISBN: 979-8-9918553-3-4
Book Page: https://www.speculationpub.com/pay-the-piper
“There is a tune playing through the streets of Hamelin, but is it the song of a savior or the wrath of a witch?”
Speculative historical novella, PAY THE PIPER is a Pied Piper retelling by Sarah Connell to be released April 1st 2025. It is available now for presale on Amazon.
Angela “A.G.” Slatter, award-winning author of The Crimson Road says of it, “Sarah Connell’s Pay the Piper is a seamless blend of fairytale strangeness and nods to history. Mixing witches, rats, flutes, broken promises, blood-tithes and the value of family wherever you find them. Pay the Piper is both delightfully grim and Grimm.”
In the dark days of plague and poverty, when the church rules with an iron fist, and knowledge is punished with fire, an orphaned girl stumbles upon a legacy of magic. Lucie has only ever known her small farm and the overprotective care of her brother, Tilo, until she learns of the Gathering. Run from the village of Hamelin by the tyrannical White Bishop, these exiles have been forced to live apart from their families. Lucie discovers that she and Tilo are part of this group, expelled from the village as the children of an accused witch.
The village of Hamelin is in trouble. Ragged children roam the streets, the poor and downtrodden struggle to fill their bellies, and the homes of the wealthy are infested with rats. A mysterious figure appears with an offer that is too good to be true; reunite the families torn asunder by accusations of witchcraft, provide a home for Lucie and her people, and the rats will be gone.
But this is a contract signed with blood, and for Lucie, the Mayor of Hamelin, and the White Bishop, the price may be too high.
