Recently I read a collection of short stories called ‘Trigger Warnings’ by Neil Gaiman, needless to say I really enjoyed them, but I was more intrigued by the stories he told behind each of the short stories. Knowing the motivations behind each tale gave them a whole new depth, and increased my enjoyment of them. So, I thought it would be interesting to share the story behind my first short story.

I wrote ‘The Princess’s Play House’ in a single day, on my 33rd birthday to be precise. I’d actually started the day working on another short story called the ‘Luna Maze’, which was inspired by Neil Gaiman’s short story the ‘Luna Labyrinth’, there’s no need to worry about copyright infringement, the stories are very different I was just inspired by the name. Whilst writing the ‘Luna Maze’ one of my characters thought back to a creepy moment from a fairy tale which he’d been told as a child. Running with this new tangent, I started to write down this short story, that was inspired from within another story.

I also received inspiration from my little niece, who has recently been given a play house of her own. Just like most 2 ½-year-olds she is adorable, when she says ‘me house ’instead of ‘my house’, I couldn’t help but wonder what if the house was a part of her, or vice versa. Whilst writing the story I thought back to having a play house as I grew up, and wishing sometimes that it could be a castle, a pirate ship or even a magic floating house. A child’s imagination can transform everything around them, but I tried to imagine what it would be like if you added magic to that mix, being able to transform things literally by the power of imagination. Such an ability could lead to things which are beautiful, or potentially frightening.

‘The Princess’s Play House’ is very much a fairy-tale, as it features common elements such as a princess, a wish and rules to be obeyed, with terrible consequences if they are not. I was inspired to recreate some of these classical fairy-tale elements, as I grew up hearing stories like those from the Brothers Grimm, fairy tales, various cartoons and unsurprisingly classic Disney movies. I tried to keep the story light-hearted and child friendly, as I hope to read it to my niece when she is a little older. As with most classic fairy-tales I tried to teach a lesson, although I’m not sure if I made my point particularly well.

You can find ‘The Princess’s Play House’ here on my webpage, in a new section called ‘Novella of Gear’.