Liner Note For The Flaying Fox

The liner notes for my story The Flaying Fox

****

The Flaying Fox got it's name from a twitter pal who goes by the nom de tweet Fox, and is learning to skateboard. She had managed to perform a respectable Ollie (in which the board and rider leap into the air) on camera and I failed to type my encouraging reply "A Flying Fox" properly.

Having named the Flaying Fox it was clear I had discovered some sort of creature that, although no one had heard of it until last year, nevertheless had been lurking outside of town for time immemorial. A monster? Yes, but not a ravening, destroying one. To flay is to take one's time, to thoughtfully take off the skin and strip the flesh. And a monster who thinks might be a monster that has knowledge, might be one that will answer questions.

Is this a bit dark? Maybe for my writing, but folktales are full of death and murder and the woods are full of dangers. The Strandbridge Tales are mostly going to be a bit lighter than this, it is after all a place people live rather than one where they are dragged into the woods to die, but there's always a shadow to for contrast.

Next week we get a look at the town from the viewpoint of a stranger, one who is Down From London.