Halloween Book Sale

October 28, 2025 / F.T. McKinstry

Greetings!

I hope you’re all well, and weathering these troubled times with grace and dignity. Yeah, okay, I think most of us are freaking out and flailing around in some way or another. Things are weird. Bad, even. That aside, it is human nature to focus on dreadful things and overlook nice ones — that 9000-year-old reptile brain survival thing that media and algorithms are very good at manipulating. Sadly these days, they have a great deal to work with, god help us.

This is my favorite time of year. Predictably, my writing is full of dark and spooky things, monsters, curses, wicked trees, otherworldly villains and the like, mostly under the banner of high fantasy. But not entirely.

Recently, I broke ranks and wrote a Gothic horror novella about a crossroads bargain, which involves a deal made between a desperate (i.e., stupid) human and an otherworld entity, in the liminal space where two paths meet. Such bargains are tricky and usually result in unpleasant consequences. This one did—a centuries-old curse by the Unseelie Fae, more specifically, a wicked elf with an army and an axe to grind.

Enter Elspet, the unfortunate progeny of this bargain, a sensitive, hyper-vigilant young woman who sees things in the floral patterns of her bedroom wallpaper—including a beautiful elven lord who is the ancient enemy of the aforementioned bastard.

Against the backdrop of an old, neurotic family, a creepy forest bordering the estate, a string of grisly, unexplained deaths and an antagonistic aunt, Elspet lands into a situation that forces her to make a devastating sacrifice that brings her to the threshold of the otherworld…and herself.

For a limited time, A Northward Gaze will be on sale for $0.99 on Amazon.
Read the story for free with Kindle Unlimited.

Be well, stay safe, and Happy Halloween! And remember, even the most ghastly, tragic tales can have a silver lining.

A Northward Gaze, A Novella

October 23, 2022October 28, 2025 / F.T. McKinstry

Previously published as The Crossroads Bargain by F.T. McKinstry.

Elspet’s mother died between the worlds, staring with eyes of lily white. A common occurrence in their bloodline, it is said. Denied a grave in hallowed ground, she is now only a whisper in the dark forest that borders the estate.

Grieving amidst a turbulent household of superstitious servants, the mysterious departure of her father, and an ambitious aunt with a draconian agenda, Elspet begins to see faces and shapes in the floral patterns of her bedroom wallpaper. Only she knows the reason for the series of grisly, unexplained deaths that follow her seduction by the beautiful elven lord who appears to her amidst the faded leaves.

What Elspet doesn’t know is the high cost of consorting with the Fae. For not even her mother’s books, the village witch, or the Fae themselves can stop her inexorable descent into the labyrinth of a faerie curse put on her bloodline in a centuries-old crossroads bargain—a curse she can only end with blood magic and the name of her lover’s most terrible enemy.

Novella, 125 pages
Second edition

Amazon

The Sea Witch’s Bargain

September 12, 2018September 14, 2023 / F.T. McKinstry / 1 Comment

This story is based on an excerpt from The Wolf Lords, Book Two of The Fylking. It’s a tale about a hedge witch, two dodgy ravens and a sea monster with a score to settle. It is included in Wizards, Woods and Gods, a fantasy short story collection.

The wise tell tales of Otherworld beings one must never tangle with. Powerful, elusive and malevolent, these beings will lay traps around one’s ignorance and need, if given the chance. But once in an age, a mortal comes along who dares to either cross or bargain with such creatures…and a darker tale is born.

Ingifrith, an ordinary hedge witch, thinks little of such tales until she falls afoul of the Fenrir Brotherhood, an ancient order of sorcerers who serve the Wolf Gods of the North. They know her secrets. They know her weaknesses. And she has something they want.

So does the sea witch who lures and traps her into a nasty bargain—in return for protection from the Brotherhood’s reach. Fleeing for her life with nothing but a scrap of advice given to her by a demon warlord, Ingifrith must use her wits to trick a seasoned pirate out of a stolen charm, a feat that will either get her killed or placed in the hands of the sorcerers hunting her.