Not Just Any Dress

This week, we're slipping into something magical - two stories bound by a common thread: enchanted dresses. One bringing life, the other death. Together, you could say they weave a pattern of love, loss, and transformation.

Featuring:

‘The Wedding Dress’ by Cheryl S. Ntumy (00.51), narrated by the author herself, has been selected from her collection Black Friday - a stunning anthology of speculative stories from Ghana, Botswana and South Africa.  This particular tale imagines a wedding dress into a symbol of grief, remembrance and ultimately, joy. 

& ‘The Crimson Weaver’ by R. Murray Gilchrist (13.50), narrated by Bea. A somewhat darker story that appropriately appears in our Weird Horror anthology. Set in a surreal and fantastical realm, two men are seduced by a siren-like figure and spun to thread to reinforce the weave of the siren’s red gown. 

Biographies:

Cheryl S. Ntumy is a Ghanaian writer of speculative fiction and has appeared in FIYAH Literary Magazine, Apex Magazine and World Literature Today. She's also been shortlisted for the Nommo Award for African speculative fiction, the Commonwealth Writers Short Story Prize and the Miles Morland Foundation Scholarship.

R. Murray Gilchrist  made his name as the author of over twenty novels – many of them set in the nearby Peak District, where he made his home. But his short stories commanded considerable respect, and a great many of those dealt in horror and the macabre. 

This episode is hosted by Olivia.

‘The Wedding Dress’ is © 2025 Cheryl S. Ntumy and appeared in Black Friday (Flame Tree Publishing, 2025).

‘The Crimson Weaver’ was first published in 1895, in The Yellow Book Quarterly, Vol, VI and appears in Weird Horror Short Stories (Flame Tree Publishing, 2022). 

.....................................................................................................................................

Music is an extract of Sunbeams by Allen Stroud, from his Fractal Series album, licensed courtesy of fpl-digital 2025.

This podcast is hosted and sometimes narrated by Beatrix Ambery (also audio editor), Olivia Jackson (also podcast coordinator) and Nick Wells (also producer).

Chosen from hundreds of wonderful tales, short stories such as these are selected by our short window open submission process, giving opportunities to writers of all levels of experience, culture and location. Look out for our submission announcements, and see the full list here: flametreepublishing.com/gothic-fantasy-book-series-list.html

Our full range of thematic short stories, epic tales, mythology and folklore titles are available at all good bookstores, online and in retail, and at flametreepublishing.com

Flame Tree Publishing, Independent Publisher of the Year 2024, British Fantasy Society. Beautiful Books, Timeless Storytelling, Fresh Perspectives.

The Flame Tree Myth and Fiction podcast is created and © copyright 2025 Flame Tree Publishing Ltd.