Inspirational Sources

By request, I put together a list of reading material that directly influenced the writing and design of Cairn, as well as my upcoming setting/adventure Beyond The Pale.

Fiction

• A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
• City of Bones by Martha Wells
• Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman
• Dragonfly: A Tale of the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes by Raphael Ordoñez
• Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock
• Little, Big by John Crowley
• Mordew by Alex Pheby
• The Books of Babel by Josiah Bancroft
• The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
• The Etched City by K.J. Bishop
• The Face in the Frost by John Bellairs
• The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman
• The Half-Witch by John Schoffstall
• The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick
• The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham
• The Lost Shtetl by Max Gross
• The Owl Service by Alan Garner
• The Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison
• Ancient Lights by Algernon Blackwood

Folktales from The British Isles & More

• Boggarts, Trolls and Tylwyth Teg: Folk Tales of Hidden People Lost Lands by Peter Stevenson
• Botanical Folk Tales of Britain and Ireland by Lisa Schneidau
• Elf Queens & Holy Friars by Richard Firth Green
• Folk Tales of Flanders by Jean de Bosschere
• Folk Tales of the British Isles by Alan Garner

Jewish Folktales & More

• A Jewish Bestiary by Mark Podwal
• Elijah’s Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales by Howard Schwartz
• Folktales of the Jews by Dan Ben-Amos
• Great Tales of Jewish Fantasy and the Occult by Joachim Neugroschel
• Honey on the Page: A Treasury of Yiddish Children’s Literature by Miriam Udel
• Jewish Folk Tales in Britain and Ireland by Liz Berg
• Jewish Folktales by Pinhas Sadeh
• Jewish Magic and Superstition: A Study in Folk Religion by Joshua Trachtenberg
• Laughter Beneath the Forest by Abraham Sutzkever
• On Jewish Folklore by Raphael Patai
• Radiant Days, Haunted Nights by Joachim Neugroschel
• Sacred Monsters by Natan Slifkin
• Solomon and the Ant by Sheldon Oberman
• The Diamond Tree by Howard Schwartz
• The Fool and Forest Spirit by Der Nister
• The Owl by Rachel Korn
• The Witches of Escazú by Roots Metals
• Yiddish Folktales by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich