These aren't the stories your mother told you.

No, these are the other stories. There is a famous horror movie about a policeman who is searching for a missing girl on a small island off the coast of Scotland.

A detective, pious and righteous, finds himself in a place that doesn't believe in what he believes in.

The people of this island believe in different gods, different tales where right is wrong and wrong is right.

When he believes that the missing girl is destined to be sacrificed by the villages of the island,

he is duped, led to be a fool, where upon the hill he is to keep his appointment with the

wicker man. A hero is beaten and burned alive, killed because the villages believe it will

bring them a better crop the next year. He's killed by the folk tales that he never believed in.

The wicker man scared me personally more than almost any of the horror movie,

and so does the idea of folk tales that have no right to be believed in, and yet will occasionally

kill us if we don't.

This month's theme is Folk Tales, and we have four fantastic stories and one bonus story

for your delectation.

We have tall tales told by grandma, the odd rambling tales of a neighbour,

tales of wooden men who only want to make you one of their own,

and are creatures of the sea taking human form.

We've got a couple of new storytellers in our midst this month,

so I'd like to introduce Samantha Wise and Michael J. Cook,

who will be joined by returning

storytellers, Andy Conduit Turner, Michael Wilson, Ian Middleton, Alexander Elroy, Persephone

Rose, Justin Fife, Ian McEwen and Josh Curran. I can't wait for you to hear what we have

in store for you. But before all that, this month's theme is brought to you by Black Leopard Red Wolf, a new novel

...