WRITER Kirsty Logan must have hundreds, if not thousands, of books in her South Side flat.

There's one bookcase in her Victorian tenement that she's particularly proud of, as it contains more than 100 volumes featuring stories written by her.

"They built up slowly, so I never really thought about the number of them," admits Kirsty.

"In my old flat they were all bundled together, but when I moved in here I thought I should be proud of them and showcase them.

"I write quite fast – I've got a short attention span and a lot of ideas."

Yet having contributed short stories to dozens of literary journals, anthologies and magazines, the 29-year-old author is only now about to see her name on the front cover of her own book.

Kirsty was last month announced as the winner of an international book prize, which will see the publication of her debut collection of short stories.

Her collection of 20 stories, The Rental Heart & Other Fairytales, will be published by Salt in February 2014 after she scooped the prestigious Scott Prize for new writers.

The accolade led to the former Lenzie Academy pupil, who has a post-graduate degree in creative writing from Glasgow University, securing a literary agent for the first time.

While the book jacket bears the word 'fairytales', the content is most definitely not for children.

"Nowadays, when people say a 'fairytale ending' or a 'fairytale wedding', they mean it's nice, pretty, happy," says Kirsty, who lives in Battlefield.

"But fairytales are not like that at all. They're extremely dark, full of abandoned children and death and torture.

"People used to use 
fairytales and folk tales to make sense of these dark things that happened.

"Why do children get lost in the woods? Why do mothers die? People would use these stories to come to terms with things that were hard to understand."

Using stories to explain painful circumstances is something that Kirsty has personal experience of, after the sudden, unexplained death of her father, Ewan, at the age of 58.

One of the stories in the book, The Light Eater, was written soon after her father passed away in 2011. Writing it helped her come to terms with her grief.

She set the story on the beach at Culzean Castle, as it was where her father's ashes were scattered.

"I think a lot of times, topics are too big for us to deal with, or even really talk about, or even think about sometimes," says Kirsty.

"Something as enormous as grief, it ultimately boils down to: this person is gone and I wish they weren't gone.

"There's really only so many times that you can say that to someone.

"It really helps that I can write these stories and it's a lot easier to write about big emotions and big things because that's the very nature of fairytales.

"They're timeless and they're these archetypes – it's every relationship, every death, every parent – so it does help a lot."

the title story of the book, The Rental Heart, was inspired by a difficult break-up.

"I wrote it after I had been dumped quite horribly," she says.

"I thought to myself: 'Wouldn't it be nice if every time you broke up with somebody you could take your heart back and get a new one?'

"Then you would never have to deal with the upset. Something good came of being dumped in the end!"

Kirsty began writing as a child, which she credits to her parents allowing her unrestricted access to their comprehensive book collection, even to "vastly inappropriate novels like those of Stephen King".

And there were two stories in particular from her youth that ignited a love of fairytales.

The first, Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, features a young girl called Gerda who embarks on a quest to rescue a boy from the clutches of evil.

The second is a Scottish folk tale called Kate Crackernuts, in which the heroine uses her ingenuity to save a prince and a princess.

Strong female characters have always struck a chord with Kirsty.

"The women around me my whole life have been strong," says the writer, who lived in Stoke-on-Trent until the age of 12.

"My granny and my mum are really big influences.

"I don't think I write about women who are superwomen, because everyone has soft spots and everyone has weaknesses."

Kirsty's girlfriend Annie is the first person she turns to when looking for a sounding board for her work.

She is also in a workshop group with two fellow writers, Helen Sedgwick and Katy McAulay, who are at a similar point in their careers.

In addition to her writing, Kirsty is the books editor of Scottish entertainment magazine The List and organises the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust Book Awards, for Creative Scotland.

She has been booked to appear at this summer's Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Meanwhile, she has recently started a novel, The Grace Keeper, about a circus boat in a flooded world.

"It's always daunting to start on a big project," adds Kirsty.

"But it's really exciting – you can see the next year of your life exploring this new world that you've made up and getting to know all these new characters.

"I think all the best things are fun and scary, though."

A bit like your own stories?

"Yeah, I hope so."

maureen.ellis@eveningtimes.co.uk