Strange Tales, Volume Two

The illustration is the dustjacket vignette. The book also includes a frontispeice by Mike Kerins.

Stories by Joel Knight, Quentin S. Crisp, Katherine Haynes, Stephen Holman, Mark Valentine, Adam Golaski, Dale Nelson, Simon Strantzas, Anne-Sylvie Salzman, David Rix, Rhys Hughes, Angela Slatter, Barbara Roden, Roger Dunkley, Elizabeth Brown, Christopher Harman and Hilbourne Carlone.

A 'Strange Tale' is a short story that explores a fantastic idea, supernatural or psychological, with the intention of causing, through its own logical development, uncertainty or unease about that which the reader takes for granted. The outward appearance of the story can vary infinitely from the traditional to the experimental, from the serious to the comic, but in each case the assumptions of the reader are undermined to a degree that they find uncomfortable. The Strange Tale is a form that moves effortlessly between the various genres (as all good fiction should).

In this new volume, the Strange Tales on offer range from the dark realism of 'What Water Reveals' by Adam Golaski through to the surreal 'The Concise Picaresque Adventures of the Wanderlust Bridge' by Rhys Hughes. From the subtlety of 'The Fairy Killer' by Quentin S. Crisp to the horror of 'Sejanus' Daughter' by Hilbourne Carlone (Don Tumasonis). From the urban horror of 'Calico Black, Calico Blue' by Joel Knight, to the rural strangeness of 'Pastor Arrhenius and The Maiden Brita' by Dale Nelson. From the traditionally told 'Llanfihangel' by Elizabeth Brown to the range of contemporary documentation offered in 'The Magpies' by David Rix.

Within this collection of seventeen new stories you are sure to discover some that will cause you to wonder what worlds might exist beyond the apparently everyday.

Contents:

• 'Calico Black, Calico Blue' by Joel Knight
• 'The Fairy Killer' by Quentin S. Crisp
• 'She Lights the Little Candle' by Katherine Haynes
• 'Mister Poppy' by Stephen Holman
• 'Carden in Capaea' by Mark Valentine
• 'What Water Reveals' by Adam Golaski
• 'Pastor Arrhenius and The Maiden Brita' by Dale Nelson
• 'The Other Village' by Simon Strantzas
• 'What the Eye Remembers' by Anne-Sylvie Salzman
• 'The Magpies' by David Rix
• 'The Concise Picaresque Adventures of the Wanderlust Bridge' by Rhys Hughes
• 'Sourdough' by Angela Slatter
• 'The Hiding Place' by Barbara Roden
• 'Mea Tulpa' by Roger Dunkley
• 'Llanfihangel' by Elizabeth Brown
• 'Dinckley Green' by Christopher Harman
• 'Sejanus' Daughter' by Hilbourne Carlone

Strange Tales, Volume II is a sewn hardback book of 327+vi pages with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w.

Limited