Uncertainties, Volume I, II, III, IV and V

Uncertainties, Volume I

edited by Brian J. Showers
Introduction by John Connnolly
Cover image by Chris Priestly

"Turn and face the strange." — David Bowie

"It may be my own imagining, or perhaps the cumulative effect of reading the entire book over a couple of evenings, but the contents appeared to grow darker as the pages turned." – from the Foreword by John Connolly

Uncertainties is an anthology of new writing—featuring contributions from Irish, British, and American authors — each exploring the idea of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed "strange tales" by Robert Aickman, called "tales of the unexpected" by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as ‘winter’s tales’. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, and when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Contents

• "Foreword" - John Connolly
• "The Faerie Ring" - John Reppion
• "From the Archives of the Westmeath Examiner" - Derek John
• "Wellaway" - Martin Hayes
• "Last Love" - John Kenny
• "On a Clear Day" - Robert Neilson
• "A Letter from McHenry" - Reggie Chamberlain-King
• "The Light at the Centre" - Maura McHugh
• "Fran’s Nan’s Story" - Sarah LeFanu
• "Flyblown" - Timothy J. Jarvis
• "To the Eternal One" - Mark Valentine
• "The Seance" - Lynda E. Rucker
• "Biographical Notes"
• "Acknowledgements"
  ​

Uncertainties, Volume II

edited by Brian J. Showers
Printings: August 2016 (400)
Cover image by Chris Priestly

"Omnia exeunt in mysterium." — Arthur Machen

"We think we know the world we live in, but we don’t — we very much don’t — and stories of the supernatural and strange, of the weird and the uncanny serve as a reminder of that." – from the Foreword by Brian J. Showers

Uncertainties is an anthology of new writing—featuring contributions from Irish, British, and American authors — each exploring the idea of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed "strange tales" by Robert Aickman, called "tales of the unexpected" by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as ‘winter’s tales’. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, and when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Contents

• "Foreword" - Brian J. Showers
• "The Swing" - Peter Bell
• "The Mighty Mr Godbolt" - R.B. Russell
• "Then and Now" - John Howard
• "The Ice Beneath Us" - Steve Duffy
• "Closing Time" - Emma Darwin
• "Homecraft" - Rosalie Parker
• "Half-Light" - Steve Rasnic Tem
• "Imago" - Mat Joiner
• "The Edge of the World" - Helen Grant
• "The Court of Midnight" - Mark Samuels
• "What’s Out There?" - Gary McMahon
• "Ruby" -  Adam Golaski
• "The Murky" - V.H. Leslie
• "Love at Second Sight" - Reggie Oliver
• "Biographical Notes"
• "Acknowledgments"
  

Uncertainties, Volume III

Edited by Lynda E. Rucker
Cover image by Tobia Makover

"A stone’s throw out on either hand / From that well-ordered road we tread" — Rudyard Kipling

“What is happening all around us that is beyond the perception of our senses — and what happens when that perception changes?” – from the Introduction by Lynda E. Rucker

Uncertainties is an anthology of new writing — featuring contributions from Irish, British, and American authors — each exploring the idea of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed "strange tales" by Robert Aickman, called "tales of the unexpected" by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as 'winter's tales'. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, and when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Contents

• "Introduction" - Lynda E. Rucker
• "Monica in the Hall of Moths" - Matthew M. Bartlett
• "Warner’s Errand" - S. P. Miskowski
• "Wyrd" - Adam L. G. Nevill
• "Wanting" - Joyce Carol Oates
• "Bobbo" - Robert Shearman
• "Before I Walked Away" - R. S. Knightley
• "Voices in the Night" - Lisa Tuttle
• "It Could Be Cancer" - Ralph Robert Moore
• "The Woman in the Moon" - Tracy Fahey
• "TallDarkAnd" - Julia Rust & David Surface
• "Ashes to Ashes" - Scott West
• "The Golden Hour" - Rosanne Rabinowitz
• "Biographical Notes"
• "Acknowledgments"

Limited to 400 copies

Uncertainties, Volume IV

Uncertainties is an anthology series—featuring authors from Britain, America, Canada, Australia, and the Philippines—each exploring the concept of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed “strange tales” by Robert Aickman, called “tales of the unexpected” by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as “winter’s tales”. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .

Contents

• 
  
  "Foreword"
      Timothy J. Jarvis
  
  "I Seen Her"
      Rebecca Lloyd
  
  "The Birds of Nagasaki"
      Lucie McKnight Hardy
  
  "Myling Kommer"
      Brian Evenson
  
  "The Pit"
      Kristine Ong Muslim
  
  "We Pass Under"
      Gary Budden
  
  "Hand Out"
      Anna Tambour
  
  "I Serve the Lambdon Worm"
      John Darnielle
  
  "A Novel (or Poem) About Fan, Aged 11 Years" or "The Zoo"
      Camilla Grudova
  
  "At the Museum"
      Marian Womack
  
  "These Words, Rising from Stone"
      Charles Wilkinson
  
  "Some Girls Wander by Mistake"
      Nadia Bulkin
  
  "Reflection, Refraction, Dispersion"
      Aliya Whiteley
  
  "Primal"
      D. P. Watt
  
  "Feeding the Peat"
      Claire Dean
  
  "Biographical Notes"
  
  "Acknowledgments"

Uncertainties, Volume V

Cover image by Ksenia Korniewska

• "Surely all this is not without meaning." — Herman Melville
  
  “Ghost stories,” as Elizabeth Bowen observed, “are not easy to write — least easy now, for they involve more than they did.” But these twelve writers take up the challenge, each in their own way, with expert awareness of the genre’s limitless possibilities.
  
  Uncertainties is an anthology series — featuring authors from the island of Ireland, Canada, America, and the United Kingdom — each exploring the concept of increasingly fragmented senses of reality. These types of short stories were termed “strange tales” by Robert Aickman, called “tales of the unexpected” by Roald Dahl, and known to Shakespeare’s ill-fated Prince Mamillius as “winter’s tales”. But these are no mere ghost stories. These tales of the uncanny grapple with existential epiphanies of the modern day, when otherwise familiar landscapes become sinister and something decidedly less than certain . . .
  
  Contents
  
  "Foreword"
      Brian J. Showers
  
  "Three Sisters Bog"
      Eoin Murphy
  
  "First a Bird"
      Ramsey Campbell
  
  "To See the Sea"
      Sean Hogan
  
  "Everything We Say and All the Things We Do"
      Jason E. Rolfe
  
  "Not Even Legend"
      Alan Moore
  
  "Skeleton Day"
      Aislinn Clarke
  
  "Malady of Laughter"
      Inna Effress
  
  "Little Lives"
      Deirdre Sullivan
  
  "So Much Potential"
      Simon Strantzas
  
  "Away"
      Nina Antonia
  
  "Washed in the Blood of the Sun"
      John Langan
  
  "Trap"
      Carly Holmes
  
  "Contributor Notes"
  
  "Acknowledgments"