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Strange Tales
Series · 4 books · 2009-2020

Books in series

Strange Tales, Volume III book cover
#3

Strange Tales, Volume III

2009

The strange tale is alive and well and flourishing at the beginning of the twenty-first century. These seventeen brand new stories, representing the very best of contemporary weirdness, range from the mythical terror of Adam Golaski's 'The Great Blind God Passing Through Us', to John Gaskin's assured ghost story, 'Party Talk', in which an elderly lady tells her disturbing tale. Circus folk take in an abandoned girl with unforeseen consequences in Nina Allen's Machenian 'The Lammas Worm,'. In 'Countess Otho', Reggie Oliver's actor protagonist finds success after he inherits the manuscript of an unproduced play: but what is the precise cause, and the price, of his new found fame? The curator of a dream museum has an interesting appointment in Mark Valentine's 'Morpheus House', while in 'Her Father's Daughter', Simon Strantzas thoroughly subverts the familiar horror trope of a young woman seeking help at an isolated farmhouse. These and more await the reader of Strange Tales III. Containing: 'The Lammas Worm' - Nina Allan 'Morpheus House' - Mark Valentine 'Sanctuary Run' -Daniel Mills 'A Woman of the Party' - Elizabeth Brown 'The Good, Light People' - Gary McMahon 'Countess Otho' - Reggie Oliver 'Melting' - A.J. McIntosh 'It's White and It Follows Me' - Tina Rath 'Yet No Greater Love of Promise' - Joel Knight 'Divan Method' - Eric Stener Carlson 'Party Talk' - John Gaskin 'The Other Box' - Gerard Houarner 'The Great Blind God Passed Through Us' - Adam Golaski 'Her Father's Daughter' - Simon Strantzas 'Sister, Sister' - Angela Slatter 'A Taste of Casu Marzu' - David Rix 'The Solipsist' - Philbampus Strange Tales III is a sewn hardback book of 288 pages with silk ribbon marker, head and tailbands, and d/w. Limited to 500 copies. Cover artwork by Stephen J Clark of The Singing Garden
Strange Tales Volume IV book cover
#4

Strange Tales Volume IV

2014

The fourth volume of strange tales from Tartarus presents fifteen new stories in the fields of fantasy, horror, decadence and the supernatural. Christopher Harman’s ‘By Leaf and Thorn’ mines the not-to-be underestimated magick of the English countryside, while John Howard’s uneasy timeslip piece ‘You Promised You Would Walk’ is set in modern Berlin. Rebecca Lloyd’s ‘Gone to the Deep’ explores the Celtic sea-myths of the Scottish isles, while Rhys Hughes’ ‘The Secret Passage’ follows the architectural obsession of a would-be good son. Matt Leyshon has his ne’er-do-well anti-hero escape to a Greek island in ‘The Amber Komboloi’, while Angela Slatter’s ‘The Badger Bride’ follows the adventures of her shape-shifting, grown-up fairy-tale characters. H.V. Chao’s ‘The Recovery’ details a writer’s decadent working holiday in the South of France, while in ‘Drowning in Air’, Andrew Hook’s protagonist visits an anxiety filled, post-war Japan. More stories of the highest quality—by John Gaskin, Jason A. Wyckoff, Richard Hill, Alan McIntosh, V.H. Leslie, Mark Francis and Andrew Apter—contribute to a fascinating, rewarding, and sometimes bracing trip through the highways and byways of contemporary strange fiction. Containing: 'By Leaf and Thorn' by Christopher Harman 'The Secret Passage' by Rhys Hughes 'Gone to the Deep' by Rebecca Lloyd 'You Promised You Would Walk' by John Howard 'Forth' by A.J. McIntosh 'Preservation' by V.H. Leslie 'The Man Who Wore His Father’s Clothes' by Andrew Apter 'The Badger Bride' by Angela Slatter 'The Amber Komboloi' by Matt Leyshon 'For a Last Spark of the Divine' by Mark Francis 'The Recovery' by H.V. Chao 'Drowning in Air' by Andrew Hook 'The Homunculus in the Curio' by Jason A. Wyckoff 'Time' by Richard Hill 'The Memento Mori' by John Gaskin
Strange Tales, Volume V book cover
#5

Strange Tales, Volume V

2015

Speculative fiction is by definition in the vanguard of contemporary writing and particularly suited to the short story form. This fifth volume of Strange Tales from Tartarus includes seventeen new stories by eight British and nine North American authors, some well-known and others up-and-coming in the field. As in previous volumes in this series, a wide range of literary strange fiction is represented here, from the science fiction of Charles Wilkinson’s "The Investigation of Innocence," to the historical fantasy-horror of Elise Forier Edie’s "You Go Back," to the stream-of-consciousness, psychological weirdness of Andrew Apter’s "The Man Who Loved Flies" to the evocative sleight of hand that is Mark Valentine’s "Yes, I Knew the Venusian Commodore." These are, by any measure, superb short stories, and it is hoped that Strange Tales V will further the cause of contemporary speculative fiction and help introduce it to a wider audience. Containing: "The Investigation of Innocence" by Charles Wilkinson "Julie" by L.S. Johnson "The Grave House" by Steve Rasnic Tem "A Life in Plastic" by Andrew Hook "Bardo Thodol Backup File" by Jacurutu:23 "More Than India" by John Howard "You-Go-Back" by Elise Forier Edie "Stranger Must Go" by Douglas Penick "Beatrice Faraway’s Christmas Tale" by Paul Bradley "Henge" by David Rix "Yes, I Knew the Venusian Commodore" by Mark Valentine "Mary Alice in the Mirror" by Yarrow Paisley "The Taxidermist’s Tale" by Tara Isabella Burton "The Man Who Loved Flies" by Andrew Apter "Purses" by Nathan Alling Long "Look for the Place Where the Ivy Rises" by Tom Johnstone "McBirdy" by David McGroarty.
Strange Tales book cover
#6

Strange Tales

Tartarus Press at 30

2020

These eighteen entirely new stories have been brought together to celebrate the thirtieth year of Tartarus Press. Representing the best contemporary writing in the fields of the literary strange, supernatural, fantasy and horror, they range from the wry comic fantasy of Jonathan Preece’s "Great Dead American Authors Alive and Living in Cwmbran," to the atmospheric horror of Andrew Michael Hurley’s "Hunger." In "Grassman" by Rebecca Lloyd, two sisters come of age during a village ceremony, while in "Meiko" by J.M. Walsh, a mysterious guest upsets the equilibrium of a country house party. Mark Valentine’s "Other Things" documents the romance and strangeness of private lore, while the search for a missing girl leads to a sinister discovery in D.P. Watt’s "The Wardian Case." Dark family secrets are gradually uncovered in Angela Slatter’s "The Three Burdens of Nest Wynne." Founded in 1990, Tartarus Press has become known for championing both classic and contemporary writers. The stories in this volume sit proudly within that tradition. All copies are signed by Rosalie Parker and Ray Russell Contents: "Tartarus Press at 30" by Rosalie Parker "Grassman" by Rebecca Lloyd "The End of Alpha Street" by Mark Valentine "Hunger" by Andrew Michael Hurley "Tell me, whacher, is it winter?" by N.A. Sulway "The Flickering Light" by Stephen Volk "Nervous System" by Inna Effress "What it Says" by Ibrahim R. Ineke "Monsieur Machine" by Eric Stener Carlson "Great Dead American Authors Alive and Living, in Cwmbran" by Jonathan Preece "The Women" by Tom Heaton "Meiko" by J.M. Walsh "The Three Burdens of Nest Wynne" by Angela Slatter "The Gathering" by John Gaskin "The Wardian Case" by D.P. Watt "The Afterlife of Books" by Karen Heuler "These Pale and Fragile Shells" by John Linwood Grant "Collectable" by Reggie Oliver "Flood" by Carly Holmes

Authors

John Linwood Grant
John Linwood Grant
Author · 7 books

John Linwood Grant lives in Yorkshire with a pack of lurchers and a beard. He may also have a family. When he's not chronicling the adventures of Mr Bubbles, the slightly psychotic pony, he writes a range of supernatural, horror and speculative tales, some of which are actually published. You can find him every week on his website which celebrates weird fiction and weird art, greydogtales.com, often with his dogs.

H.V. Chao
Author · 1 books
The fiction of H.V. Chao has appeared in The Kenyon Review, West Branch, Pseudopod, Birkensnake, and Strange Tales IV from Tartarus Press. His stories have also been translated into French in Brèves and Le Visage Vert. If you know his momentum, you cannot simultaneously know his position.
Andrew Michael Hurley
Andrew Michael Hurley
Author · 9 books
Andrew Michael Hurley (born 1975) is a British writer whose debut novel, The Loney, was published in a limited edition of 278 copies on 1 October 2014 by Tartarus Press[ and was published under Hodder and Stoughton's John Murray imprint in 2015.
Angela Slatter
Angela Slatter
Author · 40 books

Angela Slatter is the author of the urban fantasy novels Vigil (2016) and Corpselight (2017), as well as eight short story collections, including The Girl with No Hands and Other Tales, Sourdough and Other Stories, The Bitterwood Bible and Other Recountings, and A Feast of Sorrows: Stories. She has won a World Fantasy Award, a British Fantasy Award, a Ditmar, and six Aurealis Awards. Angela’s short stories have appeared in Australian, UK and US Best Of anthologies such The Mammoth Book of New Horror, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, The Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Australian Fantasy and Horror, and The Year’s Best YA Speculative Fiction. Her work has been translated into Bulgarian, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, Polish, and Romanian. Victoria Madden of Sweet Potato Films (The Kettering Incident) has optioned the film rights to one of her short stories. She has an MA and a PhD in Creative Writing, is a graduate of Clarion South 2009 and the Tin House Summer Writers Workshop 2006, and in 2013 she was awarded one of the inaugural Queensland Writers Fellowships. In 2016 Angela was the Established Writer-in-Residence at the Katharine Susannah Prichard Writers Centre in Perth. Her novellas, Of Sorrow and Such (from Tor.com), and Ripper (in the Stephen Jones anthology Horrorology, from Jo Fletcher Books) were released in October 2015. The third novel in the Verity Fassbinder series, Restoration, will be released in 2018 by Jo Fletcher Books (Hachette International). She is represented by Ian Drury of the literary agency Sheil Land for her long fiction, by Lucy Fawcett of Sheil Land for film rights, and by Alex Adsett of Alex Adsett Publishing Services for illustrated storybooks.

John Howard
John Howard
Author · 3 books

John Howard was born in London. His fiction has appeared in several anthologies and the collections The Silver Voices (2010), Written by Daylight (2013), and Cities and Thrones and Powers (2013). The majority of his stories have central and eastern European settings; many are set in the fictional Romanian town of Steaua de Munte. The Defeat of Grief (2010) is a novella set in Steaua de Munte and the real Black Sea resort of Balcic; Numbered as Sand or the Stars (2012) attempts a 'secret history' of Hungary between the World Wars. Between 2003 and 2007 John Howard collaborated on eight short stories with Mark Valentine, six of which featured Valentine’s long-running series character The Connoisseur, an occult detective whose real name is never revealed. All 23 tales of The Connoisseur, including the collaborations, were reprinted in The Collected Connoisseur (2010). Secret Europe (2012) is a collection jointly written with Mark Valentine comprising 25 short stories set in a variety of real and fictional European locations. Ten of the stories are by Howard and fifteen by Valentine. John Howard has written articles for numerous magazines including Book and Magazine Collector, Supernatural Tales, Wormwood, Studies in Australian Weird Fiction, and All Hallows. He contributed essays to the Fritz Leiber special issue of Fantasy Commentator (No. 57/58, 2004) and to the books Black Prometheus: A Critical Study of Karl Edward Wagner (2007), Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays (2008), and The Man Who Collected Psychos: Critical Essays on Robert Bloch (2009), all edited by Benjamin Szumskyj. John Howard also wrote the introduction to the Ash-Tree Press edition of Francis Brett Young’s classic 1924 horror novel Cold Harbour (2007).

Richard Hill
Author · 2 books
Librarian Note: There are more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.
Rosalie Parker
Rosalie Parker
Author · 4 books
Rosalie Parker is an author, scriptwriter and editor who runs the Tartarus Press with R.B. Russell. Parker jointly won the World Fantasy Award "Special Award: Non-Professional" for publishing in 2002, 2004 and 2012.
J.M. Walsh
J.M. Walsh
Author · 3 books

James Morgan Walsh also wrote as H. Haverstock Hill, Stephen Maddock, George M. White and Jack Carew. Walsh was born in Geelong and educated in Melbourne and is best known as an extremely prolific writer of crime mysteries, mostly set in England. His first novel, Tap-Tap Island (1921), was first serialised in the Melbourne Leader, his second, The Lost Valley(1921), was a prize-winner in the C.J. De Garis competition; his third was Overdue (1925). After experience in auctioneering and book-selling, Walsh visited England in 1925 to negotiate with publishers, returned to Victoria but left for permanent residence in England in 1929. Pseudonyms he used include 'John Carew', 'George M. White' and 'H. Haverstock Hill'; he also wrote in collaboration with E.J. Blythe and Audry Baldwin. His first three novels, which are adventure romances, are set in New Guinea and western Victoria and he also wrote two Australian detective stories, The Man behind the Curtain (1927) and The League of Missing Men (1927). The five adventure stories that he wrote under the pseudonym 'H. Haverstock Hill', Anne of Flying Gap(1926), Spoil of the Desert (1927), The Golden Isle (1928), Golden Harvest (1929) and The Secret of the Crater (1930), range between New Guinea, the Northern Territory, Gippsland, WA and the South Seas.

Carly Holmes
Carly Holmes
Author · 3 books
I'm a writer living and writing on the west coast of Wales. When not writing I love to read, and discover books and authors that are new to me. My favourite writers include Jon McGregor, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Peter Carey, Julian Barnes and Daphne du Maurier. I've had a number of short stories published in journals and placed in competitions, and my debut novel, The Scrapbook, was published by Parthian in May 2014. I'm currently working on a collection of ghost stories. I'm on the editorial board of The Lampeter Review (http://lampeter-review.com) and host and manage The Cellar Bards, a group of writers who meet monthly in Cardigan, Wales, for an evening of spoken word poetry and prose (https://www.facebook.com/groups/33354...)
Eric Stener Carlson
Eric Stener Carlson
Author · 4 books

Eric Stener Carlson (Minnesota, 1969) is an author currently based in Geneva, Switzerland. He wrote his first book, "I Remember Julia: Voices of the Disappeared" (Temple University Press, 1996), when he was right out of college. It is based on his work with the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team identifying the remains of people killed by the military dictatorship in the 1970s. After working for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, he wrote his second book, "The Pear Tree: Is Torture Ever Justified?" (Clarity Press, 2006), a very personal investigation into the use of torture and its moral consequences. Eric became a novelist with the publication of "The Saint Perpetuus Club of Buenos Aires" (Tartarus Press, 2009), a surreal, supernatural mystery. He followed this up with the novel, "Muladona" (Tartarus Press, 2016), "Anxiety of Ghosts" (Amazon, 2017) and his first short story collection, "GAS" (Abraxas Press, 2018). He has a number of other novel projects in the works. His short stories and articles have appeared in journals in the US, UK, Argentina and Spain. Eric holds a BA in International Affairs from The American University, an MA in International Affairs from Columbia University and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He was also a Fulbright scholar affiliated with the University of Buenos Aires. Eric frequently lectures and is always happy to give talks to book clubs and universities.

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