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Uncertainties #2
Uncertainties Volume II
"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"
Brian J. Showers has written short stories, articles, interviews, and reviews for magazines such as Rue Morgue, Supernatural Tales, Ghosts & Scholars, and Wormwood. His collection The Bleeding Horse won the Children of the Night Award in 2008. He is also the author of Literary Walking Tours of Gothic Dublin; and, with Gary W. Crawford and Jim Rockhill, he co-edited the Stoker Award-nominated Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu. The anthology Dreams of Shadow and Smoke, co-edited with Jim Rockhill, won the Ghost Story Award for best book in 2014. Showers also edits The Green Book, a journal devoted to Irish writers of the fantastic; and runs the Swan River Press, Ireland’s only publishing house dedicated to literature of the gothic, strange, and supernatural.
"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"
Brian J. Showers has written short stories, articles, interviews, and reviews for magazines such as Rue Morgue, Supernatural Tales, Ghosts & Scholars, and Wormwood. His collection The Bleeding Horse won the Children of the Night Award in 2008. He is also the author of Literary Walking Tours of Gothic Dublin; and, with Gary W. Crawford and Jim Rockhill, he co-edited the Stoker Award-nominated Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu. The anthology Dreams of Shadow and Smoke, co-edited with Jim Rockhill, won the Ghost Story Award for best book in 2014. Showers also edits The Green Book, a journal devoted to Irish writers of the fantastic; and runs the Swan River Press, Ireland’s only publishing house dedicated to literature of the gothic, strange, and supernatural.
189 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2016
1 person is currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Brian J. Showers
45 books47 followersBrian J. Showers is originally from Madison, Wisconsin. He has written short stories, articles, interviews and reviews for magazines such as Rue Morgue, All Hallows, Ghosts & Scholars: The M.R. James Newsletter, Le Fanu Studies, Supernatural Tales and Wormwood. He also runs The Swan River Press and the editor of The Green Book: Writings on Irish Gothic, Supernatural and Fantastic Literature.
His short story collection, The Bleeding Horse (Mercier Press), won the Children of the Night Award in 2008. He is also the author of Literary Walking Tours of Gothic Dublin (Nonsuch, 2006) and Old Albert — An Epilogue (Ex Occidente, 2011); with Gary W. Crawford and Jim Rockhill he co-edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Hippocampus Press, 2011).
Having studied Popular Literature at Trinity College, he currently resides on the Emerald Isle, somewhere in the verdant and ghost-haunted wilderness of Dublin City, where he is busy at work on various projects, including his next collection of strange tales.
His short story collection, The Bleeding Horse (Mercier Press), won the Children of the Night Award in 2008. He is also the author of Literary Walking Tours of Gothic Dublin (Nonsuch, 2006) and Old Albert — An Epilogue (Ex Occidente, 2011); with Gary W. Crawford and Jim Rockhill he co-edited the Bram Stoker Award-nominated Reflections in a Glass Darkly: Essays on J. Sheridan Le Fanu (Hippocampus Press, 2011).
Having studied Popular Literature at Trinity College, he currently resides on the Emerald Isle, somewhere in the verdant and ghost-haunted wilderness of Dublin City, where he is busy at work on various projects, including his next collection of strange tales.
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September 3, 2016This hardcover copy is number 74 of 100 signed numbered copies of a print run of 400 and is signed by Brian J. Showers.
January 12, 2021
The feelings of this deceptively powerful work continue to resonate… It is the apotheosis of Uncertainty, or a Certainty that Uncertainty is the optimum Certainty. I have a feeling that these two volumes of stories are full of things where the authors have truly given of their best, these being some of my genuinely favourite writers in what I see as the genre I was always pre-destined to love, but now seen, in sudden memory, as this genre of Uncertainty, a pre-destiny now clinched to house them. Tomorrow, I might have forgotten what I thought. But not now, having written it down here.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
The detailed review of this book posted elsewhere under my name is too long or impractical to post here.
Above is one of its observations at the time of the review.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews