Tales of Wonder and Dread Marks Anniversary With New Books
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POPLAR GROVE, Ill. - illiNews -- September 4th, 2023 was the fifth anniversary of Poplar Grove, Illinois based Tales of Wonder and Dread Publishing. To commemorate, T.O.W.D. published five books on that date. The books are "Spooky Berwyn Three: Even More Creepy Tales from the Chicago Area,"  "Spooky Space: Creepy Otherworldly Tales,"  "Spooky Stateline Two: More Creepy Tales from the Illinois / Wisconsin Border Area," "Spooky and Weird: A Collection of Weird Fiction and Poetry" and "Tales of Wonder and Dread: A Collection of Science Fiction and Horror."

With a title that is an homage to horror host Svengoolie, "Spooky Berwyn Three" is the third in a series focused on creepy tales centered around the Chicago area. This time around, all the stories are non-fiction. The book features tales from Diane Hill, Gary Hill and Gary Rieffer.

A collection of stories that have spooky aspects and a connection to space, "Spooky Space: Creepy Otherworldly Tales" has a range of tones and styles. It features stories from Elizabeth Lynn Blackson, E. Eggert, Gary Hill and Dustin Urness along with a classic piece from H.P. Lovecraft. In an advance review at GoodReads Patrick J. Murphy III said that he would "Recommend this to anyone who likes the idea of the terror of space and its impacts on characters, stories and understanding of human nature."

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"Spooky Stateline Two: More Creepy Tales from the Illinois / Wisconsin Border Area" is the second in a series of books focusing on spooky stories in the Northern, Illinois and Southern, Wisconsin area around Rockford, Illinois. This book gathers a number of legends and tales of hauntings. It continues the tradition started with the two "Spooky Rockford" books and  continued with "Spooky Stateline." Get ready to read about spooky things in places like Madison, Wisconsin, Crystal Lake, Illinois, Dubuque, Iowa and more.

"Spooky and Weird: A Collection of Weird Fiction and Poetry" is a gathering of "weird fiction," but what does that mean? According to Wikipedia, "Weird fiction either skews or radically reinterprets ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and other traditional antagonists of supernatural horror fiction." Author and critic John Clute says that the term is "used loosely to describe fantasy, supernatural fiction and horror tales embodying transgressive material." The book features prose and some haiku poetry from Heath D. Alberts, Elizabeth Lynn Blackson, M.K. Davis, Gary Hill, Dan Klefstad and R.C. Mulhare.

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"Tales of Wonder and Dread: A Collection of Science Fiction and Horror Tales" is a meeting of science fiction ("Wonder") and horror ("Dread") fiction. It features work by Heath D. Alberts, Elizabeth Lynn Blackson, Frank Coffman, Adam R. Crump, Eric Danhoff, M. K. Davis, E. Eggert, Gary Hill, Patrick J. Murphy III and David W. Pederson.

The books are  available in paperback and hardcover at lulu.com/spotlight/strangesound, talesofwonderanddread.com and GaryHillAuthor.com.