Upcoming Book Aims to Put the Spooky Back Into Christmas
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POPLAR GROVE, Ill. - illiNews -- While it's a largely forgotten tradition in the United States, spooky stories, ghosts and Christmas go together. In the UK and Canada spooky stories are a normal part of Christmas tradition. One of the most beloved Christmas stories, "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens is really a ghost story. The rich tradition of telling scary stories for Christmas has been largely discarded in the United States. Poplar Grove, Illinois' Tales of Wonder and Dread Publishing is hoping to change that with "Horrifying Holidays: Holiday Spookfest," set for release on November 4th. It's part of T.O.W.D.'s Gary Hill's campaign to "put the spooky back into Christmas."

"Horrifying Holidays" is a collection of fiction and non-fiction stories, with all the tales having a Christmas angle to them. It actually opens with a poem about Krampus from Northern Illinois poet and writer Frank Coffman. There are modern fiction tales from Gary Hill, Stephen Osborne and Glenn Tilson. Diane Hill contributes a non-fiction story about a holiday haunting, and there are four more from Gary Hill. Classic fiction from John Kendrick Bangs, E.F. Benson, the aforementioned Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell round out the book.

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Founded in 2018, Poplar Grove based Tales of Wonder and Dread Publishing has released 23 books to date. All the T.O.W.D. books have a focus on science fiction, horror or generally macabre type subject matter. The most recent releases from T.O.W.D. to date were ""Relics, Remnants and Artifacts" (a collection of fiction and non-fiction works from Gary Hill) and "Spooky Stories," which is a collection that includes poetry, fiction and non-fiction. "Spooky Stories" not only includes modern works from Heath Alberts, Elizabeth Lynn Blackson, Frank Coffman, Ernie Fuhr, Stephan Osborne and Gary Hill, but also classics from writers like Robert Burns, H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allan Poe.

Previously T.O.W.D. has published such titles as  "Interstellar Journeys: A Collection of Space Travel Stories,""The Homestead," "Wizard Song," " Spooky Houses: Spooky Fiction and Non-fiction Homebound Tales." "Life Blood: A Collection of Vampire Stories," " Spectral Stories: A Collection of Ghost Tales," "Speculative Stories: A Collection of Science Fiction Tales," "Spirited Classics: A Collection of Timeless Ghost Stories" and " Temporal Journeys: A Collection of Time Travel Stories."  They have also published a series of four photo heavy books on Rockford, Illinois cemeteries titled "Rockford's Final Resting Places," with another due later.

The book will be available at lulu.com/spotlight/strangesound and GaryHillAuthor.com.