Telos Publishing is delighted to announce that we will be publishing the latest in the Terror Tales series of horror anthologies, edited by Paul Finch.
Originally published by Gray Friar Press, they announced earlier in 2016 that they would be ceasing operation.
‘After a bit of an uncertain year, I’m very pleased to say that the Terror Tales anthology series is continuing,’ says range editor Paul Finch. ‘I’ve edited nine books in the series thus far, most of which are centred on different regions of the United Kingdom. It was long my ambition to keep the series going until, at the very least, we had covered every corner of the British Isles … but I also hoped that, in due course, we’d be going beyond it as well.
‘The plan took a minor jolt early last summer when Gray Friar Press, who’d previously published the books so impressively, found that they weren’t able to continue. From my own perspective, it was not a good time for this to happen, as my day-job involves writing crime novels, and I had some very tight deadlines coming up. As such, I was only able to focus on the Terror Tales issue sporadically during summer and early autumn. However, it was great to discover that Telos Publishing, with whom I’ve worked several times before, and who are well-known for having put out some great genre titles, were keen to take up the gauntlet.
‘David Howe, who is head honcho at Telos and a long-term friend of mine, has already participated in Terror Tales as a contributor. A story of his appeared in Terror Tales of London, while his wife, the novelist Sam Stone, wrote a story for Terror Tales of the Seaside, so he is very familiar with these anthologies and the rationale behind them.
‘We had a few chats, and have now agreed a deal, the immediate outcome of which will be the publication of Terror Tales of Cornwall, which I was half way through editing earlier in the year when Gray Friar needed to pull out.
‘Hopefully, all fans of contemporary horror and supernatural fiction will be delighted with this. Because I certainly am.’
‘It’s tremendous to be publishing the Terror Tales series,’ says Telos’ David J Howe. ‘I have long admired Paul’s work, and his selection of stories for the series is unparalleled. Many are subsequently picked up for genre award considerations and recommendation, and it’s a delight to now be part of the publishing process for the books.
‘Telos intends to continue the series, and to allow Paul to do what he set out to achieve.’
‘The whole purpose behind Terror Tales,’ explains Paul, ‘was to produce an original horror anthology series which, volume by volume, would focus on different regions of Britain (and, as I say, maybe in the future venture beyond that), the stories contained within each to draw on local mythology, folklore, history and geography to try and create a specific and fulsome flavour of that part of the country. As well as editing each title, I would trawl through local folklore, and select and write up particularly spooky legends or rumours with which I could intersperse the stories as non-fictional vignettes.
‘The series was originally inspired by the Fontana Tales of Terror series – edited by R Chetwynd-Hayes and Mary Danby back in the 1970s – the one big difference being that, for the most part, we have been using original horror stories written mainly by contemporary writers. Thus far, I think it’s been a great success, Terror Tales having almost universally been praised by those who’ve encountered it.’
Terror Tales of Cornwall will be published by Telos in January 2017. Cover artwork is by Neil Williams.