Short, Scary Tales Publications (SST Publications) is a tiny UK independent publisher with huge dreams that was founded in 1999 by Paul Fry. In 2000, we published our first title, Cold Storage, a horror collection including an introduction by the legendary Graham Masterton.
We have been extremely lucky to publish some of the best authors in the business. Including Stephen King, Joe R. Lansdale, Clive Barker, Ray Garton, Ed Gorman, Simon Clark, Jack Ketchum, Bentley Little, Steve Rasnic Tem, Peter Straub, Tom Piccirilli, Paul Kane, Richard Chizmar plus many more…
Our aim is to produce the highest-quality titles in several formats and genres. But our top priority is to treat our customers like we’d like to be treated. We think that’s extremely important in any business.
Blood In The Gears: Joe R. Lansdale
Blood in the Gears is the second in a four volume set of stories by Joe R. Lansdale. Each, as best is possible, covers a certain branch of his career. While none of the volumes neatly fit into a box, this volume attempts to point to those stories of his that contain the elements of crime, mystery and suspense. Some of them are creepy, some bloody, some strange, all powerful and unique. Well know stories and lesser known tales rub shoulder to shoulder here, and when they do, the friction causes blood to drip into the story gears. These are the results of the raw and contradictory elements of flesh, and blood, and bones that make up the human machinery.
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Cardinal Black: Robert McCammon
Cardinal Black is the latest installment in Robert McCammon’s unique series of historical thrillers featuring Matthew Corbett, professional problem solver, who has been called “the Early American James Bond.”
December 1703 finds Berry Grigsby living as Mary Lynn Nash in a small English village where she has fallen victim to Professor Fell’s involuntary drug experiments. Her mind is quickly deteriorating under the drug’s influence, and the only way to save her is a potion book that was stolen in an attack on the village orchestrated by a mysterious madman going by the name Cardinal Black.
Matthew Corbett has volunteered to travel with Julian Devane, a self-proclaimed “fool and bad man” in the employ of Professor Fell, to hunt down the potion book. They follow the trail to London, where the book will be sold at a secret auction. Matthew and Julian manage to secure a seat at the auction by masquerading as respected and feared underground operatives, but to prevail in their high-stakes mission, they will require help from a very unlikely source. Even if they are successful, their race to save Berry Grigsby will leave a trail of destruction in its wake.
Cardinal Black is another extraordinary achievement from one of America’s most skilled authors, and it features some of the most memorable, compelling, and chilling characters in the Matthew Corbett series to date, each with their own competing agendas. This masterful historical adventure is perfectly balanced for long-time fans of the series and new readers alike who are now joining the adventure.
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A Head Full Of Ghosts: Paul Tremblay
A chilling thriller that brilliantly blends psychological suspense and supernatural horror, reminiscent of Stephen King’s The Shining, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, and William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist.
The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.
To her parents’ despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie’s descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help. Father Wanderly suggests an exorcism; he believes the vulnerable teenager is the victim of demonic possession. He also contacts a production company that is eager to document the Barretts’ plight. With John, Marjorie’s father, out of work for more than a year and the medical bills looming, the family agrees to be filmed, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. When events in the Barrett household explode in tragedy, the show and the shocking incidents it captures become the stuff of urban legend.
Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie’s younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories that clash with what was broadcast on television begin to surface—and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed, raising vexing questions about memory and reality, science and religion, and the very nature of evil.
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Stephen King & Richard Chizmar: Gwendy’s Button Box
Return to Castle Rock and commemorate your love for horror with the World’s First Special Slipcase Gift Edition of GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar featuring 7 NEVER BEFORE seen illustrations by Vincent Sammy. Limited to just one printing of 600 copies—This is a must-have for collectors!
Six weeks on the bestsellers list, GWENDY’S BUTTON BOX is a must read and an instant classic for fans of the genre. For the first time in years, a new Castle Rock story awaits. Amazon.com noted “MOST ANTICIPATED. There were more pre-orders for Gwendy’s Button Box than any other book released this week on the Most Sold Fiction Chart.”
Brought to you by SST Publications and Extremely Limited to Just 600 Copies Worldwide, this is your once-in-a-lifetime chance to be amongst the few who own a piece of horror fiction history. Don’t hesitate: We expect to sell out fast!
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Tonight Again: Clive Barker
Tonight, Again rises as Clive Barker’s first collection in over 25 years, containing more than thirty short stories and vignettes. Several previously unpublished and never-before-seen explicit illustrations by Clive Barker will come to life in this exploration of extremes.
Clive Barker is well renown for his signature style, lush prose and evocative images. Only SST’s editions will include the bonus story: “A Night’s Work” – a must have for fans and collectors alike.
Featuring brand-new cover artwork by Brandon Mahlberg, Tonight, Again will be an erotic collection to go down in history.
Collectors and fans can commemorate their love for Clive Barker’s work, with a Deluxe Trade Hardcover. This will be extremely limited to only 600 copies worldwide!
Do not miss out on your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own our deluxe trade hardcover edition – this will sell out as 600 copies is only a small fraction of the number that Clive Barker’s books are usually available in.
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The Listener: Robert McCammon
1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities.
In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot. Joining together they leave their small time confidence scams behind to attempt an elaborate kidnapping-for-ransom scheme in New Orleans.
In a different part of town, Curtis Mayhew, a young black man who works as a redcap for the Union Railroad Station, has a reputation for mending quarrels and misunderstandings among his friends. What those friends don’t know is that Curtis has a special talent for listening… and he can sometimes hear things that aren’t spoken aloud.
One day, Curtis Mayhew’s special talent allows him to overhear a child’s cry for help (THIS MAN IN THE CAR HE’S GOT A GUN), which draws him into the dangerous world of Partlow and LaFrance.
This gritty depression-era crime thriller is a complex tale enriched by powerfully observed social commentary and hints of the supernatural, and it represents Robert McCammon writing at the very top of his game.
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Shining In The Dark: Edited By Hans-Åke Lilja
Featuring Stephen King, Clive Barker, Stewart O’Nan, John Ajvide Lindqvist, Jack Ketchum, Ramsey Campbell, Brian Keene, and many others!
Hans-Åke Lilja, founder of Lilja’s Library, has compiled a brand new anthology of horror stories to celebrate twenty years of running the #1 Stephen King news website on the web!
This anthology includes both original stories like a brand new novella by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Let the Right One In), very rare reprints like “The Blue Air Compressor” by Stephen King, and at least one classic tale that inspired Lilja’s love of the macabre at a very young age!
Now, let’s join Lilja… He’s already waiting for us, there ahead in the darkness… You see him, don’t you? Just keep walking, you’ll find him soon enough, we promise… He’s there, shining and waiting for you… Take his hand and then you, too, will shine in the dark!
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Hellraiser – The Toll: Mark Alan Miller
Hellraiser: The Toll tells the story of what happened between Clive Barker’s iconic works The Hellbound Heart and its follow up, The Scarlet Gospels.
Thirty years after Kirsty Cotton escaped from the clutches of the Hell Priest, Pinhead, and lived to fight another day, her life has never been the same. Every few years she fashions a new name, a new identity, and a new home for herself; She is a woman who is running from her past at all costs, which is why it comes as such a surprise when she receives a mysterious letter in the mail, addressed to the woman she’s been running from over half her life.
Answering the letter’s query, she begins a descent down a rabbit hole to the ultimate confrontation. Her actions stir something unnamable in the ether, and throw her into a game where nothing—not even what she sees in front of her very eyes—can be trusted.
With equal parts economy and eloquence, author Mark Alan Miller brings to life the beginning of the end as The Toll expands the Hellraiser universe, and shows that before Harry D’Amour’s adventures in The Scarlet Gospels, there was a first witness to Pinhead’s infernal plan.
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The Handyman: Bentley Little
Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood.
Frank’s gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn’t know how to respond in a human manner, almost like an alien trying to pretend to be human.
Since Frank obviously wasn’t an alien, Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy.
In the end, young Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank Watkins . . .
And as an adult, Daniel is about to discover there are more of them out there . . .
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Cosmic Interruptions: Joe R. Lansdale
Cosmic Interruptions is a collection of speculative fiction by Joe R. Lansdale. The stories here have been grouped as part of a four part set, this first volume loosely falling into the speculative fiction, science fiction, and off-beat fantasy realm. The stories range from alternate universes to dark futures to the warping of time and space, and a variety of unclassifiable items. There is action, humor, whimsy, and a large dollop of what was once called A Sense of Wonder. Future volumes will gather tales of crime and mystery fiction, horror and East Texas Gothic, and historical and western stories. This is a unique chance to gather not only Lansdale’s popular stories, but some that are lesser known and should be known more broadly.
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Deep Red: Paul Kane
In a nightmare future, where the wolves have taken over, a lone messenger negotiates the dangerous landscape of this new world. The human beings that are left have been driven underground, deep under the earth where they survive in small groups fighting for their very survival. Against this backdrop, a new hero has emerged: a young man who has become a living legend, someone who might just be the key to their victory. Someone who knows the secret of what’s buried deeper than anything else, in a room full of mirrors. The final battle of the war is about to begin, as the wolves attempt to resurrect their long-lost leader. But which side will win? And what will happen after that? From the imagination of award-winning and bestselling author, Paul Kane (Hooded Man, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, Before) comes the final shocking part of the RED trilogy. A post-apocalyptic glimpse of a possible timeline, the conclusion to a terrifying dark fairy tale in which absolutely anything can happen…
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Very nice list! I’m a fan of short stories and appreciate how hard they are to get right.