POPLAR GROVE, Ill. - s4story -- September 4th is the fourth anniversary of Poplar Grove, Illinois based Tales of Wonder and Dread Publishing. To commemorate that milestone, T.O.W.D. will be publishing four new books: "Horrifying Halloween," "It Ends in the Graveyard," "Spooky Berwyn Two" and "Spooky Stateline."

"Horrifying Halloween: Halloween Poems and Tales" gathers together poems and stories with a Halloween focus. There are vintage stories from Mary Wilkins Freeman and Eleanor L. Skinner along with retro poems from J. K. Bangs, Joel Benton, George Francis Dawson, H. P. Lovecraft, A.F. Murray, Eleanor L. Skinner and Robert Louis Stevenson. Frank Coffman provides three new poems, and Eileen Eggert supplies one. Del Merritt and Paul Lubaczewski each contribute one story to the collection. R. C. Mulhare supplies two. Editor Gary Hill adds two brand new fiction stories and one non-fiction tale to round out the collection. The book is divided into a family friendly section and a section that comes with more of a parental advisory.

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The GoodReads description for "It Ends in the Graveyard" says, "They say you shouldn't give away the ending, but this tale ends in the graveyard. In Gary Hill's second horror novella a horror writer named 'Apexan' recounts the real life story that inspired their first book. It's a tale of an ancient mystery hidden in a forest. It's a saga of monsters and murders."

The follow up to 2019's "Spooky Berwyn," "Spooky Berwyn Two: More Creepy Tales from the Chicago Area" presents 17 non-fiction tales and two fiction stories based in the Chicago area. Like its predecessor, the title is not totally accurate because the area covered is the full Chicago area, rather than the suburb of Berwyn. The title is an homage to horror host Svengoolie (Rich Koz) and his show. Anyone who watches that show will get the reference. The book features non-fiction from Hill, Rick Hale, Diane Hill and Mike Korn. Gary Hill penned one of the fiction stories, while Jay Sturner wrote the other.

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The GoodReads description for "Spooky Stateline" says "You might be familiar with 'Spooky Rockford' and 'Spooky Rockford Two.' In a way you can look at this as Spooky Rockford Three, but it moves further out to the whole stateline area this time. This book features both non-fiction (from Diane Hill, Gary Hill, Mike Korn and Stephen Osborne) and fiction (by Gary Hill and Jay Sturner).  .

Founded in 2018, Poplar Grove based Tales of Wonder and Dread Publishing has released more than two dozen books to date. All the T.O.W.D. books have a focus on science fiction, horror or generally macabre type subject matter. The books will be available in paperback and hardcover at lulu.com/spotlight/strangesound and GaryHillAuthor.com.