Tartarus Press have announced a new edition of my short story collection The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things, originally published by Zagava in a limited edition seven years ago, in 2018.
This new edition includes all of the short stories in the original volume and now adds nine briefer stories or vignettes. It omits the journal of notes and ideas in the earlier version. The stories include ‘Vain Shadows Flee’, selected for Best British Short Stories 2016 edited by Nicholas Royle (Salt Publishing), and ‘Yes, I Knew the Venusian Commodore’, which was later translated into Spanish by María Pilar San Roman in an award-winning anthology.
The artwork depicts the mysterious Three Headed King motif from the ancient church at Sancreed in the far west of Cornwall, which appears in the title story. Other stories are about the ancient mysteries of Palmyra and Jerusalem, the music of Stonehenge and of the fabulously rare record Goat Songs, the uncanny in performances of Milton’s Comus and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale, and the wondrous influences of a toy cockatrice.
The Uncertainty of All Earthly Things is available as a 350 copy limited edition hardback in dustjacket, printed lithographically, in sewn sections, with silk ribbon marker, printed boards, and head and tailbands.
(Mark Valentine)
My online robot overlord suggests that the "Three Headed King" motif was meant to symbolize the Trinity. I've always been fascinated by the Tri-faced Christ, the Vultus Trifons, that began to appear in the 13th century, also associated with the Trinity. These depictions were controversial enough to have been banned and suppressed by the Church in the 17th century, although a surprising amount of such art survives. Apparently they carried with them a sniff of heresy and they resembled some pagan imagery. I think we can all agree that some expressions of the True Faith were funkier than others.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading the book very much.
Thank you, Stephen. Some of the ancient carvings at Sancreed certainly give the impression of pagan influences. Mark
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