Tales from the Vatican Vaults: 28 extraordinary stories by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Garry Kilworth, Mary Gentle, KJ Parker, Storm Constantine and many more
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Sarah Ash
Sarah Ash trained as a musician – and music just keeps on finding its way into her stories. She’s also fascinated by the possibilities of alternate histories – and when researching Allegri’s Miserere, she came upon so many different versions and apocryphal accounts that it was difficult to tell where history blended into myth and vice versa. Her fantasy series The Tears of Artamon is set in an alternate late eighteenth century, but her new novel The Flood Dragon’s Sacrifice grew out of her love of Japanese mythology (and, of course, manga and anime!). Her website is www.sarah-ash.com.
Cherith Baldry
Cherith Baldry was born in Lancaster, UK, and studied at Manchester University and St Anne’s College, Oxford. She worked as a teacher for a number of years, including a spell at the University of Sierra Leone. She is now a full-time writer for adults, young adults and children, and is currently working as part of the team writing the Warriors and Seekers series under the name of Erin Hunter. She is widowed with two grown-up sons and a granddaughter, and lives in Surrey as housekeeper for two cats. Her interests are medieval literature, especially Arthurian legend, early music and travel.
David V. Barrett
Tales from the Vatican Vaults is David V. Barrett’s second SF/ fantasy anthology; his first was Digital Dreams (NEL 1990). In the years in between he has written more than twenty non-fiction books, mainly on new religious movements and esoteric societies, and has contributed to numerous encyclopaedias. He has had over a dozen short stories published. He is a regular contributor to Fortean Times magazine, and co-founded the London Fortean Society.
Alex Bell
Alex Bell wrote her debut novel whilst studying Law at university. Since then she has had both adult and young adult books published, along with articles about fairtrade gold and ethical fashion. In her spare time she enjoys volunteering for St John Ambulance and catering to the whims of her neurotic Siamese cat.
J.-M. Brugée
J.-M. Brugée has been fascinated with troubadours and their music since hearing Ensemble Perceval performing in the château at Chinon, in the Loire Valley in France, some twenty years ago. The first draft of ‘Songs of Love’ was written in Chinon to the accompaniment of their music.
Patrice Chaplin
Patrice Chaplin has published over thirty books and her work is widely translated. City Of Secrets was the first of her metaphysical series followed by The Portal and in 2015 The Stone Cradle. She has worked in drama for the BBC and her stage play Sessions was performed in Paris in spring 2015. She lives in London and is the director of a charity using creativity against addiction.
Storm Constantine
Storm Constantine has written twenty-eight books, both fiction and non-fiction, and well over fifty short stories. Her novels span several genres, from literary fantasy to science fiction to dark fantasy. She is most well known for her Wraeththu trilogy. Storm is founder of the independent publishing house, Immanion Press, created in order to get classic titles from established writers back in print and innovative new authors an audience. She’s currently working on several ideas for new books, as well as short stories. She lives in the Midlands of England with her husband, Jim, and five cats.
Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe
Lionel and Patricia were born in Norfolk and married there in 1957. They have two daughters and two grandchildren. Lionel has worked over the years as a journalist, Anglican priest, teacher and author of over 250 books, many of which he and Patricia have written together. He also lectures and broadcasts on radio and TV. He and Patricia have researched Fortean-type unsolved mysteries all over the world and have written numerous books and articles about their findings. He was the presenter of the Fortean TV series on Channel 4. Lionel and Patricia were also among the pioneers investigating the Rennes-le-Château mystery in 1975. They now live in Cardiff, Wales.
Jaine Fenn
Although best known for the Hidden Empire series of far future SF novels published by Gollancz, Jaine Fenn also has an interest in conspiracies, alternative history and Fortean phenomena generally. She has a particular fascination with pre-Columbian American history, going back to one of her first published short stories in 2002. Despite her interests she subscribes to the cock-up, rather than the conspiracy, theory of history.
Mary Gentle
Born: once. Got it right the first time.
Interests: sword-fighting, Airsoft rifles (preferably with someone else at the business end of either). Animal communication (pet rats, pet pigs).
Hobby: being a mature student (BA English and Politics; MA, seventeenth-century history; MA, War Studies).
Books: favourites among her own are Ancient Light (there is no sequel), Rats & Gargoyles (Hermetic fantasy; gives new meaning to ‘obscure’), Grunts! (orc marines give new meaning to ‘bad taste’), Ash (weird-shit fifteenth-century behemoth). And, naturally, the next one.
Lives: Hertfordshire, with her partner and several pigs. He is the one with the hat.
John Grant
John Grant is the author of some 70 books and the recipient of two Hugo Awards, a World Fantasy Award and various others. His stories have appeared in Interzone, Postscripts, The Third Alternative, Black Static, Nautilus, Nature and other magazines, as well as in numerous anthologies. For some years he ran the famous fantasy–artbook imprint Paper Tiger. Among his non-fiction books are The Encyclopedia of Fantasy (with John Clute) and the series begun with Discarded Science and including most recently Denying Science. His A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir was published in autumn 2013 and his YA non-fiction book Debunk It! in spring 2015, while an adult non-fiction book provisionally titled Spooky Science is due for fall 2015; his second story collection, Tell No Lies, appeared in late 2014. He writes about usually obscure movies at Noirish: http://noirencyclopedia.wordpress.com.
Terry Grimwood
Writer, editor, publisher, playwright, college lecturer, open-mic harp blower and blues growler, oh and electrician, Terry Grimwood has three novels under his belt (Bloody War, Axe and The Places Between), numerous short stories in numerous magazines and anthologies (many of them collected in The Exaggerated Man) and has contributed to, and co-written, a number of electrical and engineering text books for Pearson Educational press. He runs theEXAGGERATEDpress (http://exaggeratedpress.weebly.com) and edits Wordland magazine (http://wordlandhome.weebly.com). Terry is married to his muse, the translatlantic poet Jessica Lawrence.
Dave Hutchinson
Dave Hutchinson was born in Sheffield. After reading American Studies at the University of Nottingham, he became a journalist. He’s the author of five collections of short stories and the novels The Villages and Europe In Autumn, and his novella ‘The Push’ was shortlisted for the 2010 BSFA award for short fiction. He has also edited two anthologies and co-edited a third. His short story ‘The Incredible Exploding Man’ featured in the first Solaris Rising anthology, and appeared in Year’s Best Science Fiction. He lives in north London with his wife and several cats.
Kleo Kay
Kleo’s interests lie in mystery and magic, oracles and divination, religions and belief systems from long ago. She is currently working on a series of books about the Gods and Goddesses of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and also enjoys writing short stories with an esoteric and mysterious edge. Kleo runs themed workshops on several of these topics in London, England. www.godsandgod-dessesforyou.co.uk.
Garry Kilworth
Garry Kilworth has been a full-time novelist and short story writer for thirty-five years and has published over eighty books. His great loves are speculative and imaginative fiction in the genres of science fiction and fantasy, but he also indulges in historical fiction. His latest work is a collection of strange tales, including three Anglo-Saxon fantasy stories, under the generic title The Fabulous Beast published by Infinity Plus Books. He has just completed a science fiction novel The Sometimes Spurious Travels through Time and Space of James Ovit, which currently resides with his literary agent, John J
arrold.
Paul Kincaid
Paul Kincaid is the author of several works of criticism, including What It Is We Do When We Read Science Fiction and, most recently, Call And Response. He has received the Thomas Clareson Award from the SFRA and the Best Non-Fiction Award from the BSFA. He keeps meaning to write more fiction, but this is still a rare event.
Stephen Marley
Stephen Marley, author of eight novels, was born in Derby, England. He was expelled from one school and left another with no qualifications but somehow made it to university where he gained an MSc in the sociology of science and almost finished a PhD in ancient Chinese science. He left academia to take up writing full time and lives by a Derbyshire river a shot-put throw from Augustus Pugin’s first church and a javelin throw from the world’s oldest factory. His likes include Buffy the Vampire Slayer and boxer dogs and he describes himself as a Leonard Cohen Catholic.
Damian P. O’Connor
Damian P. O’Connor, sometime soldier, academic and teacher, has two dozen academic books, articles and reviews on historical and African themes to his name. Having travelled widely in Africa, he has been awarded a medal from the Chief of the Zulus as well as being recognised in the Brenthurst Foundation Nelson Mandela Prize Essay competition. Now back from being stuck as far up the Yang-Tse river as it seemed feasible to go, he is based in the relative sanity of Essex. He is also a member of the T Party Writers Group.
K. J. Parker
After brief and inglorious careers in photocopiers, a leading auction house and the legal profession, K. J. Parker took to writing full time and has to date produced three trilogies, five standalone novels, five novellas (two of which won the World Fantasy Award) and a gaggle of short stories. When not writing, Parker works on a tiny smallholding in the West of England and makes things out of wood and metal.
K. J. Parker isn’t K. J. Parker’s real name; but even if you knew K. J. Parker’s real name, it wouldn’t mean anything to you.
Marion Pitman
Marion Pitman is a Londoner exiled to Reading, and has no car, no television, no cats and no money. She sells second-hand books online since her shop burned down, and has three unpublished novels. She has had short fiction and poetry published in a number of magazines and anthologies, most recently in Alchemy Press Urban Mythic 2 and Fringeworks Potatoes; and poetry in Sein und Werden and Unspoken Water. Her hobbies include watching cricket, listening to folk music, and theological argument.
Stephanie Potter
Stephanie Potter has been telling stories all her life, mostly through her work as a chartered school librarian. She has recommended the work of many other authors, so has decided to add her voice to the multitude with her first published story. She is married, lives in Cornwall and enjoys gardening.
Rosanne Rabinowitz
Rosanne started writing when she helped produce ’zines in the 1990s, contributing articles and reviews. Then she began to make stuff up. Her fiction has since found its way to places like Postscripts, Midnight Street and Black Static, and anthologies such as Rustblind and Silverbright (with Mat Joiner), Never Again: Weird Fiction Against Racism and Fascism and Extended Play: the Elastic Book of Music. Her novella Helen’s Story (PS Publishing) was shortlisted for the 2013 Shirley Jackson Awards. Rosanne lives in South London; unsurprisingly she has a story called ‘Lambeth North’ in the anthology Horror Without Victims. Her website is at rosannerabinowitz.wordpress.com.
Kristine Kathryn Rusch
USA Today bestseller and Hugo-award winner Kristine Kathryn Rusch writes in all genres under various names, including Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her short fiction has been nominated for every award in SF and mystery, and has been featured in twenty Year’s Best collections as well as a Best of the twentieth century. She is the former Hugo-award winning editor of the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and currently edits the acclaimed anthology series Fiction River. In the first six months of 2015 WMG Publishing published the remaining six books in her Anniversary Day saga. She’s relieved to turn her attention to something else.
E. Saxey
E. Saxey is a queer Londoner with a longstanding interest in religious orders. Their short fiction has appeared in Holdfast, Spacewitch Moonshots, Daily Science Fiction, Aghast, Apex Magazine, and in the anthologies The Lowest Heaven and The Rite of Spring (both by Jurassic London).
Douglas Thompson
Douglas Thompson’s short stories have appeared in a wide range of magazines and anthologies. His first book, Ultrameta, was published by Eibonvale Press in August 2009, nominated for the Edge Hill Prize, and shortlisted for the BFS Best Newcomer Award, and since then he has published seven subsequent novels, Sylvow (Eibonvale, 2010), Apoidea (The Exaggerated Press, 2011), Mechagnosis (Dog Horn, 2012), Entanglement (Elsewhen Press, 2012), The Rhymer (Elsewhen Press, 2014), Volwys (Dog Horn, 2014), and The Brahan Seer (Acair Publishing, 2014). He is a director of The Scottish Writers’ Centre. http://douglasthomp-son.wordpress.com.
Jean Marie Ward
Jean Marie Ward writes fiction, non-fiction and everything in between, including art books, novels (2008 Indie Book double-finalist With Nine You Get Vanyr), and short stories such as the 2011 WSFA Small Press Award finalist ‘Lord Bai’s Discovery’ (from the anthology Dragon’s Lure) and ‘Personal Demons’ in the award-winning anthology Hellebore and Rue. She edited the web magazine Crescent Blues for eight years and now writes for other online venues, including Buzzy Mag. Her website is JeanMarieWard.com.
Geraldine Warner
Geraldine Warner is a London-based musician, whose career has ranged from performance work to choral conducting and university lecturing. She has just completed an MA in Creative Writing at West Dean College with Lesley Thomson and Elly Griffiths. ‘The Missing Journal of Captain James Cook’ is her first published story.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Contents
Introduction
The Tale of Pope Joan, David V. Barrett c. AD 850
No Peace for the Wicked, K. J. Parker 1032–1048
Chasing Charlemagne, John Grant c. 1040
Encounter on the Rhine, Marion Pitman c. 1150
Songs of Love, J.-M. Brugée c. 1189
The Dragon Chain, Cherith Baldry 1355
Bells of the Harelle, Rosanne Rabinowitz 1382–1419
The Sky Weeps, the Earth Quakes, Jaine Fenn 1541
The Gifts, Kleo Kay c. 1580
Windows into Men’s Hearts, E. Saxey 1591
Documents in the Case of Brother G., Paul Kincaid 1600
The Hammer of Witches, Mary Gentle 1620
The Silver Monkey, Dave Hutchinson c. 1690s
The Watchers, Garry Kilworth 1771
The Missing Journal of Captain James Cook, Geraldine Warner 1779
Cooking up a Storm, Jean Marie Ward 1814/1841
Pio Nono and the Papal Allocution, Damian P. O’Connor 1848
The Confession, Alex Bell 1889
Saunière’s Secret, Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe 1920s
The Will, KristaLyn Amber 1918–1960s
Gardening, Stephanie Potter 1930s
The She, Terry Grimwood 1943–44
Gargoyles, Douglas Thompson 1948
The Saint’s Well, Storm Constantine 1959
The Mountain Wind, Patrice Chaplin 1965
Miserere, Sarah Ash 1970/1770
The Island of Lost Priests, Kristine Kathryn Rusch 1975
Apocryphon, Stephen Marley 1978
The Writers
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