What is it about the cat that captivates the creative imagination? No other creature has inspired so many authors to take pen to page. Mystery, horror, science fiction, and fantasy stories have all been written about cats.From legendary editor Ellen Datlow comes Tails of Wonder and Imagination, showcasing forty cat tales by some of today's most popular authors. With uncollected stories by Stephen King, Carol Emshwiller, Tanith Lee, Peter S. Beagle, Elizabeth Hand, Dennis Danvers, and Theodora Goss and a previously unpublished story by Susanna Clarke, plus feline-centric fiction by Neil Gaiman, Kelly Link, George R.R. Martin, Lucius Shepard, Joyce Carol Oates, Graham Joyce, Catherynne M. Valente, Michael Marshall Smith, and many others.Tails of Wonder and Imagination features more than 200,000 words of stories in which cats are heroes and stories in which they're villains; tales of domestic cats, tigers, lions, mythical part-cat beings, people transformed into cats, cats transformed into people. And yes, even a few cute cats.Table of Contents: and "Through the Looking Glass (excerpt) and " - Lewis Carroll and "No Heaven Will Not Ever Heaven Be... and " - A. R. Morlan and "The Price and " - Neil Gaiman and "Dark Eyes, Faith, and Devotion and " - Charles de Lint and "Not Waving and " - Michael Marshall Smith and "Catch and " - Ray Vukcevich and "The Manticore Spell and " - Jeffrey Ford and "Catskin and " - Kelly Link and "Mieze Corrects an Incomplete Representation of Reality and " - Michaela Roessner and "Guardians and " - George R. R. Martin and "Life Regarded as a Jigsaw Puzzle of Highly Lustrous Cats and " - Michael Bishop and "Gordon, the Self-Made Cat and " - Peter S. Beagle and "The Jaguar Hunter and " - Lucius Shepard and "Arthur's Lion and " - Tanith Lee and "Pride and " - Mary A. Turzillo and "The Burglar Takes a Cat and " - Lawrence Block and "The White Cat and " - Joyce Carol Oates and "Returns and " - Jack Ketchum and "Puss-Cat and " - Reggie Oliver and "Cat in Glass and " - Nancy Etchemendy and "Coyote Peyote and " - Carole Nelson Douglas and "The Poet and the Inkmaker's Daughter and " - Elizabeth Hand and "The Night of the Tiger and " - Stephen King and "Every Angel is Terrifying and " - John Kessel and "Candia and " - Graham Joyce and "Mbo and " - Nicholas Royle and "Bean Bag Cats(R) and " - Edward Bryant and "Antiquities and " - John Crowley and "The Manticore's Tale and " - Catherynne M. Valente and "In Carnation and " - Nancy Springer and "Old Foss is the Name of His Cat and " - David Sandner and "A Safe Place to Be and " - Carol Emshwiller and "Nine Lives to Live and " - Sharyn McCrumb and "Tiger Kill and " - Kaaron Warren and "Something Better than Death and " - Lucy Sussex and "Dominion and " - Christine Lucas and "Tiger in the Snow and " - Daniel Wynn Barber and "The Dweller in High Places and " - Susanna Clarke and "Healing and " - Benjamin Dennis Danvers and "The Puma and " - Theodora Goss