Tim Foley is the author of Tales Nocturnal: A Collection of Stories of the Uncanny (PS Publishing 2025). His dark fiction and critical essays have appeared in Wormwood, Supernatural Tales, West Marin Review, All Hallows, Dark Hollow, and anthologies by Flame Tree Press and Egaeus Press. In early 2025, the Somebody Just Like You podcast dramatized his short story “1965 Ford Falcon.” A member of the Dramatists Guild, he holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of San Francisco. He lives in East Sacramento, among the sycamore trees. Website: TimothyJFoley.com.
Tim Foley’s collection of uncanny tales invites us into a world where a subtle frisson awaits, a world where the sense that something is chillingly wrong lurks just beneath the familiar rituals of everyday life. A classic muscle car hides a dark, secret history. The shade of a lonely bride broods in a hotel room, longing for a friend. A cynical musician confronts a closet door that, without explanation, refuses to stay shut. For the past dozen years, Tim Foley’s stories have appeared in journals and anthologies, offering modern takes on the supernatural tale, creating a sharp sense of unease in the reader. Gathered here in his first collection, these stories offer gentle mystery and creeping dread. Seventeen Tales Nocturnal, should be read late in the evening, when the spirits are near.As a fan of short stories and slow-building suspense, Nocturnal Tales was a chilling delight. Tim Foley masterfully blends the uncanny with the everyday, creating stories that quietly creep under your skin. Each tale delivers a gentle jolt of dread—never overdone, always unsettling—and the supernatural elements feel fresh and eerily believable.
Eric Baldwin is reading two pieces by Tim Foley: “On the Pier at Midnight” and “Aneurysm.” Eric has performed all across the United States and Europe in roles as diverse as Henry V, Macbeth, Biff in Death of a Salesman, Prospero, Shylock, Pale in Burn This and Barry Champlain in Talk Radio. He was Artistic Director of the Quantum Theatre Company in Los Angeles and the founder of Resurrection Theatre in Sacramento.
Tanya Žilinskas is a first generation American living in Sausalito. Her fiction has appeared in publications like Chicago Quarterly Review, Southern Humanities Review, Puerto del Sol, TriQuarterly, Shenandoah, The Florida Review, Porter House Review, and has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. She received her MFA in Writing from the University of San Francisco, where she was awarded the post-graduate teaching fellowship. She is working on a novel about early internet hoaxes and documentary ethics and a linked story collection set in a surreal version of Marin County.
When Opal meets Minka at a dinner party, she’s drawn into an unsettling web of prison visits and elaborate lies. Minka claims her twin brother was murdered by Franklin Salvary—but as Opal accompanies her on weekly visits to document their story, she discovers Franklin is nothing like the violent killer described. He’s a gentle dreamer in minimum security who wants to be an astronaut.
Set against Opal’s failing marriage and William Shatner’s melancholic space journey, “Overview Effect” explores the dangerous allure of other people’s mysteries and the stories we construct to escape our suspended lives. A darkly funny tale about the moment we must choose between comfortable fiction and uncertain truth.
Leah Daugherty will read “Overview Effect” by Tanya Žilinskas. ” Leah (she/her) is thrilled to be returning to Stories on Stage Davis. She is a Sacramento-based actor and director, and Big Idea Theatre company member. Favorite credits include Georgiana and Kitty: Christmas at Pemberly and The Wolves at Capital Stage, Dorothea Putente Tells All! at the California Stage Company, and Tempodessey at Big Idea Theatre. Leah is an alumna of UC Davis and the Capital Stage Apprenticeship Program.