About Zontar Press
Zontar Press is a small, fiercely independent publishing house devoted to the strange and the unexplained- UFOs and their occupants, hauntings, time slips, mimics, and every mystery that refuses to sit politely inside official explanations. Its name is borrowed with love from 1960s creature-feature lore, and its spirit is borrowed from something older still: the great tradition of pulp-hearted, truth-hunting paranormal publishing.
The house is founded and helmed by Tim R. Swartz, and it carries a torch first lit by the late, legendary Timothy Green Beckley- "Mr. UFO"- whose Inner Light and Global Communications imprints put hundreds of books about the unknown into the world across five decades. Rather than single-author monographs, Zontar's specialty is the gathered voice: anthologies in which a dozen veteran researchers each bring their own lantern to the same dark room.
Tillie writes among them- you will find her in the pages of Weird Time and The Persistence of Ghosts- and Zontar Press is also the proud publisher of every book with her own name on the spine, from Tales from the Rift to Enchanted Objects. All of them live on our shelves in the Shoppe.
Tim R. Swartz
Photo courtesy of Coast to Coast AM
Tim R. Swartz is an Indiana native, an Emmy Award-winning television producer and videographer, and one of the most respected voices in the world of alternative history and the unexplained. As a photojournalist he has chased mysteries from the Great Pyramid of Egypt to the Great Wall of China, and he has appeared on the History Channel's The UnXplained, Ancient Aliens, and Ancient Aliens: Declassified, as well as the History Channel Latin America series Contacto Extraterrestre.
He is the author and editor of numerous books on UFOs, time travel, hidden technology, and interdimensional contact- among them The Lost Journals of Nikola Tesla, Gef The Talking Mongoose: The Eighth Wonder of the World, Tim R. Swartz's Big Book of Incredible Alien Encounters, and the Zontar anthologies gathered below. His articles have appeared in Fate, Strange, Atlantis Rising, UFO Universe, Mysteries, and many other magazines of the thriving UFO press.
Tim is a longtime and favorite guest on Coast to Coast AM, radio's biggest stage for the strange, and has appeared on hundreds of radio and television programs exploring the unknown. Since 1998 he has also written and edited Conspiracy Journal, the free weekly newsletter considered essential reading by paranormal researchers worldwide. For years he worked closely with his friend and collaborator Timothy Green Beckley, and through Zontar Press he keeps that shared mission alive: giving a platform to the witnesses, whistleblowers, and independent researchers the mainstream ignores.
Timothy Green Beckley
Photo courtesy of Coast to Coast AM
Timothy Green Beckley was more than a man- he was a multidimensional force in the world of the strange and unexplained. His life on the edge of reality started early: out-of-body experiences at six, the first of three UFO sightings at ten, and at fourteen a secondhand mimeograph machine on which a New Jersey teenager began printing the Interplanetary News Service Report for anyone who would read it.
He never stopped. Over five decades Beckley became the president of Inner Light / Global Communications, publisher of hundreds of books on UFOlogy, the occult, cryptozoology, and conspiracy- giving those subjects a home in print long before the mainstream would touch them. He edited more than thirty magazines, including UFO Universe, wrote for the national tabloids, and was once described as "the Hunter S. Thompson of UFOlogy." He was among the few Americans ever invited to address closed-door meetings on UFOs at the House of Lords, presided over by the late Earl of Clancarty.
A beloved regular on Coast to Coast AM and radio programs worldwide, Beckley didn't just report on the phenomenon- he became part of it. He passed beyond the veil on May 30, 2021. Zontar Press's very first release was a tribute drawn from his own case files, and his spirit- rose-tinted glasses, black cowboy hat, and all- presides over everything the house publishes.
The Writers
Sean Casteel
Freelance journalist covering UFOs, alien abduction, and the paranormal since 1989, and Tim's co-editor on the Zontar anthologies. Sean has written or contributed to over thirty books for Global Communications and Inner Light, with bylines in UFO Magazine, UFO Universe, Fate, and journals around the world.
John Carlson
Known as The Paranormalist, John stalks the sidewalks of New Jersey documenting his interest in- and occasional confrontations with- the paranormal, and reminds every experiencer who reads him: you are not alone.
Scott Corrales
Founder of the Institute of Hispanic Ufology and its journal Inexplicata, Scott is one of the most respected names in global UFOlogy, chronicling UFO and paranormal events across the Spanish-speaking world with contributing editors in over a dozen countries.
Hercules Invictus
A Lemnian Greek and proud descendant of Argonauts and Amazons, openly Olympian in spirituality and dedicated to living the Mythic Life. For over four decades he has shared his Olympian Odyssey while exploring the fringes of our reality- and he is currently recruiting Argonauts for a new Age of Heroes.
Kurt Konecny
Co-host of The Strange Sessions podcast and a lifelong Wisconsin native, Kurt investigates poltergeists, abductions, time travel, and Bigfoot with Heartland Paranormal Investigations. He believes the world is far stranger than anyone realizes- and that this is a good thing.
Paul Dale Roberts
Fortean investigator and co-owner of Halo Paranormal Investigations, Paul has worked paranormal hot spots from Area 51 and Skinwalker Ranch to the Paris catacombs and the Tower of London, and writes for Phenomena Magazine, Outer Limits Magazine, and Paranormal Underground.
Gene Steinberg
Veteran UFO researcher and Host and Executive Producer of The Paracast, considered since its 2006 debut "the gold standard of paranormal radio." In his other life he has written over thirty books on personal technology, plus two sci-fi novels.
Lon Strickler
Fortean researcher and publisher of the syndicated Phantoms & Monsters blog since 2005, read daily by tens of thousands. His casework has been featured on Ancient Aliens, Paranormal Witness, and multiple appearances on Coast to Coast AM.
Diane Tessman
A UFO investigator since the late 1970s- APRO field investigator and MUFON Florida State Section Director- whose work on the puzzle began with her own childhood encounters. Diane has appeared on Coast to Coast AM as a UFO experiencer and researcher, and is also founder of the Star Network Cat Sanctuary and Wildlife Refuge, giving a warm home to stray cats for over 25 years.
Tillie Treadwell
Author, paranormal scholar, and conscious experiencer of high strangeness- and the keeper of this very parlour. You may have heard of her. Read her full story at Who's Behind the Counter.
Michael K. Waterman
Brooklyn-born and a student of Egyptology for over fifty years, Michael has lectured and taught Ancient Egyptian religion and ritual magick. He is also known as Setna Khamuast, High Priest and founder of the Per-Ntjeru Temples.
Nigel Watson
Researcher of historical and contemporary UFO reports since the 1970s, with degrees in psychology and film. Nigel is the author of the Haynes UFO Investigations Manual, UFOs of the First World War, and The Scareship Mystery- a Coast to Coast AM guest whose writing has also appeared in Fortean Times, History Today, and Wired.
With Special Thanks to Mark Olly
Internationally recognized author, archaeologist, broadcaster, and musician- writer and presenter of ITV Granada's Lost Treasures and a regular presenter on Sky History- whose foreword opens Weird Time.
With Special Thanks to Fred Andersson
Swedish story producer, researcher, and writer with over twenty years in commercial television, working with the teams behind hit paranormal series like Det Okända and Spökjakt- three-time winners of the Kristallen audience award. Author of Northern Lights: High Strangeness in Sweden, the first English-language book devoted entirely to Swedish high strangeness, and the foreword that opens The Persistence of Ghosts.
Every Book from the House
A Photo Can Create A Thousand Words
The house's earliest title, and its most playful- photo prompts to super-charge your creative writing, drawn from Tim's own lens. Sixty-two pages of images chosen to knock a story loose, proof that before the house chased the unexplainable, it was already chasing the story.
Find it on Amazon
Secrets of Telepathic Control
How to develop your psychic powers and have others obey your silent commands- a practical manual for slipping past the conscious filter and letting a message land where it actually gets heard: the subconscious. Old-school psychic training in the grand pulp tradition.
Find it on Amazon
Timothy Green Beckley's Bizarre Bazaar
A loving tribute drawn straight from the files of Mr. UFO himself. UFO encounters, ghosts and hauntings, unknown creatures, mysteries of the hollow earth, and more, told the way Beckley lived them: with wonder, mischief, and no apologies.
Find it on Amazon
Alien Artifacts
Incredible evidence of exotic material from UFO encounters. Has the hard evidence been here all along- crash debris, implants, anomalous alloys, and archaeological artifacts that should not exist? A dozen veteran researchers examine what has been left behind.
Find it on Amazon
Mimics- The Others Among Us
They've been called many names throughout time- gods, angels, demons, the Good Folk, shapeshifters, extraterrestrials. They look human. They act human. But they're not human. An unsettling gathering of encounters with The Others.
Find it on Amazon
Tales from the Rift
A bewitching collection of twelve stories, each spun through the tapestry of American seasons and cherished holidays- drawn from genuine encounters and reimagined as enthralling fiction.
In Our Shoppe
Weird Time: Exploring the Mysteries of Time and Space
From Einstein's relativity to quantum mechanics- alongside firsthand accounts of ordinary people who may have pierced the fabric of time and witnessed the unexplainable. Tillie writes among the contributors, and signed copies live on our own shelves.
In Our Shoppe
The Cat Knew Tarot
Follow Sable Pen Penrose from Texas to Moose Point, a town north of everywhere- some say it finds you when you need it most. After a complex, creative murder shakes the community, a strange, watchful cat circles Pen's steps, and the tarot cards start dealing out a lot of coincidences.. or are they?
In Our Shoppe
The Persistence of Ghosts
Real ghost encounters, residual hauntings, and the theory behind why spirits persist- the house's newest release, exploring haunting from the historical, scientific, psychological, and esoteric angles. Tillie contributes as an esoteric exorcist who has worked in blessing alongside the Catholic church.
In Our Shoppe
Enchanted Objects
A practitioner's guide for the world your grandmother already knew was awake. From the Egyptian ushabti and the Bakongo nkisi to the Hoodoo mojo bag and the witch bottle sealed beneath an English hearth- every culture that paid attention reached the same conclusion: consciousness can take up residence in matter, and the relationship has rules.
In Our Shoppe
Tales from the Rift: Summertime Strangeness
The sequel to Tales from the Rift- more strangeness gathering where the season burns brightest. The rift is not finished with us yet.
In Our ShoppePortraits courtesy of Coast to Coast AM. Covers courtesy of Zontar Press.