David A. Riley's Blog, page 101

Ebay Sales

I decided to start downsiding my collection of books, memorabilia, etc., due to lack of space.

One of the first to be put on ebay is this little statuette of the Death Dealer which I bought several years ago.


I also put on a job lot of 20 Anne McCaffrey books:

First Review of The Return

Horror writer Craig Herbertson has provided the first review of my Lovecraftian horror novel The Return on his Heavemakers blog.

"Mr. Fosset, making a brief appearance in this work by David A. Riley says “Dark, bleak, nihilistic stuff. Not the kind of thing to take to bed for a good night’s sleep.” Admirably summarizing this new work by a veteran author who many horror aficionados will have encountered in the legendary Pan Horror series and subsequent ‘best of’ collections."

"Fans of Grudge End, a horrible place full of horrible places, will lap this up. “Even in bright daylight the five-storey building looked dark, forbidding, and sordidly utilitarian.” – a good description of Riley’s bleak uncompromising prose – sparse, economical and clinically scary."

My Signature Added £10 to Value of Book

I was amused to have it pointed out to me by Charles Black that a copy of The Lurkers in the Abyss, sold at the World FantasyCon for £12 and signed by me has now gone for sale on Ebay for £22!


That's one of the most flattering things I've seen in ages! Though, of course, the book has yet to sell...

Just Renewed My Membership of the BFS

For various reasons I was thinking of letting my membership of the British Fantasy Society lapse. It is after all £35 I could easily spend on something else. But, with a new invigorated committee, and some excellent-looking publications only just published, I've given in and renewed my membership for another year. Fantasycon 2014 is in York, too, which is not far away from where I live - and is also one of my favourite cities.

One of the new books recently published by the BFS:

Edited by Johnny Mains and with artwork by David Whitlam, The Burning Circus is an anthology for members of the British Fantasy Society.
Stories include:

Foreword – Johnny MainsIntroduction – Ramsey CampbellDoll Hands – Adam NevillDeath Walks En Pointe – Thana NiveauThe Burning Circus – Angela SlatterWhere is Uncle Phillip? – Alex HamiltonThe Queen in the Yellow Wallpaper – Lynda E. RuckerThe Peter Lorre Fan Club – Stephen VolkThe Garscube Creative Writing Group – Muriel GrayThe Sixteenth Step – Robert Shearman

I Am Providence

I started reading S. T. Joshi's biography of H. P. Lovecraft on my kindle yesterday. At first I expected to be thoroughly bored with all the ancestral details that obligatorily preface biographies, followed by all the equally tedious details of the subject's early years, their schooling, etc. I was pleasantly surprised to find, though there were the expected ancestral details, that these were relatively brief (possibly because few details are available) and Lovecraft, being Lovecraft, was a prodigious child who soon did things of direct interest with his later life, particularly his fascination, in turn, with all things Arabic (stirred by reading tales from the Arabian Nights), then his lifelong fascination with ancient Rome. Soon, influenced by dime novels, Edgar Allan Poe, and everything else he could lay his hands on to read, particularly from his beloved seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, he was writing short stories which he bound into small hand-made books for sale to his relatives and friends, complete with title pages and copyright details.

So, not far in and already Lovecraft's life is becoming increasingly more interesting.

First Review for The Lurkers in the Abyss

It was great to see a first review for my short story collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss, especially as it is by fellow writer, Shaun Jeffrey. I know that praise from him is praise indeed. Thanks Shaun!

The review can be found here on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

S. T. Joshi's Biography of H. P. Lovecraft, I Am Providence, Available on Kindle.

S. T. Joshi's monumental, two-volume biography of the great H. P. Lovecraft, I Am Providence, is now available at a much more affordable price on kindle. I'm looking forward to reading this.

Amazon.com for $10.14

Amazon.co.uk for £6.37

The Return

My Lovecraftian horror novel, The Return, was withdrawn by Blood Bound Books because the first copies had been printed at the wrong size. It's now available again, priced at £8.06 on Amazon.co.uk and $12.99 on Amazon.com. Kindle copies are also available on both sites, £2.54 and $4.11 respectively.

Reviewers can still get mobi copies from me by emailing me on rileybooks@ntlworld.com. If you prefer hard copies that too can be arranged. 

British Fantasy Awards

The British Fantasy Awards were announced at the World Fantasy Convention:

Best Horror Novel (the August Derleth Award): Last Days by Adam Nevill (Macmillan)

Best Fantasy Novel (the Robert Holdstock Award): Some Kind of Fairy Tale by Graham Joyce (Gollancz)

Best Novella: The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine by John Llewellyn Probert (Spectral Press)

Best Short Story: Shark! Shark! by Ray Cluley (Black Static #29) (TTA Press)

Best Collection: Remember Why You Fear Me by Robert Shearman (ChiZine)

Best Anthology: Magic: an Anthology of the Esoteric and Arcane edited by Jonathan Oliver (Solaris)

Best Comic/Graphic Novel: Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples

Best Magazine/Periodical: Interzone, Andy Cox (ed.)

Best Small Press (the PS Publishing Independent Press Award): ChiZine Publications (Brett Alexander Savory and Sandra Kasturi)

Best Non-Fiction: Pornokitsch, Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin (eds)

Best Screenplay: The Cabin in the Woods, Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

Best Artist: Sean Phillips

Best Newcomer (the Sydney J. Bounds Award): Helen Marshall, for Hair Side, Flesh Side (ChiZine Publications)

British Fantasy Society Special Award (the Karl Edward Wagner Award): Iain Banks / Iain M. Banks

Launch for The Lurkers in the Abyss at the World Fantasy Convention

My collection of short stories from Shadow Publishing, The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror, was launched at the World Horror Convention on Friday the 1st November at 2.00 p.m.
Stephen Jones and David A. Riley David A. Sutton, Carl Ford and David A. Riley The launch gets under way One more book signed!