David A. Riley's Blog, page 120

The Satyr's Head: Tales of Terror

There have been a couple of reviews of this collection: Shiny Short Fiction and The Black Abyss.

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My favourite bit is where my story is described as reading "like a lovechild of M. R. James and Dennis Wheatley". I might not completely agree with this, but I love it.

Goblin Mire

After several years of dissatisfaction with how they have handled my fantasy novel, Goblin Mire, I finally emailed Renaissance eBooks, asking them to cancel my contract with them. So far they haven't bothered to reply. On checking today to see if the ebook is still available I find, to my surprise, that it isn't, either at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It's what I wanted, but wouldn't it have been a little more professional if Renaissance eBooks had taken the time to let me know?

Anyway, I can now set about doing a rewrite of the novel (which could do with some cutting down in size - mainly in the use of adjectives!!!), then I'll put it back on as an eBook and POD through Amazon with a brand new cover courtesy of Joe Young.

New cover:



Old cover:

SCRAP

Just put the final touches to a story I did a draft for earlier. At 12,100 words this is quite a hefty story, but I think it needed that length. Scrap is about two boys whose mother moves from Blackburn to Edgebottom after the death of their junkie/alcoholic father. There they discover even worse horrors when they decide to go searching for scrap metal to sell to a local dealer and their travels take them to the area of Grudge End and a house with a malevolent ghost. As their family life takes a turn for the worse they try to make use of the ghost to help them out, with horrific results.

Extreme Zombies

Prime Books have just revealed the cover for Extreme Zombies edited by Paula Guran, in which she will be reprinting my story Romero's Children, which was originally published in Charles Black's Seventh Black Book of Horror.

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Lurkers

I think, apart perhaps from a couple of minor alterations, I have now finished Lurkers, a sequel to The Lurkers in the Abyss, which has ended up at 9,500 words. I emailed a copy to Johnny Mains to hear his reaction; thankfully positive. Very positive.

"Ending's one of your strongest for a while, too."

Now, for the next project...

The Female of the Species And Other Terror Tales by Richard David

Just ordered a copy of The Female of the Species And Other Terror Tales by Richard Davis, which has just been published by Shadow Publishing. It's the first time that his stories have been published as a collection, even though it's some years now since his death.

Back in 1971 Richard Davis, who is perhaps better known as an editor than as a writer, was one of the first people to professionally publish any of my work, when he chose After Nightfall for The Year's Best Horror Stories 1, published by Sphere Books in the UK and DAW Books in America. I didn't come across many of his stories, though Guy Fawkes Night I can still vividly remember over forty years since I first read it, which says a lot for the quality and power of the writing.

Collected here are:

The Female of the Species,
Elsie and Agnes,
A Day Out,
The Lady by the Stream,
The Inmate,
A Nice Cut off the Joint,
Guy Fawkes Night,
The Time of Waiting,
The Sick Room,
The Clump,
The Nondescript,

Plus:
What We Were Looking for in Horror,
An Interview with Richard Davis,
Horror in Fiction,
Bibliography.

and an introduction by David A. Sutton.

Sequel to Lurkers in the Abyss

Some time ago Johnny Mains asked if I would write a sequel to Lurkers in the Abyss. Though a bit dubious at the idea - I didn't see how I could do it - I agreed to have a go.

Since then, from time to time, I have tinkered with the project, including one attempt which reached 5,000 words before I abandoned it. I really thought it was something I wouldn't be able to do. After all, the original was written in 1969, appearing the year after in the Eleventh Pan Book of Horror, a long time ago.

Last night, though, I finally managed to finish the first draft. At 10,000 words it's two and a half times longer than the original story and goes in some very strange directions. Next I need to start work on revisions, which should take about a week.

Then think of a title.

At the moment it has the utilitarian and unsatisfactory one of New Lurkers.

These are the opening lines:

 
It had all gone wrong, Stupidly, stupidly, stupidly wrong.And someone would suffer.Of that, Mike was serious. He slammed the car at as tight a turn as he could manage onto the next street, careering past a gaggle of blank faced women, kids in tow, on their way from school. In the gloom of a wintery afternoon they looked as pale as putty, and with about as much attractiveness. Stupid cows! Mike pressed on the horn, scattering them as he accelerated between parked cars down the narrow street. Behind him police sirens sounded menacingly loud and he knew he would have to abandon the car soon. They'd have its details. It wouldn't be long, either, before a police helicopter had him in sight. With their infra red cameras he'd have no chance to escape after that. Grinding his teeth, he thought again about that idiot. Spike had as much idea how to rob a Post Office as he had of brain surgery – which was something Mike would gladly perform the next time they met, though he had a feeling it would be many years before Spike would be walking the streets again. The police must have nabbed him by now for certain.             At the next junction, Mike spun the car in front of a large white van, sending it up onto the kerb, then saw his opportunity: a stretch of shops, a bargain-basement furniture store with a car park out front, and an abandoned church...

Thai Ghost Movies - The Ghost of Mae Nak

Having made a start of watching Thai ghost/horror movies, last night we took a stab at The Ghost of Mae Nak. I'm glad that I watched Nang Nak first as this was a sequel set in modern times. Its plot was much more complicated than the earlier film and, moving from the rural setting of Nang Nak, this is based in present day Bangkok. It's a much more violent movie, with influences from sources such as The Omen in a series of bizarre deaths that befall those who fall foul of the ghost. One man, a thief, mirroring the famous sheet of glass decapitation scene in the Omen films, is diced not by one but by two sheets in a spectacularly gruesome comeuppance. The scenes of Bangkok itself are fascinating, especially in its backstreets and older areas, that contrast so vividly with its ultra modern skyscrapers. As in all the Thai movies I've seen recently the photography is superb. Unlike Nang Nak, the chief focus of this film is on the horror and violence, and I must admit I prefer the earlier film. Nor is the ghost as chilling as in Shutter, where it's seen less but more effectively. Still, a well done horror film with quite some meat to its bones.

Thai Ghost Movies - Shutter and Nang Nak

Watched two tremendously good Thai ghost movies this weekend. I never before realised just how good Thai films could be. These were a revelation, not only in their technical prowess (which was second to none) but also in the depth and sincerity of their story-telling.



Shutter is the more modern of the two, and is a tale of ghostly revenge, though not the one you may initially think it is going to be about. It also has one of the most chilling photos I have ever seen in a film.



Nang Nak is set in the recent past and is based on a Thai legend about a devoted and faithful wife who, even after her death, waits for the return of her husband from the war. It is chillingly beautiful with a unique sadness.

Glory and Splendour: Tales of the Weird by Alex Miles

Glory and Splendour is the first kindle book I have actually bought to download (all the rest have been free). It is also the first ebook published by Karoshi Books, whose purpose is to bring out new works by new and unpublished authors, a splendid idea which has been lucky in coming across a writer of exceptional talent.
The subtitle, Tales of the Weird, is acutely accurate. Although some horrendous things happen in several of these tales, they are not horror stories. Although the supernatural occurs in some strange forms in some of them, neither are they tales of the supernatural. Nor SF, though there are vaguely science fictional elements here and there. What is universal to all of them is a clean, distinctive writing style, which keeps a brisk, no nonsense pace throughout. If there are any influences in these stories they are, as Michel Perry puts it in his introduction, those of Eastern Europe, principally Kafka. There are six stories in this collection: The Judge, Glory and Splendour, Deep Stitches, Hitting Targets, Life Beggar, and The Lotus Device. The Judge is about a mechanical computer which has been entrusted with acting as judge, jury and executioner-cum-inflicter of maiming in a steam punk present day, which may not be as infallible as people are instilled to believe. Glory and Splendour is a tale of plague, decay and self deception, with a fairy-tale like red paint whose magical quality is to make the ugly look beautiful. Deep Stitches is another alternative science story, in which psychology utilises an insectoid version of nano-technology to change people's memories and sense of self. An unscrupulous estate agent in Hitting Targets comes up against an insane gamer turned serial killer, the nearest any of these stories comes to straight horror, combing extreme violence with the darkest of dark humour. In Life Beggar, approaching the end of an unfulfilled life, the protagonist visits a strange, maybe mystical pedlar who sells him a drink which enables him, on touching anyone, to experience their lives in a flash. The protagonist of The Lotis Device, on the other hand, has a job he hates and a boring life. From possibly the same pedlar as in Life Beggar, he obtains a watch that allows him to forget and skip those hours of the day he doesn't want to remember, leaving only the highlights, with unforseen, nightmarish results. 
Satisfying varied, with plots whose threads are unpredictable, this is an impressively original debut collection from a writer I am sure we'll see more of in the future.