David A. Riley's Blog, page 20

The Best of Lovecraftiana Magazine will include The Psychic Investigator

The Best of Lovecraftiana Magazine will include my story The Psychic Investigator, which is likely to be the last of my Grudge End tales as it brings them to a post-apocalyptic end. 

A New Advert Designed for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy

This is the latest advert designed for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy, in full colour above and in greyscale below. The artwork on all the covers is by award-winning artist Jim Pitts:

Lucilla - a novella is now also available as a Kindle eBook

Lucilla - a novella, serialised last year in Bewildering Stories, is now available as a kindle eBook as well as in hardcover.

The kindle version is £2.99 in the UK and $3.70 in the United States.

It was just another standard day at the Women’s Refuge until the arrival of Lucilla. Then Miranda’s world was never the same again.
Unaccountably influenced by what the girl needed, her job, her friendships, even freedom itself were of no importance. It was not until her niece’s life was at risk that Miranda knew she had to act.
But what could she do against someone who had such a tight, insidious grip on her?

amazon UK £13.99 in hardcover/£2.99 in kindle

amazon.com $17.85in hardcover/$3.70 in kindle

 

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 reviewed in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine

Trevor Kennedy, editor and publisher of Phantasmagoria Magazine gives a great review of the 6th volume in our Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy anthology series. 

Many thanks to Trevor for giving us permission to quote his review in full:

NOW IN ITS sixth volume, editor and publisher David A. Riley and illustrator Jim Pitts’ “Swords & Sorceries” series of high fantasy anthologies returns with more of the sort of swash-buckling tales of epic heroes and dastardly villains, sorcerers, witches, gods and monsters that its fans have come to expect, some novella length, and penned by a team comprising of several of their regular contributors, alongside some newbies.
Proceedings get off to a very impressive start with Dev Agarwal’s ‘Land of the Dead’, an imaginative entry involving his recurring characters of the Stone Snake and Princess Irene being imprisoned as we join the adventure, and one which also features the haunting “Land . . .” of the title. This is followed by ‘The House of Bones’ by Carson Ray which sees his hero Knox out for vengeance against the delightfully monikered “Doctor Grimm”. Andrew Darlington’s ‘A Place of Ghosts’ is a superb story with a neat twist of an immortal being sent on a mission by a mage, while one of the S&S genre’s
finest sons, Adrian Cole, is featured in the series once more with his Atlantis-set ‘God of the Dreaming Isles’.

Other highlights would be ‘Wardark and the Siren Queen’ by Craig Herbertson, Tais Teng’s ‘Raiding the Graveyard of Lost Ships’, which is accompanied by a very nice illustration by the author, and ‘Golden Witch of Adzelgar’ by Scott McCloskey.
With no shortage of swords-for-hire, blood-soaked gore and battles, well thought out world-building, creatures of myth and legend, and other tropes aficionados of this particular brand of epic fantasy will surely enjoy, Riley and Pitts’ series continues to grow and give a platform to some of the best writers within this particular field, certainly contributing strongly to a resurgence of sorts within it at the same time.
I think it can be safely assumed that the Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series is currently in a healthy position, with several more volumes in the planning stages, something that its regular readers will welcome with open arms, and swords and shields at the ready.
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 is published by Parallel Universe Publications and is available to purchase from Amazon and other outlets. For more details please go to:
paralleluniversepublications.blogspot.com
—Trevor Kennedy

Phantasmagoria Magazine is available online from amazon and in certain selected shops, including some branches of Forbidden Planet. 270 pages of articles, interviews, reviews, fiction and loads of first-rate illustrations for a mere £13.99.

 

New advert for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volumes 1-6

Prior to opening up submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7 on the 1st October, here is the latest ad for the first six volumes.

 

If someone treats you badly

 

Lucilla - a novella is now available in hardcover

My novella Lucilla, serialised last year in Bewildering Stories, is now available in hardcover for £13.99/$17.85. The cover artwork is by Jim Pitts.

It was just another standard day at the Women’s Refuge until the arrival of Lucilla. Then Miranda’s world was never the same again.
Unaccountably influenced by what the girl needed, her job, her friendships, even freedom itself were of no importance. It was not until her niece’s life was at risk that Miranda knew she had to act.
But what could she do against someone who had such a tight, insidious grip on her?

amazon UK £13.99

amazon.com $17.85

Yet Another Swords & Sorcery Story Completed: The Demon From Another World

Well, a week after I finished The Unhappy Inquisitor I have just finished another swords and sorcery tale: The Demon From Another World, which is a fantasy homage to the John Carpenter movie The Thing From Another World.

Included in this story, as the main character this time, is a mercenary who appeared in a much smaller part in The Unhappy Inquisitor, Horbeck. 

Whether it's any good I'll leave for others to decide, though it was fun to write.

From the opening page:

It crashed through the clouds in the deadof night, lighting up the sky as if it were day. The high-pitched scream thataccompanied it was as if a thousand dragons (if such creatures even existed,which most people doubted) were being slaughtered in agony. Down it hurtled, cleavingthe clouds and leaving behind a searingly bright trail that gradually dispersedan untold distance behind it.

When it crashed theearth shook far and wide, and those who were awakened by its reverberationsthanked whatever gods they had it was nowhere near where they lived, beforetrying to return to sleep again. For most it was a fitful night.

It landed in theendless wastes of the Great Desert, instantly turning a wide circle of sand scoresof miles across into rough, filmy, strange-looking glass beneath whose brittlesurface lay treacherous chasms.

Gradually,whatever was buried at its core began to cool.

It cooled for years.

 

Another new S&S story completed - The Unhappy Inquisitor

 Just put the final touches to another new swords and sorcery story, The Unhappy Inquisitor, set in the city of Assabarr, which was the original home of Ossani the Healer until the attentions of the powerful priesthood and its inquisitors forced him to leave (see Ossani's Slaves). This story, which is about a reluctant inquisitor who would much rather have been custodian of the priesthood's library of ancient scrolls, is 5600 words long.

Swan Song reprinted in Schlock! Webzine Volume 17 issue 13

I'd forgotten all about it but my story Swan Song, first published in the Black Books of Horror, has just been reprinted in the latest issue of Schlock! Webzine, Volume 17 issue 13.