David A. Riley's Blog, page 33
August 26, 2021
Baal the Necromancer accepted by Mythic magazine
August 20, 2021
Latest issue of Phantasmagoria has an interview with me, plus a short story, five reviews and an illustration!
The latest issue of Phantasmagoria has an interview with me, plus a short story, five reviews and an illustration!Phantasmagoria #19 is now available through amazon, other internet outlets, plus some branches of Forbidden Planet.
The short story is The Last Coach Trip, much of which was based on annual trips to Ripon races by Bold Street Working Men's Club in the early 80s. They were great days out - though none ended quite like this! According to Trevor Kennedy it is a very poignant tale.
The illustration was the cover for an issue of David A. Sutton's iconic fanzine Shadow.
There is also a glowing and satisfyingly in depth review by Trevor Kennedy of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2.
My artwork
August 18, 2021
A video I created about The Return
Here's a brief video I created about my Lovecraftian crime-noir horror novel The Return.
August 10, 2021
My review of Called By Cthulhu: The Eldritch Art of Dave Carson
My review of Called by Cthulhu: The Eldritch Art of Dave Carson was broadcast by Trevor Kennedy on his midday show on Big Hits Radio UK last Sunday and will be published in the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine, due later this week.
Here it is in full:
CALLED BY CTHULHU: THE ELDRITCH ART OF DAVE CARSON Shoggoth Press, 2021
Dave Carson's magnum opus, Called by Cthulhu, contains nearly all of the artist’s illustrations for the past 50 years, much of it in the Lovecraftian Mythos vein for which he is famous.
I have loved Dave’s artwork ever since I first came across it back in the day. And indeed, when I took over editorship of the British Fantasy Society’s newsletter Prismin 2010, the first artist I contacted for a cover was Dave Carson, who immediately and generously provided me with a wonderful illustration called “De Vermis Mysteriis” (see page 261).
Measuring 10 x 6 3/4 inches and 384 pages long, Called by Cthulhuis a large soft cover book with hundreds of Dave Carson's amazingly distinctive black and white pictures, including, I was pleased to find, the illustration I commissioned for issue 1 of Beyond magazine which I edited and published in 1995, for Karl Edward Wagner's story Gremlin (see page 219). It was one of the last stories Karl ever wrote and sadly wasn't published until after he died the year before. I know Dave struggled over this illustration because, a close friend of Karl’s, he was still deeply upset at his death. Nevertheless, he forged ahead and created an unforgettable illustration I was proud to publish.
The book opens with an Introduction by Neil Gaiman, who enlivens it with some fascinating anecdotes, including the time he saw Dave on a panel at the 1983 British Fantasy Convention. After heavyweight notables Karl Edward Wagner, George Hay and Ramsey Campbell had finished expounding their views on “Lovecraftian subtext”, Dave was asked for his comments, to which he typically responded: “Fuck that, I just like drawing monsters.” Despite this amusingly modest rejoinder, Gaiman goes on to conclude that “the magic of Dave Carson’s monsters is that he loves them, and each drawing and each sculpture becomes a love letter to the night side, something perfect and true, that manages, remarkably, to communicate that love to us.” I fully concur. And its truth can be seen from the amazing amount of meticulous detail with which he creates each illustration, painstakingly constructing a thing of intricate, outlandish beauty dot by well-placed dot. The artistic talent and immense patience he must possess in drawing these is nothing short of awesome.
Called by Cthulhu is a book to pore over page by page, to take in and appreciate the skill with which each illustration has been created, and the unenviable hours of arduous work that has gone into them. Dave is a magnificent artist, whose illustrations are an endless delight to behold.
Both Called by Cthulhu and Phantasmagoria are available from Amazon.
August 4, 2021
Submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 3 open till October 31st
Submissions for Swords & Sorceries Volume 3 will open on the 1st August and close on the 31st October 2021
Payment is £25 per story regardless of length, plus a contributor's copy. The book will be published as a paperback and ebook. If a hardcover version is published we will pay an additional £25. Contributors can also buy extra copies of the book through us at cost price.
Please send your submissions as attachments (doc or docx) to:
paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk
You can send in more than one submission, but we will not accept more than one story per writer.
Although we prefer original stories we are prepared to consider reprints. Just inform us where and when it was previously published.
You can send in simultaneous submissions, but please let us know at once if your story is accepted elsewhere.
There is no limit on the size of submissions.
All rejections and acceptances will be sent out by email at the end of the first week in November. Please don't enquire about your submission before then.
Your story should be sent as an attachment, headed:
"Submission - Swords & Sorceries 3"
And good luck!
To get a better idea of the kind of stories we are likely to publish in this anthology check out volumes 1 & 2:
The contents of Volume One are:
THE MIRROR OF TORJAN SUL - Steve Lines
THE HORROR FROM THE STARS - Steve Dilks
TROLLS ARE DIFFERENT - Susan Murrie Macdonald
CHAIN OF COMMAND - Geoff Hart
DISRUPTION OF DESTINY - Gerri Leen
THE CITY OF SILENCE - Eric Ian Steele
RED - Chadwick Ginther
THE RECONSTRUCTED GOD - Adrian Cole
The cover and all the interior artwork is by Jim Pitts. amazon.co.uk
The contents of Volume 2 are:
The Essence of Dust by Mike Chinn
Highjacking the Lord of Light by Tais Teng
Out in the Wildlands by Martin Owton
Zale and Zedril by Susan Murrie Macdonald
The Amulet and the Shadow by Steve Dilks
Antediluvia: Seasons of the World by Andrew Darlington
A Thousand Words for Death by Pedro Iniguez
Stone Snake by Dev Agarwal
Seven Thrones by Phil Emery
The Eater of Gods by Adrian Cole
Illustrations by Jim Pitts. Other than for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Parallel Universe Publications is officially closed for submissions at the moment.
July 25, 2021
Inside the Labyrinth to be included in Lovecraftiana magazine Lammas 2021 issue
My story Inside the Labyrinth, which is set in Crete, will be reprinted in the Lammas 2021 issue of Lovecraftiana.
This was first published in Alone on the Darkside, edited by the late John Pelan for ROC Books. It was a story inspired by a visit to the ancient city of Knossos when we were on holiday in Crete some years ago.
July 10, 2021
June 18, 2021
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2 - Video
Here is a video advert for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasdy Volume 2 created by my very talented daught, Cassandra. Please feel free to share.
June 8, 2021
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2 is now available in paperback and kindle
We are excited to announce that Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2 is now available as a paperback and ebook (kindle). The paperback is £11.99 and the kindle is just £2.99.
The contents of Volume 2 are:
Introduction by David A. Riley
The Essence of Dust by Mike Chinn
Highjacking the Lord of Light by Tais Teng
Out in the Wildlands by Martin Owton
Zale and Zedril by Susan Murrie Macdonald
The Amulet and the Shadow by Steve Dilks
Antediluvia: Seasons of the World by Andrew Darlington
A Thousand Words for Death by Pedro Iniguez
Stone Snake by Dev Agarwal
Seven Thrones by Phil Emery
The Eater of Gods by Adrian Cole
Illustrations by Jim Pitts.
Amazon.co.uk £11.99 paperback/£2.99 kindle
Amazon.com $16.97 paperback/$4.2
3 kindle
June 5, 2021
My review of C. C. Adams' There Goes Pretty is in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine
The latest issue of Phantasmagoria Magazine includes my review of There Goes Pretty by horror writer C. C. Adams.
THERE GOES PRETTY by C. C. Adams
Dark Minds Press, 2021
Not all ghost stories lead to misery, horror, and violent death – but there is never any doubt that these are exactly where There Goes Pretty is taking us.
Set in present day London, with numerous name checks on eating places and other fashionable venues, it is not a world within which one would normally expect the supernatural to emerge, yet this is exactly what happens here, written with deceptive subtlety as newly married couple, Denny and Olivia find their new found joy subverted by something neither of them can understand.
It begins with Olivia, who might just be suffering from hallucinations to start with, till she is subjected to a physical assault and realises she is either self-harming without knowing about it or being subjected to attacks by something preternatural that has evil intentions towards her.
A practical woman, though, Olivia is mystified why the manifestation can only be seen and felt by her, while her husband goes on with his life with no other worries than the state of his wife’s mental health, which he is totally ill-equipped to understand. An inevitable rift grows between them, which the manifestation is only too eager to exploit, sending Olivia deeper into a mental breakdown.
Only after this has reached its horrific conclusion does Denny begin to realise the grim reality of what is going on – but the results from his reactions, though dramatically different than his wife’s, are just as horrific.
Some tales have no happy outcomes. Some tales you know don’t have this as an option. And so it is with There Goes Pretty, in which the horror accumulates to a bleak and deadly conclusion and a closing line that says it all.
Well written, fast moving, and as bleak as hell, There Goes Pretty is grim, unsettling and incredibly gripping.
