David A. Riley's Blog, page 41
June 30, 2020
The Assaults of Chaos: A novel about H. P. Lovecraft by S. T. Joshi
I came across a reference to this novel on The Vault of Evil. Despite the fact that it was given one four-star and one one-star review on amazon, I was so intrigued by it that I found a copy from a reliable British bookseller on Abebooks and ordered it. The one-star review could very easily have been written by someone with a grudge against Joshi, something which wouldn't surprise me at all, taking into account Joshi's often outspoken views on Lovecraft and other authors.Anyway, I'll see for myself how good or bad this novel is and write a review which, hopefully, will be included in a future issue of Phantasmagoria magazine.
June 9, 2020
New short story acceptance - Grudge End Cloggers
Very pleased to have received a short story acceptance this morning for an anthology due later this year in the UK. The story is one I finished only a few months ago, Grudge End Cloggers. As anyone familiar with my stories, especially those written over the past decade, will know Grudge End is a particular favourite locale of mine (it features in my novel The Return too) where bad things usually happen.
More details later.
More details later.
Phantasmagoria 15 now out in print and ebook
The latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine is now available to order from Amazon in both print and ebook and will shortly be available from certain shops.
The front cover by artist Jim Pitts is of my story The Fragile Mask on His Face, which is also included in this issue, along with a couple of my drawings and a poem, As Silver Dusk Suffuses Red, which also has a Jim Pitts illustration.
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
The front cover by artist Jim Pitts is of my story The Fragile Mask on His Face, which is also included in this issue, along with a couple of my drawings and a poem, As Silver Dusk Suffuses Red, which also has a Jim Pitts illustration.
Amazon UK
Amazon USA
June 3, 2020
Three Eyed Jack
Very pleased to learn that Trevor Kennedy will be including my brand new story Three Eyed Jack in the next edition of Gruesome Grotesques: Carnival of Freaks later this year.
June 1, 2020
Phantasmagoria Magazine #15
Coming this weekend, the latest issue of Phantasmagoria. The brilliant cover artwork by Jim Pitts illustrates my story The Fragile Mask on his Face, which is published in this issue. I also have a poem and some artwork in it too.
May 31, 2020
Cover artwork for Phantasmagoria magazine for my story The Fragile Mask on his Face
I can now reveal the fantastic cover artwork by Jim Pitts for my story The Fragile Mask on his Face, which will be in the next issue of Phantasmagoria magazine, due next week.May 16, 2020
The Evil Leader of Communist China
Chinese death threats for Polish illustrator! Her boss wants to fire her. Read the article on the link below. And below that is the illustration in question.link
No one should have to suffer under Communist rule. It's time the Chinese people were helped to shake off the shackles of that despotic regime.
No one should have to suffer under Communist rule. It's time the Chinese people were helped to shake off the shackles of that despotic regime.
May 15, 2020
Devs
We were recommended to watch Devs, a strange science fiction series produced by FX. Finally watched all the episodes and what a fantastic trip that was! Enjoyed everything about it, from the brilliant photography and music to the wonderfully underplayed but thoroughly effective acting. It was one of those series that had a really well written storyline that reached a satisfying conclusion, with some unexpected but logical twists along the way.
May 13, 2020
The Lurkers in the Abyss - 50 years on
It still seems amazing to me that my first professionally published story appeared 50 years ago this year in 1970 in The Eleventh Pan Book of Horror edited by the legendary Herbert van Thal. It was written and sent off when I was still a pupil at Accrington Grammar School, though my letter of acceptance didn't arrive till one week after I finished. The Lurkers in the Abyss has been reprinted a couple of times since.
In 2012 it was chosen by editor John Pelan to represent 1970 in The Century's Best Horror Fiction, a massive two-volume hard-cover anthology published by Cemetery Dance.
I then included it in my collection published by David Sutton's Shadow Publishing, The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror.
May 11, 2020
The Last Kingdom
Watching a lot of TV these days, but there is so much outstandingly good stuff on it at the moment - thankfully!Anyway, last night saw us watching the final episode of the current season of The Last Kingdom, based on the brilliant novels of Bernard Cornwell. We started by rewatching all the previous seasons to remind ourselves of just what had already happened. I must admit the story just gets better and better, as you would expect from such a fantastic writer as Cornwell. If you haven't watched any of tjhese yet, give it a go. It began life on the BBC (perhaps one of the BBC's last decent dramas) but they abandoned it after the second season, God knows why. But luckily it was taken up by Netflix, who have done a first rate job with it, and actually made it even better than before.
