David A. Riley's Blog, page 50

A Distasteful Horror Story by Johnny Mains

Lovely surprise to find this splendid book in the post today from Johnny Mains, his first novel A Distasteful Horror Story - and for the acknowledgement he included: "Dave Riley for helping with the typesetting and championing this book from the very start." Thanks, Johnny. It was a pleasure!

The cover is by the very talented David Whitlam.

Two great reviews on the British Fantasy Society website.

This weekend two great reviews were published on the British Fantasy Society website for books I am directly involved with, one as the author, the other as co-editor.

Matthew Johns reviewed my Lovecraftian horror novel The Return, ending with:
"Riley’s tales of the weird and evil are always fantastically well written – truly gripping yarns that keep the reader engaged and enthralled throughout.  At times gruesome, filled with superb detail, witty dialogue and believable characters, The Return is a classic work of horror that deserves a place on your bookshelf." 

Click here for the full review.  

Dave Brzeski wrote a very detailed, excellent review of Kitchen Sink Gothic, edited by me and my wife Linden, with the closing summary:
"...on the whole this is a solid collection of stories with no absolute duds."

"...this is Kitchen Sink Gothic—like Kitchen Sink Drama, only scarier. What’s not to like? No haunted mansions here; no bloodsucking counts. No, the horror here is targeted just where it tends to be in real life, at ordinary people who don’t have enough money to protect themselves—indeed some of the horrors in these stories are quite mundane in origin, but certainly no less terrifying for that."

For Mr Brzeski's full review click here. 

The Vault of Evil Advent Calendar - Day 22 and it's Boat Trip

My Lovecraftian horror story Boat Trip, first published in The Third Spectral Book of Horror, edited by Joseph Rubas, is today's offering, beautifully illustrated by Chrissie Demant.

Vault of Evil Advent Calendar 2018

The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror reviewed in Belfast's Phantasmagoria Magazine

A brilliant review coming soon in Phantasmagoria Magazine by Trevor Kennedy.

THE LURKERS IN THE ABYSS AND OTHER TALES OF TERROR by David A. Riley.
A collection of rather dark horror tales from David A. Riley spanning almost fifty years with each tale originally appearing in now considered genre classic publications such as the Pan Book of Horror series, Fantasy Tales, FEAR Magazine, World of Horror and many more.
I absolutely adored this book! The type of old school (trust me, that is a compliment) horror I grew up reading and still crave for to this day, the influences to Lovecraft and perhaps the likes of M. R. James and Poe (and maybe even Tales From The Crypt), are apparent but certainly not overdone. Riley’s own grim style shines throughout always, compelling and descriptive, though once again never over doing the descriptiveness. The haunting images his words created in my mind’s eye were vivid and lasting.
A couple of my favourite stories would have to be ‘Terror on the Moors’, a creepy, tense and atmospheric witchcraft-related yarn, and ‘Winter on Aubarch 6’, at first a mild science fiction tale that gradually evolves into full-blown, deeply disturbing body horror.
I don’t personally know what the sales figures are for this book, but I am certainly of the opinion that it should be read by as many people as possible, especially those with even a passing interest in horror or the short story form - of which Riley is one of the masters!
Hugely entertaining and great fun, I urge you to go out and purchase you own copy to experience for yourself the dark joys that lie within.
The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror is available from Shadow Publishing and Amazon.
Trevor Kennedy.

Goblin Mire available for free kindle downloads from 26 - 30th November

 My fantasy novel, Goblin Mire, will be available free on kindle from the 26th till the 30th November.
All I ask is that if you download this novel you give consideration to giving it a honest review on amazon afterwards, however brief.
Hope you enjoy it, though.

Kindle:

Amazon.co.uk free

Amazon.com free

Romero's Children is in the current issue of the Russian horrorzine Darker

I am very pleased that my story Romero's Children has been reprinted in the Russian horrorzine Darker .

David A. Riley, “Romero's Children”, 2010 ©Сегодня вечером сенатор Харди провел операцию против использования широко распространенного препарата, замедляющего старение, известного как «ОМ» («Опытный Мафусаил»). В ходе этой операции были затронуты продажи на черных рынках.
«Сегодня никто не знает, какими будут долгосрочные результаты от его применения. Быть может, он и замедляет старение, но лишь кратковременно, и пройдут годы, возможно, даже десятилетия, прежде чем мы сможем утверждать, что его использование безопасно и не имеет побочных эффектов, о которых в настоящее время ничего не известно. Люди принимают этот препарат в надежде на долгую здоровую жизнь, но они не знают, не возникнет ли других последствий»...

Author's Page on facebook

I now have a dedicated author's page on facebook - David A. Riley, author of The Return, Moloch's Children and others.

Listen to After Nightfall being read on The Gallery of Curiosities

You can now listen to one of my earliest short stories, After Nightfall, being read on The Gallery of Curiosities by Vic Mullin. Just tap on the link above.

This story first appeared in David A. Sutton's fanzine Weird Window, and was reprinted the following year in Sphere Books' The Year's Best Horror Stories, edited by Richard Davis.

It was last reprinted in Otto Penzler's Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (Vintage Books) in 2011.

Romero's Children to be published in Russian webzine Darker.

I am pleased to reveal that my story, Romero's Children, will be translated and published in the next issue of the Russian webzine, Darker .

Romero's Children will be in their zombie issue - link to advert .

Great review for Moloch's Children on BFS website

There was a great review for my horror novel, Moloch's Children, on the BFS website by Ian Hunter.

"This is my kind of book, only 213 pages long with a prologue and epilogue and 36 chapters in between, evidence of how fast-paced a novel “Moloch’s Children” is; in a tale that reminded me of the works of Dennis Wheatley, Ramsay Campbell and Richard Matheson; although it’s not as “quiet” as these last two writers. In his short fiction, Riley has never been one to s