David A. Riley's Blog, page 70

A great 5-star review for Black Ceremonies on Amazon

Review:

"You may recognise the name Charles Black and wonder where you've seen it before? If you're a fan of horror, and in particular the horror anthology, then you'll quickly realise that Charles Black is the editor of that wonderful and long running Black Book of Horror series, now in its 11th edition.

Never mind that Mr Black manages to attract some of the best writing talent available in the horror genre for his acclaimed anthologies ( number 11 seems to have reached new heights in its ghoulish excellence! ), but this highly talented editor is also a clever master of writing a great horror story as well!

Black Ceremonies is a wonderful collection of his own, self-penned tales...13 in all, with stories that will haunt and thoroughly unsettle you. From The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs to The Stromboli Collection, each tale has been crafted by a master in the field of terror.

So, to sum up, not only has Mr Charles Black created the greatest horror anthology since those magnificent Pan Books of Horror with his Black Books of Horror, but it transpires that he also a very talented author as well?

Buy this collection now. ....but don't plan on getting much sleep if you read the tales at bedtime"

Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb

I am currently working on getting Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb ready for publication by Parallel Universe. Irvin S. Cobb was a famous humorist, journalist, editor and occasional actor, whose stories were amongst the most popular in American letters during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 he hosted the Oscars and appeared in a number of early movies.
Only occasionally did his fiction delve into darker areas. One of his most famous, Fishhead, went on to inspire H. P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, while The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls. H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Fishhead in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature: “banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake.”
Here for the first time are collected fourteen of Irvin S. Cobb’s darkest tales:
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apopexy
Fishhead
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
The Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity

Irvin S. Cobb on the cover of All-Story Weekly Irvin S. Cobb presenting the Oscars 1935

Classic Weird 2

Updated and probably final cover for Classic Weird 2, which will include:


An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street        
by J. Sheridan Le FanuThe Judgement Books   by E. F. BensonOke of Okehurst           by Vernon LeeWhen I Was Dead     by Vincent O’SullivanThe Eyes   by Edith WhartonA Story Told by the Sea        by W. C. MorrowThe Unbroken Chain     by Irvin S. CobbFrom the Dead   by Edith NesbitWitch In-Grain           by Robert Murray GilchristThe Downs     by Amyas NorthcoteThe Uninhabited House       by J. H. Riddell

5-star review of Moloch's Children

"An excellent book. Might be a bit scary for some but a very good tale with a good ending."

I couldn't ask for a better review than that.

trade paperback: 

amazon.co.uk  £7.99
amazon.com   $9.99

ebook:

amazon.co.uk  £2.99
amazon.com  $4.68

The Eleventh Black Book of Horror

Cover: Paul MudieThe Eleventh Black Book of Horror is now available on Amazon.

trade paperback £7.00  Amazon.co.uk

Thana Niveau - Two Five Seven
Edward Pearce - East Wickenden
Tom Johnstone - Slaughtered Lamb
John Llewellyn Probert - Forgive Us Not Our Trespasses
Stephen Bacon - Lord Of The Sand
Kate Farrell - Alma Mater
Stuart Young - Keeping The Romance Alive
Anna Taborska - Teatime
David A. Riley - Lem
Tony Earnshaw - Flies
David Williamson - And The Dead Shall Speak
Marion Pitman - Every Picture Tells A Story
Sam Dawson - The Weathervane
John Forth - Molli & Julli

Advert for Kitchen Sink Gothic

Kitchen Sink Gothic is now available:
trade paperback:
amazon.co.uk   £8.99
amazon.com  $11.99
ebook:
amazon.co.uk  £2.99
amazon.com  $4.66

Coined in the 1950s, Kitchen Sink described British films, plays and novels frequently set in the North of England, which showed working class life in a gritty, no-nonsense, “warts and all” style, sometimes referred to as social realism. It became popular after the playwright John Osborne wrote Look Back In Anger, simultaneously helping to create the Angry Young Men movement. Films included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Entertainer, A Taste of Honey, The L-Shaped Room and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. TV dramas included Coronation Street and East Enders. In recent years TV dramas that could rightly be described as kitchen sink gothic include Being Human, with its cast of working class vampires, werewolves and ghosts, and the zombie drama In the Flesh, with its northern working class, down to earth setting. In this anthology you will find stories that cover a wide range of Kitchen Sink Gothic, from the darkly humorous to the weirdly strange and occasionally horrific.

Stephen Bacon (Daddy Giggles)
Franklin Marsh (1964)
Andrew Darlington (Derek Edge and the Sunspots)
Gary Fry (Black Sheep)
Benedict J. Jones (Jamal Comes Home) 
Kate Farrell (Waiting) 
Charles Black (Lilly Finds a Place to Stay)
David A. Sutton (The Mutant's Cry)
Walter Gascoigne (The Sanitation Solution)
Mark Patrick Lynch (Up and Out of Here)
Adrian Cole (Late Shift)
Shaun Avery (The Great Estate)
Jay Eales (Nine Tenths)
Craig Herbertson (Envelopes)
Tim Major (Tunnel Vision)
M. J. Wesolowski (Life is Prescious)
David Turnbull (Canvey Island Baby)

Busy end of year for Parallel Universe Publications

We already had a collection of stories by Kate Farrell (And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After) due for publication later this year, together with a collection of Irvin S. Cobb's darker tales, and possibly a sequel to Classic Weird. We now have another, unexpected collection of stories, which are being proofread at the moment, to be published either in October or November. So the end of the year is going to be as busy for Parallel Universe Publications as the beginning. There might also be another collection too, this time under a writer's pen name. More about all of these soon. In the meantime, it's eyes glued to the computer screen!

The Eleventh Black Book of Horror

Looking forward to seeing The Eleventh Black Book of Horror, which is due out shortly. I have a story in it called Lem.

First Amazon review of Kitchen Sink Gothic - and it's five stars

Okay, so the reviewer based this on one story only, but at least it's a start. I hope he enjoys the rest of them as much.
I'm sure he will!
 
Blue Collar Noir, September 9, 2015 By Dave Gorudoux This review is from: Kitchen Sink Gothic (Paperback) Kitchen Sink Gothic is a short story anthology published in the United Kingdom that includes a story written by my friend, Walter Gascoigne. The title refers to a genre of Gothic stories featuring working class characters, stories that range from, to quote the introduction, “darkly humorous to the weirdly strange and occasionally horrific.” Walter’s story is all of the above and much more.

I just received my Kindle copy last night, and I immediately flipped to Walter’s story, “The Sanitation Solution.” I haven’t taken the time yet to read any of the other stories, but I was so taken by “The Sanitation Solution” that I wanted to recommend it immediately. Knowing Walter like I do, I can tell you that the story is, like Walter himself, a unique experience.

Only Walter could preface a story by quoting Charles Manson and close by quoting Shakespeare. I’m not going to spoil anything by describing what happens in between, except to tell you that you’ll experience laughter and disgust and irony – not bad for a short story. He writing is lean and efficient and straight forward, reminding me a little bit of Richard Matheson at his best.
Walter begins the story with these two sentences: “From my vantage point on top of this mountain of trash and maggots, I could see the rats were the size of small dogs. Just last week I saw one tearing apart what was left of a tiny infant.” Perfect. There’s no way anyone can read that and not be compelled to keep reading.

And it only gets better as Walter draws you into his weird world and its twisted logic and strange characters. It’s a testament to Walter’s skill in that only a few pages you are taken away to a world of his imagining.

Walter’s story is only one of many in this collection, and if it were the only one, it’d be worth the price of purchasing the book. I’m hoping that as I read the rest of the book, I’ll find more stories that disgust and amuse me and make me think, even though I know there is only one Walter.

Fishhead and Other Weird Tales by Irvin S. Cobb

Besides working on getting Kate Farrell's collection of short stories into print - And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After - Parallel Universe Publications is also working on collecting together all of Irvin S. Cobbs' darker stories for the first time in one volume. Better known as a writer of humorous tales, this will show another side to him.
Two of his stories are known to have inspired H. P. Lovecraft himself. Cobbs' tale Fishhead (which PUP reprinted earlier this year in Things That Go Bump in the Night) gave rise to The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The Unbroken Chain helped to give Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls.
The collection will be titled Fishhead and Other Weird Tales and will, hopefully, be published before the end of the year.