David A. Riley's Blog, page 74
June 13, 2015
A Real-Time Review of Moloch's Children on the Vault of Evil
Kevin Demant (Demonik) has started a real-time review of my horror novel, Moloch's Children, on the Vault of Evil.
Hans Memling . Detail from Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation.
On a tip-off from the pub gossip, Teb, thirty years a poacher, tonight varies his route to take in the derelict Elm Tree house and stay clear of police and gamekeepers. But there are worse things than the forces of law and order, and what Teb sees that night brings on a stroke and enforced career change. So begins Moloch's Children, the first seven chapters of which were run - as Sendings -over Filthy Creations # 6 and #7 before the magazine again went quiet.
The novel centre's around self-styled "hack historical novelist" Oliver Atcheson's acquisition of the derelict property in Fenley Woods. Oliver is recovering from a nervous breakdown triggered by the death of his wife, Louise, in a car accident, and plans to establish an artists colony at Elm Tree House in her memory. But, although he bought the mansion for next to nothing, extensive renovation work is fast exhausting Oliver's fortune, and his close friend, Morgan Davies, worries that he's taken on too much too soon. There's also the matter of the bloody, horrific and undeniably fascinating legends attached to Elm Tree House and environs. Atcheson is openly grumpy where "rustic gobbledygook" is concerned ", but could it be, after that strange find by the builders, the stories are already playing on his fertile imagination?
Morgan embarks on a fact finding mission, first stop, The Hare And Hounds, where Bob the landlord is happy to tell all he knows. Following previous owners The Murdoch's rapid departure, "the Haunted House" stood vacant for two decades, and the surrounding woods have a dreadful reputation. Teb, the village wino, maintains that it was the touch of "something hard and brittle and dry" brought on the stroke that put an end to his poaching days. Of course, Bob pays no heed to such preposterous nonsense, and, besides, Mr. Atcheson has suffered no ill harm since taking up residence, so no cause for alarm.
Some months later, Morgan and wife Winnie accept Oliver's invitation to spend the weekend At Elm Tree House and meet his fellow creatives. These include Howard Brinsley, a temperamental but good-natured painter, Hazel Metcalfe, enigmatic poet, Tom Bexley, hale and hearty sculptor, and his wife, Alicia, who's taken on the role of house-keeper. Winnie loves the house but not the woods which have an oppressive, even disturbing aura about them. She's not best please that Morgan failed to mention the discovery of that strange artefact in the cellar. "The brass feet of Moloch" - Oliver dates them to the Roman conquest - suggest the basement of ElmTree House once served as a Satanic Temple.
With Oliver still ratty on the subject, the Davies' launch their own investigation, inviting the village Librarian Mr Nevil Wilkes to a pub lunch. Mr. Wilkes, a keen local historian, explains that Elm Tree House was built by Sir Robert Tollbridge, a thoroughly bad egg, on the site of a medieval Monastery. During the twelfth century, amid allegations of sadism and Devil worship, the Monks were taken out and lynched in Elm Tree Wood, and their chapel burned to the ground. The Abbot came off even worse, hung, drawn and quartered in the village square, his remains suspended in a cage until they vanished during a terrible storm. He and a "twig-shinned phantom" abroad in the woods are reputedly one and the same entity.
Wilkes assures them it's not Oliver's new home has the evil name, but the surrounding wood, where several murders have been committed. But has he told them the whole story?
To be continued ....
Read more: http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/6033/david-riley-molochs-children#ixzz3cy08tt5z
Hans Memling . Detail from Triptych of Earthly Vanity and Divine Salvation.
On a tip-off from the pub gossip, Teb, thirty years a poacher, tonight varies his route to take in the derelict Elm Tree house and stay clear of police and gamekeepers. But there are worse things than the forces of law and order, and what Teb sees that night brings on a stroke and enforced career change. So begins Moloch's Children, the first seven chapters of which were run - as Sendings -over Filthy Creations # 6 and #7 before the magazine again went quiet.
The novel centre's around self-styled "hack historical novelist" Oliver Atcheson's acquisition of the derelict property in Fenley Woods. Oliver is recovering from a nervous breakdown triggered by the death of his wife, Louise, in a car accident, and plans to establish an artists colony at Elm Tree House in her memory. But, although he bought the mansion for next to nothing, extensive renovation work is fast exhausting Oliver's fortune, and his close friend, Morgan Davies, worries that he's taken on too much too soon. There's also the matter of the bloody, horrific and undeniably fascinating legends attached to Elm Tree House and environs. Atcheson is openly grumpy where "rustic gobbledygook" is concerned ", but could it be, after that strange find by the builders, the stories are already playing on his fertile imagination?
Morgan embarks on a fact finding mission, first stop, The Hare And Hounds, where Bob the landlord is happy to tell all he knows. Following previous owners The Murdoch's rapid departure, "the Haunted House" stood vacant for two decades, and the surrounding woods have a dreadful reputation. Teb, the village wino, maintains that it was the touch of "something hard and brittle and dry" brought on the stroke that put an end to his poaching days. Of course, Bob pays no heed to such preposterous nonsense, and, besides, Mr. Atcheson has suffered no ill harm since taking up residence, so no cause for alarm.
Some months later, Morgan and wife Winnie accept Oliver's invitation to spend the weekend At Elm Tree House and meet his fellow creatives. These include Howard Brinsley, a temperamental but good-natured painter, Hazel Metcalfe, enigmatic poet, Tom Bexley, hale and hearty sculptor, and his wife, Alicia, who's taken on the role of house-keeper. Winnie loves the house but not the woods which have an oppressive, even disturbing aura about them. She's not best please that Morgan failed to mention the discovery of that strange artefact in the cellar. "The brass feet of Moloch" - Oliver dates them to the Roman conquest - suggest the basement of ElmTree House once served as a Satanic Temple.
With Oliver still ratty on the subject, the Davies' launch their own investigation, inviting the village Librarian Mr Nevil Wilkes to a pub lunch. Mr. Wilkes, a keen local historian, explains that Elm Tree House was built by Sir Robert Tollbridge, a thoroughly bad egg, on the site of a medieval Monastery. During the twelfth century, amid allegations of sadism and Devil worship, the Monks were taken out and lynched in Elm Tree Wood, and their chapel burned to the ground. The Abbot came off even worse, hung, drawn and quartered in the village square, his remains suspended in a cage until they vanished during a terrible storm. He and a "twig-shinned phantom" abroad in the woods are reputedly one and the same entity.
Wilkes assures them it's not Oliver's new home has the evil name, but the surrounding wood, where several murders have been committed. But has he told them the whole story?
To be continued ....
Read more: http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/6033/david-riley-molochs-children#ixzz3cy08tt5z
May 31, 2015
Lem, my story in the Eleventh Black Book of Horror
I don't know why but even though I have published nine books in the last six months under our own Parallel Universe Publications imprint, with two more in the wings, I am really excited about having another story in the Black Books of Horror series edited by Charles Black.
Of the ten Black Books so far published, I have had stories in eight. Next month will see my ninth with Lem.
Mortbury Press, publishers of the Black Books of Horror.
Anyone interested in reading editor Charles Black's own stories, should check out Black Ceremonies:
Black Ceremonies by Charles Black
trade paperback:
Amazon.co.uk (£6.91)
Amazon.com ($9.88)
ebook:
Amazon.co.uk (£1.99)
Amazon.com ($3.01)
May 24, 2015
Competition re The Return - Name the owner of this gun
In my Lovecraftian crime noir novel The Return one character regularly uses a Beretta .22 pistol, favoured by the Mossad.
Name which character this is and the first three winners will receive a copy of any Parallel Universe paperback (or ebook, if they prefer) of their choice.
Email your entries to rileybooks@ntlworld.com, heading the subject line "The Return Contest".
Good luck!
Published by Blood Bound BooksParallel Universe Publications:
May 22, 2015
News from Parallel Universe Publications
News from Parallel Universe Publications:
Our next book will be Kitchen Sink Gothic in June.
Although the final date for submissions is the end of May, the TOC so far is:
1964 by Franklin Marsh
Derek and the Sun-Spots by Andrew Darlington
Daddy Giggles by Stephen Bacon
Black Sheep by Gary Fry
Jamal Comes Home by Benedict J. Jones
Waiting by Kate Farrell
Lilly Finds a Place to Stay by Charles Black
The Mutant's Cry by David A. Sutton
The Sanitation Solution by Walter Gascoigne
Up and Out of Here by Mark Patrick Lynch
Late Shift by Adrian Cole
After this we have lined up a great collection of short stories by Kate Farrell, with an introduction by Reggie Oliver, And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After.
We are also working with Jim Pitts on a book dedicated to British fantasy artists, hopefully including Jim himself, Dave Carson, and John Stewart. We'll probably cover three artists per book, with articles, photos, bibliographies, biographies, and, of course, as much art as we can cram in. This will be a larger size than our fiction books, possibly 8.5 in x 11 in, with full colour covers. As yet we haven't decided on a title for the series, but we hope to have the first book out before the end of the year. This will be a major item.
May 20, 2015
May 19, 2015
Contest re Johnny Mains' collection Will Anyone Figure Out that this is a Repackaged First Collection?
In a brilliant satire of some aspects of modern horror fiction, in The Duel Johnny Mains has created one of the strangest characters he has ever written about: The Duke.Can anyone guess who the Duke is meant to be?
A free copy of any book published by Parallel Universe Publications for the first correct answer.
trade paperback:
Amazon.co.uk (£6.72)
Amazon.com ($9.99)
ebook:
Amazon.co.uk (£2.05)
Amazon.com ($3.00)
Moloch's Children
Originally titled Sendings, this was being serialised in Rog Pile's magazine
Filthy Creations
.Unfortunately, the magazine ceased to appear after only two installments of Sendings had been published, so I have now decided to publish it under the Parallel Universe Publications imprint, renamed Moloch's Children.
The book will be published as a trade paperback and an ebook, available on kindle.
Further details soon.
May 18, 2015
Paperback version of Classic Weird available in the States
A paperback version of Classic Weird is now available in the States for $11.50. A UK version will be available shortly.amazon.com $11.50 trade paperback 298 pages
The Monster-Maker by W. C. Morrow The Man Who Went Too Far by E. F. Benson
The Interval by Vincent O'Sullivan
The Doll's Ghost by F. Marion Crawford
The Dead Smile by F. Marion Crawford
The Ghost-Ship by Richard Middleton
The New Catacomb by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The Lost Stradivarius by John Meade Falkner
The House of the Dead Hand by Edith Wharton
A Wicked Voice by Vernon Lee
Phantas by Oliver Onions
May 11, 2015
The Duel - Will Anyone Figure Out that this is a Repackaged First Collection? by Johnny Mains
In a brilliant satire of some aspects of modern horror fiction, in The Duel Johnny Mains has created one of the strangest characters he has ever written about: The Duke. "The midnight people decided we were to duel to the death.
The fact that I and The Duke were thousands of miles apart,
both broke and apt to commit suicide before we met was
neither here nor there to them. They were the midnight
people. I use the term people loosely, of course.
I emailed The Duke several times to see if there was a way
we could get over it, talk out our problems, but rather than
take the solution, he let the sickness bloom, like ink dropped
in water.
Mr Arroyo,
I believe that you are only emailing me because you are afraid to
die. I myself am not. I’m sitting here in my logpile cabin, deep in the
wilderness of X, looking at the bottle of Jim Davidson and gun on
my table. I might take it out and squat a Hunter S. Thompson pose
and maybe shoot a rabbit if one happens to pass by. Or I might send
this email to you and then swallow this barrel and blow the roof of
my head off and dapple the ceiling with my brain. Why would I do
that? Because I’m not afraid to die. But I know that you’re talking to
all of your friends about me. And the midnight people don’t think
you should be doing that as you well know. They’ve been telling me
things. Secret things. Things about you and how you act, go about
your business, try to bring everyone down with your insidious
slurs. I’m going to shut you down. I bet you’re reading this email in
awe. I know I’m the better writer. You do too. You won’t be able to
answer this with poise, elegance, mother-fudging pizzazz. You got
nothing. You got no box to pull from. You are a hack writer, full of
self-importance, sitting there in your little bookbarn, your crusty
seed-hardened pants the only thing you can call comforting.
Yours in hell, you sack of British brown stuff,
The Duke Gerent"
Will Anyone Figure Out that this is a Repackaged First Collection? by Johnny Mains
trade paperback:
Amazon.co.uk (£6.72)
Amazon.com ($9.99)
ebook:
Amazon.co.uk (£2.05)
Amazon.com ($3.00)
