David A. Riley's Blog, page 82
January 7, 2015
Two new titles to be available from Parallel Universe Publications this month
Two new titles will be available in paperback this month from Parallel Universe Publications: Charles Black's short story collection, Black Ceremonies, and David A. Riley's fantasy novel, Goblin Mire, which was originally published several years ago by Renaissance eBooks.
Cover by Paul Mudie
Cover by Joe Young
Black Ceremonies is168 pages and will cost £6.99 / $11.00 in the US / €9.00 in Europe
Goblin Mire is 318 pages and will cost £9.99 / $15.00 in the US / €12.50 in Europe
Cover by Paul Mudie
Cover by Joe YoungBlack Ceremonies is168 pages and will cost £6.99 / $11.00 in the US / €9.00 in Europe
Goblin Mire is 318 pages and will cost £9.99 / $15.00 in the US / €12.50 in Europe
January 6, 2015
Three of my hellnotes reviews reprinted in Dark Discoveries magazine in 2014
Having just found out about the latest, I now realise three of my hellnotes book reviews in 2014 were reprinted in Dark Discoveries Magazine, which is a personal record.
These are:
Queen of the Dead: Zombie Ascension II by Vincenzo Bilof
Herbert Manning's Psychic Circus and Other Dark Tales by David Williamson
McFall by Scott Nicholson
These are:
Queen of the Dead: Zombie Ascension II by Vincenzo Bilof
Herbert Manning's Psychic Circus and Other Dark Tales by David Williamson
McFall by Scott Nicholson
December 31, 2014
Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales now available as a trade paperback from Parallel Universe Publications
Craig Herbertson's collection, The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is now available to order. The 274 trade paperback is available for £11.99 including UK postage from Parallel Universe Publications (email me at rileybooks@ntlworld.com for a paypal invoice) Overseas orders Europe add £3. Outside Europe add £4.
December 23, 2014
Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales almost ready from Parallel Universe Publications
Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is almost ready from Parallel Universe Publications. All we are waiting for now is the proof copy from the printer and it will be available, both from us and from Amazon, etc. Price will be £11.99.Great review for The Return
There is a great review for The Return on Amazon by Douglas Draa:
"The Long Good Friday" meets "the Mythos",
December 23, 2014 By Douglas B. Draa This review is from: The Return (Kindle Edition) Folks, if you are only going to buy one book right now then this is it! You don't even have to be a "Mythos" fan to receive maximum enjoyment!
David A. Riley's "The Return" is an amazing read. Do you like gritty noir? Brit Horror? Masculine (but not macho) protagonists? Eldritch Horror in bleak industrial slums? "The Long Good Friday" meets "the Mythos"? The writing is dense and sleek. Never boring enthralling page turners. Do you like to read just a few more pages even though you need to sleep? Then this is THE BOOK!
I read this in record time. What is amazing is that you get over 270 pages of story. There's no fluff or padding. Every single word is dedicated to moving the plot along. Mr. Riley doesn't waste one single word.
And what a plot it is.
Gary Morgan, a mob enforcer on the run, returns to his hometown of Edgebottom to visit the neighborhood he grew up in. The now abondoned mill quarter of "Grudge End". "Grudge End" was a nest of dispair, pain, deprivity,violence, and eldritch horror.
I won't give anything away, but once Gary returns homes, things go from being bad, but managable, to becoming a waking nightmare as forces from beyond both the law and reality as we know it set their sights on Gary.
THIS IS ONE FINE HORROR NOVEL!
"The Long Good Friday" meets "the Mythos",
December 23, 2014 By Douglas B. Draa This review is from: The Return (Kindle Edition) Folks, if you are only going to buy one book right now then this is it! You don't even have to be a "Mythos" fan to receive maximum enjoyment!
David A. Riley's "The Return" is an amazing read. Do you like gritty noir? Brit Horror? Masculine (but not macho) protagonists? Eldritch Horror in bleak industrial slums? "The Long Good Friday" meets "the Mythos"? The writing is dense and sleek. Never boring enthralling page turners. Do you like to read just a few more pages even though you need to sleep? Then this is THE BOOK!
I read this in record time. What is amazing is that you get over 270 pages of story. There's no fluff or padding. Every single word is dedicated to moving the plot along. Mr. Riley doesn't waste one single word.
And what a plot it is.
Gary Morgan, a mob enforcer on the run, returns to his hometown of Edgebottom to visit the neighborhood he grew up in. The now abondoned mill quarter of "Grudge End". "Grudge End" was a nest of dispair, pain, deprivity,violence, and eldritch horror.
I won't give anything away, but once Gary returns homes, things go from being bad, but managable, to becoming a waking nightmare as forces from beyond both the law and reality as we know it set their sights on Gary.
THIS IS ONE FINE HORROR NOVEL!
December 22, 2014
British Fantasy Society - membership renewed for another 12 months
Well, that's my membership of the BFS renewed again for another 12 months. After a few hiccups, the society appears to be on course again.
Submissions Call for The Fall of Cthulhu
Horrified PressCheck out this great call from new Horrified Press editor Douglas Draa.
2015 is indeed going to be a great year!
The Fall of Cthulhu
Deadline: February 28th, 2015
Payment: Exposure and Royalties
Short Stories - 3,000 - 5,000 words
H. P. Lovecraft never stuck to any serious continuity with his Mythos. It has always been simply accepted that the return of Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods was an inevitability.
So a while back I was rereading Lovecraft’s “The Shadow out of Time” and came across the following passage….
“I shivered at the mysteries the past may conceal, and trembled at the menaces the future may bring forth. What was hinted in the speech of post-human entities of the fate of mankind produced such an effect on me that I will not set it down here. After man there would be the mighty beetle civilisation, the bodies of whose members the cream of the Great Race would seize when the monstrous doom overtook the elder world. Later, as the earth’s span closed, the transferred minds would again migrate through time and space—to another stopping-place in the bodies of the bulbous vegetable entities of Mercury. But there would be races after them, clinging pathetically to the cold planet and burrowing to its horror-filled core, before the utter end.”
Now this can easily be interpreted as stating that Cthulhu and the Others do not return during Humanity's time on Earth!
Why don’t they return? What happens that stops them?
This is a focused idea that leaves lots of room to the imagination.
Did we stop them?
Did some one else stop them?
Were the stars never right?
They decided not come?
Did Cthulhu over sleep?
It's all up to you!
So get your writing caps on and let those eldritch juices flow!
We're open to all styles of writing. Be it Pulp, Noir, Literary, SF, Gothic or what ever you feel appropriate.
Just make it entertaining!
Submission guidelines:
Please submit your manuscript as a *.rtf, *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact me prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.)
Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing. Please format the document to 1st line indentation of 1″. The page margin should be set to .1″ on all sides.
No headers, footers or page numbers.
Please check grammar.
Upon acceptance into the anthology, we ask that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology.
This title will be available as an e-book and trade quality paperback.
Douglas Draa will be presiding over this anthology.
Email your submission as an attachment to: weirdaether@t-online.de
The email subject line must read “SUBMISSION – The Fall of Cthulhu – ‘your story title’” or your submission will not be considered for this anthology.
Successful applicants will be notified before the deadline has expired.
2015 is indeed going to be a great year!
The Fall of Cthulhu
Deadline: February 28th, 2015
Payment: Exposure and Royalties
Short Stories - 3,000 - 5,000 words
H. P. Lovecraft never stuck to any serious continuity with his Mythos. It has always been simply accepted that the return of Cthulhu and the other Elder Gods was an inevitability.
So a while back I was rereading Lovecraft’s “The Shadow out of Time” and came across the following passage….
“I shivered at the mysteries the past may conceal, and trembled at the menaces the future may bring forth. What was hinted in the speech of post-human entities of the fate of mankind produced such an effect on me that I will not set it down here. After man there would be the mighty beetle civilisation, the bodies of whose members the cream of the Great Race would seize when the monstrous doom overtook the elder world. Later, as the earth’s span closed, the transferred minds would again migrate through time and space—to another stopping-place in the bodies of the bulbous vegetable entities of Mercury. But there would be races after them, clinging pathetically to the cold planet and burrowing to its horror-filled core, before the utter end.”
Now this can easily be interpreted as stating that Cthulhu and the Others do not return during Humanity's time on Earth!
Why don’t they return? What happens that stops them?
This is a focused idea that leaves lots of room to the imagination.
Did we stop them?
Did some one else stop them?
Were the stars never right?
They decided not come?
Did Cthulhu over sleep?
It's all up to you!
So get your writing caps on and let those eldritch juices flow!
We're open to all styles of writing. Be it Pulp, Noir, Literary, SF, Gothic or what ever you feel appropriate.
Just make it entertaining!
Submission guidelines:
Please submit your manuscript as a *.rtf, *.doc or *.docx file (all other formats will automatically be rejected. Contact me prior to submitting if this presents an issue for you.)
Font and formatting: Please submit in Times New Roman, 12 point font; single line spacing. Please format the document to 1st line indentation of 1″. The page margin should be set to .1″ on all sides.
No headers, footers or page numbers.
Please check grammar.
Upon acceptance into the anthology, we ask that Horrified Press holds exclusive publishing rights for six months from the date of publication; after that date has passed, all intellectual property rights revert to the author with the proviso that Horrified Press retains distribution rights in the format of the contracted anthology.
This title will be available as an e-book and trade quality paperback.
Douglas Draa will be presiding over this anthology.
Email your submission as an attachment to: weirdaether@t-online.de
The email subject line must read “SUBMISSION – The Fall of Cthulhu – ‘your story title’” or your submission will not be considered for this anthology.
Successful applicants will be notified before the deadline has expired.
December 21, 2014
My story The Bequest was Saturday's Advent Calendar offering on the Vault of Evil
Saturday's Advent Calendar offering on the Vault of Evil was my story
The Bequest
, which originally appeared in the British Fantasy Society's journal Dark Horizons.
December 18, 2014
A Great Write-up about The Return on the Weird Tales Facebook Page
There have been two great write-ups about my Lovecraftian crime noir horror novel, The Return, on the
Weird Tales
facebook page.Weird Tales Magazine shared a link. about an hour ago
Here is a small excerpt from David A. Riley's "The Return"
Gary moved as
silently as he could toward the bed. When he was close
enough to see the face of its occupant, he realized there had
been no need for stealth. It was a woman, though she looked
so ill he was sure she did not even know he was here.
Rarely had he seen anyone with such matted, unkempt,
unwashed hair or a face so ingrained with grime. Worse still
were the sores. Some were bleeding. Others were beginning
to weep. While a vile combination of stale urine, feces and
vomit surrounded the bed, so pungent it made him grit his
teeth. Had the woman been left to die? He reached down and
felt at one of the chains. There was nothing between the
manacle and her ankle and its rough metal had chaffed the
skin so deep it was bleeding. What looked like rust was
blood, caked around the manacle in solid lumps. What kind
of people were the Mallesons? Did they like to torture
helpless victims?
Gary noticed something slide beneath the blankets in
his direction. He recoiled as an open mouthed tentacle
emerged and reached toward him, a second appearing a moment later from another part of the bed. It wavered
through the air as if it could smell him. Its hideous, lipless,
toothless mouth opened and shut in his direction. Alarmed,
Gary backed away from the bed. His hand tightened on the
Beretta, though he was too far away for either of the tentacles to reach him."
http://www.amazon.com/Return-David-Riley-ebook/dp/B00FEZ8WQA/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1418893125&sr=8-2&keywords=riley+the+return
The Returnwww.amazon.comIt was never going to be easy to return for one last look at the streets where he spent his childhood years. Even knowing this, Gary still felt he had to make the effort, just this once, to see if they were really as bad as he remembered. In a few months...
Weird Tales Magazine 4 hours ago
Folks, if you are only going to buy one book right now then this is it!
David A. Riley's "The Return" is an amazing read. Do you like gritty noir? Brit Horror? Masculine (but not macho) protagonists? Eldritch Horror in bleak industrial slums? "The Long Good Friday" meets "the Mythos"? The writing is dense and sleek. Never boring enthralling page turners. Do you like to read just a few more pages even though you need to sleep? Then this is THE BOOK!
THIS IS ONE FINE HORROR NOVEL!
http://www.amazon.de/Return-David-Riley/dp/1940250056/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1418880753&sr=8-1&keywords=david+a+riley+the+return
David A. Riley40 SharesLike · · ShareTop Comments379 people like this.
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Tobias Valury I'm interested. I'm forcing this to be in my personal library soon.Like · Reply · 1 · 4 hours ago2 Replies · 4 hours ago
Weird Tales Magazine https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18582236-the-return
The ReturnIt was never going to be easy to return for one last look at the streets where he spent his childhood years. Even...goodreads.comLike · Reply · 1 · 4 hours agoView 10 more comments
December 13, 2014
My horror novel The Return is included in Holiday Sale package at the Lovecraft eZine
Package 2 includes my Lovecraftian crime noir horror novel, The Return. http://lovecraftzine.com/…/holiday-sale-20-awesome-lovecra…/
Holiday Sale: 20 Awesome Lovecraftian books, less than one dollar each! December 12, 2014 · by Mike Davis · in Lovecraft Fiction. ·
For the next five days only (sale ends Wednesday, December 17), The Lovecraft eZine is offering twenty Lovecraftian Kindle books at heavily discounted prices!
Included in the sale: The Grimscribe’s Puppets, A Season in Carcosa (a King in Yellow anthology), The Sea of Ash, That Which Should Not Be, Horror For the Holidays, and many more!
This Holiday Sale benefits The Lovecraft eZine… thank you for your support, I truly appreciate it.
Choose your package below. Clicking the link takes you to Paypal. After you pay, your browser will be directed to the download page, so DO NOT close your browser immediately after payment. Any problems, email me at lovecraftezine@gmail.com .
Note that I have included information on the regular prices of these books — as you can see, it’s a huge savings! Click the link to verify, and for information on the book.
Package ONE, $4.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $18.98. Package includes:
The Strange Dark One, by W.H. Pugmire (regular price: $7.49)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2011, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)Tearstone, by David L. Day (regular price: $3.00)The Stars Were Right, by K.M. Alexander (regular price: $2.51)101 Cthulhu Mythos Haiku, by Marcus R. Gilman (regular price: $0.99)Package TWO, $9.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $45.37. Package includes the books in package one, PLUS:
A Season in Carcosa, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $9.99)The Void, by Brett J. Talley (regular price: $5.39)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2012, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)The Return, by David A. Riley (regular price: $2.99)Cthulhu Lives!, edited by Salomé Jones (regular price: $3.03)Package THREE, $14.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $77.78. Package includes the books in packages one and two, PLUS:
Blood Will Have Its Season, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $7.95)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2013, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)Horror For the Holidays, edited by Scott Aniolowski (regular price: $9.99)Lucky’s Girl, by William Holloway (regular price: $3.99)Night Shall Overtake, by Michael R. Collins (regular price: $5.49)Package FOUR, $19.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $102.65. Package includes the books in packages one, two, and three, PLUS:
The Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $9.99)The Sea of Ash, by Scott Thomas (regular price: $4.95)That Which Should Not Be, by Brett J. Talley (regular price: $5.95)Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction, by Kenneth W. Cain (regular price: $2.99)The Search For Giselle, by David Kernot (regular price: $0.99)Enjoy the books… and thanks so much for your support. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Holiday Sale: 20 Awesome Lovecraftian books, less than one dollar each! December 12, 2014 · by Mike Davis · in Lovecraft Fiction. ·
For the next five days only (sale ends Wednesday, December 17), The Lovecraft eZine is offering twenty Lovecraftian Kindle books at heavily discounted prices!
Included in the sale: The Grimscribe’s Puppets, A Season in Carcosa (a King in Yellow anthology), The Sea of Ash, That Which Should Not Be, Horror For the Holidays, and many more!
This Holiday Sale benefits The Lovecraft eZine… thank you for your support, I truly appreciate it.
Choose your package below. Clicking the link takes you to Paypal. After you pay, your browser will be directed to the download page, so DO NOT close your browser immediately after payment. Any problems, email me at lovecraftezine@gmail.com .
Note that I have included information on the regular prices of these books — as you can see, it’s a huge savings! Click the link to verify, and for information on the book.
Package ONE, $4.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $18.98. Package includes:
The Strange Dark One, by W.H. Pugmire (regular price: $7.49)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2011, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)Tearstone, by David L. Day (regular price: $3.00)The Stars Were Right, by K.M. Alexander (regular price: $2.51)101 Cthulhu Mythos Haiku, by Marcus R. Gilman (regular price: $0.99)Package TWO, $9.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $45.37. Package includes the books in package one, PLUS:
A Season in Carcosa, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $9.99)The Void, by Brett J. Talley (regular price: $5.39)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2012, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)The Return, by David A. Riley (regular price: $2.99)Cthulhu Lives!, edited by Salomé Jones (regular price: $3.03)Package THREE, $14.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $77.78. Package includes the books in packages one and two, PLUS:
Blood Will Have Its Season, by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $7.95)Lovecraft eZine Megapack 2013, edited by Mike Davis (regular price: $4.99)Horror For the Holidays, edited by Scott Aniolowski (regular price: $9.99)Lucky’s Girl, by William Holloway (regular price: $3.99)Night Shall Overtake, by Michael R. Collins (regular price: $5.49)Package FOUR, $19.95 (CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE). If you bought these books separately, your cost would be $102.65. Package includes the books in packages one, two, and three, PLUS:
The Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. (regular price: $9.99)The Sea of Ash, by Scott Thomas (regular price: $4.95)That Which Should Not Be, by Brett J. Talley (regular price: $5.95)Fresh Cut Tales: A Collection of Dark Fiction, by Kenneth W. Cain (regular price: $2.99)The Search For Giselle, by David Kernot (regular price: $0.99)Enjoy the books… and thanks so much for your support. HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
