David A. Riley's Blog, page 94

Unexpected Payment for Review

On Friday I received an unexpected payment via Paypal for a review I did for hellnotes from its corporate owner, Journalstone. This is the first time I have ever been paid for a review, though I have done quite a few over the years. Although it was only $10 this is more than many small presses pay for full-blown stories in their anthologies these days!

It's certainly nice to feel appreciated!

Inside No. 9 - "Sardines"

I very much enjoyed Inside No 9 last night, with its opening episode "Sardines". An amazing cast list - and a genuinely scary climax. How is it that some of the best horror on TV these days is comedy? Last night's episode was written by Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, both of whom appeared in it.

IMDB

The World's End

I first became aware of Simon Pegg when I watched his two series on British TV, Spaced (1999-2001), which was an amazing saga of a young wannabe comic artist, Tim Bisley (Pegg), his flatmate Jessica, a would-be writer played by Jessica Hynes, Bisley's best friend, gun-mad, part-time soldier, full-time lunatic Mike (Nick Frost) and other eccentric oddballs, an inventive, endlessly funny series which amply displayed Pegg's love for science fiction, etc. His parodaic funeral pyre for his Star Wars collection after the release of The Phantom Menace is unforgettable - and spot on true.

He went on to make one of the best ever zombie comedies with Shaun of the Dead (2004), and Paul (2011) is a witty, enjoyable take on aliens and UFOs which could have been a follow-on to Spaced.

His track record, though, seems to me to have been uneven, with some downright dire films, such as Run, Fatboy, Run (2007) and the very uneven Hot Fuzz the year before, not to mention the very unfunny comedy Burke and Hare (2011).

The World's End is again, for me, a bit uneven, though mostly it succeeds. It's a frenetic tale of old mates being coerced by Pegg's Gary King into going on a mammoth pub crawl which they started but never finished decades ago when they left school. Pegg is on top form, as are the rest of the cast, as they revisit pubs that have altered out of all recognition since the halcyon days of their youth, morphing into characterless modern day wining and dining establishments rather than the earthy pubs of their memories. This, though, isn't the worst they need to worry about, because a mind-chilling disaster has begun to take over their old home town, a place none of them have visited in years. Hence the title, The World's End, which isn't only the name of the last pub on their crawl but maybe the fate that awaits us all...

This is a return to comedy science fiction for Pegg, a high-octane, frantic, ever more chaotic tale that makes even Shaun of the Dead look tame by comparison! If I have any complaints it would be that some of the well-orchestrated fight scenes go on for too long - but that's not uncommon these days. These and chases invariably seem to go on forever in films nowadays.

Still, putting this quibble to one side, the action, humour, and plot twists go on at a relentless rate and there is barely a second within which to get bored. Whether it's the kind of film, like Shaun of the Dead or Paul, which I would gladly watch again some time, I'm not so sure. But it's definitely a film I enjoyed first time round.

I Am Providence by S. T. Joshi

I am enjoying Joshi's I Am Providence, which is perhaps the most detailed biography of Lovecraft you could ever hope to come across, but I wish he would resist just now and then from giving his evaluation on every story, travelogue, poem, etc that Lovecraft wrote. And on many stories that other people wrote as well. I like a biography to be factual, not littered with critical comments unless there is some genuine reason for it. I have my own opinion on the merits or otherwise of these stories and I really don't need to have them all compared to how closely they fit in with Joshi's preference for cosmicism. My only gripe so far, mind. Other than this it's a great book and I have learned a lot from it.

Dexter - the final series

 
Unlike a lot of people I really liked and appreciated the dark nihilism of the final season of Dexter. It was never going to have a happy ending - and the one it had - dark, bleak, ongoing - was as near perfect as you could get.

I think Gary McMahon, on his blog, summed it up better than I possibly could. Check this out on the following link: Dexter - Remember the Monsters.

Herbert Manning's Psychic Circus and Other Dark Tales by David Williamson

David Williamson has just had a collection of stories published by Hazardous Press, Herbert Manning's Psychic Circus and Other Dark Tales . It's available in both paperback and ebook formats. David Williamson's stories first appeared in the Pan Books of Horror and he has since become a regular in Charles Black's Black Books of Horror, in which many of the stories in this collection were first published.
About the AuthorDavid Williamson has been writing short stories for many years now, inspired by the likes of James Herbert, Stephen King and, especially, The Pan Book of Horror series. When (after several attempts!) he was first published in The 28th Pan Book of Horror, he became almost speechless with excitement. Later, after discovering that he was to have THREE of his tales in The 30th Pan Book of Horror, he became a gibbering imbecile. A state, alas, which he has remained in until today. He has more recently, appeared in Black Books of Horror (the spiritual home of The Pan Books of Horror) numbers 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 from Mortbury Press, as well as Hersham Horror's wonderful Alt-Zombie anthology. His latest tale, 'Lazarus', can be found in From Their Cradle to Your Grave, from Cruentus Libri Press and also in their Christmas Special You'd Better Watch Out! with his tale entitled 'Tis the Season to be Jolly'. His story 'Stuck!" appears in Another 100 Horrors, and 'The Mission' can be found in War is Hell, again, both from Cruentus Libri Press. His story '10 Weeks' appears in the anthology Horrific History, from Hazardous Press. Follow David online at http://doogal321.wordpress.com.

Tenebrous Tales by Christopher Richard Barker available on kindle

I was sorry that I missed out on getting a copy of Christopher Richard Barker's short story collection Tenebrous Tales when it was originally published by ex-occidente. I have just learned, courtesy of D. F. Lewis, that it is now available on kindle. 

Barker also has an interesting blog: Elegant Horrors, which is well worth perusing.

The collection includes:

The Melancholy Haunting of Nicholas Parkes  Subtle DifferencesThe Motiveless PursuitSnow TrainThe Sinister Cupboard The Man Who Fell AwakeThe Tableaux The Cliff PathDrill HeadThe Thing in the Tree

Toby Whithouse, Creator of Being Human, is one of the Guests of Honour at this year's FantasyCon in York

Pleased to see that Toby Whithouse will be one of the guests of honour at this year's FantasyCon in York. His BBC series Being Human was one of the best genre productions put out by the Beeb for ages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toby_Whithouse

FantasyCon 2014

Great review for The Lurkers in the Abyss on hellnotes

I was amazed to see a stunningly great review for my collection The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror on hellnotes.

Two quotes from it:

"The universe that Riley presents is not a forgiving one.  Like Lovecraft, Riley’s early influence, his universe does not care about you nor is it concerned with whether you are a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person or even what could be considered ‘fair’ in life.  Many of the main characters in Riley’s fiction are people who are simply going about their regular lives until something happens and suddenly they have been marked by darkness."


"In the introduction, David A. Sutton characterizes Riley’s stories as “urban horror” and there is plenty of that here but there is also something more.  Something that, like the work of Ramsey Campbell, is out of synch with the rest of reality.  Even more, with Riley’s fiction, you are left with the feeling that you yourself, at any time, doing the most mundane acts, could be consumed by darkness."

To read the full review follow this link.

Cthulhu Wallpaper

Let's see Laurence Llewelyn Bowen beat Cthulhu wallpaper. Who wouldn't love to have at least one wall covered in this?