David A. Riley's Blog, page 98

My earliest copies of Famous Monsters of Filmland and Spacemen

The Aurora Monster Kits

When I was a kid and first came across the American magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland, one of the most fascinating things in it were the adverts. Amongst these would be full page spreads for the Aurora monster kits, which included detailed models of Lugosi's Dracula, Karloff's Frankenstein's creature, the Wolf Man, the Phantom of the Opera (Chaney's, of course), the Mummy. As soon as these became available in the UK I managed to get one as a Christmas present - the Creature from the Black Lagoon. Over the course of the next few years I got most of the others, though they have all long gone; I can't remember where.

This picture, picked off facebook, reminded me of them:

The Lovecraft eZine - Seasonal Banner

I love the Lovecraft eZine's "seasonal" banner. It says so much!

Lurkers

I wrote The Lurkers in Abyss when I was still at school. In fact it was only a week after I left that I received a letter from Clarence Paget on behalf of Herbert van Thal, editor of the Pan Books of Horror, accepting it for publication. The story came out the following year in the Eleventh Pan Book of Horror. It was my first professional sale.

Many years later I was contacted by John Pelan, who was compiling Cemetery Dance's massive two-volume anthology The Century's Best Horror Fiction, in which he chose what he regarded as the best horror story for each year of the twentieth century. To my surprise he had picked The Lurkers in the Abyss to represent 1970.

A particular enthusiast for that story is Johnny Mains. For several years he had tried to persuade me to write a sequel - something which I had never even contemplated, let alone tried to do. And to be honest I was far from sure there was any potential for a sequel to it. But Johnny was persistent and I did, eventually, make a few stabs at writing one, though without success. The story I needed just wouldn't come to me and the attempts all ended in the metaphorical waste bin (i.e. dumped somewhere out of the way on my computer).

When it finally hit me, the actual writing of the first draft came quick, even though it ended up twice the length of the original story. Thus Lurkers was born.

I was still far from sure about it, though, and it was only at Johnny's insistence that I finally decided to include it in my collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror, the one story in it which had never been published elsewhere. So it was a relief when I read Demonik's comments in his review of my collection on The Vault of Evil:


"Fleeing the scene of a not altogether successful bank robbery, Johnny runs into a gang of thugs. It's Dag and the lads, looking not a day older than when last we met, and still stubbornly immune to the wonders of Clearasil. Johnny, in no mood for humouring cretins, brandishes his sawn-off shot-gun. Dag good as laughs in his face, so the desperate villain blows away one of his mates. Chased through the backstreet's by the pack, Johnny arrives at a row of derelict houses, picks the wrong one, and plummets through the rotting boards to land in a stinking, slime-filled crater in the cellar floor.

Dag and cronies arrive to gloat from the gallery.

The first of the abominations emerges from its tunnel ....

.... and that's where the story really gets going, taking in an Aliens-style shoot out with hideous subterranean creatures and an equally terrifying encounter with a ragged, once human tribe who hunt on behalf of the Old Ones. Sequels are risky, perhaps even more so when penned by the original author. Get them wrong and you risk killing two stories in one go, but, claustrophobic and suspenseful, Lurkers works just fine for this reader."

Knifes Edge Indie Horror Blog

A new blog has been opened, Knifes Edge Indie Horror, by Craig Lockley who already coordinates the indie press and RPG reviews for the BFS. It's a great looking site. If you have any news for him just drop him an email.

Ripper Street to be Axed

I know I have occasionally made fun of the fact that to me DI Reid looks spookily like Sergeant Bung (Harry H. Corbett in Carry on Screaming), but it's been a series that has progressively improved over time and is one of the most original and interesting dramas on the BBC. Its historical accuracy might be more than a bit wayward and the prostitutes in it are far better looking and much more glamorous than their true life counterparts would have been back in the day, but it has a vitality about it which is enjoyable to watch - and you never really know where each story is going to go.

There is a petition up to try and persuade the beeb to change its mind, which is at least worth a try.

Petition

Great Review for Dark Visions 1

There's a great review for Dark Visions 1 on the Horror Honeys site. Pleased with the comments about my story: "David A. Riley's "Scrap" had a gritty cinematic feel - the story of two down-and-out brothers looking for scrap metal to steal and sell, until they venture into a part of town best left untouched."

Lucilla

Just finished a 24,000 word novella called Lucilla. It's a different kind of story for me and it remains to be seen how successful I have been with it. It starts off in a Women's Refuge where our protagonist, Miranda, is second in command. A newcomer is brought in by Social Services, the mysterious Lucy, a small, frail, helpless looking girl who has been attacked but can't or won't give her last name or properly explain what happened to her. She has, though, a way of subtly getting her way and of influencing people - and of killing them too.

Conan's Brethren by Robert E. Howard

A new Waterstone's Outlet shop has just opened in Blackburn. Took a look in it today and found one remaining copy of this little beauty for the grand sum of £5. Brilliantly illustrated by Les Edwards, it has been edited by Stephen Jones, who has also written an Afterword. Contains stories involving Howard's other fantasy heroes, including Solomon Kane, King Kull, Bran Mak Morn, and others.

While I have most, if not all of these stories already in paperback, they're books I've owned for many years, some of them Lancer originals from the 1960s, and they're all getting a bit too fragile nowadays to read.

721 pages, with some fascinating magazine covers in the Afterword.

From Beyond the Dark Gateway No 1

My first story published in the States was A Sense of Movement in 1972 in the fanzine From Beyond the Dark Gateway, edited by Edward P. Berglund. My story was illustrated by Harry O. Morris. The magazine was A4 in size with mimeographed text pages and semi-glossy lithographed pictures. It was published by Silver Scarab Press in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by the same people who already published Nyctalops.

I rewrote my story some years later, expanding it from 3,400 words to 5,700, with a totally new protagonist. The new version was published in The Third Black Book of Horror in 2008.

Other contributors to the magazine included John Jacob, J. J. Koblas, Walter C. DeBill, Jr., Gordon Matthews. Graham Pryor, and R. E. Weinberg, with artwork from Steve Riley, Andrew Smith, Gordon Matthews, Mike Scott, Tim Kirk, Randall Spurgin, Denis Tiani, Mark Gelotte and Harry Morris.