Sunday 31 May 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)








Sunday 24 May 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 davidariley@gmx.co.uk, heading the subject line "The Return Contest".

Good luck!

Published by Blood Bound Books












Friday 22 May 2015

News from Parallel Universe Publications



http://paralleluniversepublications.blogspot.co.uk/


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.


Tuesday 19 May 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. 

Monday 18 May 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

Monday 11 May 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)

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. 


Thursday 7 May 2015

Kitchen Sink Gothic - update

Anybody who has submitted to Kitchen Sink Gothic but hasn't heard back from us yet, now that Classic Weird is in print we are concentrating on reading through the manuscripts we have on hand and will be making decisions during the next week, though the deadline for submissions is still the end of May. We are aiming to publish the anthology in June.

Proof Copy received for Classic Weird

Just received a proof copy of the eighth book published by Parallel Universe Publications, Classic Weird - and I am absolutely delighted with it. I gave it approval straight away! The cover looks as stunning as I hoped it would.

The next task is to finish reading submissions for Kitchen Sink Gothic. The cut off date for submissions, though, isn't till the end of this month, so final selection won't be made till June. We're hoping to be able to publish this anthology sometime next month, definitely by July.

The paperback version of Classic Weird should be available via amazon later today.


Wednesday 6 May 2015

Price reduced for kindle version of Goblin Mire

The price to download kindle copies of my fantasy novel Goblin Mire have been reduced from £2.97 to £1.99 and from $4.50 to $3.01.

trade paperback:

Amazon.co.uk  £8.99
Amazon.com   $12.00

ebook: 

Amazon.co.uk £1.99
Amazon.com $3.01

Classic Weird now available on kindle


Classic Weird is now available on kindle. A paperback version will follow shortly.

Amazon.co.uk  £1.31

Amazon.com  $1.98

Sunday 3 May 2015

Classic Weird

I have now finished proof reading my selections for the forthcoming collection from Parallel Universe Publications: Classic Weird.

The stories in the book, which will soon be available as a paperback and ebook, are:


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

Saturday 2 May 2015

Their Cramped Dark World reviewed on the Vault of Evil

David A. Riley - Their Cramped Dark World and Other Tales (Parallel Universe, 2015)




Hoody (When Graveyards Yawn, Crowswing Books, 2006)
A Bottle of Spirits (New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural 2, 1972)
No Sense in Being Hungry, She Thought (Peeping Tom #20, 1996)
Now and Forever More (The Second Black Book of Horror, 2008)
Romero's Children (The Seventh Black Book of Horror, 2010)
Swan Song (The Ninth Black Book of Horror, 2012)
The Farmhouse (New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural 1, 1971)
The Last Coach Trip (The Eighth Black Book of Horror, 2011)
The Satyr's Head (The Satyr's Head & Other Tales of Terror, 1975)
Their Cramped Dark World (The Sixth Black Book of Horror, 2010)

A bit cheeky perhaps, as I've not yet got a copy, but I've no hesitation in recommending Their Cramped Dark World. Why? Because, most unusually, I'm already familiar with all bar one of the stories. So, collected from around the board and tarted up ever so slightly, a patchwork instant commentary.

Hoody: "Black Magic Link To Serial Killer. In the wake of a fatal stabbing outside The Red Dragon, Laurence Huxtable, computer artist, grows fearful of the lonesome hoody who has taken to hanging around the car park at Highgate Station and watching his flat. It transpires that the murder victim, Paul Gilligan, was himself a serial killer whose freezer was stocked with the thumbs of his five victims - one of whom was killed after he'd been pronounced dead ....

A Bottle Of Spirits: As revealed to aspiring medium Phyllis Harker. After watching a performance at the Grand Theatre in Clayborn, Rob is so fascinated by the uncanny ability of mind reader Sebastian Preskett that he murders his elderly assistant to create a job vacancy. Rob just HAS to know how the guy gets it right every time so he can steal his act and make loads of cash. Studying him at close hand, Rob is convinced the key to Preskett's powers must lie in the fairground organ and outsize phosphorescent bottle he uses as props. Increasingly worried that Preskett has known all along who murdered his friend, Rob decides it's time to leave. But first, he'll remove the stopper from that weirdly glowing blue bottle if it kills him ....

Now and Forever More: Holidaying at a typically welcoming Cornish coastal village ("You'll be glad to leave 'ere, I s'ppose?"), John and Julie Daniels fall foul of the local inbred degenerates, a bunch of goat-worshipping Satanists presided over by Marsh, the landlord of The Broken Mast. Moral. When in the West Country, never let a native overhear you mention that he's inhospitable, deformed and would benefit from the occasional shower, or he might take offence.

Romero’s Children: Twenty years after the OM (Old Methuselah) eternal youth wonder-drug hit the street, and those who either resisted it's lure or simply were yet to be born now have to live with the consequences - a world full of drooling cannibal zombies. Fortunately, these undead are of the ambling, mindless variety and easily picked off with a shot to the head. Until ...

Stocking up on tinned food supplies from the remnants of a Wal-Mart, ageing loner, Jack, and punky young survivalist, Candice. chance upon Lucy, who can not only talk but seems to have shaken off the effects of the drug. Against his better judgement, Jack brings her home and cleans her up ....

Swan Song: A Black Book Of Horror classic. "Nights In White Satin. Overrated, degenerate trash, just right for a pair of ancient hippies high on drugs." Three elderly Right Wing thugs - retired schoolteacher, Bennett, Pinky Pinkerton, chairman of the Conservative club, and self-made businessmen, Sam Nedwell - make it their business to rid the local park of a pair of decrepit tramps. Bennett and cronies pack their baseball bats, confident this last hurrah will prove the most one-sided confrontation of their brutal campaign versus "undesirables." But the Huntingtons are not the pushovers they seem. Filthy rich ancient hippie philanthropists, Cider Man & Wino woman own a villa on the exclusive Maple Road. Back in the day they ran a refuge for the homeless until it closed amidst rumours of Black Magic and mysterious disappearances ....

The Farmhouse: Kendale, near Tavistock. Surrealist Biblical artist Preskett committed suicide here by turning himself into a human torch amid much talk of ritual murder, drugs, and orgies on the hill. Stopping at the deserted house, hikers Melbury and Janet discover a metal box hidden in the wall, inside which they find several books. The one Melbury picks up opens on a quote from Poe's The Conquering Worm.

Later, Janet leaves Melbury asleep in the tent they've erected and returns to the farmhouse for the books. He comes awake with a terrible sense of foreboding, and goes off to find her ...

Perhaps my all-time favourite story.

The Last Coach Trip: It's the Hemer Street Working Mens Club's final day out to the Ripton races and veteran Eddie is taking it as a bereavement. Harold does all he can to cheer up his old friend, but it's no use. Eddie arrives late looking like death, skips the traditional fry up and - to the incredulity of all - hardly touches a drop all day. Any other year, and they'd have to carry him back and forth from the coach. It's only as they're returning home to Edgebottom that Eddie perks up and Harold realises to his horror that these boozy excursions won't be coming to an end after all.

The Satyr's Head: Yorkshire. Student Henry Lamson's world is one of Wimpy bars, pubs, going to watch the Rovers play on a Saturday afternoon, and attending screenings of The Shuttered Room at the film society with his friend Alan Sutcliffe. He's been dating Joan for some time but she's shown no interest in sleeping with him.

Walking home across the Moors one night Henry encounters a filthy, diseased tramp who proves impossible to shake off - the malodorous one even sidles up next to him on the bus. Turns out he wants to sell him a relic for a nominal fee. Despite himself, Henry shells out on the evil looking bauble ... and that's when his nightmares begin, nightmares in which he's visited and raped by the original of the satyr.

When he next catches up the tramp (who is by now pretty much decomposing on his feet), the old boy sneers that the relic chose him because he is the "right sort" and Henry, mortified that he may indeed be a homosexual, books a session with local prostitute Clara Sadwick. But where Henry goes, his incubus goes too ...

A story I detested as a lonesome teenager because it made me feel kind of queasy on the grounds of it's subject matter, but on revisiting it several years later I found it an absolute peach.

Their Cramped Dark World: Fifteen year old's Pete and Lenny spend Halloween in a reputedly haunted house, derelict since the torture-murder of an entire family 25 years ago to the night. It soon becomes worryingly clear to Lenny that the rest of the gang aren't going to show and, what with Pete acting strangely, and the rats scratching from inside the walls, he's all for shifting their Vodka stash elsewhere. Pete won't - can't - hear of it .....




Wizard, 30 Sept. 1939

Series XI and XII of Red Dwarf "Green lighted" by Dave for 2016 and 2017


Great news that series XI and XII of Red Dwarf has been green lighted by Dave for airing in 2016 and 2017. Series X may not have been classic Red Dwarf but it was still worth watching, to me anyway.

Check out this link for the Sci-Fi Bulletin website for more details.