Please note that as well as via the amazon links listed below our books are also available elsewhere.
You can order any of our books direct from us.
Prices include postage and packing.
Here are two quick links to the trilogy so far:
Stories included in Elak, King of Atlantis are:
BLOOD OF THE MOON GOD
First published in Strange Tales, no 10, Wildside Press (US), 2007, in a slightly different version.
WITCH QUEEN OF DOOM ISLAND
First published in Worlds of the Unknown, no 1, Spectre Press (UK), 2014.
REVENGE OF THE SORCERER
First published in magazine form in Skelos, no 4, edited by Mark Finn, 2020, (US) and reprinted in 1st edition of ELAK, KING OF ATLANTIS, 2020 (US).
SPAWN OF THE SEA GOD
First published in The Mighty Warriors, Ulthar Press (US), 2018.
SKY WARRIORS OF ATLANTIS
First appears in this volume.
It's 320 pages contain the following stories:
It was just another standard day at the Women’s Refuge until the
arrival of Lucilla. Then Miranda’s world was never the same again.
Unaccountably
influenced by what the girl needed, her job, her friendships, even
freedom itself were of no importance. It was not until her niece’s life
was at risk that Miranda knew she had to act.
But what could she do against someone who had such a tight, insidious grip on her?
amazon UK £13.99 in hardcover/£2.99 in kindle
amazon.com $17.85 in hardcover/$3.70 in kindle
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Originally published by Futura Books in 1989, our new version includes an Introduction by the author and a brand-new cover by talented Scottish artist Paul Mudie, who will be familiar to many for the iconic covers he created for the Black Books of Horror. There is also the added bonus of interior chapter headings by award-winning artist Jim Pitts.
Childe Rolande has been optioned by Forlan Films for a proposed TV series and is currently in pre-production development.
What may be the start of a series of low-priced chapbooks, A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead includes four previously published short stories by David A. Riley with illustrations by Jim Pitts.
All four stories in this collection cover a wide range of tropes within the zombie genre.
Dead Ronnie and I is a tale of high adventure by plane and sea, with an abortive escape by our protagonist to the as yet untainted Isles of Scotland. This was originally published in Sanitarium Magazine No 44 in 2016.
His Pale Blue Eyes is probably the most traditional take of zombie stories today, featuring a young girl’s determined search for her parents during a zombie apocalypse. It’s a story, though, about conditioning and how what someone is taught can radically affect their behaviour. Is the horror in this the shambling undead or the girl herself? See what you think. This first appeared in Bite-Sized Horror edited by Johnny Mains for Obverse Books in 2011.
By contrast Right For You Now, originally published in Weirdbook Zombie Annual No 3 in 2021, harks back to the original concept of the zombie in Voodoo-haunted Haiti, though this tale is set in present-day Britain. It’s a combination of a crime story, revenge, and a man’s obsessive fascination with age-old practices.
Our final tale, Romero’s Children, is more in the way of a science fiction story. The zombies here are certainly the most different. For a start off they are not dead but have been granted near immortality by a drug that swept the world with its promise to stop aging. Alas for those caught up in the frenzied demand to use it, though, its side effects were such that they would have been better off dead. This story appeared in 2010 in The Seventh Black Book of Horror edited by the late Charles Black and was subsequently picked up by American editor Paula Guran for her 2012 anthology Extreme Zombies.
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of
Heroic Fantasy Volume 4 contains
eleven tales:
In the Iron Woods by Dev Agarwal
My People Were Fair and Wore Stars in Their Hair by Andrew Darlington
At Sea by Geoff Hart
The Flesh of Man by Frank Sawielijew
City at the Mouth of Chaos by Adrian Cole
In the Belly of the Beast by Edward Ahern
The Tracks of the Pi Nereske by Wendy Nikel
Slaves of the Monolith by Paul D. Batteiger
The Green Wood by David Dubrow
Demonic by Phil Emery
The Whips of Malmac by H. R. Laurence
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 3 is now available as a paperback and ebook (kindle).
Copies can be ordered from:
The short story collection includes fourteen dark tales of fantasy and horror ranging from 1971 to 2020.
Dead Ronnie and I was first published in Sanitarium issue 44, 2016
Corpse-Maker was first published in Weird Window issue 2, 1971
The Urn was first published in Whispers issue 1, 1972
Gwargens was first published in Beyond issue 3, 1995
Retribution was first published in Peeping Tom issue 3, 1991
The Bequest was first published in Dark Horizons, 2008
They Pissed on My Sofa was first published in Malicious Deviance, 2011
Old Grudge Ender was first published in The Screaming Book of Horror, 2012
A Girl, a Toad and a Cask was first published in The Unspoken, 2013
Scrap was first published in Dark Visions 1, 2013
Lem was first published in The Eleventh Black Book of Horror, 2015
A Grim God’s Revenge was first published in Mythic issue 4, 2017
Grudge End Cloggers was first published in Scare Me, 2020
Hanuman was first published in Phantasmagoria issue 16, 2020
Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 2 is available as a paperback and ebook.
Illustrations by Jim Pitts.
Amazon.co.uk £11.99 paperback/£2.99 kindle
After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales
by David A. Riley, illustrated by Jim Pitts contains the following stories:
Three Eyed Jack
The Fragile Mask on his Face
Terror on the Moors
The Shade of Apollyon
Writer's Cramp
Fish Eye
Boat Trip
Prickly
After Nightfall
Here are just a couple of the over 20 illustrations, most of which are full page.
The paperback version and kindle are available through amazon, the paperback can be ordered direct from us:
Since we brought out The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts in 2017 Jim has been constantly busy, including interior artwork for Elak: King of Atlantis and After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales, covers for Phantasmagoria magazine, and a host of other projects, with new techniques and fresh designs.
The Ever More Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts is a fitting sequel to the first volume, published in hardcover and packed with black and white and full-colour illustrations.
These are just a few of the pages from this book:
All copies ordered direct from PUP will be signed by Jim Pitts and include some great extras.
To order the hardcover version of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts click onto this link.
To order the softcover versions direct from us click onto this link.
Also available in soft cover in two volumes:
The contents of Volume One are:
INTRODUCTION - David A. Riley
THE MIRROR OF TORJAN SUL - Steve Lines
THE HORROR FROM THE STARS - Steve Dilks
TROLLS ARE DIFFERENT - Susan Murrie Macdonald
CHAIN OF COMMAND - Geoff Hart
DISRUPTION OF DESTINY - Gerri Leen
THE CITY OF SILENCE - Eric Ian Steele
RED - Chadwick Ginther
THE RECONSTRUCTED GOD - Adrian Cole
The cover and all the interior artwork is by Jim Pitts.
"It was never intended that we
would do a second Kitchen Sink Gothic collection, but it was brought
home to us when we were watching a production of Rent at the
Oswaldtwistle Civic Theatre, directed by our daughter, Cassandra, just
how bad the plight of the homeless is. The cast of this production went
out with buckets to collect money during the intermission for a local
homeless charity, Nightsafe, which concentrates on looking after some of
the most vulnerable homeless, those under 21.
It was a little
after this that I conceived the idea of doing a charity anthology of
stories such as these. And Kitchen Sink Gothic seemed somehow a more
than appropriate title for the book.
I must thank all of the
writers who have submitted stories for it, both those who are in this
book and those who, unfortunately, I had to reject, for being prepared
to have their work published free of charge so that all of the royalties
earned by it will go to charity.
I would also like to thank artist Allen Koszowski for providing our cover art, again, like the writers, free of charge.
Let
me stress however, though none of the writers have or will be paid for
these tales, don’t think for one moment they are any the less excellent.
I am proud of this collection, which I believe you will enjoy in many
different ways. There are some bizarre stories here, and some that will
wrench you emotionally, with sadness and anger and, yes, sometimes with
horror too, while others will stimulate your imagination with the
strange, dark worlds they evoke within our all too often humdrum world.
The one thing I hope they never do is bore you.
So, please, with no more ado read on!
David A. Riley
Oswaldtwistle, October 2020"
Stories and authors in this book are:
THE RING ON THE ROOF - James Harper
THE CHRISTMAS TREE - Eric Nash
VLOG'S LEGS - Shaun Avery
THE CAPSULE - David A. Sutton
WAKE UP SCREAMING - Adrian Cole
THE BOY ON THE TRAIN - Paul Lewis
DOUBLE EXPOSURE - Jonathan Mitchell
NIGHT FLIGHT - Eric Ian Steele
THE LONELY PASSION OF JIMMY TATE - Trevor Kennedy
THE DOOMED EMPIRE - Andrew Darlington
REAL LIFE - Franklin Marsh
STONES ARE BREATHING TONIGHT - Russell Hemmell
WINTER DISCONTENT - Stephanie Ellis
THE ADELPHI - Alyson Faye
PAIN - Mark Reece
THIS LITTLE PIGGY - Teika Marija Smits
To order the softcover direct from us click on this link.
Irena and her thirteen-year-old son Aleš are refugees living in a lonely seaside town of Dover, England. Aleš has never seen an ocean, let alone one that glows purple when he’s nearby. On a local beach, he befriends the ostensible Mother of Crabs, an amputee with rigid demeanour and unequivocal warnings. Soon, purple crustaceans crawl behind his every step and women with pincers threaten to recondition his sensitive heart.
Erik Hofstatter is a dark fiction writer and a member of the Horror Writers Association. Born in the wild lands of the Czech Republic, he roamed Europe before subsequently settling on English shores, studying creative writing at the London School of Journalism. He now dwells in Kent, where he can be encountered consuming copious amounts of mead and tyrannizing local peasantry. His work appeared in various magazines and podcasts around the world such as Morpheus Tales, Crystal Lake Publishing, The Literary Hatchet, Sanitarium Magazine, Wicked Library, Tales to Terrify and Manor House Show. Other works include The Pariahs, Amaranthine and Other Stories, Katerina, Moribund Tales and Rare Breeds.
"...the emotional tug that The Crabian Heart exerts on the reader is palpable. The Crabian Heart is also a coming-of-age tale, one that resonates with the pangs of unrequited love. And as such, it concludes, like all great coming-of-age stories, with a very difficult and painful realisation for the love-struck main character. By the end of its 100 pages you will find yourself both haunted and moved by Hofstatter’s evocative writing."
Nightscape is being published in hardcover, price £20.00.
It includes eleven tales:
Charlie - first published in Terror Tales #4, edityed by John B. Ford and Paul Kane
The Musical Box - first published in Chaos Theory: Tales Askew #13, edited by A. A. Roberts
The Groaner in the Glen - first published in The Lovecraft eZine #29, edited by Mike Davis
City of the Damned - first published in In Bad Dreams II
Black Annis - first published in The Willows #1, edited by Ben Thomas
After the Fall - first published in Chaos Theory: Tales Askew #3, edited by A. A. Roberts
Moths - first published in Scifantastic
Cycle - first published in Terminal Earth
A Dahlia Among the Roses, Ars Armortia, and Indian Summer are original to this collection.
Respected Lovecraftian scholar S. T. Joshi had this to say about Benjamin Blake's collection, Standing on the Threshold of Madness: "I was most impressed with Standing on the Threshold of Madness. These dark, brooding vignettes do far more than send a shudder up one's spine (although they do that again and again, with elegance and panache). Benjamin Blake has found a way to infuse into his horrific lyrics a keen sensitivity to human emotions, an understanding of the fragility of life, and a bleak portrayal of the evanescence of all existence. This is a volume that aficionados of weird poetry will want to read over and over."
Other comments about Benjamin Blake and his poetry: “Benjamin Blake relishes funereal lyricism with a spice of surrealism.” - Ramsey Campbell
Paperback and kindle:
Mike Chinn lives in Birmingham, UK, with his wife Caroline and their
tribe of guinea pigs. In 2012 he took early retirement so he can spend
more time writing (and not housework). Over the years he has published
over sixty short stories, as well as editing three volumes of THE
ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES, and SWORDS AGAINST THE MILLENNIUM,
also for The Alchemy Press. His own contribution to the Pulp Adventure
genre, THE PALADIN MANDATES garnered two nominations for the British
Fantasy Award in 1999. A second Damian Paladin book, WALKERS IN SHADOW,
is to be published by Pro Se Productions; as is a Western: REVENGE IS A
COLD PISTOL. In 2015, his Sherlock Holmes steampunk mash-up, VALLIS
TIMORIS (Fringeworks), sent the famous detective to the Moon.
Radix
Omnium Malum and Other Incursions includes the following stories:
“Radix Omnium Malum” originally published in THE GRIMORIUM VERUM ©2015
“Two Weeks Saturday” originally published in DARK HORIZONS 23 ©2004
“Kittens” originally published in READ RAW ©2009
“Blood of Eden”
originally published in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF DRACULA ©1997
“Suffer a
Witch” originally published in SALVO 7 ©2003
“Cheechee’s Out” originally
published in SECOND CITY SCARES ©2013
“The Owl that Calls” originally
published on WikiWorm ©2013
“The Pygmalion Conjuration” originally
published in THE TENTH BLACK BOOK OF HORROR ©2013
“To Die For”
originally published in BFS JOURNAL 10 ©2014
“Sons of the Dragon”
originally published in kZINE 1 ©2011
“Only the Lonely” originally
published in DARK VALENTINE 4 ©2011
“Rescheduled” originally published
in FINAL SHADOWS ©1991
“Considering the Dead” originally published in
DARK MUSES, SPOKEN SILENCES ©2013 “Wednesday Morning at Five O’Clock”
originally published in PHOBOPHOBIAS ©2014
“The Streets of Crazy Cities”
and “The Mercy Seat” are original to this collection. ©2017
Paperback and kindle:
You can order the softcover direct from us on this link, post free.
Joseph Rubas began writing in 2002 after reading Stephen King’s The Stand. His earliest efforts reflected his deep love of that novel; he tried again and again to write a rip-off, but finally gave up around 2006 and resigned himself to writing original fiction. His first short story was published in May 2010 on the now defunct Horror Bound Online website. His second story was published in September 2010 in a Pushcart Prize nominated literary magazine for new and beginning writers called The Storyteller. Since then, his work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. His first collection, the now out of print Pocketful of Fear, was released by a small publisher in 2012. His second collection, After Midnight, appeared in 2014. His short fiction has appeared in: Nameless Digest; The Horror Zine; Eschatology Journal; Thuglit; Manor House; All Due Respect, and others. He has self-published three longer works: The Rocking Dead: Seasons 1-3 (a parody of the AMC series The Walking Dead); The Rocking Dead: Season 4; The Shapeshifter; and Dracula 1912, the latter a novel.
He currently resides in Albany, New York.
This Collection includes:
Midnight
Aokigahara
Snowbound
Deja Vu
The Ghostly Hitchhiker
Just a Mask
Meeting Ray Bradbury
5051 Bartley Square
The Witching Hour
Potter's Field
The Warlock
Confessional
The Thing in the Woods
The Lake House
Chomo
The Traveling Show of 2016
Evildoer
A Perfect Life
Fury
Paint
Night of the Dog
Paperback and kindle:
amazon.co.uk
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This collection includes four tales that originally appeared in the Pan Books of Horror.
The Procedure
He lives in West Sussex near the sea.
Paperback and kindle:
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This collection includes twelve tales of terror previously published in Schlock! magazine.
A Place of Skulls
Paperback and kindle:
Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso is an MA graduate of Creative Writing, Swansea University Wales. His short stories, poems and non-fiction have appeared in a couple of journals, anthologies and magazines such as Emanation: Foray into Forever, Africa Roar Anthology, Open Road Review, Criterion Journal, ANA Review, Ground's Ear Anthology, Future Lovecraft, African Eyeball, Miracle e-zine, Episteme Journal, Texts on SAVVY Journal. He has been shortlisted in IdeasTap Inspires: Writers' Centre Norwich Writing competition, Ghana Poetry Prize, and Quickfox Poetry Competition.
Eaters of Flesh
Paperback and kindle:
During his lifetime Irvin S. Cobb was one of the most celebrated writers in American literature, though nowadays he is almost forgotten, apart perhaps from his Lovecraft connection. Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born in Paducah, Kentucky on the 23rd June, 1876. His father, unable to cope with the death of his own father, succumbed to alcoholism when Cobb was only sixteen. As a result, Cobb’s education came to an end and he started work, first on the Paducah Daily News, then the Louisville Evening Post. By 1904 Cobb’s career in journalism was doing so well that he moved to New York, where he would go on to spend the rest of his life, starting work at the Evening Sun, though it wasn’t long before an assignment to cover the Russian-Japanese peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire so impressed Joseph Pulitzer that he offered Cobb a job at the New York World, where he became the highest-paid staff reporter in the United States. In 1911 Cobb moved to the Saturday Evening Post. Three years later he was asked to cover the Great War. Amongst the many stories he wrote while there were the exploits of the Harlem Hellfighters, a unit of black American soldiers who had gone on to earn distinction for their courage and discipline, which Cobb celebrated in his book The Glory of the Coming. Besides his prolific work as a journalist, Cobb’s fame largely came from his humorous stories, which were published in the leading magazines of his day, and collected in numerous books during his lifetime. But, though he was best known as a humourist, he did have a darker side, exemplified by the tales collected in this volume. Two of the most famous succeeded in catching the attention of H. P. Lovecraft. It is claimed that Fishhead influenced Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. And there is certainly no doubt that Lovecraft was favourably impressed with this tale. In his groundbreaking essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft wrote: “Fishhead, an early achievement, is banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake…” The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the key idea behind The Rats in the Walls, though in all other respects the two tales are totally different. Besides writing and journalism, Cobb’s career extended to Hollywood, where legendary director, John Ford, made two films based on his books: Judge Priest (1934) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953). Other films included Peck’s Bad Boy (1921), starring Jackie Coogan, and The Woman Accused (1933), with a young Cary Grant. Cobb also did a stint at acting himself, appearing in ten movies altogether, including Pepper, Everybody’s Old Man (1936), Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and Hawaii Calls (1938). It’s a sign of the prominence he had achieved that in 1935 he was invited to host the 7th Academy Awards. Other than the tales that inspired Lovecraft, Cobb also wrote some brilliantly dark stories that culminate in a kind of sadistic irony. They are some of the finest conte cruel ever written. Amongst the best of these is the final story in this collection: Faith, Hope, and Charity, whose protagonists, as is often the case in Cobb’s stories, struggle against fates that are not only pre-ordained but are horrendously appropriate! It must be added his hapless victims are far from blameless. What fates await them under Cobb’s pen have most definitely been brought upon them by themselves! Through most of the tales there is a wry sense of humour, so wry, in fact, that it never detracts from the impact at the end; indeed, it often adds to and embellishes it! I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did and share with me the conviction that it is high time they were revived.
Contents are:
Fishhead
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apoplexy
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity
Hardback, paperback and kindle:
Amazon.co.uk
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Andrew Jennings' horror crime noir novel Into the Dark is Parallel Universe's nineteenth book. It is now available as a paperback and an ebook.
"There's a serial killer at loose in London. Janice, who has a chronic fear of the dark, stumbles into a relationship with the man who may secretly be the murderer. Neither know that in the North of England, in a place previously owned by his dead mother, activities are taking place that may unleash a horror that could spell the end of civilisation in Britain - an ancient evil that would make the activities of any serial killer look like child's play by comparison. Could a psychotic killer be the only man capable of ending this?"
Paperback and kindle:
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| Cover artwork: Jim Pitts |
Adrian’s latest collection, Tough Guys, contains three previously unpublished novellas and a short. Based on the title theme, these four works are completely different in subject matter and tone. There is, of course, A Nick Nightmare story herein, ‘Wait for the Ricochet’, in which the gumshoe is entrusted to convey a message about “The Malleus Tenebrarum”, a book that names the properties and powers of dark and light, to the Mechanic, one Oil-Gun Eddy... His adversary is the sinister Lucien de Sangreville, plus assorted non-human denizens of the murky lower levels, and his sidekick the sword-wielding business-woman Ariadne Carnadine. In contrast, in ‘If You Don’t Eat Your Meat’ the reader enters a post-apocalyptic world where the very unsavoury Ryan relates his story of rival families and cannibalism. It is gruesome and unflinching horror. In ‘A Smell of Burning’ a hospital patient finds he is having out-of-the-body experiences. On his astral journeys he visits a man recalling his abused childhood and this leads to a shocking revelation... Finally, ‘Not If You Want to Live’ explores the fate of Razorjack, who is a Redeemer, a dead man used by a shady organisation to bring back others from death. An intriguing and engrossing story of love between Razorjack (aka Jack Krane) and mobster’s moll Rebecca Fellini, with science fictional and satanic elements.
Contents:
Paperback and kindle:
This 298-page volume contains weird tales by some of the classic authors of the genre, including:
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
Amazon.co.uk
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Jessica Palmer has had 28 books published, both fiction and nonfiction. Her novels – horror, fantasy and science fiction – were released by Pocket Books in the United States and Scholastic in the United Kingdom. She has written two textbooks about Native American history, which were published by McFarland, and an encyclopedia of natural history released by Harper Collins’ label Element Books and later by Thorson in the UK.
Palmer has also written ten science-and-technology manuals on the topics of explosives and radiation. These were distributed globally. It was this work that brought her to Great Britain in 1988.
The daughter of a professional clown, Palmer refers to her switch to writing fiction as an exercise in damage limitation. She taught classes and conducted workshops on creative writing and publishing at North Shropshire College in Whitchurch, Stanmore College and the Islington Arts Factory in London.
As a journalist, Palmer won awards in New Mexico and Texas for writing features, public service and breaking news – the most recent in 2013. Palmer has also written satirical columns for newspapers, including “A Slice of Life” and “How to Make Love to your Personal Computer.”
Her two loves are writing and animals. She started a nonprofit in Kansas for wildlife rescue and has held a wildlife rehabilitation permit since 2002.
Other Visions of Heaven and Hell are a series of sometimes inter-related stories about our ideas of Heaven and Hell, sometimes hilarious - sometimes horrific - but always entertaining.
Contents are:
Devil's Due
The Faithful
And now, a Word from our Sponsor
Heavenly Bodies
On the Wings of a Prayer
Fallen Angel
A Stitch in Time
Infinity
No Good Turn
Leap of Faith
Divine Comedy
Force of Habit
The Gates of Hell
Hell on Wheels
Cinderella Revisited
Last Laugh
Sisters
A Cold Day in Hell
Cheap Shots
What the Dickens
When Hell Freezes Over
Bad Medicine
Wrong Number
A Snowball's Chance
Devil Woman
To Be or Not
The King's Plate
An Afterthought
About the Author
Last Laugh was first published in Weirdbook #28, Autumn 1993, edited by W. Paul Ganley
Cinderella Revisited was first published in Weirdbook #29, Autumn 1995, edited by W. Paul Ganley
What the Dickens was first published in Substance Sept 1995
Paperback and kindle:
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
Amazon.com
| Cover artwork: Vincent Chong |
Andrew Darlington has had masses of material published in all manner of strange and obscure places, magazines, websites, anthologies and books. He's also worked as a Stand-Up Poet on the ‘Alternative Cabaret Circuit’, and has interviewed very many people from the worlds of Literature, SF-Fantasy, Art and Rock-Music for a variety of publications (a selection of favourite interviews collected into the ‘Headpress’ book ‘I WAS ELVIS PRESLEY’S BASTARD LOVE-CHILD’). His latest music biography is ‘DON'T CALL ME NIGGER, WHITEY: SLY STONE & BLACK POWER’ (Leaky Boot Press).
Contents are:
The Strange Laudanum Dream of Branwell Bronte
London Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down
Thuesday to Fryday
The Door to Anywhere
Beast of the Baskervilles
Derek Edge and the Saucerful of Secrets
Refuge
The Non-Expanding Universe
Gender-Shock
Big Bad John
Terminator Zero and the Dream Demons
A Grotesque Romance
This World Holds Space Enough
And the Earth Has No End
The Strange Laudanum Dream of Branwell Bronte was first published in Tigershark #3, 2014
The Door to Anywhere was first published in Worlds of the Unknown #1, 2014
Beast of the Baskervilles was first published in Tigershark #5, 2014
The Non-Expanding Universe was first published in Hellfire Crossroads #5, 2015
Gender-Shock was first published in Tigershark # 2, 2013
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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| Cover artwork: Vincent Chong |
"What distinguishes Kate Farrell’s work is the extraordinary accuracy and vividness with which she sets up her situations. She has an eye for detail and an outstanding ear for the way people think and speak. It is far from fanciful to see this at least partly as the product of her experience as an actress. In the theatre, a natural faculty for observing one’s fellow human beings is trained and honed. Listen to the narrator of “Waiting”. If you don’t know someone like that personally, you will have certainly heard her talking just behind you on a bus at some time. The intonation, the accent, the understanding, and the lack of it, are all so true to life. But the people Farrell evokes are not all from one social stratum, or one nation. Here is an ancient and corrupt Irish Priest (“The Way the Truth and the Life”), here is the wife of a notorious Argentinean dictator (“Las Cosas Que Hacemos por el Amor”), or the two Spanish schoolchildren in “The Efficient Use of Reason”, and they are all done with the same conviction, the same ruthless accuracy. Farrell’s eye is not heartless, but it is unclouded by any kind of sentimental affectation; her horrors emerge from what we sometimes call the commonplace. Very occasionally she touches on the supernatural, but when she does she does it superbly as in one of my favourites among her stories “A Murder of Crows” which shows that she can do an uncanny rural atmosphere with grim poetry as well as anyone. It is the gift of every worthwhile writer in this genre to make us realise that just beneath the surface of the banal and ordinary, there yawn great abysses of wonder and terror. I don’t know quite why this realisation, in the hands of a writer like Farrell, should be so thrilling, enjoyable even, but it is. There is not a dull page, not a dull sentence in And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After." From Reggie Oliver 's introduction to And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After
Contents are:
Introduction by Reggie Oliver
Mea Culpa
Helping Mummy
A Murder of Crows
No Junk Mail
All in a Row
Dad Dancing
The Way and the Truth and the Life
My Name is Mary Sutherland
The Efficient Use of Reason
How I Got Here
His Family
The Sands are Magic
Once Upon a Time
A. Reeves Tale
Las Cosas Que Hacemos por El Amor
Peacock Blue Dress
Alma Mater
Waiting
Mea Culpa was first published in The Eighth Black Book of Horror, 2011
His Family was first published in The Ninth Black Book of Horror, 2012
Dad Dancing was first published in The Tenth Black Book of Horror, 2013
Helping Mummy was first published in The Screaming Book of Horror, 2012
The Sands are magic was first published in Terror Tales of the Seaside, 2013
Waiting was first published in Kitchen Sink Gothic, 2015
Alma Mater was first published in The Eleventh Black Book of Horror, 2015
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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| Cover artwork: Joe Young |
Coined in the 1950s, Kitchen Sink described British films, plays and novels frequently set in the North of England, which showed working class life in a gritty, no-nonsense, “warts and all” style, sometimes referred to as social realism. It became popular after the playwright John Osborne wrote Look Back In Anger, simultaneously helping to create the Angry Young Men movement. Films included Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, The Entertainer, A Taste of Honey, The L-Shaped Room and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. TV dramas included Coronation Street and East Enders. In recent years TV dramas that could rightly be described as kitchen sink gothic include Being Human, with its cast of working class vampires, werewolves and ghosts, and the zombie drama In the Flesh, with its northern working class, down to earth setting. In this anthology you will find stories that cover a wide range of Kitchen Sink Gothic, from the darkly humorous to the weirdly strange and occasionally horrific.
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
1964 by Franklin Marsh
Derek Edge 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
The Great Estate by Shaun Avery
Nine Tenths by Jay Eales
Envelopes by Craig Herbertson
Tunnel Vision by Tim Major
Life is Prescious M. J. Wesolowski
Canvey Island Baby by David Turnbull
Elm Tree House had a sinister history but few realised the true demonic power that lurked within its forbidding depths till it was taken over by a cult determined to make use of its horrendous secret.
Reviews:
"A modern day Dennis Wheatley yarn that the old master would have enjoyed. The protagonists have to endure some horrendous experiences within a pentacle in a scene that ramps up the horror. Written with pace and panache by the very accomplished David A Riley. A real page turner. More, please." Amazon review
"What a fantastic book! Take a Bow Mr. Riley! I could not put down the book for a moment till I finished it. Great level of detail, vivid imagery, likable characters, not too original but engaging plot nevertheless, this is the kind that engaging horror is made of! I hope there are more such books from Mr. Riley's pen that come out soon." Amazon review
Reviewed by Stuart Conover (Dark Discoveries magazine)
"What can I say aside from David A. Riley’s Moloch’s Children short of the fact that if you love the idea of a haunted house, a writer with an overactive imagination, Satanists, and so much more – you will love this book! Honestly even though it took place in more modern times it felt like a throwback to the slow build suspense work and the strong hints of Satanism that were both quite popular in the 60’s and 70’s. Riley knows not only how to strikingly set the mood but build upon that foundation to have an entire story weaved together which will keep you wondering what will happen next.
The main focus on the novel is the Elm Tree House which has a long and sordid history. Or should I say that the grounds it stands on do and it has acquired it by association. That hasn’t stopped Oliver Atcheson who is recovering from the loss of his wife to purchase the property. His dream for it is to create an artist’s colony there and with the steal he purchased the mansion at it seems like a dream that will easily be made a reality. That is of course until the repair bills start piling up as well as what the locals think about the place.
We also get to learn about others who are both interested in Oliver’s project or have become associated with him. Of course anyone who knows anything about the house seems to be holding some of the information back and we have plenty to discover as the pages turn.
They’ll be turning quickly too because for everything question that is answered, two more pop up. In a move where the suspense constantly builds as well there is no way to put the book down until you get to the bitter end.
In some ways I was reminded of Ti West’s film The House of the Devil though there really is no direct comparison between the stories. Still, much of the way I felt the mood and descriptions worked here really seemed to apply to both the film and novel."
Classic Weird contains:
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
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
His Own Mad Demons contains
Lock-In
The Worst of All Possible Places
The Fragile Mask on His Face
Their Own Mad Demons
The True Spirit
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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| Cover artwork: Luke Spooner |
Table of Contents:
Hoody (first published in When Graveyards Yawn,
Crowswing Books, 2006)
A Bottle of Spirits (first published in New
Writings in Horror & the Supernatural 2, 1972)
No Sense in Being
Hungry, She Thought (first published in Peeping Tom #20, 1996)
Now and
Forever More (first published in The Second Black Book of Horror, 2008)
Romero's Children (first published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror,
2010)
Swan Song (first published in the Ninth Black Book of Horror,
2012)
The Farmhouse (first published in New Writings in Horror & the
Supernatural 1, 1971)
The Last Coach Trip (first published in The
Eighth Black Book of Horror, 2011)
The Satyr's Head (first published in
The Satyr's Head & Other Tales of Terror, 1975)
Their Cramped Dark
World (first published in The Sixth Black Book of Horror, 2010)
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
Things That Go Bump in the Night edited by Douglas Draa and David
A. Riley is now available in trade paperback from Parallel Universe
Publications. 365 pages long, this bumper volume contains 19 classic
weird stories by Sir Hugh Clifford, Edward Lucas White, William Hope
Hodgson, George Allan England, F. Marion Crawford, Frederick Marryat, E.
F. Benson, W. C. Morrow, Amyas Northcote, M. P. Shiel, Lord Dunsany,
Perceval Landon, Robert E. Howard, G. G. Pendarves, Henry Brereton
Marriott Watson, Irvin S. Cobb, Huan Mee, Abraham Merritt, Nictzin
Dyalhis, and Edith Wharton.
The Ghoul Sir Hugh Clifford
The House of the Nightmare Edward Lucas White
The Voice in the Night William Hope Hodgson
The Thing from Outside George Allan England
For the Blood is the Life F. Marion Crawford
The White Wolf of the Hartz Mountains Frederick Marryat
The Room in the Tower E. F. Benson
His Unconquered Enemy W. C. Morrow
The Late Mrs. Fowke Amyas Northcote
Xélucha M. P. Shiel
A Narrow Escape Lord Dunsany
Thurnley Abbey Perceval Landon
The Black Stone Robert E, Howard
Werewolf of the Sahara G. G. Pendarves
The Devil of the Marsh Henry Brereton Marriott Watson
Fishhead Irvin S. Cobb
The Black Statue Huan Mee
The Pool of the Stone God Abraham Merritt
The Sea-Witch Nictzin Dyalhis
The Lady’s Maid’s Bell Edith Wharton
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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| Cover artwork Paul Mudie |
Those that participate in the thirteen strange dark rites that comprise
Black Ceremonies find themselves at the mercy of sinister forces. Make
an invocation to evil. Witness the horrors of war. Hear the sound of
death. Feel the hand of vengeance as it reaches out from the grave. Are
you ready to join the doomed and the damned?
“When it comes to dark and
twisted tales, they don’t come much darker and more twisted than this.
If you have a taste for the macabre, you really will be biting off as
much as you can chew with this exciting debut collection from renowned
editor and creator of the Black Books of Horror, Charles Black.” Anna
Taborska, author of For Those Who Dream Monsters
“Charlie’s yarns are
very entertaining.” Johnny Mains, editor of Best British Horror
This collection includes the following stories:
The Obsession of Percival Cairstairs
Call of the Damned
The Revelations of Dr Maitland
Tourist Trap
Face to Face
The Coughing Coffin
The Madness Out of the Sea
Death on the Line
The Necronomicon
A Bit Tasty
A Fistful of Vengeance
To Summon a Flesh-Eating Demon
The Strombolli Collection
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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| Cover artwork: Joe Young |
"Many years have passed since Elves defeated and killed the last Goblin king. Now the Goblins are growing stronger in their mire, and Mickle Gorestab, one of the few remaining veterans of that war, is determined they will fight once more, this time aided by a renegade Elf who has delved into forbidden sorcery and hates his kind even more than his Goblin allies. Murder, treachery and the darkest of all magics follow in a maelstrom of blood, violence and unexpected alliances. Facing up to the cold cruelty of the Elves, Mickle Gorestab stands out as the epitome of grim, barbaric heroism, determined to see the wrongs of his race avenged and a restoration of the Goblin King."
Goblin Mire was originally published by Renaissance E-books.It is now available in trade paperback, published by Parallel Universe Publications. 318 pages long, it is £9.50 in the UK and $13.30 in the US. European copes are 12. Euros. There is also be a kindle version.
Reviewers can receive copies of this book either by contacting Parallel Universe Publications on Facebook or emailing rileybooks@ntlworld.com.
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is Edinburgh born Craig
Herbertson’s new horror collection. There has been a revival of the old
style horror exemplified by the gory Pan Horror collections once
commonplace in newsagents and train station kiosks throughout the UK.
“The Heaven Maker”, published in 1988, was one such story; at last it is
once again in print along with some unseemly and dreadful companions.
Also on the menu are stand alone excerpts from the critically acclaimed
dark fantasy novel, “School: The Seventh Silence”, followed by an
aperitif of dark songs from Herbertson’s extensive traditional
repertoire. Bizarre philosophical discussions alternate with episodes of
fantasy, horror… and occasional whimsy… The images and ideas come thick
and fast. A very enjoyable read, perfect for lovers of fantasy that’s a
bit different.
Includes:
Timeless Love (originally published in Big Vault Advent Calendar 2011)
Synchronicity (originally published in Filthy Creations #2)
The Glowing Goblins (originally published in Auguries #16)
New Teacher (originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror)
The Janus Door
The Heaven Maker (originally published in The 29th Pan Book of Horror Stories)
The Waiting Game (originally published in Back from the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories)
The Art of Confiscation
Gertrude
Not Waving
Spanish Suite (originally published in The Sixth Black Book of Horror)
The Anninglay Sundial
Soup (originally published in The Fourth Black Book of Horror)
A Game of Billiards (originally published in Tales from the Smoking Room)
The Navigator (originally published in Big Vault Advent Calendar 2011)
The Tasting
Steel Works
Liebniz's Last Puzzle (originally published in The Fifth Black Book of Horror)
Big Cup, Wee Cup
Gifts (originally published in Big Vault Advent Calendar 2011)
Here is a link to a detailed review of Craig's collection: Review.
Trade paperback:
amazon.co.uk £11.99
amazon.com $12.99 Barnes & Noble $12.99
ebook
amazon.co.uk £2.99
amazon.com $3.99
Hardcover £20.00 post free on this link.
You can order the softcover version of this book direct from us on this link, post free.
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