Thursday 25 April 2024

Waiting by Kate Farrell to be performed as a play at the Edinburgh Fringe


Actress and writer Kate Farrell has adapted one of her own stories, Waiting, into a play which she will be performing at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

Kate's story is included in her PUP collection And Nobody Lived happily Ever After, which is available as a paperback and kindle eBook. Prior to this it was also included in our anthology Kitchen Sink Gothic.
 
For more information, including booking information if you are lucky enough to be attending the Fringe this year, click on this link: Waiting - The Fringe
 
From Reggie Oliver 's introduction to And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After:
"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." 
 
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. 
 
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com  



Monday 15 April 2024

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8 almost ready for publication


Things are on schedule for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8 to be released as a paperback and kindle eBook by the 1st of May.

Friday 5 April 2024

DMR Books website shares review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7

Our friends at DMR Books have just shared on their website an excellent review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7 by Richard Fisher, opening with:

"David A. Riley's anthology series certainly has some longevity. With seven volumes to date it has eclipsed several seminal anthology series of the past. As I understand it volume eight will be published later this year with submissions reopening late this year or early next year for volume nine."

In actual fact submissions will open for volume nine on the 1st October for the full calendar month, with publication in November. And volume eight will be published on the 1st May. 

To read the full review click on this link: DMR Books


 


Wednesday 3 April 2024

Excellent, in-depth review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1

There is an excellent, in-depth review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1 on James Reasoner's Rough Edge blogsite. To read it in full just click on this link

"Overall, I found this volume to be really good, and if you’re a sword and sorcery fan, I think there’s a good chance you’d enjoy it quite a bit, too. I’m definitely planning to read others in the series. This one is available in paperback and e-book editions on Amazon."

Monday 25 March 2024

Coming in May 2024: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8


 

Reciprocal ads for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8

I'm busy getting Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8 ready for publication in May. I already have several reciprocal ads included in it. If there are any other publishers who would like to partake please message me as soon as possible and I'll reserve you a spot.

paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk

Sunday 24 March 2024

Self Publishing Workshop

This should be of interest for anyone within travelling distance of Accrington who would like to self publish something they have written or in creating their own small press using print on demand.

I have been running my own small press - Parallel Universe Publications - for over a decade, with hardcover, paperback and kindle ebooks. You can see those books that are still in print here

The hour-long workshops will be held at 7 o’clock on Friday evenings at a date still to be decided, but hopefully sometime soon, depending on the response I receive. If you are interested please let me know on the email address given below.

The workshops will be held at ReAct Academy of Theatre Arts Studios, 43b Market Street, Church, Lancashire, BB5 0DP, close to Church & Oswaldtwistle Railway Station and bus routes from Blackburn to Accrington and elsewhere. There is also a spacious car park.  Please see the map below.



To contact me email paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk

The workshops will last an hour and cost £5. They will cover how to set up your own press, format what you intend to print and how to create covers. They will also instruct you on how to avoid the many pitfalls, not least being amateurish or unattrative publications.  

No previous experience in publishing or writing is needed, but you should have a reasonable knowledge of spelling and English grammar.

 


 

Friday 22 March 2024

Update on Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8

Volume 8 of our Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series has now begun the process to be published and pdfs have already been sent out to all contributors for them to check their details in the Introduction and to make any last minute tweaks or alterations to their stories.

 
Everything is in line for publication at the beginning of May as a paperback and kindle eBook.
 
Submissions for Volume 9 will open on the 1st October for one full calendar month, with publication scheduled for November. More details later.


Tuesday 19 March 2024

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6

 


 

There was a great recent 5-star review on amazon for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6:




Sunday 17 March 2024

Day Thirty-Nine of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7

 

And here we are at day thirty-nine of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications with Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7, which we published last November.

This is the final showcasing. We have published other books (The Winter Hunt & Other Stories by Steve Lockley and Paul Lewis; England 'B': Ninety Minutes of Hell by Richard Stains (Mark Samuels); Will Anyone Figure That This Is A Repackaged First Collection by Johnny Mains; A Distasteful Horror Story by Johnny Mains; and A Little Light Screaming by Johnny Mains) but all of these have been discontinued and are out of print. 

In 2024 we will be publishing two further volumes of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy plus a trilogy of interlinked sword and sorcery collections by a veteran writer (further information to be issued later).  All five books will be illustrated by Jim Pitts. 


 Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7 is available as a paperback and ebook (kindle)
 
The stories and authors included are:
 
PITILESS by Stephen Frame
UNHALLOWED TOMBS by Paul Batteiger
SORCERIES IN ASSABARR by Andrew Graham
SCHISM OF SPECTRES by Phil Emery
THE CROSSROADS IN THE FOREST by Gavin Chappell
WISPS by Jason M Waltz
DARK THE SKY, RADIANT THE ROAD by Jalyn Renae Fiske
THE BLOOD OF KHALID AL'TAHIR by Craig Comer
THE DARK KNIGHT OF THE SOUL by eric Ian Steele
PROHAIRESIS by Jon Zaremba
BLADES FOR A BOUNTY by Harry Elliott

The artwork, as always, is by Jim Pitts.

Saturday 16 March 2024

Day Thirty-Eight of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Lucilla - a novella by David A. Riley

 

Day thirty-eight of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's my own Lucilla - a novella, which was originally serialised in Bewildering Stories

 

Lucilla - a novella by David A. Riley is available in hardcover for £13.99, in paperback for £5.50, and in kindle for £2.99. The cover artwork is by Jim Pitts.

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, £5.50 in paperback, £2.99 in kindle

amazon.com $17.19 in hardcover, $6.70 in paperback, $3.70 in kindle

Friday 15 March 2024

Day Thirty-Seven of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6

For day thirty-seven of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications it's Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6.




Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 is available as a paperback and ebook (kindle)

amazon.com

amazon.co.uk

 The contents are: 

LAND OF THE DEAD by Dev Agarwal
THE HOUSE OF BONES by Carson Ray
THRENODY OF GHOSTS by Phil Emery
WARDARK AND THE SIREN QUEEN by Craig Herbertson
OTRIM by Lyndon Perry
GODS, MEN, AND NEPHILIM by David Dubrow
GOLDEN WITCH OF ADZELGAR by Scott McCloskey
RAIDING THE GRAVEYARD OF LOST SHIPS by Tais Teng
A PLACE OF GHOSTS by Andrew Darlington
THOSE WHO WEAR THEIR WHITE HAIR PROUDLY by Lauren C. Teffeau
TRIALS FOR TREASURE by Harry Elliott
GOD OF THE DREAMING ISLES by Adrian Cole

Thursday 14 March 2024

Day Thirty-Six of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Childe Rolande by Samantha Lee

 

For day thirty-six of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications, it's Samantha Lee's amazing mix of sword & sorcery and post apocalyptic science fantasy Childe Rolande. 

Parallel Universe Publications is proud to announce that we have published Samantha Lee's groundbreaking post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel Childe Rolande as a paperback and kindle e-book.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

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.

Wednesday 13 March 2024

Day Thirty-Five of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead

 


Day thirty-five of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's the turn of our first (and only) chapbook: A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead by David A. Riley, illustrated throughout by award-winning artist Jim Pitts.

What was intended as the start of a series of low-priced chapbooks, A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead included four previously published short stories by David A. Riley with illustrations by Jim Pitts.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

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.

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Day Thirty-Four of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 5

Day thirty-four of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 5, which was to be the biggest yet of our popular anthology series.


Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 5 is available as a paperback and ebook (kindle)
 
  
The contents are: 
The Rotted Land by Charles Gramlich
Skulls for Silver by Harry Elliott
For the Light by Gustavo Bondoni
People of the Lake by Lorenzo D. Lopez
Free Diving for Leviathan Eggs by Tais Teng
The Black Well by Darin Hlavaz
Degg and the Undead by Susan Murrie Macdonald
The Mistress of the Marsh by David Dubrow
Silver and Gold by Earl W. Parrish
Bridge of Sorrows by Dev Agarwal 
Prisoners of Devil Dog City by Adrian Cole

Monday 11 March 2024

Day Thirty-Three of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 4

 

Day Thirty-Three of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 4, published in June 2022.
 

amazon.com

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

Sunday 10 March 2024

Day Thirty-Two of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 3

 


Day thirty-two of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's the turn of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 3, published in November 2021.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

Contents are:
Sorcerous Vengeance by Lorenzo D. Lopez 
Seal Snatchers of Jorsaleem by Tais Teng
When the Gods Send You Rats by Chadwick Ginther 
Mother's Bones by Carson Ray 
In the Lair of the Snake-Witch by Darin Hlavaz
The Rains of Barofonn by Mike Chinn
Wardark by Craig Herbertson
The Foliage by Rab Foster 
In the Lair of the Moonmen by Jon Hansen 
Sailing on the Thieves' Tide by Adrian Cole
 
The covers and interior artwork are again by Jim Pitts.
The book is 270 pages and will cost £11.99 (£2.99 kindle).