Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 now available as a paperback and eBook

 

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 is now available as a paperback and kindle eBook. 

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This is the tenth volume in our popular Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series of anthologies in the footsteps of Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith and other pioneers of the sword and sorcery genre.

The stories and authors included this time are:

Masks for the Madness by Harry Elliott
Safe as Banks by Geoffrey Hart
Death Abandoned by Virgo Kevonté
Cavern of Stones by Phil Emery
Bad Moon Rising by Robert Mammone
The Salt of Tilantokka by Gregory D. Mele
Shanglor: a Stranger Tale by Jay Litwicki
A Confusion of Renegades by Adrian Cole

The artwork on the covers and in the interior are by award-winning artist Jim Pitts.

 

 

Jim Pitts - Who is the cover and interior artist in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the cover and interior artist in the anthology: Jim Pitts:

"And, as usual, this book is favoured with the amazing artwork of Jim Pitts. As well as having been busy on the collection of Elak of Atlantis tales by Adrian Cole, Jim is regularly featured in the pages of Phantasmagoria Magazine, Lovecraftiana, and Schlock! Webzine, and elsewhere."

For more information about Jim and of the two hardcover books we have published of his artwork follow these links: 

The Ever More Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts

The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts

The original hard cover of The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts is also available in two soft cover volumes. 

Volume 1 Amazon
Volume 2 Amazon

Volume 1 Amazon
Volume 2 Amazon  

 

Plus, we also have signed high-quality prints of many of Jim's illustrations, both black and white and in full colour, A4 size: Jim Pitts Prints

 

 

Each print is on high quality A4 paper, approved and signed by the artist.

Colour prints are £7.00 each including p&p

Black & white prints £5.00 each including p&p

International Orders - due to the extra cost of postage, free postage and packaging is only available if 4 or more prints are ordered at one time.

Any orders for 5 or more prints, whether black and white, colour, or mixed qualify for a 20% discount anywhere in the world.

To order email: paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk, listing which prints you would like, plus your address. You will then be emailed a Paypal invoice.


Jim Pitts is an award-winning artist (two-times winner of the prestigious British Fantasy Award, plus Science Fiction's Ken McIntyre Award), whose work has appeared in numerous magazines and books, both professional and small press.

Jim Pitts holding his two British Fantasy Awards

Jim Pitts holding a copy of his book, The Fantastical Art of Jim Pitts

Now you have the opportunity to own individually signed prints of some of Jim's best work, in black and white and in full-colour.

Cover art for Elak, Sea Hawks of Atlantis by Jim Pitts, tales by Adrian Cole

Award-winning artist Jim Pitts has now sent in his fabulous cover artwork for Adrian Cole's third Atlantis collection, Elak, Sea Hawks of Atlantis, which will be published in January next year. 

The tales included in this 323-page collection are:

THE SWALLOWER OF ISLANDS Published here for the first time
JEWELS OF THE SEA HAG First published in Tales from the Magician’s Skull, Special #2 (USA) 2022
PRISONERS OF DEVIL DOG CITY First published in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 5, edited by David A. Riley, Parallel Universe Publications (UK) 2022
THE CURSE OF BLOODBONE ISLAND First published in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, (USA) 2023
GOD OF THE DREAMING ISLES First published in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6, edited by David A. Riley, Parallel Universe Publications (UK) 2023
WHEN THE SEA GODS RISE Published here for the first time

All three volumes will be available as uniform edition paperbacks and as kindle ebooks.

Cover reveal for Volume 7 of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy by Jim Pitts

This may not be the final version, but a glimpse of what the cover for Volume 7 of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy will look like. The illustration is the work of award-winning artist Jim Pitts. 

The submissions period for Volume 7 will open on the 1st October for the full month and will be published towards the end of November.

M. R. James: A Portfolio of Jamesian Artwork by Jim Pitts

 

Whilst still reading submissions for the next volume of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy we are also working on another project, a signed, limited edition chapbook of Jamesian artwork by award winning artist Jim Pitts. There is still quite a bit to be done on this yet, but most of the illustrations based on the great ghost stories of M. R. James have already been chosen and we have almost finished the front and back covers. See below.

Unlike most other PUP publications this will not be available through amazon or other online outlets but, because each copy will be numbered and signed by Jim Pitts, will only be available direct from PUP. There will be two ways to order copies: by cheque or by using a specially designed PayPal button. More information soon.

 

 

 

 

Possible front cover for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6

Jim Pitts has been busy in the past week working on colouring a previous black and white illustration for the front cover of the next swords and sorcery anthology in May 2023. Below is a copy of the original illustration together with the coloured version and a copy of what the cover will almost certainly look like.

 

Volume 6 will be open for submissions on the 1st April for the full month.

Our new chapbook: A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead now available in print as well as kindle

After several expressions of interest in a print version of our new e-chapbook A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead we have now published it in softcover, priced at just £5.00. If this experiment in chapbooks proves popular enough we intend to publish more in the future by other authors.

amazon.co.uk

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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.

I would like to thank my friend Jim Pitts who has kindly allowed me to use his illustrations both for the covers and for the interior.

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 5 - Coming Soon!

The 5th volume of our popular anthology series Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy will be published as a paperback and kindle e-book later this month. The full list of contents will be revealed here in the next few days.

With more pages than ever, there are some new names included in the TOC plus the return of some favourites. 

As alwsays the cover and interior artwork is by award-winning artist Jim Pitts. 

Check out our dedicated Swords & Sorceries Page. 

Childe Rolande by Samantha Lee - now published as a paperback and kindle e-book

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. 

Childe Rolande – The Myth and the Legend

Childe Rolande, Hermaphrodite and Freak, is born into the fiercely matriarchal society of Alba at a time when the fabric of the nation is crumbling.

Rolande fulfils all the technical requirements of an ancient Prophesy which promises that one day a ‘Redeemer’ will arise who will be ‘the one and the both’, and who will sweep away the age-old tyranny of Alba’s female rulers to ‘bind the nation together in peace’.

The hopes and dreams of Alba’s downtrodden males are centred on this mystical being, whose eyes hold the wisdom of the ages and who can reputedly change into an eagle at will.

Can Rolande live up to their expectations, wrest the antlered throne from the Warlord of the Clans, drive the evil Sorceress, Fergael from her stronghold in the Dark Tower, and unite the polarised Kingdom?

From a review written by John Gilbert for Fear magazine in 1989.

“The book is written cleverly in the first person so Lee doesn’t have to equate the principal player with his/her gender. This also allows Lee to step out of the book’s politics and, in the Land of Alba, show that a kingdom ruled by any one part of the population can condemn the other elements to slavery. Childe Rolande also draws on poetic influences, particularly on Byron’s poem ‘Childe Rolande to the dark tower came’... In this book, however, there are enough poetic parallels to play that wonderful game so beloved of Umberto Eco, hunt the allusion. It’s a game that, if well played, will pay off for any lover of the fantasy genres and those interested in the politics of humanity, as pressed through the freedom of fantasy.”

 

 

 

Samantha Lee's novel Childe Rolande to be published by PUP

 

PUP is proud to be reprinting Samantha Lee’s 1989 post-apocalyptic dark fantasy novel Childe Rolande with a new 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 artwork 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.

Childe Rolande will be available as a paperback and, for the first time ever, a kindle e-book.

Samantha is now at work on a sequel which will form the basis for a second season. More details of this exciting project will be revealed soon.

We are considering the publication of a limited edition hardcover edition signed by the author. The cost would be £25 plus p&p. If you are interested please email us with no obligation at:

paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk

  

Childe Rolande – The Myth and the Legend

Childe Rolande, Hermaphrodite and Freak, is born into the fiercely matriarchal society of Alba at a time when the fabric of the nation is crumbling.

Rolande fulfils all the technical requirements of an ancient Prophesy which promises that one day a ‘Redeemer’ will arise who will be ‘the one and the both’, and who will sweep away the age-old tyranny of Alba’s female rulers to ‘bind the nation together in peace’.

The hopes and dreams of Alba’s downtrodden males are centred on this mystical being, whose eyes hold the wisdom of the ages and who can reputedly change into an eagle at will.

Can Rolande live up to their expectations, wrest the antlered throne from the Warlord of the Clans, drive the evil Sorceress, Fergael from her stronghold in the Dark Tower, and unite the polarised Kingdom?

 

“The book is written cleverly in the first person so Lee doesn’t have to equate the principal player with his/her gender. This also allows Lee to step out of the book’s politics and, in the Land of Alba, show that a kingdom ruled by any one part of the population can condemn the other elements to slavery. Childe Rolande also draws on poetic influences, particularly on Byron’s poem ‘Childe Rolande to the dark tower came’... In this book, however, there are enough poetic parallels to play that wonderful game so beloved of Umberto Eco, hunt the allusion. It’s a game that, if well played, will pay off for any lover of the fantasy genres and those interested in the politics of humanity, as pressed through the freedom of fantasy.”

John Gilbert - Fear Magazine.