Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb

I am currently working on getting Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb ready for publication by Parallel Universe. Irvin S. Cobb was a famous humorist, journalist, editor and occasional actor, whose stories were amongst the most popular in American letters during the first half of the twentieth century. In 1935 he hosted the Oscars and appeared in a number of early movies.
Only occasionally did his fiction delve into darker areas. One of his most famous, Fishhead, went on to inspire H. P. Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth, while The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls. H. P. Lovecraft wrote of Fishhead in his essay Supernatural Horror in Literature: “banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake.”
Here for the first time are collected fourteen of Irvin S. Cobb’s darkest tales:
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apopexy
Fishhead
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
The 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

Irvin S. Cobb on the cover of All-Story Weekly

Irvin S. Cobb presenting the Oscars 1935

Fishhead and Other Weird Tales by Irvin S. Cobb

Besides working on getting Kate Farrell's collection of short stories into print - And Nobody Lived Happily Ever After - Parallel Universe Publications is also working on collecting together all of Irvin S. Cobbs' darker stories for the first time in one volume. Better known as a writer of humorous tales, this will show another side to him.
Two of his stories are known to have inspired H. P. Lovecraft himself. Cobbs' tale Fishhead (which PUP reprinted earlier this year in Things That Go Bump in the Night) gave rise to The Shadow Over Innsmouth. The Unbroken Chain helped to give Lovecraft the idea behind The Rats in the Walls.
The collection will be titled Fishhead and Other Weird Tales and will, hopefully, be published before the end of the year.

Free ebook offer

Parallel Universe Publications are offering a free mobi copy of any two of the following books (Moloch's Children, Classic Weird, Their Cramped Dark World, His Own Mad Demons, Things that go Bump in the Night, and Goblin Mire) for anyone who purchases a copy, either print or ebook, of Kitchen Sink Gothic and posts an honest review on Amazon. Just email rileybooks@ntlworld.com to claim whichever two books you would like.

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales in paperback

At long last copies of Craig Herbertson's brilliant collection of short stories, The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales, is available in paperback.

amazon.co.uk  £7.99
amazon.com  $9.99

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)

Kitchen Sink Gothic available in paperback

Artwork by Joe Young

Kitchen Sink Gothic is now available in paperback.

amazon.co.uk   £8.99

amazon.com  $11.99

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.

Stephen Bacon (Daddy Giggles)
Franklin Marsh (1964)
Andrew Darlington (Derek Edge and the Sunspots)
Gary Fry (Black Sheep)
Benedict J. Jones (Jamal Comes Home) 
Kate Farrell (Waiting) 
Charles Black (Lilly Finds a Place to Stay)
David A. Sutton (The Mutant's Cry)
Walter Gascoigne (The Sanitation Solution)
Mark Patrick Lynch (Up and Out of Here)
Adrian Cole (Late Shift)
Shaun Avery (The Great Estate)
Jay Eales (Nine Tenths)
Craig Herbertson (Envelopes)
Tim Major (Tunnel Vision)
M. J. Wesolowski (Life is Prescious)
David Turnbull (Canvey Island Baby)

Moloch's Children - free on kindle August 6 for one day only

Moloch's Children will be free on Thursday the 6th August for one day only.

Please feel free to write a review if the urge is there.

 Moloch's Children by David A. Riley

trade paperback: 
 
amazon.co.uk  £7.99
amazon.com   $9.99

ebook:

amazon.co.uk  £2.99 - free for the 6th August
amazon.com  $4.68 - free for the 6th August

Kitchen Sink Gothic now available on kindle

Kitchen Sink Gothic is now available on kindle.

amazon.co.uk
amazion.com

A print copy in trade paperback will be available within the next couple of weeks.

Table of contents:


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

Kitchen Sink Gothic - Table of Contents

Cover Art: Joe Young

We have now received back signed contracts by all our writers and can finally reveal the full list of contents for Kitchen Sink Gothic:

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
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

The book is over 200 pages long and will be published as a trade paperback and an ebook in July.

Kitchen Sink Gothic - acceptances and rejections sent

Today we emailed all the rejections and acceptances for Kitchen Sink Gothic. As soon as our contracts for the accepted stories have been returned to us we'll be posting details of the full TOC.

Kitchen Sink Gothic will be available both as a trade paperback and an ebook.

We believe this will be an important anthology, with a great line up and a varied, intriguing and fascinating list of stories. 

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is now available on kindle

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is now available on kindle. A trade paperback will soon be available on amazon too.

amazon.co.uk  £1.99

amazon.com  $3.10

“The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is a big win for me. This is a solid anthology with some interesting concepts and horrifying realities.” Matthew Scott Baker, Hellnotes

“A well written mix of the literary, the trashy and the darkly humorous. A fine addition to any horror lover’s library.” Stewart Horn, British Fantasy Society