Although I haven't decided on exactly when this collection will be published, I have now completed proofreading it and have ordered a proof copy, which should arrive within the next week or so.
Running at 510 pages and just over 200,000 words, with 35 previously published stories included in it, Volume 2 is quite a hefty book, just slightly bigger than Volume 1.
Full details are here: The Collected SF, Fantasy & Horror Stories of David A. Riley
Although the ad states these are, and in the case of Volume 2, will be available in hardcover and e-books, there are and will be paperback versions too.
From the Introduction to Volume 2:
Unlike Volume 1 of my Collected Stories this does not include every short story I have had published between the designated years. Omitted are those involving my sword and sorcery character Welgar, some of which have already been collected in a loosely-woven novel, publish-ed by Tule Fog Press in 2025 as Welgar the Cursed. The stories in this collection are “Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus”, “The Dark Priestdom”, “Welgar the Cursed”, “Mask of a Mad God”, “The Forbidden City of Cyramon”, and “Emerging from Their Twilit Realms”. Since then I have written “From the Ashes”, “Trapped in the Dreamlands”, “Escaping the Dreamlands”, and “The Narcolopsia.” “From the Ashes” was published by Savage Realms Monthly in its August 2026 issue.
Besides my Welgar tales, I have also omitted those of Horbeck the Mercenary, the first of which, “The Demon from Another World” was published in 2024 in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium. This was followed by “Lies and Treachery”, serialised in Crimson Quill Quarterly, issues 6 and 7 in 2025. I have written five more Horbeck stories, but these are still looking for a market. In any case, like the Welgar tales, they follow chronologically one after another and I am hoping eventually to have them published as a loosely-woven novel too.
Besides these there are a number of tales featuring my sorcerer Ossani the Healer, two of which were published in Swords & Heroes Quarterly in June 2026, with another appearing in Cirsova magazine in its Fall issue in 2026. Again, these and a number of other stories set in the same time period may one day be collected as Tales of the Azure Sea or some such volume.
The only straight horror story omitted from this collection is “The Tract of Calvanicus”. Although accepted for publication it will not appear till 2027 in Schlock! Webzine. This may also be my last normal horror story, as I have begun to concentrate in recent years on dark fantasy and sword and sorcery.
