My short story collections

Below are details of all my short story collections, what stories are in them, and where they are published, plus links to ordering copies online.

The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror - Shadow Publishing 2013

The Lurkers in the Abyss, After Nightfall, Terror on the Moors, The Shade of Apollyon, Prickly, Writer's Cramp, Winter on Aubarch 6, The Shadow by the Altar, Out of Corruption, A New Lease, Help-Plants, Inside the Labyrinth, A Sense of Movement, Soft Little Fingers, His Pale Blue Eyes, Fish Eye, Lurkers.

amazon.co.uk    amazon.com

His Own Mad Demons: Dark Tales from David A. Riley - Originally Hazardous Press, now Parallel Universe Publications 2012 and 2015

Their Own Mad Demons, Lock-In, The Fragile Mask on his Face,The True Spirit, The Worst of All Possible Places.

amazon.co.uk   amazon.com

Their Cramped Dark World & Other Tales - Originally published by Hazardous Press, now Parallel Universe Publications 2015

Hoody, A Bottle of Spirits, No Sense in Being Hungry, She Thought, Now and Forever More, Romero's Children, Swan Song, The Farmhouse, The Last Coach Trip, The Satyr's Head, Their Cramped Dark World

amazon.co.uk   amazon.com  

After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales - Parallel Universe Publications 2020

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

Illustrated throughout by Jim Pitts

amazon.co.uk   amazon.com

A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror - Parallel Universe Publications 2021

Lem, Scrap, The Urn, Hanuman, Gwargens, Retribution, The Bequest, Corpse-Maker, Old Grudge Ender, Dead Ronnie and I, Grudge End Cloggers, A Grim God's Revenge, They Pissed on My Sofa, A Girl, a Toad and a Cask

amazon.co.uk   amazon.com

 

 

A Grim God's Revenge to be reviewed on Big Hits Radio UK this Sunday

My latest short story collection A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror will be reviewed on BIG Hits Radio UK this Sunday on Trevor Kennedy's regular broadcast between 12 noon and 2 pm.

 

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

A Grim God's Revenge reviewed in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria

There is a detailed review of my collection A Grim God's Revenge in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine by Trevor Kennedy:

THIS LATEST COLLECTION of 14 stories by David A. Riley is a broad, wide-ranging selection that branches out into horror, fantasy and science fiction, with some gritty realism thrown into the mix for good measure.
    As the tagline states, “Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror”, there is a bleak, hard edge to the author’s work overall, many of his tales very much set in the real world, one that involves murder, vengeance and Satanic cults weaved into the very fabric of their “It’s grim up North” British setting. Personally, I’ve always been attracted to this type of “kitchen sink” style of neorealism, in both literature and film, and if there’s some supernatural horrors thrown in there too, then all the better.

    Quite a few of the tales are set in the author’s regular fictional locale of Grudge End in the town of Edgebottom, “Lancashire’s shame”, a part of the world with a very dark history where some nasty stuff indeed has happened over the decades. These are my favourite types of tales by Riley and definitely those which I consider to be his strongest. The Edgebottom-set stories included here include ‘Grudge End Cloggers’ and the excellent ‘Scrap’.
    Additionally, there is also a raw and authentic tone to the delightfully titled ‘They Pissed on My Sofa’, concerning the vengeance of a harassed man against a bunch of young hooligans.
    The collection is certainly not all in this style and tone throughout though, as Riley also gives us some good old-fashioned swords and sorcery-esque fantasy with the likes of the title story, ‘Retribution’ and ‘A Girl, a Toad and a Cask’. ‘Gwargens’ is a splendidly enjoyable sci-fi yarn.
    Looking at some of the other stories featured, the opener, ‘Dead Ronnie and I’, is set during a zombie apocalypse and in part on a deserted island, ‘The Urn’ feels M.R. Jamesian in terms of style and content, while Jewish and Indian mythologies are explored in ‘Lem’ and ‘Hanuman’.
    With a beautifully vivid front cover artwork by Jim Pitts, A Grim God’s Revenge is an interesting and nice blend of some of Riley’s tales covering a period of almost half a century since their original publications.
    If you’re a fan of more edgy horror then this is one for you, with the other types of stories splitting things up well and lending something of a multifarious mix to proceedings.
    A Grim God’s Revenge is published by Parallel Universe Publications and is available to purchase from their website, Amazon and other outlets. For more information please go to paralleluniversepublications.blogspot.com.
—Trevor Kennedy

 To buy Phantasmagoria follow this link: amazon.co.uk

To buy A Grim God's Revenge: 

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

 

In Depth Review of A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror on the Vault of Evil Website

Kevin Demant has just concluded a story-by-story review of A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror on the Vault of Evil website. Click here to take a look at it. 

 

 

 

 

 

A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror available now in paperback and kindle

Artwork: Jim Pitts

 

My fifth short story collection A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror is now available in paperback and kindle.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

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

Paperback front, back cover and spine: artwork Jim Pitts

 

A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror now available on kindle

Artwork: Jim Pitts

 

 

Ahead of its publication as a paperback, A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy and Horror is available as a kindle ebook (price £2.99 in the UK). The paperback will be out later this week. 

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

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

 

A Grim God's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror

Front & back cover artwork by Jim Pitts

My next collection of stories will be published in November: A Grim Gods's Revenge: Dark Tales of Fantasy & Horror.

This will include fourteen stories in the horror, fantasy and science fiction genres all of which have previously been published from the early 1970s to last year.

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

 

Artwork by Jim Pitts

Mythic magazine #4 and my story A Grim God's Revenge

Got my contributor copies of Mythic magazine #4 in the post today, containing my dark fantasy story A Grim God's Revenge.

Mythic issue 4 - with my story A Grim God's Revenge

The good news is that the fourth issue of Mythic magazine will be out shortly, containing my dark fantasy story A Grim God's Revenge.

A Grim God's Revenge in Mythic Magazine

My fantasy story A Grim God's Revenge will appear in the next issue of Mythic magazine. Below is a copy of the cover.

A Grim God's Revenge accepted by Mythic - a Quarterly Science Fiction & Fantasy Magazine

Just learned that my fantasy tale, A Grim God's Revenge, has been accepted for publication in the fourth issue of Mythic, "a quarterly science fiction and fantasy magazine".

I haven't been doing much writing over the past two years, concentrating instead on publishing books under my Parallel Universe imprint - 26 titles so far, with the massive Jim Pitts artbook taking up much of my time this year, so it was a pleasant surprise to see something I wrote just prior to PUP taking over my life being accepted for publication.

Redundant Flesh

After finishing five short stories in the past month (Sir Hector's Quest, A Grim God's Revenge, Boat Trip, Lem, and Dead Ronnie and I), I've restarted writing a novella (or maybe a short novel) called Redundant Flesh, which I worked on a couple of years ago, but dropped by the wayside. Reading it again this week, I found my interest in it reignited. I'm looking forward to finishing this story of a serial killer.