Crimson Quill Quarterly #6 now available as a paperback and eBook

I am pleased to announce that Crimson Quill Quarterly #6 is now available as a paperback and eBook.

The latest issue contains the first of a two part story by me called Lies and Treachery, which details a further adventure of my on the run mercenaries led by Horbeck, who first appeared in The Demon from Another World last year in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium. 

From this issue's description on amazon:

"Heart of the Depths by Ethan Sabatella: In this Stone Age Slasher, five youths break the rules of their tribe and stay out in the wilderness after nightfall. The superstitions of their people prove all too real as a terrible darkness creeps out from the Earth and stalks them one-by-one.

The Saga of the Stew by Randall Madden: Trolls have ravaged the mountainside around Ravian, and all but the hardiest have fled. Yet two brave souls travel toward the danger, in search of an ancient book near the mountaintop. Damica, the aging singer, finds an unlikely ally in Morgho the swordsman. Together they move for Ravian itself—the very source of the troll attacks—so that Damica might complete the most important ritual of his long life.

The Forbidden Land by Mike Adamson: In an ancient land, legend warns of the dire fruits of trespass. Not for nothing does taboo keep the tribes away from the northern woods, as Jareth the Hunter and Sho’nee the Beautiful discover when the girl flees the warrior to whom she is promised...into the embodiment of all mortal terror.

Lies and Treachery (Part 1 of 2) by David A. Riley: After having escaped death in the Great Desert as they fled from their pursuers, Horbeck and his fellow mercenaries are hoping for some time to recover in the small, stockaded town they reach beyond the desert’s edge, little realizing they will be betrayed and forced to grapple with creatures of appalling evil, some demonic and some human.

Dark Secrets Entombed by J. VanZile: Balthen Verdugo wants to hunt monsters and make money. If he can gain a bit of notoriety and fame along the way then all the better. A rich purse leads Balthen to a town with a beast who has been killing by night and hiding in a graveyard by day. When Balthen learns the beast may be linked to the town and its people in ways he wouldn’t have expected, he must decide what he values more; truth and justice or his business.

Choir of the Mad Anatomist by Logan D. Whitney: Wayward rogues Indryk and Cor find themselves embroiled in the aftermath of one man’s musical obsession…and another’s greed.

Snowblind by Shephard W. McIlveen: Onyx the Tigerheart stumbles upon a bizarre murder scene when he finds four men half-buried in the snow, each with their eyes burned out through the backs of their skulls. As he examines the bodies, he is set upon by a small order of armored men each dressed in a uniform matching the corpses at his feet. To clear his name and show good faith, Onyx agrees to aid the men on the search for the real killer, but how long will it take for the hunters to become the hunted?"

My sword and sorcery story Lies and Treachery will appear in Crimson Quill Quarterly #6 in April

I am really pleased to announce that my sword and sorcery tale Lies and Treachery will appear in the April issue of Crimson Quill Quarterly. This is the second story about my disreputable mercenary heroes Horbeck, Brud and Asner, who first appeared in The Demon from Another World (Anthology of the Damned - Necromoirrium).

 

My sword and sorcery tale Lies and Treachery to be serialised in 2-parts next year

Contract signed for another sword and sorcery tale, Lies and Treachery, which is a further adventure of my mercenary heroes Horbeck, Brud and Asner. This longish story (11,100 words) will be serialised in April and July next year.

This is a sequel to The Demon from Another World which was recently published in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from TreeShaker Books. This was also quite a long tale, standing at 9,900 words.

I now have to find homes for my other Horbeck & Co tales: The Mummified Demi-God, Dead Thieves in the Night and The Sorcerer's Casket.  

Just to add to the tally I'm currently working on yet another story in their saga, A Murder of Necromancers.

Lies and Treachery - my second Horbeck sword and sorcery story accepted for publication next year

I am very pleased to reveal that my second full Horbeck story, a novelette called Lies and Treachery, will be serialised in two parts next year. More details soon. 

The first story published featuring Horbeck and his two mercenary companions Brud and Asner, The Demon from Another World, appeared in Anthology of the Damned: Necrmoirrium, earlier this month from TreeShaker Books.

 

Illustration for The Demon from Another World

As a writer sometimes an illustration for a story you've written really stands out for you, and I must admit I do love the one provided for my sword and sorcery tale The Demon from Another World in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from TreeShaker Books.

Two stories published today: The Demon from Another World and An Oddity

I have two stories just published in the States.

One is my sword and sorcery novelette The Demon from Another World in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium.

The second is a reprint of my horror story An Oddity in the anthology Strange Aeon 2024 edited by M. Keaton. This was first published in the January 2024 issue of Schlock! Webzine.

The Demon from Another World is now out in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium

My sword and sorcery novelette The Demon from Another World is now out in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium as a paperback and kindle ebook from Treeshaker Books. 

This features a group of mercenaries, chief of whom is Horbeck, who has appeared in several other stories I've written. He first appears as a minor character in The Unhappy Inquisitor. Since then he has appeared as the main character in two sequels to The Demon from Another World: Lies and Treachery and The Mummified Demi-God, plus another I am still writing. 

Kickstarter Project - Anthologies of the Damned

I have an interest in this kickstarter project as I have a 8000 word sword and sorcery yarn in Anthology of the Damned - Necromoirrium called The Demon from Another World.

I have been struck by the sheer enthusuasm and energy of those behind this project and wish them well.

Treeshaker Books

 

 

 

 

The Demon from Another World

I spent some time yesterday doing a last minute proofread of my sword and sorcery tale The Demon from Another World which will appear soon in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from Treeshaker Books.

 

I would add that this is not a collection of S&S stories but dark horror. It just happens, I suppose, my yarn is particularly graphic, inspired as it is by John Carpenter's The Thing.

 

Here are its opening lines:

 

It crashed through the clouds in the dead of night, lighting up the sky as if it were day. The high-pitched scream that accompanied it was as if a thousand dragons (if such creatures even existed, which most people doubted) were being slaughtered in agony. Down it hurtled, cleaving the clouds and leaving behind a searingly bright trail that gradually dispersed an untold distance behind it.

When it crashed the earth shook far and wide, and those who were awakened by its reverberations thanked whatever gods they had it was nowhere near where they lived, before trying to return to sleep again. For most it was a fitful night.

 

It landed in the endless wastes of the Great Desert, instantly turning a wide circle of sand scores of miles across into rough, filmy, strange-looking glass beneath whose brittle surface lay treacherous chasms.

 

Gradually, whatever was buried at its core began to cool.

 

It cooled for years.

 

                                                                            *

 

They were a scurrilous bunch of mercenaries, broken by defeat, penniless, most of them covered in wounds, some of which festered and would lead to death in the next few days, and what supplies they had were almost gone. Worse still, they were being hunted.

 

After weeks of riding their dromedaries across dunes that stretched for as far as they could see still their shaman warned them when he used his powers of divination the squadron of Hessurian riders was still on their trail, only days behind them now...