Ongoing series in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy

 

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy has published a number of stories that form parts of ongoing sagas. Volume 11 includes three of these.

The first is another Undervalley tale from Harry Elliott, involving his intrepid trio Hel Strumm, Mann Silver and the ever-thirsty Gul Hakker. "Silence for Snakes" marks the fifth story following “Skulls for Silver”, “Trials for Treasure”, “Blades for a Bounty” and “Masks for the Madness” in volumes 5, 6, 7 and 10.

 

Another series involves Craig Herbertsons tales of the barbarian hero Wardark. Prior to "Wardark and the Sands of Serpanam" in our latest volume we published "Wardark", "Wardark and the Siren Queen" and "Wardark and the Pirate King" in volumes 3, 6 and 8.

 

We have so far published four of Andrew Darlington's Eternal Assassin stories: "A Place of Ghosts" in Volume 6, "Moonfinger and the Gift" in Volume 8, "The Memory Eaters" in Volume 9 and "The Man Who Hunted Death" in Volume 11, though other Eternal Assassin stories have appeared elsewhere, some of which were collected in his Tule Fog Press collection The Eternal Assassin Chronicles: The Lives & Times.

 

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales available 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)

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales now 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

Craig Herbertson's collection from Parallel Universe Publications, The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales, on the BFS website

There's a great review of Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales on the BFS website.

Check the book out on Parallel Universe Publications. And on Riley Books.

THE HEAVEN MAKER, AND OTHER GRUESOME TALES by Craig Herbertson, Parallel Universe Publications, pb, £11.99.
Reviewed by Stewart Horn
I hadn’t heard of Craig Herbertson before I picked this up, and this collection of twenty dark stories was a pleasant surprise.
The title story is probably the highlight: a grand epic told in a few short chapters about a man trying to rescue his wife from Hell. Reminiscent of Machen’s ‘Great God Pan’ in tone.
Several stories feature Mulholland the occultist, a splendid character who was great fun to spend time with. The best of those was ‘Liebniz’s Last Puzzle’, in which he is one of three academics trying to solve a fiendish puzzle, though none of them are clever enough to think it might not be a good idea. ‘The Anningly Sundial’ was another highlight, riffing on one of M. R. James’s best known stories.
Several stories are based in or around high schools – my favourite of those is ‘New Teacher’. You may have heard a classroom so rowdy it sounds like someone is being murdered.
Another group of stories is very much in the Pan Horror vein. Little nasty revenge tales or outlandish and implausibly horrific situations described with wicked glee. Look out for ‘A Game of Billiards and Soup’.
And there is poetry, a two page joke about Hibernian Football Club and the holy grail, lots of references to malt whisky, and a lovely little Christmas tale to finish off.
Overall, a satisfying read. A well written mix of the literary, the trashy and the darkly humorous. A fine addition to any horror lover’s library.

The Death Tableau by Craig Herbertson

Lovely surprise today with the arrival in the post of an inscribed copy of Craig Herbertson's latest novel, The Death Tableau, published by Black Horse Books. I'm looking forward to reading this as soon as I've finished the pdf of Best British Horror 2015, which Johnny Mains emailed to me to review.

Parallel Universe Publications

Originally created to publish our science fiction/fantasy magazine, Beyond, in 1995, our imprint, Parallel Universe Publications, lay dormant for many years till it was revived in 2012 to publish Craig Herbertson's hardcover story collection The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales. It was only then that we, Linden and I, discussed the possibility of publishing further books at some time in the near future. We have now published three more books in the past few months: Black Ceremonies by Charles Black, a reprint (for the first time in actual print as opposed to an ebook) of my fantasy novel Goblin Mire, and a trade paperback version of Craig's hardcover short story collection.

In the coming months we have other books planned, including an anthology, Kitchen Sink Gothic.

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales now available as a trade paperback from Parallel Universe Publications

Craig Herbertson's collection, The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is now available to order. The 274 trade paperback is available for £11.99 including UK postage from Parallel Universe Publications (email me at rileybooks@ntlworld.com for a paypal invoice) Overseas orders Europe add £3. Outside Europe add £4.

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales almost ready from Parallel Universe Publications

Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales is almost ready from Parallel Universe Publications. All we are waiting for now is the proof copy from the printer and it will be available, both from us and from Amazon, etc. Price will be £11.99.

Paperback version of The Heaven Maker and other Gruesome Tales

I sent off the proposed copy of Craig Herbertson's collection The Heaven Maker and other Gruesome Tales to him this weekend for him to check, including his updated version of one of the tales. Things are on track for a paperback version to be out from Parallel Universe Publications by September/October this year.

A second project is also planned. More details later.

PARALLEL UNIVERSE PUBLICATIONS

I created a blog site for Parallel Universe Publications a while ago but did nothing with it. I have now updated the information on it and redesigned the site.

Our last publication was Craig Herbertson's short story collection The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales.

Filthy Creations No 7

The latest issue is out now, with stories by Franklin Marsh (The Wicket Man), Penni McLaren Walker (The Architect's Table), D. F. Lewis (The Only Climax and All Endings Are Happy), Charles H. Galloway (Shapeshifter), Robert Mammone (Mycelium), plus the second part of two serials: The Death Tableaux by Craig Herbertson and Sendings by David A. Riley.

92 pages including the covers.

Editor is Rog Pile. Consultative editor is Craig Herbertson.

For copies, contact Rog Pile on rogpile@hotmail.co.uk

The Workshop of Filthy Creation.

Review of Craig Herbertson's The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales

Rog Pile has written a detailed, in depth review of Craig's collection, The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales published by Parallel Universe Publications.

The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales by Craig Herbertson - reviewed on the Vault of Evil

There's an excellent, in-depth and lengthy review of Craig's book on the Vault of Evil.

"For those who might not know (!), Craig Herbertson is one of those writers who once had work published in an obscure series of horror anthologies from Pan, now sadly gone and remembered only by collectors of cult fiction. With their original source of reading material gone, readers have resorted to similar publications from Charles Black and Johnny Mains, both admirable editors who have continued the tradition of those original Pans. And now, from Parallel Universe Publications, a publishing house owned by another of those original Pan authors, comes Craig Herbertson’s new collection The Heaven Maker and Other Gruesome Tales."

For ordering details for this book see Parallel Universe Publications.

The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales by Craig Herbertson

The books arrived from the printers today and we are really pleased with how they have turned out. An impressive 9.5 by 6.5 inches in size, they are priced at £20.

It will be launched in Edinburgh on the 15th, though Lin and I intend to take a few copies with us to the Halifax Ghost Story Festival on the same date.

Now that Parallel Universe has published its first book, we'll be looking at other projects to take on in the New Year. We already have several under consideration.

For ordering information click here: Parallel Universe Publications.

The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales by Craig Herbertson

Some updates on Craig's book.

The book has a foreword by Janis Mackay and an introduction by Craig. The full list of contents is:

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)

Copies will become available shortly through rileybooks.co.uk

Queries about buying copiers of the book should be sent either to rileybooks@ntlworld.com or to Riley Books, 130 Union Road, Oswaldtwistle, Accrington, Lancashire, BB5 3DR, UK. 

The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales by Craig Herbertson

This is the cover of the dust jacket for the first book published by Parallel Universe Publications, Craig Herbertson's collection of short stories, The Heaven Maker & Other Gruesome Tales. This hard bound volume will be launched on the 15th November in Edinburgh. 254 pages long, the book is priced £20, and includes Craig's first published story from the inconic Pan Books of Horror.