A Sample Story from The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror

I've posted on facebook:  

If anyone would like to sample one of the stories from my collection The Lurkers in the Abyss and Other Tales of Terror, please use this link to read His Pale Blue Eyes, which was originally published in Bite Sized Horror (Obverse Books, 2011): http://vaultofevil.proboards.com/attachment/download/88

http://davidandrewriley.blogspot.co.uk/p/collection-lurkers-in-abyss-other-tales.html

Launch set for short story collection

I have just learned from Dave Sutton that my short story collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror will be launched between 3.00 p.m. and 4.00 p.m. on Friday the 1st November at the World Fantasy Convention in Brighton. Free glasses of wine for all!

The stories in the collection have all been  previously published in the following anthologies or magazines:

The Eleventh Pan Book of Horror Stories (Pan Books)
The Year's Best Horror Fiction 1 (Sphere Books)
Whispers magazine
Death (Playboy Paperbacks)
Fantasy Tales magazine
The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural (Tiger Books)
The Mammoth Book of Zombies (Robinson Books)
Aboriginal Science Fiction magazine
World of Horror magazine
Fear magazine
Peeping Tom magazine
Alone on the Darkside (Roc Books)
The Third Black Book of Horror (Mortbury Press)
Shades of Darkness (Ash-Tree Press)
Bite Sized Horror (Obverse Books)
The Lovecraft eZine

Tales to Terrify

Very pleased to announce that Tales to Terrify, which produces a truly fascinating series of podcasts, has just accepted my zombie story, His Pale Blue Eyes, for a future broadcast. The story was first published in Bite-Sized Horror, Obverse Books, 2011.

Bite Sized Horror - Review on BFS Site

Coincidentally, David Brzeski has reviewed Bite Sized Horror on the BFS site.

And then it wasn't

Over issues regarding contracts, etc., Obverse have now withdrawn their e-book version of Bite Sized Horror.

Bite Sized Horror - now available as a downloadable e-book

Bite Sized Horror from Obverse Books, which contains my zombie horror story His Pale Blue Eyes, has now been made available as an e-book for £3.99, although there are potentially some issues between the writers and the publisher which need to be resolved over this. More about this later.

Bite Sized Horror

It's several months now since this anthology was published by Obverse Books, and it's nice to see a good, positive review of it by the redoubtable Stephen Theaker in Theaker's Quarterly.

Bite Sized Horror - another brilliant review

The Short Review: yet another very positive review of this collection.

Bite Sized Horror is now out

The Obverse Books anthology, Bite Sized Horror edited by Johnny Mains is now out. There's also a really good review of it by Fantasy Book Critic.

And if that doesn't bite you to buy a copy...

With Deepest Sympathy - Johnny Mains

Gun Money is a strange ghost story of Ireland's recent, very troubled past, the days of its Civil War and the assassination of Michael Collins. This and a modern scrounger who cheats his way through life - till he tries to cheat the dead, and finds they're not so easily cheated.

The mood swings completely with the next much shorter tale, Jesus Wept, an amusing piece of blasphemy which would ensure, if known, make Johnny's reception in religious quarters more than warm. Quite a grab bag of jokes too, mixed in with some quite horrific descriptions, clipped, colourful and always spot on. Hard core drugs and Christianity in the form of a junky Jesus Christ, who may or may not be real - at least to the narrator. With a comical punchline, which made me laugh at least.

The Bag Lady is a much more serious story, a true horror about a murderous old woman with a big red bag. Told from the perspective of an eleven-year-old boy, it's a dark, grisly tale of child murder and the supernatural.

With Deepest Sympathy - Johnny Mains

The title story, With Deepest Sympathy, has Mrs Primrose Hildebrand, who could have been the Miss Marple of her community, but instead turns her talents to poison pen letters, with dire consequences, in the amputatory department. You can see Johnny's love for the nastiest side of the Pan horrors here. And a wicked sense of humour.

The Spoon, on the other hand, is just a one page joke at the expense of Uri Geller - who, seemingly, was amused by it! 10 out of 10 for originality and chutzpah if nothing else.

Next up, the longer Gun Money, which sounds just up my street.

With Deepest Symathy by Johnny Mains

Got my inscribed copy yesterday from Johnny - and what a nicely printed, attractive collection this is! A genuine bargain for £9.99.

Only read the first story so far, A Return to the Judge's House, but I must say I like Johnny's clean, straighforward, unpretentious style. A real change from some of the stuff I've been reading recently. Obverse have done an excellent job on this book, which looks deceptively slim but stands at over 180 pages.

Observe Books