Romero's Children reprinted in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria

 

My science fiction zombie tale Romero's Children has been reprinted in the latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine.

Our new chapbook: A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead now available in print as well as kindle

After several expressions of interest in a print version of our new e-chapbook A Handful of Zombies: Tales of the Restless Dead we have now published it in softcover, priced at just £5.00. If this experiment in chapbooks proves popular enough we intend to publish more in the future by other authors.

amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

All four stories in this collection cover a wide range of tropes within the zombie genre. 

Dead Ronnie and I is a tale of high adventure by plane and sea, with an abortive escape by our protagonist to the as yet untainted Isles of Scotland. This was originally published in Sanitarium Magazine No 44 in 2016.

His Pale Blue Eyes is probably the most traditional take of zombie stories today, featuring a young girl’s determined search for her parents during a zombie apocalypse. It’s a story, though, about conditioning and how what someone is taught can radically affect their behaviour. Is the horror in this the shambling undead or the girl herself? See what you think. This first appeared in Bite-Sized Horror edited by Johnny Mains for Obverse Books in 2011.

By contrast Right For You Now, originally published in Weirdbook Zombie Annual No 3 in 2021, harks back to the original concept of the zombie in Voodoo-haunted Haiti, though this tale is set in present-day Britain. It’s a combination of a crime story, revenge, and a man’s obsessive fascination with age-old practices.

Our final tale, Romero’s Children, is more in the way of a science fiction story. The zombies here are certainly the most different. For a start off they are not dead but have been granted near immortality by a drug that swept the world with its promise to stop aging. Alas for those caught up in the frenzied demand to use it, though, its side effects were such that they would have been better off dead. This story appeared in 2010 in The Seventh Black Book of Horror edited by the late Charles Black and was subsequently picked up by American editor Paula Guran for her 2012 anthology Extreme Zombies.

I would like to thank my friend Jim Pitts who has kindly allowed me to use his illustrations both for the covers and for the interior.

 

Romero's Children is in the current issue of the Russian horrorzine Darker

I am very pleased that my story Romero's Children has been reprinted in the Russian horrorzine Darker.

David A. Riley, “Romero's Children”, 2010 ©

Сегодня вечером сенатор Харди провел операцию против использования широко распространенного препарата, замедляющего старение, известного как «ОМ» («Опытный Мафусаил»). В ходе этой операции были затронуты продажи на черных рынках.
«Сегодня никто не знает, какими будут долгосрочные результаты от его применения. Быть может, он и замедляет старение, но лишь кратковременно, и пройдут годы, возможно, даже десятилетия, прежде чем мы сможем утверждать, что его использование безопасно и не имеет побочных эффектов, о которых в настоящее время ничего не известно. Люди принимают этот препарат в надежде на долгую здоровую жизнь, но они не знают, не возникнет ли других последствий»...

Romero's Children to be published in Russian webzine Darker.

I am pleased to reveal that my story, Romero's Children, will be translated and published in the next issue of the Russian webzine, Darker.

Romero's Children will be in their zombie issue - link to advert.

A Great New Review of Romero's Children

Just read a great review of my short story Romero's Children which was republished a couple of years ago in Paula Guran's Extreme Zombies.

Jaffalogue: review

"This gem of a short story is included in Extreme Zombies edited by Paula Guran. The author, with a background in Horror fiction, treats the readers to a unique take on zombies that veers toward the I am Legend or 28 Days Later part of the spectrum..."

Romero's Children is one of the stories included in my forthcoming collection from Hazardous Press, Their Cramped Dark World and Other Tales. And, I should add, Romero's Children was first published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror, edited by Charles Black in 2010.