Great review of my story An Oddity which was in Shlock! Webzine

Very pleased to see some kind comments about my story An Oddity, which appeared in Schlock! Webzine recently.

review

Day Twenty-Two of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Nightscape by Eric Ian Steele

 

Day twenty-two of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Nightscape, a collection of stories by Eric Ian Steele, some of whose tales have appeared more recently in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy. 

Eric Ian Steele is a novelist and screenwriter from Manchester, England. He is the writer of the horror novel The Autumn Man, as well as the thriller feature film The Student (2017) and the action/sci-fi feature film Clone Hunter (2010). He won the prestigious Writers on the Storm screenwriting contest in 2012 and has had short films produced across the USA. He has also written for hire on a children’s sci-fi animated TV series. His short stories range from science-fiction to horror and fantasy and can be found in numerous anthologies and magazines including Terror Tales alongside fiction by Neil Gaiman and Kim Newman, The Lovecraft E-Zine, Horror Without Victims, the superhero fiction anthology POW!erful Tales, and the zombie poetry collection Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes!  Some of his most recent films are the present day vampire thriller set in Manchester Boy #5 (available on amazon prime), Day of the Clones and 1942.

Nightscape includes eleven tales:

Charlie - first published in Terror Tales #4, edityed by John B. Ford and Paul Kane

The Musical Box - first published in Chaos Theory: Tales Askew #13, edited by A. A. Roberts

The Groaner in the Glen - first published in The Lovecraft eZine #29, edited by Mike Davis

City of the Damned - first published in In Bad Dreams II

Black Annis - first published in The Willows #1, edited by Ben Thomas

After the Fall - first published in Chaos Theory: Tales Askew #3, edited by A. A. Roberts

Moths - first published in Scifantastic

Cycle - first published in Terminal Earth

A Dahlia Among the Roses, Ars Armortia, and Indian Summer are original to this collection.

amazon.co.uk £20.00

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Day Twenty-One of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Benjamin Blake's Standing on the Threshold of Madness

 

For day twenty-one of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications it's the turn of the only book of poetry so far published by PUP, Benjamin Blake's Standing on the Threshold of Madness. 

Respected Lovecraftian scholar S. T. Joshi had this to say about Benjamin Blake's collection, Standing on the Threshold of Madness: "I was most impressed with Standing on the Threshold of Madness. These dark, brooding vignettes do far more than send a shudder up one's spine (although they do that again and again, with elegance and panache). Benjamin Blake has found a way to infuse into his horrific lyrics a keen sensitivity to human emotions, an understanding of the fragility of life, and a bleak portrayal of the evanescence of all existence. This is a volume that aficionados of weird poetry will want to read over and over."

Other comments about Benjamin Blake and his poetry: “Benjamin Blake relishes funereal lyricism with a spice of surrealism.” - Ramsey Campbell 
 

"Language and imagery rule in this collection of dark visions. Blake has a distinctive voice, rich in surrealism, and he uses it to considerable effect." - Bruce Boston, SFPA Grandmaster Poet 
 

“A plethora of dark and haunting poems that could be likened to a bone chilling symphony overall! Mood enhancing language that will curdle the blood, and excellent, original imagery!” - Marge Simon, Bram Stoker Award winning poet

Benjamin Blake was born in the July of 1985, and grew up in the small town of Eltham, New Zealand. He is the author of the poetry and prose collections A Prayer for Late October, Southpaw Nights, and Reciting Shakespeare with the Dead. His debut novel, The Devil's Children, was published in October of 2016. Find more of his work at www.benjaminblake.com

Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us post free on this link. 

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Day Twenty of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Radix Omnium Malum and Other Incursions by Mike Chinn

 

Day twenty of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's Radix Omnium Malum and Other Incursions by Mike Chinn, published in February 2017.

Mike Chinn lives in Birmingham, UK, with his wife Caroline and their tribe of guinea pigs. In 2012 he took early retirement so he can spend more time writing (and not housework). Over the years he has published over sixty short stories, as well as editing three volumes of THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES, and SWORDS AGAINST THE MILLENNIUM, also for The Alchemy Press. His own contribution to the Pulp Adventure genre, THE PALADIN MANDATES garnered two nominations for the British Fantasy Award in 1999. A second Damian Paladin book, WALKERS IN SHADOW, is to be published by Pro Se Productions; as is a Western: REVENGE IS A COLD PISTOL. In 2015, his Sherlock Holmes steampunk mash-up, VALLIS TIMORIS (Fringeworks), sent the famous detective to the Moon.

Radix Omnium Malum and Other Incursions includes the following stories:
“Radix Omnium Malum” originally published in THE GRIMORIUM VERUM ©2015
“Two Weeks Saturday” originally published in DARK HORIZONS 23 ©2004
“Kittens” originally published in READ RAW ©2009
“Blood of Eden” originally published in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF DRACULA ©1997
“Suffer a Witch” originally published in SALVO 7 ©2003
“Cheechee’s Out” originally published in SECOND CITY SCARES ©2013
“The Owl that Calls” originally published on WikiWorm ©2013
“The Pygmalion Conjuration” originally published in THE TENTH BLACK BOOK OF HORROR ©2013
“To Die For” originally published in BFS JOURNAL 10 ©2014
“Sons of the Dragon” originally published in kZINE 1 ©2011
“Only the Lonely” originally published in DARK VALENTINE 4 ©2011
“Rescheduled” originally published in FINAL SHADOWS ©1991
“Considering the Dead” originally published in DARK MUSES, SPOKEN SILENCES ©2013 “Wednesday Morning at Five O’Clock” originally published in PHOBOPHOBIAS ©2014
“The Streets of Crazy Cities” and “The Mercy Seat” are original to this collection. ©2017



Paperback and kindle: 

You can order the softcover direct from us on this link, post free. 

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Day Nineteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Shades: Dark Tales of Supernatural Horror by Joseph Rubas

 

 
Day Nineteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Shades: Dark Tales of Supernatural Horror by Joseph Rubas. 

Joseph Rubas began writing in 2002 after reading Stephen King’s The Stand. His earliest efforts reflected his deep love of that novel; he tried again and again to write a rip-off, but finally gave up around 2006 and resigned himself to writing original fiction. His first short story was published in May 2010 on the now defunct Horror Bound Online website. His second story was published in September 2010 in a Pushcart Prize nominated literary magazine for new and beginning writers called The Storyteller. Since then, his work has appeared in a number of magazines and anthologies. His first collection, the now out of print Pocketful of Fear, was released by a small publisher in 2012. His second collection, After Midnight, appeared in 2014. His short fiction has appeared in: Nameless Digest; The Horror Zine; Eschatology Journal; Thuglit; Manor House; All Due Respect, and others. He has self-published three longer works: The Rocking Dead: Seasons 1-3 (a parody of the AMC series The Walking Dead); The Rocking Dead: Season 4; The Shapeshifter; and Dracula 1912, the latter a novel.

In addition to writing, he has also edited two anthologies: A Thorn of Death (2012) and The 3rd Spectral Book of Horror Stories (2016).
He currently resides in Albany, New York.

This Collection includes:

Passing the Buck
Midnight
Aokigahara
Snowbound
Deja Vu
The Ghostly Hitchhiker
Just a Mask
Meeting Ray Bradbury
5051 Bartley Square
The Witching Hour
Potter's Field
The Warlock
Confessional
The Thing in the Woods
The Lake House
Chomo
The Traveling Show of 2016
Evildoer
A Perfect Life
Fury
Paint
Night of the Dog


Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free. 

 
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Day Eighteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: The Chameleon Man & Other Terrors by David Williamson

 

 
Day eighteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to David Williamson's collection The Chameleon Man & Other Terrors. 

This collection includes four tales that originally appeared in the Pan Books of Horror.

Contents are:
The Procedure

The Scryer

No Room at the Flat

The Sandman

The Too Good Samaritan

The Not So Good Samaritan

The Chameleon Man

The Switch

Rest in Pieces

Ashes to Ashes

Blind Date

Herbert Manning's Psychic Circus

The Boy

Ten Weeks

Din-Dins for Binky

A Reflection of the Times

And the Dead Shall Speak

Boys will be Boys

A Night to Remember

A Problem Shared

David Williamson has been writing horror stories for many years, and was first published in the prestigious Pan Book of Horror series, where he had a tale in number 28. This was followed by a further three stories in Pan number 30 which, sadly, turned out to be the last of that great series. It was not until he was contacted by Johnny Mains, a walking encyclopaedia in the field of Pan Horror and its authors, that his passion for writing horror was once more re-kindled, and Johnny introduced him to Charles Black, the editor of The Black Book of Horror. Since then, David has been a regular contributor to the wonderful Black Books series,  alongside many other well known authors both from the Pan era and more recent times. He has also appeared in several other anthologies from publishers such as Hersham Horror, Gray Friar Press and Hazardous Press.
He lives in West Sussex near the sea.

Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free. 

 

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Day Seventeen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: A Place of Skulls and Other Tales by David Ludford

 

 
Day seventeen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to A Place of Skulls and Other Tales by David Ludford. This collection includes twelve tales of terror previously published in Schlock! magazine.

 

Contents are:
A Place of Skulls

Ain't No Grave Can Hold My Body Down

Almost Human

Bonestaff

Bridesmaids

Dummies

Heretics, Neophytes and Nemesis

Killing Clowns

Skinnybones

Sleepwalker

The Box

The Burning Tree

Paperback and kindle:
 

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free. 

 

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Day Sixteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Haunted Grave and Other Stories by Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso

 

 
Day sixteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Haunted Grave and Other Stories by Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso, "Eight Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction from the African Continent."

Ezeiyoke Chukwunonso is an MA graduate of Creative Writing, Swansea University Wales. His short stories, poems and non-fiction have appeared in a couple of journals, anthologies and magazines such as Emanation: Foray into Forever, Africa Roar Anthology, Open Road Review, Criterion Journal, ANA Review, Ground's Ear Anthology, Future Lovecraft, African Eyeball, Miracle e-zine, Episteme Journal, Texts on SAVVY Journal. He has been shortlisted in IdeasTap Inspires: Writers' Centre Norwich Writing competition, Ghana Poetry Prize, and Quickfox Poetry Competition.

Contents are:
Eaters of Flesh

The Last Man Standing

Exorcism

Haunted Grave

To Love is Strange

A Cursed City

The Game of Aids

The Green Race

Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free. 

 

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Day Fifteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb

 

 
Day fifteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Fishhead: The Darker Tales of Irvin S. Cobb, published in August 2016 in hardcover, paperback and a kindle ebook.

During his lifetime Irvin S. Cobb was one of the most celebrated writers in American literature, though nowadays he is almost forgotten, apart perhaps from his Lovecraft connection. Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born in Paducah, Kentucky on the 23rd June, 1876. His father, unable to cope with the death of his own father, succumbed to alcoholism when Cobb was only sixteen. As a result, Cobb’s education came to an end and he started work, first on the Paducah Daily News, then the Louisville Evening Post. By 1904 Cobb’s career in journalism was doing so well that he moved to New York, where he would go on to spend the rest of his life, starting work at the Evening Sun, though it wasn’t long before an assignment to cover the Russian-Japanese peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire so impressed Joseph Pulitzer that he offered Cobb a job at the New York World, where he became the highest-paid staff reporter in the United States. In 1911 Cobb moved to the Saturday Evening Post. Three years later he was asked to cover the Great War. Amongst the many stories he wrote while there were the exploits of the Harlem Hellfighters, a unit of black American soldiers who had gone on to earn distinction for their courage and discipline, which Cobb celebrated in his book The Glory of the Coming. Besides his prolific work as a journalist, Cobb’s fame largely came from his humorous stories, which were published in the leading magazines of his day, and collected in numerous books during his lifetime. But, though he was best known as a humourist, he did have a darker side, exemplified by the tales collected in this volume. Two of the most famous succeeded in catching the attention of H. P. Lovecraft. It is claimed that Fishhead influenced Lovecraft’s The Shadow Over Innsmouth. And there is certainly no doubt that Lovecraft was favourably impressed with this tale. In his groundbreaking essay, Supernatural Horror in Literature, Lovecraft wrote: “Fishhead, an early achievement, is banefully effective in its portrayal of unnatural affinities between a hybrid idiot and the strange fish of an isolated lake…” The Unbroken Chain gave Lovecraft the key idea behind The Rats in the Walls, though in all other respects the two tales are totally different. Besides writing and journalism, Cobb’s career extended to Hollywood, where legendary director, John Ford, made two films based on his books: Judge Priest (1934) and The Sun Shines Bright (1953). Other films included Peck’s Bad Boy (1921), starring Jackie Coogan, and The Woman Accused (1933), with a young Cary Grant. Cobb also did a stint at acting himself, appearing in ten movies altogether, including Pepper, Everybody’s Old Man (1936), Steamboat Round the Bend (1935) and Hawaii Calls (1938). It’s a sign of the prominence he had achieved that in 1935 he was invited to host the 7th Academy Awards. Other than the tales that inspired Lovecraft, Cobb also wrote some brilliantly dark stories that culminate in a kind of sadistic irony. They are some of the finest conte cruel ever written. Amongst the best of these is the final story in this collection: Faith, Hope, and Charity, whose protagonists, as is often the case in Cobb’s stories, struggle against fates that are not only pre-ordained but are horrendously appropriate! It must be added his hapless victims are far from blameless. What fates await them under Cobb’s pen have most definitely been brought upon them by themselves! Through most of the tales there is a wry sense of humour, so wry, in fact, that it never detracts from the impact at the end; indeed, it often adds to and embellishes it! I hope you enjoy reading these stories as much as I did and share with me the conviction that it is high time they were revived.

Contents are:

Fishhead
The Escape of Mr. Trimm
The Gallowsmith
Mr. Lobel's Apoplexy
The Unbroken Chain
The Second Coming of the First Husband
Masterpiece
January Thaw
Cabbages and Kings
We Can't All Be Thoroughbreds
Queer Creek
Ace, Deuce, Ten Spot, Joker
Balm of Gilead
Faith, Hope, and Charity

Hardback, paperback and kindle:
Amazon.co.uk 
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You can order the hardcover version direct from us on this link, post free.
You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.

Day Fourteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Classic Weird 2 edited by David A. Riley

Cover art: Simon Mathurin

 

Day fourteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's our second and final volume of Classic Weird. 

This 298-page volume contains weird tales by some of the classic authors of the genre, including: 

J. Sheridan Le Fanu (An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street)

E. F. Benson (The Judgement Books) 

Vernon Lee (Oke of Okehurst)

Vincent O'Sullivan (When I was Dead)

Edith Wharton (The Eyes)

W. C. Morrow (A Story Told by the Sea)

Irvin S. Cobb (The Unbroken Chain)

Edith Nesbit (From the Dead)

Robert Murray Gilchrist (Witch In-Grain)

Amyas Northcote (The Downs)

J. H. Riddell (The Uninhabited House)

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
Amazon.co.uk
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Day Thirteen of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Into the Dark by Andrew Jennings

For Day Thirteen of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications we have Andrew Jennings's modern day serial killer/vampire novel Into the Dark, published in June 2016.

Andrew Jennings' horror crime noir novel Into the Dark is Parallel Universe's nineteenth book. It is now available as a paperback and an ebook.
"There's a serial killer at loose in London. Janice, who has a chronic fear of the dark, stumbles into a relationship with the man who may secretly be the murderer. Neither know that in the North of England, in a place previously owned by his dead mother, activities are taking place that may unleash a horror that could spell the end of civilisation in Britain - an ancient evil that would make the activities of any serial killer look like child's play by comparison. Could a psychotic killer be the only man capable of ending this?"


Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
 

Amazon.co.uk 
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Day Twelve of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Tough Guys by Adrian Cole

Artwork by Jim Pitts

Day Tweve of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications and it's Adrian Cole's collection Tough Guys.
 
Adrian’s latest collection, Tough Guys, contains three previously unpublished novellas and a short. Based on the title theme, these four works are completely different in subject matter and tone. There is, of course, A Nick Nightmare story herein, ‘Wait for the Ricochet’, in which the gumshoe is entrusted to convey a message about “The Malleus Tenebrarum”, a book that names the properties and powers of dark and light, to the Mechanic, one Oil-Gun Eddy... His adversary is the sinister Lucien de Sangreville, plus assorted non-human denizens of the murky lower levels, and his sidekick the sword-wielding business-woman Ariadne Carnadine. In contrast, in ‘If You Don’t Eat Your Meat’ the reader enters a post-apocalyptic world where the very unsavoury Ryan relates his story of rival families and cannibalism. It is gruesome and unflinching horror. In ‘A Smell of Burning’ a hospital patient finds he is having out-of-the-body experiences. On his astral journeys he visits a man recalling his abused childhood and this leads to a shocking revelation... Finally, ‘Not If You Want to Live’ explores the fate of Razorjack, who is a Redeemer, a dead man used by a shady organisation to bring back others from death. An intriguing and engrossing story of love between Razorjack (aka Jack Krane) and mobster’s moll Rebecca Fellini, with science fictional and satanic elements.

Contents:

Wait for the Ricochet

If You Don't Eat Your Meat

A Smell of Burning

Not If You Want to Live

Paperback and kindle:

 

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.
 

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Day Eleven of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: Other Visions of Heaven and Hell by Jessica Palmer

 
 

Day Eleven of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Other Visions of Heaven and Hell by Jessica Palmer, published April 2016.

Jessica Palmer has had 28 books published, both fiction and nonfiction. Her novels – horror, fantasy and science fiction – were released by Pocket Books in the United States and Scholastic in the United Kingdom. She has written two textbooks about Native American history, which were published by McFarland, and an encyclopedia of natural history released by Harper Collins’ label Element Books and later by Thorson in the UK.
Palmer has also written ten science-and-technology manuals on the topics of explosives and radiation. These were distributed globally. It was this work that brought her to Great Britain in 1988.
The daughter of a professional clown, Palmer refers to her switch to writing fiction as an exercise in damage limitation. She taught classes and conducted workshops on creative writing and publishing at North Shropshire College in Whitchurch, Stanmore College and the Islington Arts Factory in London.
As a journalist, Palmer won awards in New Mexico and Texas for writing features, public service and breaking news – the most recent in 2013. Palmer has also written satirical columns for newspapers, including “A Slice of Life” and “How to Make Love to your Personal Computer.”
Her two loves are writing and animals. She started a nonprofit in Kansas for wildlife rescue and has held a wildlife rehabilitation permit since 2002.
Other Visions of Heaven and Hell are a series of sometimes inter-related stories about our ideas of Heaven and Hell, sometimes hilarious - sometimes horrific - but always entertaining.

Contents are:
Devil's Due
The Faithful
And now, a Word from our Sponsor
Heavenly Bodies
On the Wings of a Prayer
Fallen Angel
A Stitch in Time
Infinity
No Good Turn
Leap of Faith
Divine Comedy
Force of Habit
The Gates of Hell
Hell on Wheels
Cinderella Revisited
Last Laugh
Sisters
A Cold Day in Hell
Cheap Shots
What the Dickens
When Hell Freezes Over
Bad Medicine
Wrong Number
A Snowball's Chance
Devil Woman
To Be or Not
The King's Plate
An Afterthought
About the Author

Last Laugh was first published in Weirdbook #28, Autumn 1993, edited by W. Paul Ganley
Cinderella Revisited was first published in Weirdbook #29, Autumn 1995, edited by W. Paul Ganley
What the Dickens was first published in Substance Sept 1995

Paperback and kindle:

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.

 

Amazon.co.uk
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Day Ten of Showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications: A Saucerful of Secrets by Andrew Darlington

 

Artwork by Vincent Chong

Day Ten of showcasing books published by Parallel Universe Publications brings us to Andrew Darlington's amazing collection of short stories A Saucerful of Secrets, first published in March 2016.

Andrew Darlington has had masses of material published in all manner of strange and obscure places, magazines, websites, anthologies and books. He's also worked as a Stand-Up Poet on the ‘Alternative Cabaret Circuit’, and has interviewed very many people from the worlds of Literature, SF-Fantasy, Art and Rock-Music for a variety of publications (a selection of favourite interviews collected into the ‘Headpress’ book ‘I WAS ELVIS PRESLEY’S BASTARD LOVE-CHILD’). His latest music biography is ‘DON'T CALL ME NIGGER, WHITEY: SLY STONE & BLACK POWER’ (Leaky Boot Press).

Contents are:
The Strange Laudanum Dream of Branwell Bronte
London Bridge is Falling Down, Falling Down
Thuesday to Fryday
The Door to Anywhere
Beast of the Baskervilles
Derek Edge and the Saucerful of Secrets
Refuge
The Non-Expanding Universe
Gender-Shock
Big Bad John
Terminator Zero and the Dream Demons
A Grotesque Romance
This World Holds Space Enough
And the Earth Has No End

The Strange Laudanum Dream of Branwell Bronte was first published in Tigershark #3, 2014
The Door to Anywhere was first published in Worlds of the Unknown #1, 2014
Beast of the Baskervilles was first published in Tigershark #5, 2014
The Non-Expanding Universe was first published in Hellfire Crossroads #5, 2015
Gender-Shock was first published in Tigershark # 2, 2013

You can order this book direct from us on this link, post free.

Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.com