David A. Riley's Blog

The latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine includes the following review I wrote of Jhn Connolly's latest Charlie Parker novel, The Children of Eve.

ByJohn Connolly

Publishedby Hodder & Stoughton, 2025

Thisis the latest volume in the ongoing saga of Charlie Parker, whose private eyeinvestigations all too often bring him into far too close a contact with darkforces. Nor is this any different.

Itstarts innocuously enough with Parker being asked to find avant garde artistZetta Nadeau’s missing boyfriend, an ex-army veteran who has abruptlydisappeared, presumably having gone into hiding after carrying out a mysteriousjob. As Parker’s investigation begins he discovers that, disturbingly, theboyfriend, Wyatt Riggins had been involved in something more sinister than hisgirlfriend suspected, the abduction from South America of a group of children,stolen from cartel boss, Blas Urrea, who wants them back. Complicating matters,the children appear to have been stolen on the orders of an American mob bosswho had been working with Urrea till their relationship soured. Both sides arenow using dangerous heavies either to find the children or hide them securely,resulting in a rising body count and some particularly sadistic murders,including hearts being cut out of bodies while their owners are still alive –that is till the hearts have been torn free and partially devoured.

It'sa typically dark tale from John Connolly who is a master at creatingunforgettable villains and intricately conceived stories, within which oneatrocity will soon be topped by another. Charlie Parker, and his friends Louisand Angel, are often tested to the brink, never more so than in this tale, withits overtones of something even darker and more ominous lurking above andbeyond the story itself, which will only reveal itself in some future volume.

Splendidlywell written, this is yet another horrific page-turner (quite literally), and Icannot wait for the next.

ROBERTE. HOWARD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF A TEXAS AUTHOR

ByWillard M. Oliver

Publishedby University of North Texas Press, 2025

Thisis a big book (579 pages), especially for a writer whose life ended after onlythirty years. But when you look at the amazing literary legacy left behind byRobert E. Howard this is not too long a book at all. And Willard M. Oliver doesfull justice to all of Howard’s many stories, heroes, and the different genresin which he wrote, with chapters on Weird Tales, “On Werewolves andHorror Yarns, 1925”, “The Last Celt”, “Solomon Kane and Historical Fantasy,1928”, “Steve Costigan and the Boxing Yarns, 1929”, “King Kull and the Birth ofSwords and Sorcery, 1929”, “‘Lovecraft, One of the Greatest Writers of OurTime’, 1930”, “Bran Mak Morn and the Picts, 1930”, “Oriental Stories, TheMagic Carpet, and Historical Fiction, 1931”, “The Cthulhu Mythos, 1931”,“Westerns both Strange and True, 1932”, “‘Hither Came Conan, the Cimmerian’,1931”, “Steve Harrison and the Detective Yarns, 1933”, “Breckenridge Elkins andthe Tall Tale Yarns, 1934”, “El Borak and the Adventure Yarns, 1934”, and so onand so forth.

Notonly are we given detailed biographies of Howard’s parents, but also of hisclose friends and his only girlfriend, Novalyne Price, as well as those writershe became involved with, mainly through frequent correspondence, such as H. P. Lovecraftand Clark Ashton Smith. Willard M. Oliver’s thoroughness is exemplary, and heis never boring, giving the reader a keen understanding of the times in whichHoward lived and wrote, his constant problems with editors, the rejections,rewrites and struggles with payments, the latter being especially important tohim as Howard was determined from the start to be a full time writer with noother employment to distract him if he could manage it.

Iwas fascinated with Howard’s continual rejections from many markets, includinghis main standby, Weird Tales. His determination to make his way as awriter despite numerous setbacks is inspirational, but I sense eventually this alltook its toll, especially when he began to rely on the payments he received tohelp cover medical bills for his mother, which only became greater and more frequentas her terminal illness (tuberculosis) progressed towards its inevitable end.

AsI read this book I became increasingly more impressed with what Howard managedto produce over those few active years as a writer and what he had to endure,both mentally and physically. I must admit, though, it’s a book whose finalchapters I approached with growing trepidation, knowing how it would end: withhim sat alone in his car with a loaded gun. With the failure of his friendshipwith Novalyne Price, who it is obvious he would have wanted eventually to marryhad things gone differently and their relationship hadn’t finally soured, plusthe toil of the necessity to look after his mother both physically andfinancially, all took it out of him, till the end had a dreadful inevitabilityabout it, especially for someone given to periodic bouts of black depression.

Despitethe tragic end to Howard’s life, this is an incredible book, utterly readable,insightful and impressively thorough, one of the best biographies of a writer Ihave ever read, and I recommend it unreservedly for anyone with an interest inthe creator of Conan.  

 Another new dark fantasy finished. Started yesterday, The Abomination in the Crypt is 5,400 words long.

 It's a title I dreamt up when I first started writing and everything had to sound Lovecraftian. In the end nothing ever came of it and what I wrote then has long since disappeared. This is set in my recurring fantasy world in the lands and cities surrounding the Azure Sea.  

These are what I have finished since the start of July: 

5th July - "From the Ashes" - 6,800 words

9th July - "Masks of Deception" - 7,000 words

13th July - "Trapped in the Dreamlands" - 6,600 words

26th July - "Escaping the Dreamlands" - 15,200 words

28th July - "The Narcolopsia" - 4,500 words

4th August - "The Dark Sacrifices" - 11,800 words 

7th August - "The Temple of the Aspirants" - 9,100 words

24th August - "Azamondras" - 12,100 words

27th August - "The Abomination in the Crypt" - 5,400 words 

Not only have I now got the cover sorted for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11 but those for volumes 12 and 13 too. All are the work of Jim Pitts.

These collections will include all of David A. Riley's horror and occasional science fiction stories. They do not include any of his fantasy or swords and sorcery stories, most of which were written over the last five years and number thirty-five at the moment.

They would comprise four volumes:

1970-2000 - which would be 342 pages

2001-2010 - which would be 344 pages

2011-2020 - which would be 298 pages

2021-2025 - which would be 253 pages

These would be all my horror and science fiction stories, but would not include my swords and sorcery/dark fantasy tales. It ends at 2025 because I have stopped writing horror and am concentrating solely on swords and sorcery and dark fantasy.  

The chronological order in which these stories are printed is based upon their date of first publication, not on when they were originally written. At the moment I intend to write brief introductions to each story with any pertinent details, anecdotes, etc., plus a full publishing history. Existing collections of these stories, such as The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror and His Own Mad Demons will be made out of print shortly before these are brought out. 

At some time in the future I am aiming to see publication, hopefully by other publishers, of my swords and sorcery stories, along the lines of Tule Fog Press's Welgar the Cursed. Titles I have in mind are Horbeck: Tales of a Mercenary Barbarian and Tales of the Azure Sea, though these are just tentative at the moment. I have 35 swords and sorcery/dark fantasy stories written at the moment, totalling 252,000 words, plus a 70,000 word novel called The Sorcerer's War which is currently "doing the rounds".

My next big task? Selecting stories for Volume 11 of Swords & Sorceries Tales of Heroic Fantasy in October, then the same for a new anthology series in February, Swords & Rockets: Tales of Futures Past. 

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Through Parallel Universe Publications I am thinking of publishing the first in several proposed volumes of my collected horror, SF and fantasy stories.

These stories would be included in the chronological order in which they were first published and have brief details of their publication history since then. 

For instance some stories have been reprinted quite a few times, especially "After Nightfall":

1970 Weird Window 1, Shadow Publishing edited by David A. Sutton

1971 The Year's Best Horror Fiction 1, Sphere Books & DAW Books edited by Richard Davis

1985 Fantasy Tales #15 edited by Stephen Jones & David A. Sutton

1992 Tayaschiysya Horror 2, (Таящийся ужас 2) published in Russia, translated by Vladimir Vladimirov

2011 Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! edited by Otto Penzler, Vintage Books

2012 Zombies: A Compendium of the Living Dead edited by Otto Penzler, Corvus/Atlantic Books

2013 The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror, Shadow Publishing

2017 Gallery of Curiosities edited by Kevin Frost

2018 Gallery of Curiosities webzine edited by Kevin Frost

2020 After Nightfall & Other Weird Tales, Parallel Universe Publications

2022 Phantasmagoria Fantasy Tales Special edited by Trevor Kennedy 

The books would be published in hardcover, paperback and as kindle eBooks. 

Volume 1 would be subtitled "The Early Years 1970 - " to whichever date the last story to be included was first published. At the same time my earlier collections of stories published by PUP will be retired. I am already in discussions with David A. Sutton, who publishes The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror about that book becoming out of print soon. 

I have now finished the first draft of my most recent story, "The Temple of the Aspirants", which is my first solo tale about Asnar the Josanian, who has always before appeared with Horbeck as one of his constant companions. 

The story is 9,100 words long and the seventh I have completed since the start of July.

This makes 61,000 words in total, which is equal to a short novel!  

I have been enjoying a (for me) unique writing spree since the start of July, with drafts finished for six new swords and sorcery tales:

5th July - "From the Ashes" - 6,800 words

9th July - "Masks of Deception" - 7,000 words

13th July - "Trapped in the Dreamlands" - 6,600 words

26th July - "Escaping the Dreamlands" - 15,200 words

28th July - "The Narcolopsia" - 4,500 words

4th August - "The Dark Sacrifices" - 11,800 words 

51,900 words in total.

Four concern my hero Welgar,  one is about Horbeck and another is about Ossani the Healer.

I am now two thousand words into a story about a companion of Horbeck, Asnar the Josanian. 

How long this spree will last I have no idea, other than it will certainly end by the start of October when I begin reading submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11. From past experience this always puts a complete dampener on the own writing, which is unlikely to revive before I start reading submissions for Swords & Rockets: Tales of Futures Past in January. Still I have now 34 swords and sorcery, dark fantasy tales finished and another likely to be finished soon, which I am happy about as I only fairly recently began to concentrate on this genre.

Since starting it only a few days ago I have finished a new 11,800 word Horbeck tale, "The Dark Sacrifices", which includes the death of one regular character, a dramatic change of life for another and the elevation ro a higher status and another dramatic change of life for a third. 

My Horbeck tales started with "The Demon  from Another World", which was published in Anthology of the Damned: Necromorrium last year.

Here is a full list of my Horbeck tales so far, both published and unpublished:

"The Demon from Another World" - Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium, 2024 - 10,000 words

"Lies and Treachery" - Crimson Quill Quarterly issues 6 and 7, 2025 - 11,100 words

"Dead Thieves in the Night" - 10,300 words

"The Sorcerer's Casket" - 15,700 words

"A Murder of Necromancers" - 13,600 words

"The Dark Sacrifices" - 11,800 words

77,300 words in total!