David A. Riley's Blog

I just managed to get the first draft of a new fantasy story finished before I'll have to lay aside writing to reading submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11. I know from past experience I'll not be able to concentrate on any new writing of my own till well after that book's been published. The new story is only fairly short, 3,400 words, and is called "The Dead Man's Battleaxe".

I just managed to get the first draft of a new fantasy story finished before I'll have to lay aside writing to reading submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11. I know from past experience I'll not be able to concentrate on any new writing of my own till well after that book's been published. The new story is only fairly short, 3,400 words, and is called "The Battleaxe".

 

      
Submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 11 will open on the 1st October 2025 and end at midnight of the 31st, with publication scheduled for late November. Please don't send any submissions till then.
 Payment is £25 per story plus one contributor's copy of the paperback. The book will be published as a paperback and ebook. Please send your submissions as attachments (doc, docx or rtf) headed   "Submission - Swords & Sorceries 11"  to:

paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk

Please send only one submission  at a time - the one you consider the best fit for us. 

Although we like original stories we are always more than happy to consider reprints. Just let us know where and when it was previously published. 

You can send in simultaneous submissions, but let us know if your story is accepted elsewhere as soon as possible. Bear in mind you will receive either an acception or rejection by the end of the first week in November.

There is no limit on the size of submissions.  

There is absolutely no need to tell us anything about yourself as the only thing that matters is the story. Everything else is irrelevant. We will ask for details about yourself if your story is accepted. 

All rejections and acceptances will be sent by email by the end of the first week in November. Please don't enquire about your submission before then.

And good luck!

In the past we have received a number of stories that may be fantasy but are not swords and sorcery. If you are unsure what swords and sorcery is, you could get a better idea by checking out volumes 1 - 10. Saying that, swords and sorcery is a broad genre and we are more than willing to consider stories that stretch its limits, as we have in the past.

Also check our dedicated facebook group:  Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy  

   

The contents of Volume One are:
THE MIRROR OF TORJAN SUL - Steve LinesTHE HORROR FROM THE STARS - Steve DilksTROLLS ARE DIFFERENT - Susan Murrie MacdonaldCHAIN OF COMMAND - Geoff HartDISRUPTION OF DESTINY - Gerri LeenTHE CITY OF SILENCE - Eric Ian SteeleRED - Chadwick GintherTHE RECONSTRUCTED GOD - Adrian ColeThe cover and all the interior artwork is by Jim Pitts.  amazon.co.uk

amazon.com

In recent years I have created a number of recurring characters in my dark fantasy/swords and sorcery tales, almost all of which are set in the cities around the Azure Sea. Just to add to the complications, though, most of these characters interact with each other in various tales, either as major or minor participants. 

One such character is my secretive sorcerer, Ossani, who prefers to masquerade as being nothing more than an apothecary and healer. Indeed, his preferred name is Ossani the Healer. 

He first appeared as a minor character at the end of "The Storyteller of Koss", whose main character is Nadrain the Storteller. (Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Volume 1)

He next appeared, alongside Welgar the Northerner, in "Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus".  (Welgar the Cursed)

After this he appears as a minor if influential character in "The Troupe".

The events in this story ultimately leads to his decision to leave his home city of Assabarr and head for the safe haven of Oriaska, hotly pursued by the Priestly Inquisition. The events involving this are detailed in my story "Ossani's Escape" which is scheduled to be published shortly in a magazine. 

Again, he appears in a minor role in "Ezmiyel the Beggar", which is yet to be published.

And again he is a minor character in "The Sorcerer's Casket", this time interacting with another recurring character of mine, Horbeck. 

The story "Emerging from Their Twilit Realms" has Ossani sharing space with Welgar again. (Welgar the Cursed).

Set a short while later, Ossani is yet again involved with Welgar in "From the Ashes", which is yet to be published.

Ossani is the main character in "The Moneylender of Oriaska" (Swords & Heroes Quarterly #2) in which we are introduced to his future apprentice, Arrenya, though she is not yet named. 

As you would expect from the title, "Ossani's Apprentice", Arrenya is the main character in the next tale, though Ossani does play a prominent role in its denouement. (Swords & Heroes Quarterly #2).  

"Masks of Deception", another unpublished story, sees Ossani as the main protagonist.  

The final tale, the twelth so far, is "The Narcolopsia", another as yet to be published tale. Here Ossani is once more reunited with Welgar and is possibly in his most perilous position yet. 

Here is a full list of Ossani stories: 

The Storyteller of Koss (Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Volume 1)

Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus (Welgar the Cursed)

The Troupe

Ossani's Escape (due to be published 2025 - more details later)

Ezmiyel the Beggar 

The Sorcerer's Casket

Emerging from Their Twilit Realms (Welgar the Cursed)

From the Ashes 

The Moneylender of Oriaska (Swords & Heroes Quarterly #2)

Ossani's Apprentice (Swords & Heroes Quarterly #2)

Masks of Deception

The Narcolopsia

 

Very pleased to receive an email tonight confirming that one of my sword and sorcery stories has just been accepted for publication in a well known magazine. The story's called "Ossani's Escape" and involves a recurring character who first appeared in "The Storyteller of Koss" (Summer of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Volume 1) and in "Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus" (Welgar the Cursed). 

I have written several more stories about this healer-cum-sorcerer whose eyesight is so weak he wears a special ocular of his own design which holds a variety of different lenses.  More details later. 

  

Interesting to see that the two volumes of New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural edited by David A. Sutton in the early 1970s are being reprinted in an omnibus volume. I don't understand why this is being described as "an anthology edited by Stephen Jones" but there you have it.  The book contains two of my earliest horror stories, "The Farmhouse" and "A Bottle of Spirits". Not two of my best by any means but it's still nice to see them get a fresh airing.  Alas, I was never approached to submit something for consideration in the "third" volume edited by Stephen Jones. Such is life. "The Farmhouse" went on to be my first story published in the United States when it was reprinted in Stuart David Schiff's Whispers magazine and then in the hardcover anthology First World Fantasy Awards edited by Gahan Wilson for Doubleday. Actually this is not the first time the two volumes of New Writings in Horror & the Supernatural have been reprinted. David Sutton did this in 2013, retitled Horror! Under the Tombstone, published by Shadow Publishing. 
  

 

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

THECHILDREN 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.

 

The latest issue of Phantasmagoria magazine #27 includes my review of Robert E. Howard: The Life and Times of a Texas Author by Willard M. Oliver. Below is a copy of this review: 

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.