News

My new, extremely scary tale ‘The Crows’ has been taken by the excellent Midnight Streeet.

The next collection of mine, from Gray Friar Press, is going to be called ‘Pastport to Purgatory’. There are fifteen of my stories in it, actually, including some of my best ghost ones from the Eighties. It will be launched at this year’s British Fantasycon. Oh, and renowned editor John Pelan has ageed to write the introduction.

The collection of four novellas from Pendragon, due to be launched at the BFS Xmas Open Evening, will be called ‘No-Man and other stories’.

Just back from this year’s World Horror Convention, in Toronto, Canada, which will generally be remembered as being the one at which a lot more Brits than usual turned up (because they feel safer in Commonwealth countries, perhaps?) and grumbled about jet-lag. No, in fact it will be remembered for a good deal more than that! The con was principally organised by Stephen Jones, Mandy Slater, and Amanda Foubister, and they did such a terrific and professional job that it was, by common agreement, the best WHC ever. A great time had by all. Huge thanks and congratulations to them.

THIS YEAR’S BOOK NEWS: My first ever p/b collection of short stories is due out at the end of this month. But now there’s another one due in the autumn. Whereas ‘Going Back’ is mostly a collection of dark-fantasy and slipstream tales, Gray Friar Press have agreed to collect about a baker’s dozen of my more genre-oriented supernatural and horror stories, including ones that made their first appearance in Pan Horror, Fontana Ghosts, and Weird Tales. No title has been decided on as yet, but I’ll let you know as soon as we pick out a catchy one.

AND ON THE SAME SUBJECT: Last year, I announced Pendragon Press were bringing out a paperback compilation of three of my novellas. Well, the book’s still coming out, but they’ve decided to include a fourth. My brand-new ‘A Black Glass Slipper’ – set mostly in London, and centred around sex-trafficking – is going into the book as well. Still no title. Keep you posted.

‘Going Back’ – my first ever paperback collection of short fiction (dark fantasy, slipstream, one mystery story, one mainstream tale) – was launched at the Alt.Fiction festival in Derby on the weekend of the 28th. I went along, read from the book, did a Q&A, and then spent the rest of the evening hanging out with friends and meeting new ones. A brilliant event, thanks to Alex Davis and his intrepid team, and one I’ll certainly be going back (’scuse the pun) to next year. You can find out more about the book by returning to this site’s Home Page and scrolling down (or visit Elastic Press in Links).

My horror tale ‘The Moon Also Rises’ – set in southern Spain – is now out in Dark Discoveries #9. If you don’t know much about this excellent new US magazine, then look towards the bottom of my Links page for more details.

My fantasy story ‘The Bay’ – set partly on the Dalmatian Coast of Croatia – has been picked up by Weird Tales.

Wildside Press’ new magazine Cat Tales is to reprint my 2002 comic-fantasy ‘Non-Existent Cats’. It’s about – um – cats, obviously.

To Leicester Central Library for their first ever ‘Fright Night’ event, organised by Damien Walter. The main act of the evening was Grand Master Ramsey Campbell, but Sarah Pinborough also did a turn, and I read out ‘The Moon Also Rises’, recently published in Dark Discoveries. It was a very well-attended and succesful evening, and they’re doing it all again next year.

Next month, on the evening of 22nd March, Leicester City Council will be hosting an event called ‘Fright Night’. Grand master Ramsey Campbell and new-girl on the block Sarah Pinborough will be reading from their work, and so will I. You can find out more by visiting www.leicesterliterature.wordpress.com, and can reserve a place by emailing [email protected] or phoning .

And the new year is already off to a cracking start, with ‘By A Dark Canal’ – set in 19th Century Amsterdam and featuring a certain A. van Helsing – appearing in Scheherazade #29.

My (very well-received) story ‘A Night in Tunisia’ has been recommended for a BFSA award, along with several others from the Extended Play anthology.

My 1981 horror story – one of my very earliest – ‘Child of Ice’ is to reappear, appropriately, in the Xmas version of Screaming Dreams’ Estronomicon webzine.

Actually, forget the past tense. It’s out. That was quick! See ‘Screaming Dreams’ in Links for a free look.

My new supernatural chiller ‘Mr. Smyth’ – set largely in the bars and pubs of London’s Soho district – has been picked up by Wildside Press Magazines. And it was fun doing the research, too!

And that really is it, for this year at least. Happy 2007!

My mystery story ‘Alsiso’ – set on the Caribbean coast of Mexico – is now out in the wonderful-looking Postscripts #8. See PS Publishing in Links for more details

The Extended Play launch – on the first Saturday of this month – went superbly, a unique event with readings from all of the contributors interspersed with musical entertainment from Ciccone, Lena Lovitch, and the excellent Tall Poppies. Congratulations to Elastic Press’ Andrew Hook for pulling it all together so very well.

I’ve just registered for next year’s World Horror Convention in Toronto, which already promises to be a brilliant one. To find out more about it, try www.whc2007.org

My novelette ‘A Night in Tunisia’ (which is not just set in Tusinia, incidentally, but also in London, Switzerland, and New York) forms but a small – though significant – part of Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music, which is being launched on Saturday 4th November at the Arts Theatre Club, ll Poppies will be playing short sets at the event, and so it’s pre-paid ticket only. You can find out more by contacting Elastic Press’ Andrew Hook on [email protected]. Or go to Links and get in touch that way.

The British Invasion – a forthcoming American anthology showcasing horror writers from the good ol’ U of K – is to feature my new story ‘Birchiam Pier’. The book will be available from Cemetery Dance Publications (see Links) and is edited by Christopher Golden, Tim Lebbon, and James A. Moore.

British Fantasycon in Nottingham this year was, by popular agreement, one of the best ever. Good location, and Clive Barker turned up as a GoH, which brought about a huge turn-out. I got to meet some people who were actual fans and nothing more, and I didn’t even realise those kind of folk still existed. And the film of my story ‘Beautiful Stranger’ got shown, to much approval.

‘The Moon Also Rises’ – set in southern Spain and based upon the writings of a certain EH – has been picked up by the brilliant new US magazine Dark Discoveries (see Links), edited by James R. Beach.

My 2002 story ‘Lightning Dogs’ is to reappear in the Fantasycon Issue of Estronomicon. See ‘Screaming Dreams’ on my Links page.

My Japan-based story ‘Hanako from Miyazaki’ is now out in Cemetery Dance #55.

The follow up to last year’s hugely successful Great Ghost Stories is now out from Carroll & Graf. Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost Stories contains, amongst other tales, my 1982 chiller ‘Streets of the City ‘. The book is edited, as before, by R. Chetwynd-Hayes and the redoubtable Stephen Jones.

MORE BOOK NEWS: My first ever paperback short story collection is due out next year, from the award-winning Elastic Press. Going Back will feature a good double-fistful of my slipstream and mainstream tales, including such highly-praised ones as the title one, ‘Nine Rocks in a Row’, and ‘What Malcolm Did the Day Before Tomorrow’.

The book will be launched, by the way, at Derby’s Alt.Fiction Festival, at which I’ve been invited to give a reading.

The short film of my story ‘Beautiful Stranger’ (see September 2005) is finished, and is absolutely terrific.

My novelette ‘A Night in Tunisia’ – based partly on the life of jazz saxophonist Robin Kenyatta – is one of the nine that has been chosen to appear in Extended Play: The Elastic Book of Music, the latest Elastic Press multi-author themed anthology, edited by Gary Couzens.

Horror: Another 100 Best Books, to which I contributed an article, has won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Non-Fiction. Congratulations to Stephen Jones and Kim Newman (and a little to my own self, I suppose).

Off to San Francisco for this year’s World Horror – a terrific convention in a genuinely wonderful city. Huge thanks to Jeremy Lassen, Chad Savage, and all the dozens more involved in organising it

Fancy brushing up your German? My story ‘Beautiful Stranger’ has just popped up again in that language in Albions Alptraume: Zombies! from Eloy Edictions, edited by Walter Diociaiuti and our own Paul Kane. And the title now? ‘Die schone Unbekannte’. Let’s hear Madonna sing that while swinging a chicken round her head (I have got to stop indulging in these bizarre fantasies!).

My Arizona-based story – I just like the place, okay – ‘Nine Rocks in a Row’ is out in Cemetery Dance #54.

Oh, and my chiller ‘The Waiters’ has appeared in Weird Tales #339.

More good news from Black Static. They have taken my new story ‘Night Game’, set in the fictional Midlands town of Shaddaton. So, no shapshots of that location for the Photo Gallery then … yet – nyah-hah-hah-hah-hah!

BOOKS NEWS: I’ve been promising for a while now to get my first two novellas, ‘Postcards from Terri’ and ‘Under the Ice’, into paperback, so that my penniless writer chums can actually read then. And now it’s going to happen. Pendragon Press will be bringing out both tales in a single-volume p/b that will also include my latest novella, ‘No-Man’. Publication date and the title of the completed volume have yet to be decided.

‘06 begins, as predicted, with some very good news. Leading Britmag Black Static (formerly The 3rd Alternative) has taken my tale ‘The Sentinels’, set in the Sonoran Desert, Arizona.

A 3,000 word extract of last year’s novella ‘Under the Ice’ is now available on-line in issue #1 of Estronomicon. You can read it for free by going to my Links page (near the bottom), clicking on Screaming Dreams Ezine, and then clicking on the Estronomicon link when you get there.

And a 2,000 word extract of 2004’s ‘Postcards from Terri’ is available on the Midnight Street site. Again for free, you can read it by going to the site through my Links page and, when you get there, clicking on Midnight Street Extra.

And issue #6 of Midnight Street is now out, with yours truly as the Showcased Author. There are two brand-new stories, ‘Skin Two’ and ‘What Malcolm Did the Day Before Tomorrow’, a great long interview with me – blabbermouth that I am – and a fully-updated bibliography of my work. Go to Links … you know the drill

And so – a great trip to Hong Kong and a welcome visit from New York theatrical friend Andrew Dark apart – the year ends with a whimper rather than a bang, with nothing much happening in December. Which is a fairly usual occurence, with Xmas a-coming and the editors getting drunk. But there’s going to be plenty of movement next year, with a large batch of my stories due for publication and some Internet madness thrown in for good measure. So watch – not this space – but the ones above it. Oh, and Happy New Year.

A 1400 word extract from 2004’s Postcards from Terri will be appearing soon on the Midnight Street website. So that’s samples of both my recent novels due to go online. Ain’t the Internet a wonderful thing?

British FantasyCon in Walsall provided – as ever – a chance to catch up with a lot of people that, due to the whole pesky business of geographical location, I only ever get to see once or twice a year. Great fun.

Good news from editor Trevor Denyer. The excellent Midnight Street magazine will have me as its Featured Writer the next issue, which will include two new stories of mine, an interview with me, and loads of other goodies.

A pair of brilliantly-talented young film-makers are currently working on a movie-short based on one of my edgiest and darkest tales, 2002’s ‘Beautiful Stranger’. Mestor Dansac and Samuel Jones collaborated on the script, and shooting is already underway under Mezza’s direction, with over twelve hours of footage already in the can. I’ll let you know more about this project as it unfolds.

The long awaited Issue # 2 of Shadows mystery magazine is now out from Sol Publications, and features my Paris-based murder mystery ‘Blind Echo’. As usual, you can see more by visiting my links page.

More mystery story news (and you thought I just wrote horror, right?) PS Publishing has taken my Caribbean-based tale ‘Alsiso’ for their Postscripts magazine. At which point, those of you familiar with the activities of the small presses might be guessing that the story is a reject from Elastic Press’ ‘The Alsiso Project’. Wrong. I simply attended the launch of that book, and was so impressed with the concept I wrote an ‘Alsiso’ story of my own.

A 3,000 word extract from my latest novella ‘Under the Ice’ is to be published in Issue #1 of the newly-launched British eZine Screaming Dreams. The very best of luck to editor Steve Upham with his project, which already has such luminaries as Peter Crowther and Sean Wright aboard. Find out more? Links again, folks.

My story ‘At the Circus of the Dead’ – a gory take on a Bradburyesque theme – is now out in John Pelan’s new anthology Lost on the Darkside, and is available from ROC books in the States.

Oh, and HORROR: ANOTHER 100 BEST BOOKS is now out too from Carroll & Graf, so you can finally find out which book I chose to write about.

Just visited the 2005 WorldCon in Glasgow, where I had a great time and looked up some faces that I haven’t seen in yonks. And then I spent the next three days revisiting the Edinburgh Festival, setting for my 2004 Cemetery Dance tale ‘Misdirection’.

I was out of the country for most of this month. Much material for stories gathered, but nothing to report.

I’ve just contributed a piece to the forthcoming reference volume HORROR: ANOTHER 100 BEST BOOKS, edited by Steve Jones and Kim Newman and due out towards the end of the year from Carroll & Graf. It’s a follow-up to 1988’s critically-acclaimed HORROR: 100 BEST BOOKS, in which one hundred currently active horror writers each discussed an important or seminal work in the genre. And on which mighty tome did I convey my wisdom? I’m afraid you’ll have to wait till publication to find that out.

The excellent Midnight Street magazine has taken my modern urban fantasy ‘What Malcolm Did the Day Before Tomorrow’, set – once again – in Amsterdam. Yep, it’s Dutch Season here at richardsreality.com.

Last year, the Stephen Jones edited anthology Great Ghost Stories went down a storm with readers in the States. And so he’s following it up this year with More Great Ghost Stories, which will include my 1982 New York tale of spookiness and gore ‘Streets of the City’.

richardsreality.com is now officially bigger and better, with an updated bibliography, information on my latest book, and twelve new pictures in the Photo Gallery, including five of Southern Japan. I genuinely hope that you enjoy it all.

Last year’s Postcards from Terri has been recommended for a British Fantasy Award. Not by me, I hasten to add, so someone must have liked it.

My latest book, Ghost Dance, is now available to order. And according to Robert Morgan of Sarob Press, it’s going fast. It’s a limited edition and there won’t be any more, so if you’re interested take a look at it back on my home page.

Here & Now – a British magazine that just keeps looking better – has brought out a big double-issue (5/6) which includes my article on Victorian writers, ‘Extraordinarily Dark Gentlemen’. As usual, visit my Links page to see more.

Intrepid journo Sandy Auden has just published a short interview with me in thealienonline.net. If you want to read it, there’s a link at the top of this page.

The mind-blowing new Chimeraworld anthology – Chimeraworld #2 – will be available as of June 1st from Cyber Pulp Books. It includes my story ‘Little Boy Blue’, and a host of other over-the-edge tales by talented writers old and new. To find out more about it, visit editor Mike Philbin’s site on my Links page.

Just spent the weekend in New York with my old friend Andy Snipper (see home page) in part visiting our old theatrical buddy Andrew Dark (see Links). World Horror was on in NYC over the same period, and so I’d drop in around midnight, snaffle some free wine and look some other friends up, and then disappear again in the small hours of the morning. The Phantom of the Convention, as it were.

My 1985 chiller ‘The Black Lake’ has been reprinted in Dark Horizons #47.

My Amsterdam-based story ‘By A Dark Canal’ has been taken by Scheherazade. If you’re unfamiliar with this long-running and highly-regarded UK magazine then go to my Links page and check it out.

The cover art for Ghost Dance, again by the brilliant Paul Lowe, has just turned up. It is absolutely superb – thank you, Paul – and will appear on this website in due course. I’ll let you know the publication date as soon as I have it.

January is always a slow month for freelance writers. But now that’s out of the way, my first short fiction sale of the year has just come through … ‘Hanako from Miyazaki’ to, yet again, Cemetery Dance, God bless ‘em. Hanako from where? See my news entry for December 2004 to find out more.

Paul Kane has just – with my permission, natch – published my 1984 horror-tale ‘The Brother’ on his own website. To read it, go to Paul Kane on my Links page and c lick ‘Guest Writer’ when you get there.

Spent New Year’s Eve in a restaurant in Valencia, Spain, in the company of our old friend Conxa Verdu, her daughter Saray, and a whole bunch of their friends – a night of food, drink, dancing and a hell of a lot of noise. Had a terrific evening, and I hope that you did too. Happy 2005!

What was to have been a lone short novel has become a double-volume. Sarob Press have decided to pair my forthcoming novella Under the Ice with a collection of my short stories, under the collective title Ghost Dance. The stories are all different takes on the subject of the spirit world and its inhabitants, and include my previously-unpublished novelette ‘Beyond the Western Walls’. Ghost Dance will be released around the middle of this year.

My article ‘Bloody Hero: How 20th Century Society Took the Vampire to its Heart’, which first appeared in Prism, has resurfaced in Horror Quarterly. You can read it for free by going to my Links page and c licking on Horror Quarterly.

Just back from Miyazaki, Japan. Where? Miyazaki is both a city (Miyazaki-shi) and an entire prefecture of dozens of towns and villages (Miyazaki-ken) on the southernmost island of Kyushu. It is in the south-east corner of the island, with a Pacific coast on the Hyuga Sea, is tropical, and the lively downtown district of the city is filled with palm trees. The prefecture itself is an area of outstanding natural beauty, mountainous and thickly-forested, with gorges, hot volcanic springs, and astonishing waterfalls. The district is also the home of almost all Japanese legend. The Shinto gods were supposed to have lived there when they first came down to earth, and most of Japan’s myths, folklore, and even ghost-stories are based in the area. Little English is spoken in the city, absolutely none outside of it, my Japanese amounts to forty words at best and my phrasebook got half-ruined in a rain storm … in spite of all of which, I was treated with enormous friendliness and kindness everywhere I went. If anyone from Miyazaki ever drops in on this site, then arigato gozaimasu and also kampei!

Trevor Denyer has taken my body-shock tale ‘Skin Two’ for his newly-revamped Midnight Street magazine. It will appear next year.

John Pelan has taken my story ‘At the Circus of the Dead’ – a sanguinary take on Bradbury – for his latest anthology Lost on the Darkside.

My 1984 Paris-based ghost story ‘Our Lady of the Shadows’ – which first appeared in the 20th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories – has recently been reprinted in Great Ghost Stories edited by Stephen Jones. The first edition (p/b Carroll & Graf, $13) sold out on release. A hardback edition is due from Cemetery Dance Publications.

I’m not long back from the World Fantasy Convention 2004 in Tempe, Arizona. Other UK attendees included Gwyneth Jones (a Guest of Honour), Stephen Jones (no relation), Jo Fletcher, Graham Joyce, and former Liverpudlian Pete Atkins – of Hellraiser and Wishmaster scriptwriting fame – jetted in from LA to dazzle us with his Hollywood glamour. WFC traditionally being held over Halloween, and Tempe being a college town, the atmosphere out on the streets on Saturday night was wonderful. Thanks to Mike Willmoth and the rest of the convention committee for organising such a great event. You can read more about it at www.WFC2004.org.

‘Nine Rocks in a Row’, which tells of an unsettling find a couple make in the Arizona desert, is my latest sale to Cemetery Dance magazine.

Here & Now magazine has taken my article ‘Extraordinarily Dark Gentlemen’, which traces the linkage between Victorian writers and the modern dark fantasy scene. It will appear in Issue 6.

World Fantasy Award winning author Graham Joyce has just written a terrific introduction for my latest novella ‘Under the Ice’, due out from Sarob Press next year.

The Chicago-based Twilight Tales webzine – www.twilighttales.com – is to reprint my article ‘Location, Location’, which can also be found on this site. Best wishes to Eric M. Cherry and all my other TT friends in Chicago.

A beautiful hardback edition of Great Ghost Stories, with a dust jacket by Les Edwards and inner art by Caniglia, is now available from Cemetery Dance Publications. To see more about it, visit Cemetery Dance on my Links page. And the paperback version from Carroll & Graf – not at all bad-looking either – has now gone into its second printing.

Literary outlaw Mike Philbin has taken my erotic chiller ‘Little Boy Blue’ for his forthcoming anthology Chimeraworld #2.