Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales

[David A. Riley]

Last night Johnny Mains and I were discussing this long postponed collection from Midnight House and, after over five years of waiting and my inability even to contact John Pelan at the moment, we agreed for it to be published by Noose and Gibbet Press instead.

Johnny's next two projects, which are near completion, are the Herbert van Thal, then the Mary Danby collections. Lurkers will be published Spring/Summer next year.

After discussing this with Johnny - and his plans for the cover, etc - I am really excited at the project, and I am sure he will do a brilliant job with it.

The lineup of stories that were to be included in the Midnight House collection might be changed a little, though substantially I think most will remain.

[noose]

Yup, very privileged to be doing this collection, I've been a fan of David's for a long time, so am really looking forward to working with him on it. And there will be a corker of a cover lined up...

[dem bones]

it's about time! very glad to hear this, doubly so that it should find a publisher in the UK. if it's half as good as john's back from the dead it will be must-have. i'm pretty certain that in the time since we heard 'Lurkers ...' was imminent (approximately a century ago) mr riley has written enough stories to fill another collection. incidentally david, i like your coach trip story in the eighth black book very much. compared to some of the book's bloodier moments, it's almost gentle and - in terms of atmosphere - put me in mind of 'Roger Mallison's story of a haunted soap opera set in one of the later fontana ghost books.

[David A. Riley]

Aug 2, 2011 17:40:49 GMT dem bones said:

it's about time! very glad to hear this, doubly so that it should find a publisher in the UK. if it's half as good as john's back from the dead it will be must-have. i'm pretty certain that in the time since we heard 'Lurkers ...' was imminent (approximately a century ago) mr riley has written enough stories to fill another collection. incidentally david, i like your coach trip story in the eighth black book very much. compared to some of the book's bloodier moments, it's almost gentle and - in terms of atmosphere - put me in mind of 'Roger Mallison's story of a haunted soap opera set in one of the later fontana ghost books.

Many thanks for those kind comments, Kev. They're much appreciated.

It has been a long - long - time since this collection was first proposed. It was mentioned here back in 2005, in fact, and was originally to be published by Graphica. It was only after this company failed that John Pelan stepped in with the offer of bringing the collection out, originally in 2006, under his Midnight House imprint. Since then I have actually turned down another offer (from Ex-Occidente in Romania). It's only because the Midnight House website has been offline for the best part of a year and it has become impossible to get any sort of reply from JP, that I have given up on the Midnight House edition ever appearing. Johnny Mains originally made his offer to do the collection under the Noose and Gibbet imprint about a year ago. I thought I would give John Pelan a bit more time to get his company sorted out, but this doesn't look like happening any time in the foreseeable future.

I am looking forward to Johnny doing this collection. He is full of enthusiasm and I know, from what he has produced so far and from the care and attention he has put into his next two publications, the van Thal and Mary Danby collections, that he is thorough and competent and has a real flair for publishing. In fact I am looking forward to seeing the van Thal, Danby collections, which I know will be outstanding.

I will probably make some alterations to the lineup of stories that were to be in the Midnight House collection, though they will still mainly be my older stories. As you correctly say, Kev, I now have enough stories to fill at least three collections. My stories in the Black Books alone would almost fill one!