HUGE EBOOK ... REALLY HUGE SPECIAL OFFER!

I've collected the first 5 full-length novels in my Raine's Landing fantasy series into one enormous Kindle eBook. And it's now available from Amazon at a Very Special Price.

OH NO! OH MY GAAAD! I'VE TURNED INTO A PUBLISHER!

I've been dealing with publishers since 1987, when my first novel -- the Bram Stoker shortlisted The Harvest Bride -- originally appeared from Tor Books in the States and then from Headline in the UK (my editor was the famed Jo Fletcher in the latter case). I've sat in their offices discussing my work. I've gone out on drinking sessions with them, occasionally to the severe detriment of my health. And they've been nice enough to buy me lunch or dinner on a number of occasions. I've always found them to be pleasant enough people. They've done their very best to present my novels well and to promote them. Which is not to say that my relationships with these guys haven't had their ups and downs. But in nearly thirty years, I would never, ever once have believed I might become a publisher myself one day (I'm talking proper, solid books, not e-ones).

Except that now it's happened. Blow me down. Above is the cover of the premiere novel from Raine Manor Publications, Raine Manor being the ancestral home of the craziest magician in my Raine's Landing series of fantasy novels.

Dark Rain -- the first of them -- originally appeared in 2008 from Eos/HarperCollins, introducing readers to a spellbound Massachusetts town inhabited by powerful wizards like Judge Samuel Levin, Woodard Raine, and Doctor Lehman Willets, but also by ordinary people armed with no magical powers but with boundless courage and resolve instead, like Ross Devries and Cassie Mallory, the heroes of the piece. The book garnered a lot of rave reviews and got me more fan emails than I've had in quite a while. But it only ever came out as a mass market paperback and, after 8 years, the only hard copy that you're likely to be able to get hold of is a battered secondhand one.

Only that now, there is this fine-looking trade paperback version , courtesy of RMP. And now that I have got the look and layout absolutely right, I will be releasing copies of the other novels in the series in the next couple of weeks,

You can find out more about this new edition of Dark Rain here.

WELCOME TO BIRCHIAM-ON-SEA

I haven't done much in the way of blogging -- or anything else on social media -- for a good long while. Why? Because the work of writing novels has been eating me alive of late. I honestly believed that I would finish the sixth in my Raine's Landing series -- Witch Hunter (see below) -- by Xmas 2015. It had already been through seven or eight drafts, after all. But I started reading what I'd done a few days before the holiday break, and realized that I still wasn't satisfied with it. Christmas and New Year passed, and I started work again. And it took me three more very intensive drafts to get the story reading just the way it should. It was mentally fatiguing work, but well worth it to get Ross and Cassie's latest, greatest, and most heart-gripping adventure right.

And I was planning to take a long break after that, but ... what is it they say about no rest for the wicked? My second full-blown crime novel -- The Tribe, a follow up to 2014's The Desert Keeps Its Dead --  is due out later this year from Cemetery Dance Publications. And since there is a third installment in the story of my fictional detective, I realized I'd better get cracking and start writing it. Which is what I'm doing right now (I am on a break this afternoon), only stopping every so often to do some research on stuff like assault weaponry and helicopters (yes, you read that last word right).

But however much you try to hide behind your laptop, the world moves on regardless. The world of publishing especially. And so much has been going on the last few months, it is going to take me three whole postings to describe it all.

The first matter to deal with is the book above.  I've been writing short horror and dark fantasy stories set in the fictional south-coast English town of Birchiam-on-Sea for the past ten years. The first -- The Waiters -- appeared in Weird Tales. And since then, Birchiam stories have shown up in Black Static magazine, the Black Book of Horror, and top anthologies like The British Invasion. And now all of them have been collected together by Trevor Denyer, editor of the esteemed Midnight Street magazine. It's a truly wonderful-looking book, and there's even an introduction -- explaining the whole concept behind Birchaim -- by a certain T. Richards. Moon on Dark Water: The Birchiam Chronicles is available both as a Kindle and as a good old-fashioned paperback book.

WHAT'S THE VERY LAST THING THE INHABITANTS OF RAINE'S LANDING WANT TO SEE ... A WITCH HUNTER!

It's been 2 whole years since my last Raine's Landing novel was out, and it occurs to me that some people might have thought that I was finished with the series. But no, very far from it. Ross Devries, Cassie Mallory, and all the other host of characters remain close to my heart, as does the whole idea of an ordinary-looking Massachusetts town that's actually full of magic and is bound under a hex cast by a real witch who escaped from Salem.

But I've been working on my first couple of straight crime novels down the last 2 years -- the second one, 'The Tribe,' is due out from Cemetery Dance Publications in the next few months. A new and very adult horror novel is now with my agent. And my old pal at Dark Renaissance, Joe Morey, asked me to write a ghost novella for his series of them, Mr. Jakes (more news about that later, since the DR list is currently being moved to Dark Regions Press). And so I've been kept extremely busy.

But I was finally able to get my breath back in the Fall of last year, and immediately knew where I wanted to go as soon as I had some time on my hands. Back to Raine's Landing, obviously. I just love this series. And, from the responses I've had, people seem to love reading it too. I already know how it finishes up, and am determined to bring it to a proper conclusion. I'm not there yet, though. There are going to be several more episodes before the Grand Finale. But I think this sixth and latest book has to be one of the most gripping of them.

WITCH HUNTER is available exclusively on Amazon Kindle for the next few months. And I'll be starting work on the seventh novel very soon.

“But I am innocent, I tell you! I am not a witch!” 


“Well, we shall soon find out the truth of that. Prepare yourself for your ordeal.” 


Back in 1687, Verena Oakemont was put to death by the notorious witchfinder Thaddeus Firman. And – despite her protestations – she really was a witch, and a powerful one too, the daughter of a demon. 

Three centuries later, she’s escaped from Hell and returned to Raine’s Landing. Death has made her magic powers far stronger than ever, and it’s not merely the town that she wants to subdue. Her gaze is fixed upon the world beyond it. 

But that’s not the biggest problem Ross and Cassie have to face. Something even worse is coming in Verena’s wake, the servant of an ancient force that would destroy the Universe itself. And the only person who has any chance of standing in its way … is Cassie’s brand-new daughter, May. 

A vengeful witch. A brutal hunter. And a magically-empowered child. These are the ingredients for the most climactic Raine’s Landing adventure yet. 

INTRODUCING RAYVEN BLACK

I don't sit down and write a story as soon as I get a new idea. I mean, not usually. There are exceptions to this rule, of course. For instance, coming back from Kyushu -- the southern island of Japan -- I grabbed a couple of hours sleep and then went staggering to my laptop to write a tale about the place, 'Hanako from Miyazaki,' which got snapped up by the first editor I sent it to (a little tip to other writers here: Western editors just cannot resist tales with Eastern settings).

More normally though, it takes a while, and that's very definitely the case with this one. I got the idea for my first ever superhero story years ago. I had the character, the setting and the circumstances, even the full title. But I didn't sit down and write it for one very simple reason ... who on Earth would buy it?

But then, two Decembers back, I dropped in on the British Fantasy Society's Xmas gathering, as I almost always do. And among the indie publishers showing off their wares was Pete Coleburn of The Alchemy Press. He took me over to his table, saying: "Maybe you'd like to write something for us?"

And there, right in front of my nose, were the first two editions of The Alchemy Press Book of Pulp Heroes, and Peter informed me that antho #3 was looking for submissions at that very moment. What happened next? I think you might have already guessed. The very next morning, I sat myself down at my beaten-up old desk and started writing my first Rayven Black tale. Editor Mike Chinn bought it straight away, it appeared in print back in September, and now it is in eBook form at Amazon, with other outlets hopefully to follow.

I'll be working on more tales about this hero in the near future. Meanwhile, you can find out more about her first adventure HERE.

A WAR BETWEEN IMMORTALS

Last year saw the publication of my chiller Under the Ice from Samhain Publishing. And it certainly drew some critical praise, but it was short, a novella in fact.

This year sees something much, much bigger, because my dark fantasy epic Hot Blood is out from the same publishers. Here's the back-cover blurb:

Who dares to challenge a vampire? Two very different immortal creatures have arrived in New York City. One is Tanya Merrit, the last of the Ykrall, a race that lives among—and depends on—human beings. The other is Janos Wolkran, an ancient and extremely powerful vampire. He has with him a brood of servants, humans that he has converted. But one of his servants is dying. And Wolkran has chosen Tanya’s lover, Kathy Harrison, as a replacement. When he kidnaps her, Tanya sets off in a pursuit that will lead her around the world…and into a battle to the death between immortals. Hot Blood starts out in Manhattan before moving on to Latin America. And then, after a brief stop-over in London, England, the action transfers to Prague, and beyond that to Budapest, finally ending up in the Zempleni Mountains, part of the Carpathian Range. Like I said, this is one big book  and took me several years to finish. The novel is available either  as a superb-looking trade paperback or in e-book format, either directly from Samhain, or from Amazon, Nook, or Kobo. Want a piece of fiction you can really get your teeth into? Well, this should keep you busy for a while. Enjoy!

IT'S RAIN(E)ING AGAIN

As I promised a couple of postings back, Dark Rain - the first novel in my Raine's Landing fantasy adventure series - is now available on Amazon Kindle, and for a fraction of its original price. There are five books in total in the series so far, with a sixth on its way this year. So here's your chance to start finding out about this strangest of Massachusetts towns and its peculiar inhabitants, grouchy hermit Lehman Willets, tough former criminal Cassie Mallory, the bizarre entity simply know as The Little Girl, and all the rest, not least the skillful but demented master magician Woodard Raine. Want to know what other people think of these books? Well, here are some Amazon reviews.

IT'S A DARK RAIN THAT'S GONNA FALL

Dark Rain, the first in my Raine's Landing series of dark fantasy/supernatural thrillers, was first published by the Eos imprint of HarperCollins in 2008. It immediately got a following and some pretty good reviews, and I have written four more novels set in that strange Massachusetts town since then, with a sixth - Witchhunter - planned this year. But now that first novel is finally out of print at Eos/HC and no longer available digitally, and the rights in it have reverted to yours truly.

Which means not straight away - I'm working on the final draft of something new at the moment, and don't want to disturb that process - but sometime in April I will be bringing out my own version of Dark Rain on Amazon, where it will join the likes of Deadly Violet and Speak of the Devil as a $2.99 e-book.

It's gonna fall, in other words. In price. Watch this space.

NON-SPARKLY, NON-ROMANTIC, NASTY, EVIL, BLOODTHIRSTY VAMPIRES

Late last year, Samhain Publishing took my short novel Under the Ice -- which had previously been a self-published Amazon e-book -- and brought out their own version of it. And this year they're doing the same again, with a much longer novel this time.

Hot Blood runs to over 120,000 words and is a vampire epic, starting in New York, taking in Central America, and finally moving on to Eastern Europe ... Prague, then Budapest, then finally the Carpathians. And these aren't any Twilight kinds of vampires I'm describing. No, these bloodsuckers are very definitely not nice ones.

After all the swooning and white weddings, I get the feeling some readers will be extremely glad to see some non-sparkly vampires back. But for those who prefer a little romance mixed in with their dark fantasy, the heroine of the novel is a supernatural being herself, although of a very different kind. She ...

No, I cannot tell you too much in advance, now can I? Hot Blood will be out as a Samhain e-book in September 2014.

FIND ME ON FACEBOOK

As well as the Raine's Landing Novels Page on Facebook, there's now a Page about my new novels from Schusters/Pocket and Samhain Publishing, my latest (seventh) short fiction collection from Dark Renaissance Books, and my most recent self-published enovels. Check it out here.

A ZOMBIE REBORN!

“Out at the edge of the ice, something dark appeared, rising from the water and then closing downwards on the frozen surface. I squinted. And was sure it was a human arm.”

David and Bobby are a pair of twin brothers, both in love with the same woman. But on a trip to Finland, the matter gets resolved in the worst way imaginable – Bobby drowns in the icy waters just outside Helsinki. Two years later, David is still in that city and living with Krista, when a supposed magic artifact comes into their possession. And when David makes a wish upon it, dark things from the past begin resurfacing. Things like old-time sins and misdeeds. Like guilt and awful memories. And things like Bobby himself, two years drowned and trapped under the ice ... but still here with us.

My zombie novel Under the Ice first appeared as a collector's hardback from Sarob Press back in 2005. It had long been out of print when I published it again myself as an ebook on Kindle at the start of this decade, where it quickly became my best-selling title. And now it's available from Samhain Publishing as a smart new ebook edition. Here's its first (rave) review:

“Every now and then you’ll stumble upon a low-key piece of work that totally and completely stuns you. Under the Ice is a stellar tale ... brilliant, well thought out and perfectly delivered by Tony Richards, who understands the balance that must be upheld between fantasy and reality. The story boasts numerous layers, fine character examination and a final curveball that’s going to leave readers pleased. Whether you opt to label this one a revenge tale, a ghost story or a zombie tale matters not. It’s original, creative, and somehow successfully blends all of the aforementioned classifications, wrapping a plethora of ideas into one. This is an excellent read, and you want to get your hands on it as soon as possible!” – Horror Novel Reviews. 

You can read the complete review here.

Under the Ice is available directly from Samhain Publishing, or from Amazon, B&N Nook, Kobo and a variety of other outlets. 

THREE 4 FREE

The last in my 3 collections of horror tales is free on Amazon Kindle for the whole of today and Sunday. Like its two sister books, The Books of Shadow: Volume III only contains stories that have previously seen print, and includes fiction from Weird Tales, Midnight Street, and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.

ALL RIGHT NOW

I'm very fond of letting you know when things are going well, aren't I? And so it's only fair that I cop to it as well when I occasionally mess up.

I was having at look at the template documents for  my triple collection of horror stories on Kindle -- THE BOOKS OF SHADOW -- a few days back and realized that I'd let a formatting mistake slip through. And that's a shame, because these three books represent the best of my dark fiction over more than 30 years, the very oldest in the series being 'Headlamps' from The 14th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories back in 1981.

And so I promptly sat down and fixed the error. All three books are now properly formatted, and have brand new linked tables of content and publication info about every story.

GOOD VIBRATIONS

Favorable reactions continue to roll in for my newest novel TROPIC OF DARKNESS (Simon & Schuster/Pocket Star).

Night Owl Reviews says: "Tropic of Darkness in a really good thriller."

While  the Dew on the Kudzu literary blog adds: "Filled with Voodoo, 200 year old curses, beautiful ghosts and the nightclubs of Havana, the story sucks you in."

And I learned just yesterday that both TROPIC and my short story 'The Hunting Party' (Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, October) have won nominations for Mystery Writers of America Edgar Awards.

TICKET TO TERROR

My latest collection of short fiction -- my seventh -- is now available for preorder from Dark Renaissance Books. THE UNIVERSAL AND OTHER TERRORS has eleven stories and a novella, with fiction from Hitchcock's, The Black Book of Horror, Scheherazade and Midnight Street, and includes five brand-new stories -- Aegea, Under the Shroud, Covered Mirrors, The Visitors in Marvell Wood, and the title story -- that see their very first publication in this book.

As well as painting the cover, the terrific M. Wayne Miller had illustrated every individual story ... you can take a look at some of those on the art gallery of my website.

And here's the back cover material for the book:

What could be so bad about a golden Greek beach with scores of beautiful young people lying on it? Where could be the danger in a perfectly normal-looking southern English seaside town? Or an even more ordinary town out in the Nevada desert? An old, abandoned building on a rocky shore…what could be awful about that?
Discover the truth behind the origins of Abraham van Helsing. Find out how a decrepit old man continues to attract beautiful young women. Learn about the real link between crows and the Grim Reaper. Travel a few decades into the future and see a fresh and modern Africa…and the menace that still lurks there. Here are twelve new stories, five of them previously unpublished and unique to this collection, that will open your eyes to the hidden terrors in the world around us. Read them at your peril.

Praise for Tony Richards

“A hell of a writer, one of today’s masters of dark fiction.” Mario Guslandi, Horror World

 “Richards is a master at combining horror, fantasy and humor in a way that will mesmerize readers from cover to cover.” Rhomylly Forbes, Romantic Times Book Reviews

“The rest of us stand on the sidelines with eyes wide open at his audacity and wonder what he’ll do next.” Peter Tennant, Black Static


“…Richards creates something unique.” Clay Bye, Alternative Reads

THE UNIVERSAL is only available as a collector's edition at the moment, but a trade paperback edition will be along soon. You can find out more more it here.

DARK SATANIC CHILLS -- THE NEW RAINE'S LANDING NOVEL

If you've ever visited this blog before, then you're quite familiar with the following words: "It may look like a perfectly ordinary New England town, a little larger than most. But Raine’s Landing, Massachusetts, holds some very dark secrets. The real witches of Salem fled here just before the Trials of 1692, and the place has been full of magic – the good and the bad kind – ever since. And a curse hangs over the whole population … there are so many people because nobody born here can ever leave."

Well, they're all still stuck there, troubleshooter Ross Devries, his sidekick Cassie Mallory, Doc Willets, police lieutenant Saul Hobart, high witch Emaline Pendramere, Judge Samuel Levin and the whole other crew, including master magician and arch-loon Woodard Raine himself. And in the fifth book in the series, they are facing down worse trouble than they've ever seen before. Here's the description:

"It’s only early February, and the town should still be in the grip of winter. But the air has turned unseasonably warm and an unexpected thaw has come. And as the snows begin to melt back, bodies start to be discovered, murdered human corpses, each with strange ritual markings carved into their flesh.

At first another serial killer is suspected, but it is not that. The markings are satanic ones. Somebody inside the town is practising black magic of the foulest kind. Demons have been summoned, dark spells cast, doorways opened into deeper realms. And then the Landing’s adepts start to be attacked.

And with his sidekick, Cassie Mallory, unable to help him, ex-cop Ross Devries is facing the toughest and most brutal fight of his entire life. Because this time, he is battling the Hordes of Hell."

You can read an excerpt right HERE.

The book's first review on Amazon calls it the best Raine's Landing thriller yet, and gives it 5 stars.

SPEAK OF THE DEVIL is available exclusively as a $2.99 ebook on Amazon US and Amazon UK.

ICE COLD IN THE CARIBBEAN

My first novel from a major publisher in 4 years - and my first stand-alone novel since 1995's Night Feast - is now available from Simon & Schuster/Pocket Star.

Tropic of Darkness is set mostly in Havana, Cuba, with the action shifting from the present day to the late Fifties, when the Mob virtually ran that city. In fact, the action starts with none other than Meyer Lansky stepping off a plane at Havana Airport, only to receive some rather strange and troubling news. Here's the book's back-cover blurb:

"Enter a dim-lit, sultry world full of the darkest secrets, where age-old legends come to life, dreams get mixed up with reality, and nothing save for death is truly as it seems.

Jack Gilliard is a man with a dark past, and he hasn’t been back to the United States for more than a decade. But when he washes up in Havana, Cuba, he finds himself being drawn into a business darker than he ever dared think. Ancient passions, ancient treacheries, an age-old curse, and the evils of his past are now consuming the present—and Jack is caught in the midst of it all. To survive, all he has to do is leave the country—a prospect much more difficult than anticipated. But the real question is: can Jack escape before the darkness claims him altogether?"

And the first review's an excellent one:

“The tension built well as the story progressed and kept me turning pages. All in all, Tropic of Darkness is a well-crafted tale, and well worth reading. I rate this work as Highly Recommended for adult readers” – The Monster Librarian.

Read an extract here.

Tropic of Darkness is available in a wide variety of different ebook formats. Find out more here. 

A paperback version will be released in 2014.

REALITY RELOADED

My long-running website, richardsreality.com, has just been completely updated. There’s a better Photo Gallery, a massively expanded Art Gallery with over a dozen new paintings and drawings by M. Wayne Miller and Steve Upham, a new interview conducted by award-winning author Ed Gorman, a complete list of my available ebooks, both from major publishers and self-published, and news of my latest novels and collections.

Huge thanks to Marie O’Regan for putting it all together.

Why not take a look?

A GREAT HORROR FREEBIE!

For the whole of today, Saturday 23rd February, one of my collections of horror tales -- The Books of Shadow: Volume II -- is absolutely free on Amazon Kindle. A dozen of my best creepy tales, all of them originally published between the Eighties and the present day. There are two other books in this series, by the way. You can find out more about them HERE.

DEADLY VIOLET REVIEWS

Just like the previous three Raine's Landing supernatural novels, the fourth in the series -- DEADLY VIOLET -- has started pulling down some seriously good reviews. Except that, only being an ebook at the moment, those reviews are all on Amazon. Here are the first few:

“What can I say? As entertaining as the other novels, perhaps even more so. I've been a fan of Raine's Landing since I purchased the first novel in the series from the Science Fiction Book Club, and they just keep coming, each one as satisfactory as the last. I always look forward to opening a novel whose title has the subheading: A Raine's Landing Novel.
     This one brings back familiar characters from past stories...Boston cop Lauren, a recovering Saul Hobart, and a pregnant Cassie, trying to maintain a normal life with her boyfriend, the recently-deceased adept Quinn Maycott, as well as others only mentioned previously. There's a little more on Willetts, who came to the Landing, committed what he considers a criminal sin, and stays to work out his own punishment. None of these side stories are enough to detract from the main theme, namely, why does the mysterious violet light suddenly gleam and then nasty things appear and do away with homes and their inhabitants in particularly gruesome ways? It also answers some questions I, and no doubt other readers, have raised through the years.
    I'd call this one a nail-biter, and I'm not going to say any more for Spoilers can pop up unexpectedly whenever one speaks about the Landing. Just read it for yourself, and you'll see what I mean” – T.P. Vissage.

“Deadly Violet, along with the other Raine's Landing novels are page turners. Not a boring part in the whole series. Deadly Violet left you with a cliff hanger at the end, so I'm looking forward to the next in the series” -- Judy.

“Welcome back to Raine's Landing, the town that was built by the original Salem Witches as an escape from the infamous witch trials (1692). However, the town ended up on the wrong side of the wrong witch and found itself cursed in perpetuity. Anyone born in Raine's Landing can never leave and those not born there find it extremely hard to find or visit the town. It is due to this curse That Raine's Landing, a town populated primarily by magic users, exists just off a major highway in the present.
    There are a few people who don't use magic in this town. Ross Devries--a former cop--and his tough sidekick, Cass Mallory, are two of them. Not only that, their peculiar backgrounds make them perfect problem solvers for whenever magic gets out of hand, something that seems to happen with some regularity in Raine's Landing.
    Take this day for example: People have begun disappearing. And giant, purple worms with massive, circular rows of teeth that rotate are grinding unprepared people into nothingness. Then come the little bubbles of violet light that shoot through everything and everyone they find, repeatedly, destroying them just as surely as a "grinder" would. But when houses begin to disappear and people are attacked by their worst nightmares, even the town's adepts can't stop the destruction.
    They keep trying though. Trying to understand and communicate with the intelligent, violet life-forms who seem to be behind all that is happening. But when the sun itself takes on a purple hue, it leaves everyone certain that reality is being consumed by another universe.
    Since magic has failed to protect them, Ross and Cass seem to be the only people who can fix this particular problem. What's the source of that problem? A little girl a hundred years in the past has stolen a powerful talisman, reached out and forward to find the "little girl" from previous stories (She occupies one room in an abandoned house, hovering in the air, spinning slowly and seeing all) and then entwined their minds. It's this that has caused a rip in the continuum of space and allowed the strangest of races access to our world.
    With the clock ticking down to nothingness, Ross and Cass must somehow find a way to break the bond between the two girls and repair the bridge between the universes.
    Be sure to pick up a copy of this superb fantasy. Deadly Violet by Tony Richards just hums along, taking you at high speed to places of which you will never have dreamed. In fact, I think Deadly Violet is the best Raine's Landing novel to date. ” – Clayton Bye.

The book is available for $2.99 (plus a very small delivery fee) from Amazon Kindle, and for those who prefer something more solid, a paperback version ought to be ready sometime later this year.