Please introduce yourself and tell us about your background as a writer.
I am David A. Riley and I first started writing while I was still at school. In fact, it was at the age of eighteen, one week after finishing school, that I received my first professional acceptance, for a story called “The Lurkers in the Abyss,” which appeared in the 11th Pan Book of Horror Stories the following year. Since then I have had numerous stories published in anthologies and magazines ranging from The Year’s Best Horror, The Century’s Best Horror Fiction, Dark Discoveries and Aboriginal Science Fiction, as well as Fantasy Tales.

To date I have had six collections of stories published and three novels. My first and third collections were published by Hazardous Press. After this went out of business, I reprinted them under my own Parallel Universe Publications imprint. My second collection, The Lurkers in the Abyss & Other Tales of Terror was published by Shadow Publishing.

Most of my stories are in the horror genre, but I have also written some science fiction and more recently swords and sorcery, perhaps prompted by my decision to start an anthology series in that genre: Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy, which will reach its sixth volume in May this year. My swords and sorcery stories have appeared in Mythic magazine, Swords & Sorcery Magazine, Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Swords and Heroes and Savage Realms Monthly. Curiously, it’s a genre I was very much into when I first started writing. I even wrote a novel then, which unfortunately I have since lost. As it came after the sword and sorcery boom of the 1960s had already collapsed, it was no great loss at the time.

My first and favourite novel to be published is The Return, a Lovecraftian crime noir from Blood Bound Books, which is set in the fictious area of Grudge End in a rundown Lancastrian town. Trevor Kennedy, editor of Phantasmagoria magazine, described it as an “extremely violent, bleak, fantastically weaved tale that could perhaps best be described as H.P. Lovecraft meets the Kray twins...”

In 1994, after being made redundant, I started what was intended to be a professional magazine called Beyond, which featured new stories from writers like Karl Edward Wagner, John Brunner, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Laws, Brian Stableford, Adrian Cole and numerous others. Alas, I underestimated the pitfalls of the pro market and the magazine collapsed after its third issue. But, years later, I revived the name of the company I used at the time and began a line of paperbacks, hardbacks and kindle eBooks under the Parallel Universe Publications imprint and have since brought out over 50 titles, including art books, poetry, fantasy, horror and science fiction from a wide range of writers.

What are the most prominent influences on your writing? How do you incorporate those influences without being derivative?
That would certainly be H. P. Lovecraft in the early days, though I have moved along quite a bit since then. Not that I don’t love his stories, but his style is so uniquely his own it is only cheapened whenever someone else tries to mimic it. Other than Lovecraft my early reading was centred on science fiction writers like Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, while my horror influences were Robert Bloch, Clark Ashton Smith and a lot of other Weird Tales authors whose works were frequently reprinted during the 1960s in paperback anthologies and collections in the UK, especially those edited by August Derleth or Kurt Singer. A revelatory moment came in the early 1970s when I read Ramsey Campbell’s story “Cold Print” and his novel The Face That Must Die, which brought a startlingly clear sense of gritty realism to the settings and people. Being also from the North of England there was something very recognisable in Campbell’s locations which appealed to me. But now, after more than fifty years of writing, it would be impossible to name all the authors whose stories and styles have had some sort of influence on me, whether I realise it or not. As for not being derivative, I couldn’t say. I hope not. I do try to keep my tales as unique as I can and hope, after all these years, I have a recognisable writing voice of my own. That, though, is for others to judge.

With self-publishing easier than ever, there are tons of books being released every day. What makes your work stand out from the crowd? What can readers get out of your work that they can’t from anyone else?
I try to infuse a sense of realism in my stories and hopefully create characters who will resonate with the reader. I find that if I don’t create protagonists I personally find interesting I rapidly lose interest in the story itself and will probably abandon it. The characters, whether likeable or not, come first.

I hope, however far-fetched the story might be, it is still in some way credible and the people in it behave in a realistic manner and have something about them which catches the attention of the reader.

I also try to make sure the writing is as good as I can possibly make it, which is why rewriting is so important. I am a constant rewriter. In my opinion the first draft should never be the last. I have seen some authors who seem to think they don’t need to do this – and it shows. That’s why self-publishing can be a curse. I would add I never publish a collection of my own stories unless they have all individually been published somewhere else first. If another publisher hasn’t seen fit to use them I won’t. Which is why when I edit anthologies I never include anything of my own.

Many authors say marketing is one of their biggest challenges. What tactics have you found to be most effective for getting your name out there?
Word of mouth is an obvious answer, which often these days results from networking. I do try and make full use of online resources like Facebook and Twitter and, of course, my own blogs, one of which is dedicated to Parallel Universe Publications; the other is for me as a writer.

One thing I love about the swords and sorcery genre in particular is how much cooperation and help those in it are willing to give each other online. It is a genuinely friendly community, which perhaps helps to make the genre’s revival in recent years explainable. Last year I put forward the idea of publishing reciprocal ads in the back of our anthologies and magazines, which has resulted in a number of the ads in the back pages of my Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy volumes.

How much do your audience’s expectations factor in to what you write? Does this ever cause you to hold back from experimenting?
I really don’t know what my audience’s expectations are. I go with whatever I am writing, wherever that might lead. I write primarily for myself. If I like what I have written I just hope someone else will like it also. When I first started writing swords and sorcery stories, for instance, I was wary of going along the road of creating yet another Clonan character, so I had as my main protagonists people such as a storyteller, a carpet maker and a Healer. Even when I created a potential Clonan in a character called Welgar he soon became hideous to look at (like an unwrapped mummy is one description) after he became possessed by a demonic god.

Have you had any new stories published recently? Are you currently working on any?
I have two stories coming out within the next few weeks: “The Dark Priestdom” in Savage Realms Monthly and “Welgar the Cursed” in an anthology edited by Lyndon Perry, Swords & Heroes. I am currently working on another sword and sorcery tale involving a city whose criminal overlords are vampires, plus a fourth Welgar story called “Cyramon.” Both will be put on hold for most of April, though, as submissions open then for the next Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy volume, so my hands will be full with that.

Name one newer and one older book you have read and enjoyed recently. (“Newer” meaning from the past year or so, and “older” meaning written before 1980.)
I recently read The Complete Chronicles of Conan edited by Stephen Jones and written, of course, by Robert E. Howard. It’s amazing how varied Howard’s Conan stories are and how vividly written. They’re an incredible achievement for a man who died when he was only thirty, especially when you take into account all the other stories he wrote as well. The most recent book I’ve read is Leviathan Wakes: Book One of The Expanse by James S. A. Corey, on which the exceptionally brilliant TV series The Expanse was based. I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to reading the other volumes that follow on from it.

Any final words?
Even though I am in my early seventies my enthusiasm for writing – and publishing – is if anything even more acute than before, and I am looking forward to many more years of both.