
 
24th January 2012: The
Ghosts book and
CD package is now sold out. However, the CD can be purchased
indididually using the Paypal button below, and a copy will be sent from
the UK via R.B. Russell at the Tartarus Press. Each copy is £12, post
free worldwide, and will be sent out early
February.
***
3rd January 2012: February will
see the publication of Ghosts by
R.B. Russell, comprising a book published by the
Swan River Press in Dublin, and a CD on the Klanggalerie label in
Austria.
The book will be an omnibus volume collecting Russell's out
of print debut collection "Putting the Pieces in Place" and the novella
"Bloody Baudelaire". This omnibus edition will include a new
introduction by Mark Valentine, and will come with a CD of Russell's
music (which will also be available seperately through Klanggalerie).
Pre-orders for the book and CD package are now being taken by the
Swan River Press .
The Ghosts CD
contains 12 songs composed by Russell (eight instrumental tracks, and
four with vocals by Lidwine. A video sampler can be found
below:
- ***
-
13th December: This thursday R.B. Russell is
interviewed in
The Unsettled Dust, on Radio 4. Screenwriter Jeremy Dyson
praises the supernatural stories of British author and conservationist
Robert Aickman and argues they should receive greater recognition for
their contribution to
literature.
-
In other news, Bloody
Baudelaire is
still due to be filmed by 3:1 Cinema in the USA, with filming now due to
commence February/March 2012. And Delicate
Toxins,
edited by John Smith, has recently been reviewed by Peter Tennant in
Black Static: "R.B. Russell gives us
a forbidden love affair in ‘Mathilde’, with the hapless Bernard
sacrificing everything for the eponymous femme fatale, only nothing is
quite what it seems in this obliquely written romance and death itself
has a role to play. Russell touches on the hopelessness of desire when
transmuted into obsession, and how our expectations keep us chained in
place, the narrator having become as spellbound as Bernard prompting a
spectral intervention at the height of the
story."*** 24th
November 2011: R.B. Russell's debut album will be released in February
2012: “Ghosts” is the soundtrack to the writings
of British author, R.B. Russell. The songs are composed and arranged by
Russell, and vocals for a number of songs are provided by Lidwine,
whose voice is the perfect complement to the music. “Ghosts”
will be available in February 2012 as a stand-alone CD from Klanggalerie, and also as a limited
edition set with the book “Ghosts” (which reprints his first two
publications, “Putting the Pieces in Place” and “Bloody
Baudelaire”).*** 9th November, 2001: R.B. Russell will be
interviewed by David Sillitoe today on Radio Four's Today programme, as a part of the feature on Murmurations, the RSPB anthology, and
will read an excerpt from "The Beautiful
Room".***
16th October, 2011: Ray Russell reports
that, with great regret, he has withdrawn The Dark Return of Time from Ex
Occidente Press. The publisher has stated that all pre-orderes for
this title will be refunded. It is hoped that the material which was
intended for this box set will be published elsewhere, in due
course.***
October 12th, 2011: Bloody
Baudelaire has now sold out!***
September 28th, 2011: The Nightjar Press chapbooks
receive a positive review here
and The Beautiful Room is described as "a
terrific short story".
***
September 23rd, 2011: A fine review of Literary Remains
in Dead Reckonings #
10: "...readers are held spellbound by Russell’s elegant
prose."***
September 14th 2011: Three new short
stories are due to be published in forthcoming anthologies this
autumn: "The Restaurant
San Martín" in This Hermetiic Legislature, edited by Dan
Ghetu and Dan Watt (Ex Occidente Press),
"The Beautiful
Room" in Murmurations: Uncanny Stories About Birds,
edited by Nick Royle (Two Ravens Press), and
"The Bridegroom" in
Haunts:
Reliquaries of the Dead, edited by Stephen Jones (Ulysses
Press).
***
22nd July 2011: A fine review of
Literary
Remains can be found at
The Stars at
Noonday: "The stories in this collection are, to
be sure, effective taken individually (I first read 'Loup-garou', an
unsettling story that has less to do with werewolves than you might
imagine, in an anthology, and very much admired it). But read as a
cohesive whole, preferably in one sitting, they reveal a profound
awareness of human drives and limitations, an understated but very
real sense of the large and small tragedies that characterize our
lives. Literary Remains is dark fantasy of the first
order."
***
19th July: The Master
in Cafe Morphine, a tribute to Mikhail Bulgakov, has been published,
containing "The Exquisite Process of Gala Gladkov" by R.B.
Russell.
***
16th July 2011:
Bloody
Baudelaire has been optioned for a film by 3:1 Cinema in
the USA, with filming due to start later this
year.
***
The British Fantasy Society review
The Beautiful
Room very positively here.
***
27th June 2011: Russell's The Beautiful
Room is
shortlisted in the British Fantasy
Society Awards.
***22nd
June 2011: In The Best Horror of the Year 3, Ellen Datlow writes:
"Literary Remains by
R. B. Russell (PS) is the second collection of stories by a writer who
in the past few years has been making a name for himself with his
well-written weird and dark fiction... The ten stories, eight new, are
all well worth reading.""The Beautiful Room" receives an "honorable mention"
in the book.***
- 17th June 2011: Mario Guslandi on the SFSite reviews Delicate
Toxins very positively and says, " 'Mathilde' by R.B.
Russell, a beautiful, odd love story with an elusive but touching
ending, stands out for its excellent narrative style and terrific
dialogues."
-
-
***
- 9th May 2011: "The
Beautiful Room" (currently available as a limited edition chapbook from
Nightjar Press) will be included in Murmurations later this year, edited
by Nicholas Royle with all proceeds going to the RSPB. Other authors
include Daphne du Maurier, Anna Kavan and Russell Hoban.
*** 14th April 2011: Delicate
Toxins,
an anthology of stories inspired by Hans Heinz Ewers, is now available
from Side real Press. It contains "Mathilde" by R.B. Russell.
*** 17th January 2011: The Eloquent Page have reviewed The Sixth Black Book of Horror and in discussing their personal
highlights of the collection mention Russell's "An Unconventional
Exorcism" . *** 21st December: Peter Tennant describes "An
Unconventional Exorcism" as "a delightful black comedy... There are
some great characters here, a witty writing style and a great twist at
the end" in his
review of The Sixth Black Book of Horror in Case
Notes for
Black Static. *** 10th December: Peter Tennant recommends both
Literary Remains and The
Beautiful Room in the new issue of Black
Static. *** 9th December: "Mathilde" by R.B. Russell will be
published in the Side Real Press anthology, Delicate Toxins in the New Year. *** 17th October: A great review of Literary Remains in Supernatural Tales 18: "a worthy successor to R.B.
Russell's first collection, Putting the Pieces in Place. It
should appeal to those who enjoy well-crafted short stories in general,
and strange stories in particular." *** 11th October, 2010: Sarah L. Covert at She Never Slept has favourably reviewed Bloody Baudelaire: "This
book defies categorization, as most good books do. It is equal parts
gothic horror, mystery, romance, strange tale, and more. Bloody
Baudelaire is a memorizing tale that deserves to be read slowly as one
sips on a glass of aged wine, enjoying each sensation it brings with
adoration and awe. I would recommend this novella to anyone who enjoys
strange tales, dark fiction, or well written stories with great
characterization." *** 9th October, 2010: Eight illustrations by R.B.
Russell which have previously appeared on the jackets of Tartarus Press
publications are on display now in the Link Gallery at Dean Clough. They
are displayed alongside the artwork of Stephen J. Clark and the show
continues through to January 2011. *** 9th October: A Russian review of The Beautiful
Room says that it is "highly
recommended". *** 8th October: A Russian review of The Sixth Black Book of Horror describes "An
Unconventional Exorcism" as "elegantly written. *** 7th October: The importance and power of recommended
reads, by Peter Crowther *** 2nd October 2010: A positive review of "The Beautiful Room" by Paul
Magrs *** 28th September 2010: Des Lewis in his real-time review that he "LOVED this story" of "Decision"
by R.B. Russell from Never Again.
-
- ***
- 21st September 2010: A first review of "The Beautiful Room": "...a
stunning little story, simply and understatedly, as well as artfully,
told." - Simon
Marshall-Jones, Beyond Fiction
-
- ***
- 20th September, 2010: "The Beautiful Room" is now available from the
Nightjar Press for only £3. Also available is
Never Again, a collection containing Russell's story
"Decision".
-
- ***
- 5th September, 2010: R.B. Russell will be at the
Halifax Ghost Story Festival on Saturday 30th
October at the Dean Clough Galleries. Tartarus Press will be hosting a
number of events 11am-1pm in the project room.
- In addition, 7-9pm in the Viaduct cafe, Russell
will be appearing with Jeremy Dyson, who is taking time off from his
new West End production of Ghost
Stories, to talk about Robert Aickman.
-
- ***
- 24th August 2010: "In Hiding" from Putting the Pieces in
Place has
received a nomination in the World Fantasy Awards.
-
- ***
- 16th August 2010: Another Perspective, a new collection of stories by R.B.
Russell will be published by PS Publishing in Spring 2012.
-
- ***
- 13th August, 2010: A chapbook of Russell's short
story "The Beautiful Room" will be launched by the Nightjar Press at Fantasycon, run by the British Fantasy Society, 17–19
September, 2010, at the Britannia Hotel, Nottingham.
-
- ***
- 18th July 2010: The table of contents is
annonunced for Never Again, along with a facility to
pre-order.
-
- ***
- 9th July 2010: "Decision" by R.B. Russell will be
included in the forthcoming anthology Never Again, published by Gray Friar Press in September 2010.
Edited by Allyson Bird and Joel Lane, the book is an attempt to voice
the collective revulsion of writers in the weird fiction genre against
political attitudes that stifle compassion and deny our collective
human inheritance. All profits made from sales will be donated
The Sophie Lancaster
Foundation
and others.
-
- ***
- 3rd July 2010: A positive review of Literary Remains in Rue
Morgue #
102
-
- ***
- 28th June 2010: Another good review for Literary Remains, this time at Hyraxia, the book collecting website.
-
- ***
- 22nd June: Literary
Remains
reviewed by Paul Charles Smith.
-
- ***
- 18th June: Literary
Remains
reviewed by The Supernatural Fiction
Junkie.
-
- ***
- 1st June 2010: A good review at
Tales from the Black
Abyss: "A
fine collection at times reminiscent of Machen, Aickman, Ligotti and
others but always with that unique R.B Russell style."
-
- ***
-
- 31st May 2010: A pre-review from Supernatural Tales suggests that Literary Remains is "...a remarkable
read..."
-
- ***
-
- 26th May: Another positive review for Literary Remains at The Grim Blogger: "This collection sets the bar high
for himself, not to mention future authors, but also ensures a special
place for his fiction in the contemporary weird's bright future.
"
-
- ***
-
- 26th May: A good review of Literary Remains at Risingshadow.net: "...strangely beautiful prose . . .
compelling stories. "
-
- ***
-
- 11th May 2010: A new review has just gone online
at Bookgeeks, written by Mario Guslandi: "...all the stories
are elegantly written, clever, classy tales apt to delight the reader
throughout the whole volume..."
-
- ***
-
- 10th May 2010: All previously ordered copies of
Literary Remains have now been posted by the
publisher.
-
- ***
-
- 4th May 2010: A great review of The Sixth Black Book of Horror by Mario Guslandi at Horrorworld singles out "An Unconventional Exorcism" saying:
"...by far the most accomplished piece in the book, is a perfect,
delightful tale, very elegantly written."
-
- ***
-
- 30th April: An honourable mention for R.B. Russell
in the Campaign for Real Fear competition for the story "Don't Ask
Me".
-
- ***
-
- 25th April 2010: Despite the suggestion that
Literary Remains is now available (made by the
author himself!), there has been a delay as the jackets and covers
have been reprinted. (The publisher considered them too dark.) It will
be ready to ship any day now...
-
- In the meantime, the collection has recently been
subject to a "real-time" review by Des Lewis on his Weirdmonger blog. (He has also just completed a
"real-time" review of Putting the Pieces in Place)
-
- Also recently published is the story "An
Unconventional Exorcism" by Russell in The Sixth Black Book of Horror. There have been a couple of
positive reviews of the collection from Colin Leslie at Tales from the Black Abyss and by the indefatigable
Des Lewis.
-
- ***
-
- 14th March 2010. Literary Remains will be launched on Friday
26th March at 5pm in Bar Rogue at the Royal Albion Hotel as a part of
the World Horror Convention. All attendees welcome! The trade edition
will be available from that date, and the traycased, limited edition
shortly afterwards.
-
- ***
-
- 21st February: Putting the Pieces in
Place is
described by Ellen Datlow in The Best Horror of the Year Volume
II as:
"...an excellent and very satisfying debut." She also favourably
mentions Russell's contribution to Cinnabar's Gnosis.
-
- ***
-
- 6th February 2010: A very good review for
Putting the Pieces in
Place from The Speculative Fiction Junkie: "The hallmark
of these stories is their subtlety. Putting the
Pieces in Place is a wonderful debut from an author who is among
those leading the way in blending horror and the strange tale."
-
- ***
-
- 5th February: "Looking for Somebody", a poem by
Ray Russell has just been published in Staple # 72, the Music Issue.
-
- ***
-
- 28th January 2010: The new collection of short
stories by Ray Russell, Literary
Remains,
is now available for pre-order from PS Publishing as a trade hardcover, or a signed, traycased hardcover. The provisional publication
date is May 2010.
-
- ***
-
- 20th January 2010: Ellen Datlow's Best
Horror of the Year and "Loup-garou" have been positively reviewed at
Michael Lambe's Blog.
-
- ***
-
- 17th January: R.B. Russell will be attending the
launch and book signing of Black Book of Horror #
6 at the World
Horror Convention on Friday 26th March. The latest volume in Charles
Black's series contains Russell's story "An Unconventional Exorcism".
He will also be appearing on the "We Are Not Worthy" panel on Thursday
night, discussing literary influences. More World Horror Convention
news to follow.
-
- ***
-
- 11th January 2010: Ellen Datlow's Best
Horror of the Year has been very positively reviewed in Locus. R.B. Russell's contribution" is described thus:
" ‘Loup-garou’ is a wonderfully disarming and original story that
offers a thoroughly original exploration of the shapeshifter theme in
an otherwise ordinary marital relationship."
-
- ***
-
- 9th December: Ex
Occidente Press are now shipping copies of Cinnabar's Gnosis, a tribute to Gustav Meyrink, which
includes the short story "The Red Rose and the Cross of Gold" by R.B.
Russell. Their next anthology, The Master in Cafe Morphine: A
Homage to Mikhail Bulgakov, will contain Russell 's new tale "The Exquisite
Process of Gala Gladkov".
-
- ***
-
- 27th October 2009: A starred review in Publisher's Weekly for Ellen Datlow's Best
Horror of the Year describes R.B. Russell's “Loup-garou” as "a
highly original shape-shifter story with a subtle psychological
twist".
-
- ***
-
- 22nd October 2009: A great review of Bloody Baudelaire from The Grim Blogger.
-
- ***
- 18th October: A positive review of Bloody Baudelaire from the Speculative Fiction Junkie.
-
- ***
-
- 12th October 2009: The first review of Ellen
Datlow's Best Horror of the Year has been spotted. The Bibliophile Stalker says: " 'Loup-garou' by R.B. Russell
feels like it's another of those stories that uses the horror trope
about a rare film, but actually presents a unique take on it that
makes this feel refreshing." Copies will be available very
soon.
-
- ***
-
- 4th October 2009: Russell's story "The Red Rose
and the Cross of Gold" will be published later this month in Cinnabar's Gnosis, to be published by Ex
Occidente Press. Also forthcoming before Christmas is "Company",
which will be published in Supernatural Tales 16.
- The collection of short stories, Literary Remains, is now due to be published
some time in 2010.
-
- ***
-
- 1st September 2009: A perceptive review of
Bloody Baudelaire at Highlander's Book Reviews.
-
- ***
-
- 20th August: Another good review for Bloody Baudelaire at Publishers Weekly!
-
- ***
-
- 17th August: A great review from Mario Guslandi at
The Zone for Bloody
Baudelaire.
-
- ***
-
- 11th August, 2009: Bloody Baudelaire received a positive reaction
from Des Lewis in one of his real-time reviews. Strangely, the story
"Literary Remains", recently published in
Postscripts 18, is described by The Fiction Desk as having something of M.R. James
about it.
-
- ***
-
- 30th June, 2009: A perceptive review by David
Longhorn of Putting the Pieces in
Place has
just been published in Supernatural Tales 15.
-
- ***
-
- 17th June, 2009: Another great review for
Putting the Pieces in
Place just
in. This time from Andy McQuade in Gorezone.
-
- ***
-
- 28th May, 2009: A positive review for Putting the Pieces in
Place just
in from Mihai Adascalitei at Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews.
-
- ***
-
- 27th May 2009: Above is the newly released cover
artwork for Ellen Datlow's The Best Horror of the
Year,
containing "Loup-garou" from The Werewolf
Pack.
-
- ***
-
- 11th May 2009: The song "It Is There" was played
on Stuart Maconie's The
Freak Zone
yesterday evening on BBC Radio Six. The show is available online for
the next seven days here. "It Is There" is played 18 minutes and 20
seconds into the show. The song is by R.B. Russell, with vocals (and
vocal arrangement) by Lidwine, who also plays the autoharp on this
particular track.
-
- ***
-
- 10th May 2009: Many thanks to Simon Unsworth for
the appreciative review of Putting the Pieces in
Place on
his blog.
-
- ***
-
- 4th May 2009: "Literary Remains" is now available
in issue 18 of Postscripts from PS Publishing. It has to be admitted that
the interior artwork is a little disappointing.
-
- ***
-
- 24th April: "Loup-garou", which was first
published in The Werewolf
Pack in
2008, has been chosen by Ellen Datlow for her Year's Best Horror anthology, to be published later in the
year.
-
- ***
-
- 12th April: Putting the Pieces in
Place is
reviewed favourably in Rue
Morgue
magazine this month where it is described as a "superb
collection".
-
- ***
-
- 5th April: The poem "On Chaldon Down", previously
published in Staple, has been reprinted in the Powys
Society Newsletter, No 66, March 2009.
-
- ***
-
- 22nd March, 2009: A small number of reviews and
comments have been received for Putting the
Pieces in Place. The publisher, Ex Occidente, report that the first run of 400
copies has just about sold out.
-
- ***
-
- 15th March, 2009: A few pages have been created
with information about the writing of R.B. Russell. The author can be
contacted here via email
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