Brian J. Showers.com

	Longsword, Earl of Salisbury, by eighteenth century Dublin-born clergyman Thomas Leland, is a fast-paced historical romance of medieval menace and high excitement. Set in the early years of the thirteenth century, it features a blend of real and created characters in a mêlée of intrigue, corruption, lust, and revenge. In part a metaphor for the tug-of-war between the sexes, Longsword is the definitive precursor to the Gothic novel; both in trappings and in style, it provides vital elements of prototype for Walpole's The Castle of Otranto and Lewis's The Monk. Through Longsword, Leland emerges as a forerunner of fellow Dublin clergyman Charles Robert Maturin, author of Melmoth the Wanderer. This 250th anniversary edition is edited and introduced by Albert Power. More... >>> Join The Swan River Press on Facebook for updates. >>> Independent Publishing Magazine's interview. >>> Bibliomancy's interview with The Swan River Press.
	Newsletter: February 2011. The year 2012 marks the centenary of the death of Bram Stoker. He died in London on 20 April 1912. Several events are being planned. Below is a list of current tentative plans. New information will be added as it becomes available. More...
	Irish writer Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) is one of the leading weird writers of the nineteenth century, the author of "Green Tea", "Carmilla", Uncle Silas, and other classic works. In this volume, the first collection of essays about Le Fanu, three distringuished scholars have amassed a welath of material o every aspect of the author's life, work, and influence. A biographical section features memoirs of Le Fanu along with reproductions of many portraits of the author. Early reviews of his many books are reprinted, as is important early criticism by M.R. James, E.F. Benson, V.S. Pritchett, and others. Recent essays by Jack Sullivan, John Langan, Victor Sage, and many others discuss a wide array of topics relating to Le Fanu's writing. Nine of these essays are printed here for the first time. All in all, this book provides a definitive guide to the weird fiction of Le Fanu. More... >>> Nominated for the 2011 Bram Stoker Award.
	Set in the same haunted neighbourhood as the stories in the award-winning collection The Bleeding Horse, Showers’s new novella, Old Albert — An Epilogue, continues with the idea that not all is well in the leafy Victorian suburb of Rathmines, Dublin. The place is Larkhill House, and during its century and a half of existence it has hosted an array of peculiar tenants: the reclusive though brilliant ornithologist Ellis Grimwood; a murderous wine merchant and his young wife; and the Sacred Order of the Mysteries of Thoth, who re-christened Larkhill the "New Temple of Abtiti" and practised there their outlandish and mystical rites. After vacating Larkhill, these individuals—all of them—left something of themselves behind. More...
	In the spirit of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's "Ghost Stories of Chapelizod", Brian J. Showers' The Bleeding Horse and Other Ghost Stories infests his own Dublin neighbourhood with an authentic population of ghosts, ghouls, and goblins. Showers has filled each story with fascinating regional history, local atmosphere, and architectural details that are clearly visible today. While this gives the stories a factual flavour, the supernatural elements are entirely fictional. The result is a realistic and shadow-filled portrait of a modern neighbourhood, written in the traditional style of the classic literary ghost story. More... >>> Speculative Fiction Junkie's Top Five Reads of 2010. >>> Winner of the 2008 Children of the Night Award. >>> Read Nightmare Revue's interview.