Richard L. Tierney
Encyclopedia
Richard L. Tierney is an American
writer, poet and scholar of H. P. Lovecraft
. He is the coauthor (with David C. Smith
) of a series of Red Sonja
novels, featuring cover art by Boris Vallejo
. Some of his standalone novels utilize the mythology of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos
.
, Iowa
. His family moved to Mason City
in the summer of 1942 where he went through the public school system until completing high school. Tierney read two of H.P. Lovecraft's stories (The Rats in the Walls
and The Dunwich Horror
) in the anthology Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Wise and Frazer (1949) at the age of eleven, but was not especially impressed by them since there were no conventional ghosts in the stories. A few years later, aged 15, he read Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time
in Donald A. Wollheim
's Viking Portable Novels of Science and was hooked. At around the same age (15 or 16), he was inspired to write poetry by August Derleth's fantasy verse anthology Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre
which he read several times in the Mason City Public Library. While he had been a devotee of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe
before that, he was especially inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft poems in the anthology (particularly the Fungi from Yuggoth
and also the poems by Donald Wandrei
, Robert E. Howard
, Frank Belknap Long
and others).
Tierney's first novel, The Winds of Zarr, which combined H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard
, time travel and ancient astronauts, and is set in Egypt during the New Kingdom
, was penned in 1959 when Tierney was aged 17, but did not see print until 1975.
in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in entomology and worked for many years (1958–71) for the U.S. Forest Service in several western states and Alaska. Tierney has written widely on a variety of esoteric topics, such as the legends concerning Mount Shasta
and Amne Machin
. Well versed in Meso-American archaeology
, during his time working for the Forest Service he spent four winters in Mexico
, Central and South America visiting ancient Amerind
ruins, (1962–66) photographing many of the most remote mountain and jungle sites - a background he uses in his later Cthulhu Mythos
novel The House of the Toad
(1993).
August Derleth
published some of Tierney's weird sonnets in The Arkham Collector
and Tierney also began to submit verse to fantasy/horror markets such as Nyctalops. This ultimately led to the publication of his Collected Poems (Arkham House, 1981) (see below).
Tierney lived in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was good friends with the pulp writer E. Hoffman Price
with whom he corresponded extensively. Later in the 1970s he lived for nearly nine years in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis -- St Paul), which brought him in frequent contact with horror/fantasy writers such as Carl Jacobi
and Donald Wandrei
.
In 1972, he moved to Minneapolis to take up writing as a vocation. He made his mark in Lovecraft studies at this time by authoring the essay "The Derleth Mythos", first published in 1972 in Meade and Penny Frierson's HPL (Birmingham, Al: The Editors, 1972, 1975) and reprinted in 1976 in Darrell Schweitzer's Essays Lovecraftian (Baltimore, MD: TK Graphics). The essay famously separates the ideas of Lovecraft from the later elaborations by August Derleth. Essentially, Tierney argues (correctly) that Lovecraft's cosmic outlook in his fiction was not intended to convey a "good vs evil" approach. Thus Derleth's version of the Cthulhu Mythos
, which promotes the "good vs evil" concept, is untrue to Lovecraft's fictional philosophies.
. In the seventies Tierney edited two volumes of Howard's works for publisher Donald M. Grant
-- Tigers of the Sea
(1973) and Hawks of Outremer (1979). In Tigers of the Sea the title story and The Temple of Abomination are posthumous collaborations of Tierney with Howard. In Hawks of Outremer, the story The Slave Princess is the sole posthumous collaboration by Tierney with Howard.
In 1975, Silver Scarab press published Tierney's early novel, The Winds of Zarr'.
In the late 1970s, Tierney was contacted by editor Philip Rahman (publisher of the Fedogan and Bremer line) who had read Tierney's tale "From Beyond the Stars" in Kirby McCauley's anthology Night Chills (1975), which takes place in NE Iowa. The two became friends and eventually he published Tierney's Cthulhu Mythos
novel The House of the Toad
(1993). Philip's brother, Glenn Rahman, urged Tierney to collaborate with him on The Gardens of Lucullus which eventually appeared in 2001.
..
, Tierney co-authored a series of seven novels loosely based on a Robert E. Howard character Red Sonja
(a female super-heroine warring against the Turks in 17th century Eastern Europe). Red Sonja's character was loosely based on Red Sonya (note different spelling) of Rogatino in Robert E. Howard
's short story "The Shadow of the Vulture" (The Magic Carpet, January 1934), which Roy Thomas
rewrote as a Conan
story for Marvel Comics
Conan the Barbarian #23 (1973). Thomas also somewhat based Red Sonja on another Howard character, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, a sword woman in 16th-century France. For the Red Sonja series, Tierney and Smith were paid $1,000 per book and set the stories in the Hyborian Age
, 15,000 years ago. Ace Books published the series in the early 1980s.
Simon Magus
is collected in The Scroll of Thoth (1997).
The Biblical figure of Simon Magus is a great figure in the Western mystery tradition
. A meticulous researcher, Tierney studied the Roman era and Gnosticism
for this series featuring the magician-warrior. Simon of Gitta also features in Tierney's novels The Gardens of Lucullus (with Glenn Rahman) and The Drums of Chaos.
Simon is a Samaritan ex-gladiator whose sorcerous abilities allow him to survive encounters with an array of evil priests, emperors and hideous creatures. His quest for his true love Helen drives Simon and plays an instrumental part in the tales. Some of the stories pay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, while a story such as "The Blade of the Slayer" is a tribute to Karl Edward Wagner
's tales of the swordsman Kane.Magus meets up with Shub-Niggurath
(the evil goddess), searches for the Ring of Set
, and has several other dark adventures.
The Drums of Chaos (2008) is the author's magnum opus: an epic alternate history dark fantasy
Cthulhu Mythos
novel featuring Tierney's best-known characters, Simon of Gitta and John Taggart. Set in the Holy Land during the time of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, Simon of Gitta is on mission to avenge the deaths of his parents, seeking revenge in blood against the Roman officials who committed the murders. As he travels the Holy Lands with his mentor Dositheus, and their student Menander, they become entangled in a complex plot designed to call down a monstrous alien entity to herald a new aeon on Earth. John Taggart, the time traveler from Tierney's The Winds of Zarr becomes involved with Simon of Gitta, as their separate quests converge toward a common goal of saving the very Earth.
.
Tierney is a member of the Unitarians
. He finds writing a chore but is sometimes inspired by listening to classical music or film scores. He remains married to Helen Tierney and has a son (Jeriel Tierney).
's Grandmaster Award for 2010. http://www.sfpoetry.com/grandmaster2010.html
Not included in this collection are:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writer, poet and scholar of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. He is the coauthor (with David C. Smith
David C. Smith (author)
David C. Smith, born August 10, 1952, is an American author of fantasy, horror, and suspense fiction, a medical editor, and an essayist. He is best known for his heroic fantasy novels, including his collaborations with Richard L. Tierney featuring characters created by Robert E...
) of a series of Red Sonja
Red Sonja
Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a fictional character, a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, and loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino in Robert E. Howard's 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture"...
novels, featuring cover art by Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo
Boris Vallejo is a Peruvian-born American painter. He immigrated to the United States in 1964, and he currently resides in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He frequently works with Julie Bell, his wife, painter, and model....
. Some of his standalone novels utilize the mythology of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
.
Youth
Tierney was born in SpencerSpencer, Iowa
Spencer is a city in the state of Iowa , and the county seat of Clay County . It is located at the confluence of the Little Sioux and Ocheyedan Rivers. The population was 11,233 in the 2010 census, a decline from 11,317 in the 2000 census. Spencer is famous as the home of the Clay County Fair,...
, Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
. His family moved to Mason City
Mason City, Iowa
Mason City is the county seat of Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, United States. The population was 28,079 in the 2010 census, a decline from 29,172 in the 2000 census. The Mason City Micropolitan Statistical Area includes all of Cerro Gordo and Worth counties....
in the summer of 1942 where he went through the public school system until completing high school. Tierney read two of H.P. Lovecraft's stories (The Rats in the Walls
The Rats in the Walls
"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by American author H. P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.-Plot summary:...
and The Dunwich Horror
The Dunwich Horror
"The Dunwich Horror" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written in 1928, it was first published in the April 1929 issue of Weird Tales . It takes place in Dunwich, a fictional town in Massachusetts...
) in the anthology Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural edited by Wise and Frazer (1949) at the age of eleven, but was not especially impressed by them since there were no conventional ghosts in the stories. A few years later, aged 15, he read Lovecraft's The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time
The Shadow Out of Time is a novella by Americanhorror fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft. Written between November 1934 and February 1935, it was first published in the June 1936 issue of Astounding Stories.-Plot summary:...
in Donald A. Wollheim
Donald A. Wollheim
Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction ' editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell....
's Viking Portable Novels of Science and was hooked. At around the same age (15 or 16), he was inspired to write poetry by August Derleth's fantasy verse anthology Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre
Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre
Dark of the Moon: Poems of Fantasy and the Macabre is a poetry anthology edited by August Derleth and published in 1947 by Arkham House in an edition of 2,634 copies...
which he read several times in the Mason City Public Library. While he had been a devotee of the poems of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
before that, he was especially inspired by the H.P. Lovecraft poems in the anthology (particularly the Fungi from Yuggoth
Fungi from Yuggoth
Fungi from Yuggoth is a sequence of 36 sonnets by cosmic horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. Most of the sonnets were written between 27 December 1929 – 4 January 1930; thereafter individual sonnets appeared in Weird Tales and other genre magazines...
and also the poems by Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
, Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, Frank Belknap Long
Frank Belknap Long
Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to...
and others).
Tierney's first novel, The Winds of Zarr, which combined H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, time travel and ancient astronauts, and is set in Egypt during the New Kingdom
New Kingdom
The New Kingdom of Egypt, also referred to as the Egyptian Empire is the period in ancient Egyptian history between the 16th century BC and the 11th century BC, covering the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of Egypt....
, was penned in 1959 when Tierney was aged 17, but did not see print until 1975.
Poetry and Lovecraft studies
Tierney graduated from Iowa State College in AmesAmes, Iowa
Ames is a city located in the central part of the U.S. state of Iowa in Story County, and approximately north of Des Moines. The U.S. Census Bureau designates that Ames, Iowa metropolitan statistical area as encompassing all of Story County, and which, when combined with the Boone, Iowa...
in 1961 with a bachelor's degree in entomology and worked for many years (1958–71) for the U.S. Forest Service in several western states and Alaska. Tierney has written widely on a variety of esoteric topics, such as the legends concerning Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta
Mount Shasta is located at the southern end of the Cascade Range in Siskiyou County, California and at is the second highest peak in the Cascades and the fifth highest in California...
and Amne Machin
Amne Machin
Amne Machin is the highest peak of a mountain range named Amne Machin , or, in Chinese,Animaqing Shan in the province of Qinghai in west-central China.-Geography:...
. Well versed in Meso-American archaeology
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
, during his time working for the Forest Service he spent four winters in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, Central and South America visiting ancient Amerind
Amerind
Amerind may refer to:* Amerind peoples, neologism for Indigenous peoples of the Americas* Amerind Foundation, a non-profit, museum and archaeological research facility* Amerind languages, putative higher-level language family...
ruins, (1962–66) photographing many of the most remote mountain and jungle sites - a background he uses in his later Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
novel The House of the Toad
The House of the Toad
The House of the Toad is a Cthulhu Mythos horror novel by author Richard L. Tierney. It was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 1993 in an edition of 1,050 copies of which 100 were numbered and signed by the author and illustrator.-Plot :...
(1993).
August Derleth
August Derleth
August William Derleth was an American writer and anthologist. Though best remembered as the first publisher of the writings of H. P...
published some of Tierney's weird sonnets in The Arkham Collector
The Arkham Collector
The Arkham Collector was an American fantasy, horror fiction and poetry magazine first published in Summer 1967. The magazine, edited by August Derleth, was the second of two magazines published by Arkham House...
and Tierney also began to submit verse to fantasy/horror markets such as Nyctalops. This ultimately led to the publication of his Collected Poems (Arkham House, 1981) (see below).
Tierney lived in the San Francisco Bay area in the late 1960s and early 1970s and was good friends with the pulp writer E. Hoffman Price
E. Hoffman Price
Edgar Hoffmann Trooper Price was an American writer of popular fiction for the pulp magazine marketplace. He collaborated with H. P...
with whom he corresponded extensively. Later in the 1970s he lived for nearly nine years in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis -- St Paul), which brought him in frequent contact with horror/fantasy writers such as Carl Jacobi
Carl Richard Jacobi
Carl Richard Jacobi was an American author. He wrote short stories in the horror, fantasy, science fiction and crime genres for the pulp magazine market.-Biography:...
and Donald Wandrei
Donald Wandrei
Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
.
In 1972, he moved to Minneapolis to take up writing as a vocation. He made his mark in Lovecraft studies at this time by authoring the essay "The Derleth Mythos", first published in 1972 in Meade and Penny Frierson's HPL (Birmingham, Al: The Editors, 1972, 1975) and reprinted in 1976 in Darrell Schweitzer's Essays Lovecraftian (Baltimore, MD: TK Graphics). The essay famously separates the ideas of Lovecraft from the later elaborations by August Derleth. Essentially, Tierney argues (correctly) that Lovecraft's cosmic outlook in his fiction was not intended to convey a "good vs evil" approach. Thus Derleth's version of the Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
, which promotes the "good vs evil" concept, is untrue to Lovecraft's fictional philosophies.
Robert E. Howard completions
Tierney has completed several story fragments left by Robert E. HowardRobert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
. In the seventies Tierney edited two volumes of Howard's works for publisher Donald M. Grant
Donald M. Grant
Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. is a fantasy and science fiction small press publisher in New Hampshire that was founded in 1964. It is notable for publishing fantasy and horror novels with lavish illustrations, most notably Stephen King's The Dark Tower series and the King/Peter Straub novel The...
-- Tigers of the Sea
Tigers of the Sea
Tigers of the Sea is a collection of fantasy short stories by Robert E. Howard about the pirate Cormac Mac Art, a Gael who leads a band of Vikings during the reign of the mythical King Arthur. It was first published in 1973 by Donald M. Grant, Publisher, Inc. in an edition of 3,400 copies. The...
(1973) and Hawks of Outremer (1979). In Tigers of the Sea the title story and The Temple of Abomination are posthumous collaborations of Tierney with Howard. In Hawks of Outremer, the story The Slave Princess is the sole posthumous collaboration by Tierney with Howard.
In 1975, Silver Scarab press published Tierney's early novel, The Winds of Zarr'.
In the late 1970s, Tierney was contacted by editor Philip Rahman (publisher of the Fedogan and Bremer line) who had read Tierney's tale "From Beyond the Stars" in Kirby McCauley's anthology Night Chills (1975), which takes place in NE Iowa. The two became friends and eventually he published Tierney's Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
novel The House of the Toad
The House of the Toad
The House of the Toad is a Cthulhu Mythos horror novel by author Richard L. Tierney. It was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 1993 in an edition of 1,050 copies of which 100 were numbered and signed by the author and illustrator.-Plot :...
(1993). Philip's brother, Glenn Rahman, urged Tierney to collaborate with him on The Gardens of Lucullus which eventually appeared in 2001.
Later career - 1980's to 21st century
In 1981, he returned to Mason City to take care of his mother, Margaret, now deceased. The same year Arkham House published his volume of weird verse, Collected Poems, a volume which critic S.T. Joshi has said "established Tierney as one of the leading weird poets of his generation." Joshi has commented that some of the poems feature the misanthropic bitterness of Ambrose BierceAmbrose Bierce
Ambrose Gwinnett Bierce was an American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabulist and satirist...
..
Red Sonja series
For Ace Books, with his frequent collaborator David C. SmithDavid C. Smith (author)
David C. Smith, born August 10, 1952, is an American author of fantasy, horror, and suspense fiction, a medical editor, and an essayist. He is best known for his heroic fantasy novels, including his collaborations with Richard L. Tierney featuring characters created by Robert E...
, Tierney co-authored a series of seven novels loosely based on a Robert E. Howard character Red Sonja
Red Sonja
Red Sonja, the She-Devil with a Sword, is a fictional character, a high fantasy sword and sorcery heroine created by Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor-Smith, and loosely based on Red Sonya of Rogatino in Robert E. Howard's 1934 short story "The Shadow of the Vulture"...
(a female super-heroine warring against the Turks in 17th century Eastern Europe). Red Sonja's character was loosely based on Red Sonya (note different spelling) of Rogatino in Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
's short story "The Shadow of the Vulture" (The Magic Carpet, January 1934), which Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
rewrote as a Conan
Conan
-People:* Conan O'Brien , American talk show host* Saint Conan , bishop of the Isle of Man* Conan I of Rennes , king of Brittany* Conan of Cornwall , medieval bishop...
story for Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
Conan the Barbarian #23 (1973). Thomas also somewhat based Red Sonja on another Howard character, Dark Agnes de Chastillon, a sword woman in 16th-century France. For the Red Sonja series, Tierney and Smith were paid $1,000 per book and set the stories in the Hyborian Age
Hyborian Age
The Hyborian Age is a fictional period within the artificial mythology created by Robert E. Howard, in which the sword and sorcery tales of Conan the Barbarian are set....
, 15,000 years ago. Ace Books published the series in the early 1980s.
Simon Magus/Simon of Gitta series
A long-running series of stories (begun in the mid-1980s) by Tierney featuring Simon of Gitta, a character based on the Gnostic heresiarchHeresiarch
A heresiarch is a founder or leader of a heretical doctrine or movement, as considered by those who claim to maintain an orthodox religious tradition or doctrine...
Simon Magus
Simon Magus
Simon the Sorcerer or Simon the Magician, in Latin Simon Magus, was a Samaritan magus or religious figure and a convert to Christianity, baptised by Philip the Apostle, whose later confrontation with Peter is recorded in . The sin of simony, or paying for position and influence in the church, is...
is collected in The Scroll of Thoth (1997).
The Biblical figure of Simon Magus is a great figure in the Western mystery tradition
Western mystery tradition
Western esotericism or Hermeticism is a broad spectrum of spiritual traditions found in Western society, or refers to the collection of the mystical, esoteric knowledge of the Western world...
. A meticulous researcher, Tierney studied the Roman era and Gnosticism
Gnosticism
Gnosticism is a scholarly term for a set of religious beliefs and spiritual practices common to early Christianity, Hellenistic Judaism, Greco-Roman mystery religions, Zoroastrianism , and Neoplatonism.A common characteristic of some of these groups was the teaching that the realisation of Gnosis...
for this series featuring the magician-warrior. Simon of Gitta also features in Tierney's novels The Gardens of Lucullus (with Glenn Rahman) and The Drums of Chaos.
Simon is a Samaritan ex-gladiator whose sorcerous abilities allow him to survive encounters with an array of evil priests, emperors and hideous creatures. His quest for his true love Helen drives Simon and plays an instrumental part in the tales. Some of the stories pay tribute to H.P. Lovecraft, while a story such as "The Blade of the Slayer" is a tribute to Karl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner
Karl Edward Wagner was an American writer, editor and publisher of horror, science fiction, and heroic fantasy, who was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and originally trained as a psychiatrist. His disillusionment with the medical profession can be seen in the stories "The Fourth Seal" and "Into...
's tales of the swordsman Kane.Magus meets up with Shub-Niggurath
Shub-Niggurath
Shub-Niggurath, often associated with the phrase “The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young”, is a deity in the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft...
(the evil goddess), searches for the Ring of Set
Set
A set is a collection of well defined and distinct objects, considered as an object in its own right. Sets are one of the most fundamental concepts in mathematics. Developed at the end of the 19th century, set theory is now a ubiquitous part of mathematics, and can be used as a foundation from...
, and has several other dark adventures.
The Drums of Chaos (2008) is the author's magnum opus: an epic alternate history dark fantasy
Dark fantasy
Dark fantasy is a term used to describe a fantasy story with a pronounced horror element.-Overview:A strict definition for dark fantasy is difficult to pin down. Gertrude Barrows Bennett has been called "the woman who invented dark fantasy". Both Charles L...
Cthulhu Mythos
Cthulhu Mythos
The Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
novel featuring Tierney's best-known characters, Simon of Gitta and John Taggart. Set in the Holy Land during the time of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth, Simon of Gitta is on mission to avenge the deaths of his parents, seeking revenge in blood against the Roman officials who committed the murders. As he travels the Holy Lands with his mentor Dositheus, and their student Menander, they become entangled in a complex plot designed to call down a monstrous alien entity to herald a new aeon on Earth. John Taggart, the time traveler from Tierney's The Winds of Zarr becomes involved with Simon of Gitta, as their separate quests converge toward a common goal of saving the very Earth.
Recent work
Tierney has continued to publish weird verse, with the volume Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror (2010) collecting all his verse subsequent to Collected Poems. He has recently collaborated on verse with poets including Charles Lovecraft and Leigh BlackmoreLeigh Blackmore
Leigh David Blackmore is an Australian horror writer, critic, editor, occultist and musician. He served as the second President of the Australian Horror Writers Association . His work has been nominated twice for the Ditmar Award, once for fiction and once for criticism...
.
Tierney is a member of the Unitarians
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....
. He finds writing a chore but is sometimes inspired by listening to classical music or film scores. He remains married to Helen Tierney and has a son (Jeriel Tierney).
Awards
Tierney was nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry AssociationScience Fiction Poetry Association
The Science Fiction Poetry Association was established in 1978 by Suzette Haden Elgin to bring together poets and readers interested in science fiction poetry. The organization administers the Rhysling Award and publishes the journal Star*Line, as well as providing market listings and industry news...
's Grandmaster Award for 2010. http://www.sfpoetry.com/grandmaster2010.html
Standalone Novels
- The Winds of Zarr (Silver Scarab Press, 1975)
- For The Witch Of The Mists (Ace Books, 1978), with David C. SmithDavid C. Smith (author)David C. Smith, born August 10, 1952, is an American author of fantasy, horror, and suspense fiction, a medical editor, and an essayist. He is best known for his heroic fantasy novels, including his collaborations with Richard L. Tierney featuring characters created by Robert E...
, featuring Bran Mak MornBran Mak MornBran Mak Morn is a hero of several pulp fiction short stories by Robert E. Howard. In the stories, most of which were first published in Weird Tales, Bran is the last king of Howard's romanticized version of the tribal race of Picts....
. - The House of the ToadThe House of the ToadThe House of the Toad is a Cthulhu Mythos horror novel by author Richard L. Tierney. It was published by Fedogan & Bremer in 1993 in an edition of 1,050 copies of which 100 were numbered and signed by the author and illustrator.-Plot :...
(Fedogan and Bremer, 1993)
Red Sonja series (with David C. Smith)
- #1 The Ring of Ikribu (Ace 1981) (Adapted to comics by Roy ThomasRoy ThomasRoy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and Esteban MarotoEsteban Maroto- Career :Born in Madrid, he began his career in the 1960s with series like Cinco por infinito, published in English by Continuity Comics as "Zero Patrol" ....
in The Savage Sword of Conan issues 230-3) - #2 Demon Night (Ace 1982)
- #3 When Hell Laughs (Ace 1982)
- #4 Endithor's Daughter (Ace 1982)
- #5 Against the Prince of Hell (Ace 1983)
- #6 Star of Doom (Ace 1983)
Simon of Gitta series
- Scroll of Thoth: Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones (Chaosium, 1997) collects all 12 Simon Magus stories solely written by Richard L. Tierney. A partial list of original publication locations and dates is on-line at the Crypt of CthulhuCrypt of CthulhuCrypt of Cthulhu was a fanzine devoted to the writings of H. P. Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos. It was published as part of the Esoteric Order of Dagon mailing lists for a short time, and was formally established in 1981 by Robert M...
archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070927231649/http://www.clare.ltd.new.net/cryptofcthulhu/simongitta.htm.
Not included in this collection are:
- The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog (Crypt of Cthulhu #29, 1985), with Glenn Rahman. Available on-line from the Crypt of Cthulhu archive http://web.archive.org/web/20070927231708/http://www.clare.ltd.new.net/cryptofcthulhu/wedding.htm.
- The Throne of Achamoth (Weirdbook #21, 1985), with Robert M. PriceRobert M. PriceRobert McNair Price is an American theologian and writer. He teaches philosophy and religion at the Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, is professor of biblical criticism at the Center for Inquiry Institute, and the author of a number of books on theology and the historicity of Jesus, including...
. Republished in 1995 in The Azathoth Cycle.
- The Gardens of Lucullus (Sidecar Preservation Society, 2001), (with Glenn Rahman).
- The Drums of Chaos (Mythos Books, 2008).
Short stories
- Tigers Of The Sea (Zebra Books, 1975), with Robert E. HowardRobert E. HowardRobert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
(posthumous collaboration), featuring Cormac Mac Art. Tierney also includes Cthulhu MythosCthulhu MythosThe Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
elements in this work.
Poetry
- Collected Poems: Nightmares and VisionsCollected Poems (Richard L. Tierney)Collected Poems is a collection of poems by Richard L. Tierney. It was released in 1981 by Arkham House in an edition of 1,030 copies. The book is illustrated by Jason Van Hollander...
(Arkham House, 1981) (an earlier version of this collection appeared as Dreams and Damnations (Madison, WI: The Strange Co., 1975). Pp. 82. - The Blob That Gobbled Abdul and Other Poems and Songs (Mason City: Sidecar Preservation Society, 2000, rpt 2002). Limited to 100, and 50 numbered copies. Intro by Ramsey CampbellRamsey CampbellJohn Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T...
. Pp. 20, and 24. - Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror (P'rea Press, 2010). Preface by S.T. Joshi. Illustrated by Andrew J McKiernanAndrew J McKiernanAndrew J McKiernan is an Australian speculative fiction writer and Illustrator. He currently lives on the Central Coast with his wife and two children....
. Pp. 132. ISBN 978-0-9804625-5-5.