D. J. Swales Gothic & Other Tales
Latest Episodes
EP 10 | THE CHAINED AND THE WRETCHED | BARATANAC | Audio Fiction | 18+
The great Carthaginian ship creaks around the fearful Libyan sailor as he pauses over the grate of the slave galley. He presses his ear to the misery whispered from the lips of the chained men below, all prisoners to a dreadful fate. He listens to the bar
EP 9 | SACRIFICES FOR THE SILVER FLEET | BARATANAC | Audio Fiction | 18+
Admiral Himilco sends a Libyan sailor below deck with a message for the secretive priestess. As the tribesman negotiates his way through gloomy passageways he recalls the chilling sacrifices made to Baal to celebrate the great Silver Fleet's departure fro
EP 8 | A HELLISH MIASMA | BARATANAC | Audio Fiction | 18+
The year is 420 BC. Sixty years has passed since the Persian Emperor Xerxes defeated Spartan King Leonidas at Thermopylae. The great Silver Fleet of another unstoppable empire - Carthage - approaches the distant savage shores of Baratanac (ancient B
Witching Hour Poet EP 1: THE GLENS MOURNED
Listen in dread to this dark poem that recalls the tragic aftermath of the brutal Battle of Worcester in 1651, when the blood of thousands of dead Scottish Highlanders and Lowlanders drenched the soil of the city and turned its rivers red. Thousands more
EP 7 | POLICE REPORT AND LETTER TO THE DAMNED | BARATANAC | Horror Audio Fiction | 18+
Declan is missing and Le Papillon shows signs of violent struggle and inexplicable destruction. Vanessa, his landlady, has filed a Missing Persons Report with the Royal Barbados Police Force. The report file details the forensic evidence harvested from th
Poems and Letters for Cody EP 4: CHARRED EARTH (CAR BOMB - BELFAST ROYAL)
Poems and Letters for Cody EP 4: CHARRED EARTH (CAR BOMB - BELFAST ROYAL) This poem relates to an incident in my early childhood, when my grandmother raced to the burning wreckage of a car bomb in Belfast. She believed my mother and I had been caught in t
BARATANAC EP 6: THE WAIL OF THE GREEN MONKEY
The intricate world of Declan's past and present close in around him. A sentient smear - an ancient abomination - waits for its moment to strike, sensing it to be close. Terror builds . . . This audio drama is based on the upcoming novel BARATANAC, book
Poems and Letters for Cody EP 3: COLFAX MONA LISA
FLEETING MOMENTS ON A DECAYING DENVER STREET. LIGHTS PUNCTUATE THE HEM OF A ROCKY MOUNTAIN CLOAK - THERE LIES DENVER! BELOVED CROSSROADS-CITY TO SO MANY LIVES, PROVING THAT CROSSROADS REALLY ARE MAGICAL PLACES, LIKE THE ANCIENT ONES SAID. One of Den
BARATANAC EP 5: SALEM’S PREACHER AND A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL
Declan’s panic is blunted by a strange hypnotic state. In Barbados he is watched by an entity as he recalls events and legends in Ireland and England, including massacres and a supposed meeting with the Lord of Darkness in a Worcester woodland. Declan’s s
Witching Hour Poet EP 2: THE BUNKER (RUINS OF CORREGIDOR)
Let your skin prickle with fear and be transported to the spectral abandoned ruins of Corregidor Island - a former U.S military HQ in the Philippines. The ghosts of the Second World War still breathe on this great rock that guards Manila Bay. They dwell i