Prior to this post, you’ll notice a proliferation of double posts that were simultaneously shared on both the Mythic Delirium site and this one. That’s because my home blog here had a functional “simulpost to Twitter” feature, which doesn’t work anymore because of Elon Musk-driven changes to Twitter. Alas, so it goes.

(You’ll notice a lot of the graphics I produce now are square. That’s to make them compatible with my new-ish Instagram account, which maybe some year I will get the hang of using….)

But another reason for this has been because 2023 marks the 25th anniversary of the existence of Mythic Delirium, and I’ve spend the first half of the year focused most on the three projects I took on that were intended to coincide with the anniversary celebration: The Twice-Drowned Saint by C. S. E. Cooney, The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss, and Like Smoke, Like Light by Yukimi Ogawa. I still have a lot to do to promote these projects, but the labor involved in making them exist — executed in the time left over from starting a whole new career — has largely been completed. It seems to have become the norm that we no longer assume an understanding on the part of the reader that creators automatically, implicitly, enthusiastically endorse their own projects just by talking about them, SO, let me make an explicit endorsement: all three of this books are absolutely amazing and you need to buy copies ASAP.

That’s what I’ve been up to as a publisher. As a writer, I have also been up to things, lots of things, and as has become my standard, devoting time to doing the things keeps me from documenting them here, until a window opens up, as it has today.

Therefore, a whirlwind of roundups:

StokerCon

Anita and I will make our first ever appearances at a StokerCon this month. My simple but elegant schedule includes a short reading, participation in a mass signing, and speaking on a high-powered panel about the horror industry, which Anita will moderate! Find details in the graphic below.

Worth noting: Claire Cooney will also be present at StokerCon, a first for her as well. Mythic Delirium will not bring our full dog-and-pony show to this new turf, but our friends at Raw Dog Screaming Press have graciously agreed to carry The Twice-Drowned Saint and Yukimi’s Like Smoke, Like Light at their dealers room table, so we’ll at least have a (severed) toehold.

At the signing, I expect to have copies of Unseaming, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident — the first time these Shirley Jackson Award-nominated books of mine have ever appeared at a horror convention*, if you can believe it — my novel The Black Fire Concerto, and perhaps some surprises.

For the reading, I plan to read two flash pieces: first, the story/poem/essay that opens Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, “Six Waking Nightmares Poe Gave Me in Third Grade”; second, Anita and I together will recite “Good to the Last Drop” (see below for what that is).

*Unseaming has been sold at the Outer Dark Symposium, but they eschew the label “horror.”

New fiction

My newest published stories turn out to be a couple of motion picture homages, who would have thought?

Good to the Last Drop

Not long after the release of Hulu’s Hellraiser, a movie Anita and I enjoyed a lot despite its flaws, she suggested a hilarious idea for a tribute/parody that captured my imagination. The result was “Good to the Last Drop.” Anita and I have worked on many creative projects together, including anthologies and poems, but in my 31 years of writing and our 31 years of marriage, this is our first short story composed as a couple.

And now you can listen to it, in a delightful reading by R.B. Wood on his Sudden Fictions Podcast. Click the graphic to go there.

The Green Silence

Scott Dwyer’s Plutonian Press has certainly earned my gratitude; this intriguing, edgy micropress has proven to be a major supporter of my short fiction in recent years; I have a story in every anthology Plutonian has published, including the latest, The Pinworm Factory, assembled as a tribute to David Lynch’s near-unclassifiable debut Eraserhead.

My story, “The Green Silence,” riffs on some of that film’s visual themes; it’s as surreal and nasty as the anthology’s title. (Rather on the opposite end of the spectrum from the gentle (by comparison) story Anita and I wrote together.)

Slow Burn

Since this story came out in March, I suppose I can’t quite call it new, but I haven’t yet shared my delightfully warped contributor copy of Cosmic Horror Monthly in this space, so here is that:

Slow Burn could be a really cool name for a collection of horror tales, doncha think?
 

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Appearances, Mythic Delirium, Short stories, The Black Fire Concerto, Unseaming, Writing

As we begin the fourth month of Mythic Delirium’s 25th anniversary year, I’m thrilled to share that the third of the three new books promised for this occasion is now available for pre-order: Like Smoke, Like Light, the debut collection of short fiction by Yukimi Ogawa.

I’m also thrilled to once again be working with paper artist Paula Arwen Owen, who has been a part of our extended family since the days when Mythic Delirium was a biannual poetry zine and a sister publication to Weird Tales. Beyond these brilliant covers and deft reflections of Ogawa’s blurring of genre boundaries, this art will reward those who can heft the book in their hands and savor every hidden detail.

“Her work is unexpected, often horrific, and always enthralling. Weaving Japanese folklore in with the new, the weird, and science fiction horror elements, Ogawa’s body of work is prolific and evergreen.”
—Thea James, Tor.com

The book official comes out June 20, but you can purchase it now — any links shared here that are not active yet soon will be.

Cover art by Paula Arwen Owen

Pre-order now!

 

 

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Editing, Mythic Delirium, Signal boosts

The dual launch for The Twice-Drowned Saint by C.S.E. Cooney and The Collected Enchantments went really well for Anita and I, despite not having a lot of time to get ready for Boskone thanks to accumulated real-world obligations. It was great to revisit our friends in Boston and touch base, if fleetingly, with people we’ve not seen in person in far too long.

There will be much more to share about those books and other projects tied into the 25th anniversary of Mythic Delirium in the near future. For now, though, I want to highlight something that feels both long-expected and unexpected: a new short story by me out there in the world.

I’m so excited to return this month to the pages of Cosmic Horror Monthly. Last April, they gave a home to my “Matres Lachrymarum,” and enabled one of the best fab reactions to a new tale that I’ve received in many a moon.

The even newer new tale they’ve premiered is called “Slow Burn,” a tongue-in-cheek (or tongue-ripped-out-of-mouth) title if I’ve ever come up with one. Like “Matres,” it’s contaminated with a Lovecraftian strain, and though “Slow Burn” is not set in the same quantum universe as “Matres,” it does tie into previous stories I have written.

“Slow Burn” brings back two of my recurring characters: John Hairston, introduced in “The Sun Saw,” brought back in “Nolens Volens,” sent off on an incendiary adventure in “The Comforter”; and Aaron Friedrich, name dropped in “Gutter” and fully introduced as Hairston’s bewildered traveling companion in “The Comforter.”

Deep cut bonus: if you’ve read “The Sun Saw” and “Nolens Volens,” either in the anthologies they were originally solicited for or in my collection Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, some (though not all) of the loose ends from those prior stories reach an end in “Slow Burn.”

I’m super-grateful to Charles Tyra and Carson Winter for letting me crawl back into their lair.

Other books in which Aaron Friedrich and John Hairston appear…

I’m also grateful, in the meantime, to Selina Lovett of Annie’s Book Stop of Worcester, who asked me at Boskone if I’d be up for a video interview via Zoom and followed through in short order.

The interview focuses on twenty-five years of Mythic Delirium and my interests as an editor and publisher, but lingers a bit on my fiction writing, too. As you can see from the collage of stills below, a significant aspect of the chat involves holding book covers close to a webcam. If listening to me talk about my creative life for an hour sounds like a nice way to while away some time, click on the image below to give the interview a watch.

Click to watch the Annie’s Book Stop interview!

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Appearances, Fiction, Short stories, Writing

With everything I’ve had going on — starting a new career, readying a celebration of my little publishing company’s 25th anniversary, it’s nice to be reminded that I’m a writer, as well. In that spirit, I’m pleased to announce two new short story sales (that I’ve known of for a little while, but haven’t had clearance to share until very recently.)

The big event, obviously, is the launch of two new Mythic Delirium Books by Theodora Goss and C.S.E. Cooney at Boskone this coming weekend, Friday, February 17 through Sunday, February. Anita and I will will be running a Mythic Delirium Books table in the dealer’s room and there will be events tied to Mythic Delirium, marked thusly. But that’s not all I will be up to! Here is the full timeline of my future mischief:

My Boskone Schedule

Friday

7:00 PM: Murder, Mystery, and Mayhem in Film & TV. Mike Allen, moderator. Nicholas Kaufmann, John Langan, Toni L.P. Kelner, Stephan Ward. Gritty, grim fiction and suspense fiction are natural bedfellows. What is it about their synergy that works so well, especially in video and film? How do you walk the line between mystery and suspense when there are monsters tearing their way through the plot? And how do the tropes within dark fantasy, science, and horror help generate or amplify those nail-biting moments that keep viewers from looking away from the screen during those moments of do or die?

8:30 PM, VIRTUAL: Genre Cross-Fertilization. Kaitlin Nichols, moderator. L.S. Johnson, Tlotlo Tsamaase, Mike Allen, Faye Ringel. Some writers work in more than one genre: not just crossing the boundaries of speculative fiction, but dabbling in mystery, romance, westerns, mainstream literature or nonfiction. Does working in one area influence the way they write in another? Some writers also cross genres in the same work. When they do so, do they expose the readers of each genre to the other, or reduce their readership to those who love both? Are there mixes that work well? Are there others that don’t?

Saturday

4:00 PM. Casting Your Lot with Shirley Jackson. Gillian Daniels, moderator. F. Brett Cox, Chris Panatier, Katherine Burdine, Mike Allen. From “The Lottery” to The Haunting of Hill House, Shirley Jackson has inspired writers inside and outside of the horror genre and in the process, shaped the genre. We look at how she turns ordinary moments into extraordinary fiction. What more is there to her work and her legacy? Does she continue to inspire and shape horror today?

5:30 PM. Boskone Book Party/Autographing. Mike Allen, C. S. E. Cooney, Theodora Goss, Dana Cameron, Michael Green, Andrea Hairston, Laurie Mann, Steve Miller, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Annalee Newitz, Cat Scully, Jane Yolen. Come join the fun at Boskone 60’s Book Party. You’ll meet the authors and publishers who have new books coming out at the con! This is your chance to see what’s new from writers you already love, as well as those you have yet to discover.

Sunday

11:30 AM: Group Reading: Mythic Delirium Books. Mike Allen, moderator. C. S. E. Cooney, Theodora Goss. Our group reading will feature three readers from Mythic Delirium Books who will each read from one of their published or in-process works. They will also host an author Q&A as time permits.

1:00 PM: Horror and the Happy Ending. Mike Allen, moderator. Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert, Zin E. Rocklyn, Bracken N MacLeod, Errick Nunnally. Horror hurts. It bleeds. It keeps us coming back, desperate to know more in the vain hope that the characters might be able to turn things around and survive. Even with the dark and dangerous stories we tell, read, and watch, part of us yearns for a peaceful resolution. While not all endings are horrific, is it horror if it has a happy ending? And what qualifies as “happy” when dealing with horror?

If you don’t want to wade through all that detail, here is the short version of my schedule:

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Appearances, Short stories

And now, debut day has arrived for Theodora Goss’s new collection The Collected Enchantments, the second release of Mythic Delirium’s 25th anniversary celebration! (Read more about the first, novel The Twice-Drowned Saint by C. S. E. Cooney, here.)

Photo by Anita Allen.

As of today, both The Collected Enchantments and The Twice-Drowned Saint are available everywhere books are sold. If your local store or library doesn’t have them, consider asking them to acquire copies.

To reiterate: Mythic Delirium will have a presence at Boskone 60 from Feb. 17-19, and if you want to get a signed copy, that’s the place to be. Anita and I will be manning a table in the dealer’s room, and authors C. S. E. Cooney and Theodora Goss will be present for a book party Saturday the 18th at 5:30 p.m. and group reading Sunday the 19th at 11:30 a.m. (Click here to see my schedule; click here to see Claire’s schedule; click here to see Dora’s schedule.)

Here is the full schedule of Mythic Delirium-related events:

Saturday

5:30 PM. Boskone Book Party/Autographing. Mike Allen, C. S. E. Cooney, Theodora Goss, Dana Cameron, Michael Green, Andrea Hairston, Laurie Mann, Steve Miller, Yvette Lisa Ndlovu, Annalee Newitz, Cat Scully, Jane Yolen. Come join the fun at Boskone 60’s Book Party. You’ll meet the authors and publishers who have new books coming out at the con! This is your chance to see what’s new from writers you already love, as well as those you have yet to discover.

Sunday

11:30 AM: Group Reading: Mythic Delirium Books. Mike Allen, moderator. C. S. E. Cooney, Theodora Goss. Our group reading will feature three readers from Mythic Delirium Books who will each read from one of their published or in-process works. They will also host an author Q&A as time permits.

We hope to see you there, but in case you can’t make it (or even if you can) here’s a bit of extra to make up for not getting to hang out with us in person right this moment:

Q: What does it mean to you to have this comprehensive overview of your short fiction and poetry available for readers?

“I loved putting this book together so much. I write all sorts of things, but at heart I’m a fantasy writer, in both prose and poetry–and this collection brings together what I think are the best fantastical short stories I’ve written, as well as the best fantastical poetry, since I started writing professionally. I don’t know, I hope I picked the right stories, but these are my favorites and I’m so glad that I could bring them together into one manuscript, where they could curl up next to one another, whisper to one another—princesses and goose girls, bears and dragons, ogres and poets and witches and all the denizens of fantasy, including the ordinary people who wander there and are usually not so ordinary after all.”

Q: What makes you decide to approach folk and fairy tale themes in prose and what makes you choose poetry?

Q: What are you doing now and what do you have coming up?

Buy The Collected Enchantments now!

As we prepare for the official in-person launch party at Boskone for The Twice-Drowned Saint by C. S. E. Cooney and The Collected Enchantments by Theodora Goss, it’s been gratifying to see both books get nice notices.

From book blogger Sia at Every Book a Doorway, a stunningly lovely and fun review of The Twice-Drowned Saint:

 
Cooney routinely leaves me speechless, and The Twice-Drowned Saint is no exception — despite having read it twice, I have no idea how to describe, never mind explain, this brilliantly, beautifully bizarre little novel, with its properly unbiblical angels, a possessed police-force, and a sacred cinema of silent, black-and-white movies! What am I supposed to say???

I loved it. Obviously.
 

In The Fairy Tale Magazine, reviewer Kelly Jarvis has kind words to share about The Collected Enchantments:

 
In her introduction, Goss reveals that it “took a long time . . . to become a writer. I’m still working on the sorceress part.” Her beautiful collection, part writing and part magic, proves that she has become both.

The Collected Enchantments is an essential read for all who love fairy tales, fantasy, witchcraft, and magic
 

The Collected Enchantments also made the Book Riot list of “11 Speculative Short Story Collections to Look Forward to in 2023.”

So, so busy, but more to share soon!

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Reviews

Debut day has arrived for C. S. E. Cooney’s new novel The Twice-Drowned Saint, our first release of Mythic Delirium’s 25th anniversary celebration!

Photo by Anita Allen. Notice the kitty at the top.

So yes, as of today, The Twice-Drowned Saint is available everywhere books are sold. And if your local store doesn’t have it, ask them to carry it, because they totally can.

Mythic Delirium will have a presence at Boskone 60 from Feb. 17-19, and if you want to get a signed copy, that’s the place to be. Anita and I will be manning a table in the dealer’s room, and authors C. S. E. Cooney and Theodora Goss will be present for a book party Saturday the 18th at 5:30 p.m. and group reading Sunday the 19th at 11:30 a.m. (Click here to see my schedule; click here to see Claire’s schedule; click here to see Dora’s schedule.)

We hope to see you there, but in case you can’t make it (or even if you can) here’s a bit of extra to make up for not getting to hang out with us in person right this moment:

Q: What does it mean to you to have The Twice-Drowned Saint available as a standalone novel?

“Well, first of all and most stunningly, the standalone novel has new cover art by Lasse Paldanius—as well as a series of internal illustrations at the beginning of each chapter that are brutal and beautiful glimpses into the fifteen angels’ personalities—and the chapter itself. Second of all, this new edition gave me a chance to do what we writers rarely get to do after a work is published: revise it again! Every time I have a chance to comb over a draft, I feel better about it; this book is a better book, even if the changes are all so small only I will ever notice them.”

Q: What connections might there be (spoiler-free as best you can) to your “major label debut novel,” Saint Death’s Daughter?

Q: What have you got going on and coming up?

Buy The Twice-Drowned Saint now!

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Editing, Interviews, Mythic Delirium

Here at Mythic Delirium, we were delighted to learn that C. S. E. Cooney’s glorious collection Dark Breakers, a delightful blend of Gilded Age glitz, eldritch parallel worlds and majestic sorcery, has landed on the newest Locus Magazine Recommended Reading List in the Best Collection category.

Congratulations to Claire Cooney! (Her novel Saint Death’s Daughter also made the list.)

This wonderful news arrives exactly a week before we launch Cooney’s newest novel, The Twice-Drowned Saint, into the world.

And yet, a curious book-ending effect is at hand, as before The Twice-Drowned Saint was a standalone novel, it was the first long-form story in our anthology A Sinister Quartet; nearly a year to the day before the February 2022 release of Dark Breakers, Locus Magazine announced the inclusion of The Twice-Drowned Saint on its Recommended Reading List looking back on 2020, this time in the category of Best First Novel. (The story was originally intended as a novella, but “the tale grew in the telling,” as J.R.R. Tolkien famously wrote about The Lord of the Rings.)

So clearly, we had to mark this occasion in some fashion. Here’s what we came up with on short notice. From now through the official Feb. 7 debut date of The Twice-Drowned Saint, and likely for several days after; we’re offering a two-for-one e-book deal: pay half-price (($7 + $6)/2=$7.50) and get both, in the format of your choice, delivered to your inbox.

Let’s get this party started.

Posted in Mythic Delirium, Signal boosts

Next month (at Boskone!) Mythic Delirium Books will launch career-defining story collection The Collected Enchantments from Theodora Goss and mind-blowing novel The Twice-Drowned Saint from C.S.E. Cooney. And we note: if you can’t make it to Boston the weekend after Valentine’s Day, pre-order links are live for both The Twice-Drowned Saint and The Collected Enchantments.

Not to mention, if you can’t make it to the Boskone reading in person, we’re having a virtual one! It takes place Saturday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. EST. Assistant editor Sydney Macias will be joining me as co-host, Claire Cooney and Dora Goss will read from their books, artist Paula Arwen Owen of Arwen Designs, who created the interior illustrations for Collected Enchantments, will speak about her unique process, and we may have more guests to add before the show starts.

To attend this event, you must pre-register at the EventBrite page. Click on the banner to go there.

Posted in 25th anniversary Mythic Delirium, Appearances, Editing, Mythic Delirium, Signal boosts

By far the biggest change to my career as a writer this past year was my departure from The Roanoke Times after 24 years, to start a new career at Virginia Tech as a media relations officer working in the university’s central communications and marketing office. I’ve often joked that working for the newspaper was “my only adult job.” Now, at 53, I’ve started a second one.

I started in 1998 as an editorial assistant, became a part-time night cops reporter, then a full-time beat reporter. I first had a county news beat; then I became the reporter who covered court cases and legal issues. In 2009, I became the paper’s arts columnist, which was something of a dream job, the sort of position I knew was becoming extremely rare in U.S. print journalism. I was paid an hourly wage to visit museum exhibitions and theater rehearsals, then go back to the office and write about them — I got to do that for more than a decade.

I continued to be the arts columnists as the company’s accelerating issues with staffing (and yes, the newspaper industry is increasingly obsolete, but I blame a series of terrible decisions by corporate owners for making these problems much worse than they had to be) resulted in county beats being added back to my roster of duties. Not comfortable with that mix, I landed the job of editorial page editor when that came open — something I had never imagined trying for when I joined The Roanoke Times all those years ago.

The experiences I had as editorial page editor were incredibly valuable, but given that the labor I was performing used to be handled by a department of five, this turned out to be like flopping from the cooking pot into the coals. Any lingering doubts I might have entertained about making the leap into higher education got squashed when I learned that Lee Enterprises, the Roanoke Times’ current owner, would have eliminated my job this past Friday the 13th had I still been in it. Whew!

To the left is the final editorial I wrote for The Roanoke Times, the last of thousands upon thousands of briefs, breaking news, feature stories, columns, editorials and more that I wrote as a newspaper employee.

Yet I am not done with local journalism. Below is an arts story I wrote for web-only nonprofit Cardinal News, my first ever nonfiction article written as a freelance reporter.

So yeah, that’s big.

Made-up-story-wise, my year was surprisingly productive given everything that was happening day-job wise. I had four original stories published (all in print-only publications!) and one really important reprint. Not bad for a year that had so much going on, and one that — I realized a few months in — marked my 30th anniversary as a published writer of fiction, a thing that I found a way to celebrate!

Those stories were: surreal fantasy “Falling Is What It Loves” in Not One of Us…

Two new horror stories (a first!), “Abhors” and “This Rider of Fugitive Dawns,” in the anthology Pluto in Furs 2…

Another horror tale, one that got a delightfully enthusiastic reader reaction, “Matres Lachrymarum” in Cosmic Horror Monthly…

And last but hardly least, the late horormeister Joe Pulver’s anthology The Leaves of a Necronomicon at least became available, containing my story “The Sun Saw,” the first story in which (at least in chronological order of when they were written) my troubled, disturbed sorcerer John Hairston appears. (“The Sun Saw” was written for Leaves, but ended up appearing first in my Shirley Jackson nominated 2020 collection Aftermath of an Industrial Accident.)

Poetry-wise, it was an honor to have my poems “Astynome, After” and “Dispelling the Arcana” nominated for the Rhysling Awards. I did not win, but the poems were reprinted in a beautiful paperback. Nothing much else happened until an unexpected opportunity resulted in a brand-spanking new villanelle of mine, one of my rare NON-speculative works, called “Fireworks,” appearing in The Roanoke Rambler during the final week of December. My thanks to editor Henri Gendreau for reaching out to me. I was especially delighted to see a bit of new fiction, “Learn to Fly,” from my fellow Roanoker and Sinister Quartet alum Amanda J. McGee, turn up in the same issue!

I think that sums it up. There’s perhaps more I could write, but this will do.

Posted in 30th anniversary interview, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Fiction, Poetry, Short stories, Writing