Rounding out 2025: new novel, award nomination, things frivolous and serious
Mike Allen / Saturday, December 27th, 2025 / No Comments »This blog went silent after September of this year, but it ain’t because nothin’ wuz happening. Rather the opposite, in fact. Thus this final entry of 2025 ends up being a bit of a rushed recap, and there’s a lot to recap. Since a lot of these were first shared via Instagram, I’m gonna lean heavily into those posts for the very few who might want to know even more.
Writing-wise, the biggest event of the last four months was the release, at long last, of my novel Trail of Shadows. Near and dear to my heart, I have no illusions that this hallucinatory horror narrative is going to find a huge audience (though it would be great if it somehow happened anyway!) I’m always going to be grateful to Scott Gable of Broken Eye Books for connecting deeply enough to this book to help it crawl into the light, and for recruiting the talents of Daniele Serra and Kirsty Greenwood to illustrate the zaniness that, for the longest time, existed only in my head.
A host of genre fiction luminaries had kind things to say about the novel. I’m so grateful for their generosity.
And, improbably, Trail of Shadows became an award nominee within two months of its publication, a development that leaves me flabbergasted.
Ravencon, the sci-fi convention based in Richmond, has since 2018 been giving out the Webster Award honoring books by Virginia writers. It’s named after a dear, departed friend of mine, Bud Webster, author of the four “Bubba Pritchard and the Space Aliens” stories that appeared in Analog, architect of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association’s Estates Legacy Program, and contributor to New Dominions, the first anthology I ever edited, way back in 1995. I’m proud to reconnect with Bud and his legacy in this way.
Trail of Shadows is expanded from my short story “The Hiker’s Tale” (collected in Unseaming) and its sequel novelette “Follow the Wounded One” (collected in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident.) In my book, as in the stories, a young man shares his tale—for the sake of the narrative, he says of his name, ‘Let’s say it’s Nathan. That’s close enough.’—who discovers he’s the inheritor of strange powers that make him a Somebody in the realm of the spirits, when it’s much, much, much safer to be a Nobody. Some of my absolute favorite monster creations also happen to be the villains out to do horrible things to my not-quite-hero. Whatever ultimately happens, I’m so glad it’s out in the world!
Following the mini-tour I did promoting the re-release of my first novel, The Black Fire Concerto, I participated in two more book events. In September, Anita and I traveled to Baltimore so I could take part in the monthly Charm City Spec reading, this one centered around Storyteller: A Tanith Lee Tribute Anthology. Editors Julie Day, Craig Laurance Gidney, and Julia DeRidder were there, as well as fellow contributors C.S.E. Cooney, Andy Duncan, and Alaya Dawn Johnson. We each read from our stories in the tribute; mine is a far-future sci-fi phantasmagorium called “Vortumna.” It became clear as the readings progressed that every contributor had swung for the fences, inspired by Tanith’s many examples.
Anita & I especially enjoyed catching up with Andy at dinner afterward; since I first met them in the newsroom of The Roanoke Times, we seem destined to keep crossing paths with him and his delightful spouse Sydney in sometimes surprising places.
And most fun of all, I got to provide the “horror” for “Grave Matters: History Meets Horror,” a Halloween event benefiting the Historic Smithfiled museum in Blacksburg, Virginia. (Charlottesville-based historian Rebecca LeMert provided the history portion, with a presentation on how Halloween became the cottage industry it is today.) Though it wasn’t originally planned this way, “Grave Matters” ended up doubling as the launch reading for Trail of Shadows, and that worked out terrifically.
The creative chaos of 2025 reached a temporary conclusion via a nice grace note, when Charles Tyra (publisher of Cosmic Horror Monthly) let me know that he intends to reprint my short story “The Thrill of It All” in CHM’s sword-and-sorcery-focused sister magazine, Goblins & Galaxies.
I originally wrote “The Thrill of It All,” a prequel to The Black Fire Concerto that provides a window into Olyssa’s adventures before she met Erzelle, to be part of a Ruadán Books promotion. Like a number of my favorite stories, it was inspired in part by a surreal and intense dream, this one involving a man with the head of an alligator, fleeing from a dragon. I’m tickled that more people will get to read it.
On a much more serious note, the most significant event of this past year for Anita and me and my two younger brothers was the death of our mother, Shonna, on Oct. 27 at the age of 83. Mom was as much a mother to Anita as she was to us boys. We are all coping as best we can. She was the quiet, steady rock at the heart of our family outpost, and she was sorely missed this Christmas.
Though she was never a fan of my fiction or poetry — for that to have been true, I think I would have needed to write things that fit comfortably in traditional science fiction and fantasy lanes, not my speed at all — she definitely enjoyed some of the perks, like being my plus one at sci-fi cons and meeting other writer guests. The writing I did for the newspaper, however, unambiguously made her proud.
Anita and I and my youngest brother Ed selected a site for Mom (and for Dad, whose ashes are buried with her) that has a calming view. Their gravestone, when put in place, will be a conversation piece for those who take a closer look.
It’s hard for me to say with any certainty what lies ahead in 2026 for Anita and me, beyond the upcoming release through the Mythic Delirium Books imprint of Haralambi Markov’s debut collection of mythology-infused, darkly twisted short fiction, The Language of Knives.
This, we are so excited about, and much of what we’ll be doing will involve promoting this terrific new book, with something of an exception for my upcoming appearance on April 8 at Ellen Datlow and Matt Kressel’s storied KGB Reading Series in NYC: I’ll be appearing there in service of Trail of Shadows, alongisde Michael Swanwick.
And at the end of January, Anita and I will be setting up shop at Roanoke’s premiere sci-fi convention, MystiCon, returned after a long hiatus. We’re delighted to have it back.
I think that covers the big stuff. May threads of hope multiply in 2026.
