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.
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 toThe 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.
A little extra fun: “Vortumna” is the 3rd published story in my “Hierophant” series set in a far future of extreme body mods, environmental cataclysm & pervasive authoritarian surveillance. (The first two tales in the series can be found in my collection The Spider Tapestries.)
It’s taken me a while to get around to writing this post, mainly because I struggled to figure out where to start.
I suppose I could begin with the obvious: on Oct. 7, Broken Eye Books will release my horror novel Trail of Shadows. This book has been a labor of years — some of the scenes contained within it have been jetsam floating in my mind since the late 1990s.
It is a very personal novel, in that it’s a very Appalachian novel, and by that I mean filtered through the experiences of someone who has lived here for decades but isn’t from here, has been most often on the outside looking in — and a very strange novel, Weird Fiction with a Capital W-T-F.
To those of you reading this who have the ability to check out galleys on Edelweiss, Trail of Shadows is there for the reviewing. Check it out here.
Reactions from authors who are contributing blurbs to the book have asserted so far that Trail of Shadows is more than a horror tale, which I find extremely flattering.
It saddens me tremendously that my colleague and friend Jaime Lee Moyer did not live to see this book released into the world, as she went so far above and beyond to level this book up, rolled up her sleeves and dug in to sculpt this novel into the shape that it’s in today. Dedicating the book to her was the least I could do.
I want to extend some additional acknowledgments: to Nicole Kornher-Stace, who endured more than one draft of this monster in its early years; to Jennifer Barnes, whose feedback toward the end of the multiple revision processes proved most insightful; to Erzebet Barthold, who published “The Hiker’s Tale” — the short story that would ultimately expand into this novel — in the lovely second paperback volume of Cabinet des Fées: A Fairy Tale Journal in 2007; and to John Benson, longtime editor and publisher of Not One of Us magazine, for publishing the sequel novelette, “Follow the Wounded One,” as a standalone chapbook in 2009.
Those early installments in what became Trail of Shadows can be found in my collections: “The Hiker’s Tale” is in Unseaming, while “Follow the Wounded One” is included in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident. And man, 2007 was a big year for me creatively, as that also saw the first publication of my Nebula Award-nominated story “The Button Bin,” another horror tale that I’ve expanded on greatly in subsequent years.
I’ve been finding myself driven to expand this world even beyond the novel: thus came the story “The Cruelest Team Will Win,” included in with the new book as a bonus; “The Feather Stitch,” collected in Slow Burn, which ties the world of “The Hiker’s Tale” to that of “The Button Bin”; and a story that began its life with the title “Last Legs,” now published under the name “Lewisburg” in the anthology Winter in the City.
I’m tremendously grateful to Scott Gable of Broken Eye Books for giving this ultraweird magnum opus of mine a home: at 105,000 words, it’s the longest thing I’ve ever had publishing in more than 30 years of playing the publishing game. Not only that, I love how he’s brought an artist’s flair to the look of the book that demonstrates that he really got what I’m going for. His cover design idea has been brilliantly realized by Daniele Serra, depicting one of the book’s central characters, who goes by the name Lilith (though she’s not that Lilith.)
And if you buy the trade paperback edition, you’ll find inside cover art by Kirsty Greenwood illustrating one of the most surreal settings from the book — the mind-bending dimension know as the Underground or the Argent Lands and the Silver City that floats in its sky.
It’s a lot for me to process. I hope you’ll soon have one in your hands!
Better late than never for me to “start spreading the news!”
As of today I’m setting out on my first-ever mini-book tour in support of my newly-re-released novel The Black Fire Concerto!”
I’ll be making a handful of stops in the great urban northeast over the next 30 days to stump for my novel of magic, music, and undead mayhem.
My thanks to Elizabeth Vantangoli with Ruadán Books for her hard-won efforts to make this tour a thing.
I’ll be in New York City this coming Saturday and the Tuesday that follows to read from and discuss The Black Fire Concerto and hang out with colleagues. Then there’s one more leg to the tour that takes me to the Boston region at the start of August.
It should be a ton of fun. Here’s what my schedule looks like — click on each graphic to go to the individual event pages and get all the details:
My gratitude goes out to reviewer Anthony R. Cardno for this fresh look at The Black Fire Concerto that offers glowing praise but also tackles head-on what makes the book so unlike most everything else out there (I can’t help it, it’s how my writer’s brain is wired, heh…)
Anthony has pledged to join Claire and I at Kew & Willow. It’s been a while since we’ve chatted in person, I’m looking forward to it.
Here I am on the train from Roanoke to New York early this morning after Anita saw me off at the Amtrak platform. I hope to see old friends and new faces in the Big Apple.
First, an excerpt from the “Acknowledgements” essay I wrote for the new edition of my novel The Black Fire Concerto.
The Black Fire Concerto began its life as a novelette called “The Reed Player.” This story combined two elements that did not obviously belong together: a desire on my part to conjure a band of wandering heroes a la Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser or Stephen King’s Roland and companions; and a nightmare shared with me by Roanoke Valley librarian Jonathan Overturf, about a restaurant that would turn unsuspecting tourists into zombies, then serve up the zombie meat to its patrons.
Fun as it was to write, “The Reed Player” remained unpublished until the first of several wild twists. Claire Cooney, better known by her nom de plume, C. S. E. Cooney, approached myself and several other writers, seeking novels for an e-book publishing project called Haunted Stars, masterminded by Black Gate founder and publisher John O’Neill. I had no completed novel to offer, but I showed Claire “The Reed Player” and asked her if she would be interested in an expanded version. Her response was to phone me and say, “Please, please, please, make this a novel for me, please!”
And that is why it’s so especially fitting that C. S. E. Cooney has narrated the brand-new audiobook edition of The Black Fire Concerto. It has the air of a creative endeavor coming full circle.
Here is where you can buy the new audio edition: Amazon | Apple | Audible
Claire let me hear the voices she bestowed upon my characters before she recorded. Thanks to her talent, this version of my story is an absolute blast.
Speaking of absolute blasts, Claire and I will be appearing together at 8 p.m. on Friday, May 30 on her Twitch channel, twitch.tv/csecooney Claire will read from her new novel, Saint Death’s Herald, the sequel to her World Fantasy Award-winning monster of a major label debut, Saint Death’s Daughter; and I will read from The Black Fire Concerto. (I note, Claire also recorded the audiobook edition of Saint Death’s Herald) Afterward, we’ll ask each other questions about our books, which, though vastly different in tone, share a lot of common elements.
We look forward to seeing you at our chat. Register here and let us know that you’ll be there!
I began 2024 with no notion that my first published novel was going to get a makeover.
Lo, and behold, that day has arrived! My sidearms and sorcery secondary world zombie apocalypse novel The Black Fire Concerto spreads its black fire curse across the world anew.
Jessica Wick, my colleague, friend, and fellow member of the Sinister Quartet, shared this lovely evidence of the presence of The Black Fire Concerto in at least one bookstore.
Photo courtesy Jessica Wick
Should you go to your local bookstore hunting for my novel and not find it, ask for them to order it and Ruadán Books will provide.
Just before Resurrection Day, my horror author buddy L.C. Marino shared the interview he did with me about The Black Fire Concerto on the Spineless ReadsThe Suspense Is Killing Me podcast. I love shooting the breeze with Lucas, he’s great to hang out with.
By the way, in case you missed my first appearance on The Suspense Is Killing Me, in which Lucas interviewed me about my most recent story collection, Slow Burn, here it is for your enjoyment!
Definitely more to come as the week proceeds. But most important, for the moment — where do you go to experience The Black Fire Concerto? Well, see below!
Second chances like this one don’t come around often in the publishing world.
We’re less than three weeks away from the re-release of my first novel, The Black Fire Concerto. Because I’ve not had other novels published in the meantime, it’s still my first novel, although this time, the sequel is queued in the pipeline — The Ghoulmaker’s Aria, which begins mere weeks after Concerto leaves off.
Anita and Book No Further owner Doloris Vest posed me in front of the local authors shelf with Concerto in hand and my story collections over my shoulder.
A still from the unboxing video Anita and I shot on the second floor of Book No Further in Roanoke
So far, I’m making two public appearances in support of The Black Fire Concerto.
I remain amazed that Ruadán Books came to me with this opportunity, and I am delighted that my mold-breaking sidearms-and-sorcery duo, Olyssa and Erzelle, have the opportunity to find new readers, and that the undead horrors they face down have a chance to frighten new audiences.
C.S.E. Cooney, who has stolen Erzelle’s torch right off the book cover…
I’m thrilled that this audio adaptation is going forward!
Ruadán has taken this mission a jaw-dropping step further, commissioning the production of an audiobook edition narrated by C.S.E. Cooney, who is…
Those few and proud who already own the original edition of The Black Fire Concerto have asked me how much it changed in revision. I think that’s a fair question, and the frank answer is that the plot, the characters, the settings, are all the same. It’s the telling of the story that changed, and that telling has vastly improved. I strongly suggest that hearing the rejuvenated story in Cooney’s voice will be a transformative experience.
Another still from the unboxing video we shot at Book No Further. (I’m reading Tanith Lee’s blurb on the back cover.)
I endorse Book No Further’s message that “Books are portable magic.” Sometimes, like the one in my hands, “some very black magic indeed,” as Tanith put it.
I’m going to slip in a little spoiler here: at previous events, when I’ve been face to face with actual prospective readers, the Number One question they’ve asked me about this book is: Does it have a happy ending? People are looking for that in this day and age, more than ever. The honest answer is: absolutely yes, but my heroines have to go through hell to get there. I can testify truthfully that this answer resonates.
As a side note, I’m obligated to mention that if you see any Amazon listings for Concerto sporting the original edition’s cover art (Lauren K. Cannon’s stunning digital painting “Black Bride”) that listing has nothing to do with myself or with Ruadán.
A combination of terrific and not-terrific developments prevented me from posting several overdue items here before now. I’m going to get the absolute most important thing out of the way first:
My novel The Black Fire Concerto has been made available for pre-orders. Here is the ordering page at Ruadán Books. Should you purchase an advance copy through Ruadán, you’ll get an extra-special bonus that you can download right away — a free new short story about my wandering sorceress Olyssa, set many years before the events of the novel, when she was at her ruthless anti-heroine peak.
BLACK FIRE CONCERTO GIVEAWAY RULES
On top of Ruadán’s generosity, I’m offering a special giveaway all my own.
For the first six readers who:
Send me proof that they have pre-ordered the book from the Ruadán site, via e-mail or DM (please, no need for a public post, unless you want to leave a comment below);
Send me the names of the band and album where the song that inspired the title of my new story can be found;
you will have your pick of a paperback edition of my horror anthology A Sinister Quartet or horror collection Slow Burn. Shipping is on me!
If you happened to be one of the rare readers who already owns both books (bless you!) then we can negotiate a different Mythic Delirium Books (or Mike Allen) title.
I’ll conclude this post by sharing my delight at the attention shining right now on the works of Tanith Lee. (I’ll have a lot more to say about that in my next post.)
Years ago, after reading an older version of The Black Fire Concerto, she shared some very kind words, which I am utterly delighted to reshare, as they still warm my dark heart.
Dear friends of Speculative Fiction, Indie Presses, the Weird, the Wild, and the Wonderous, greetings!
It is the 26th Anniversary of Mythic Delirium Books, a micropress run by Mike and Anita Allen, that specializes in speculative fiction and poetry, with a penchant for writing that’s challenging to classify.
In the past, the imprint provided homes to Mythic Delirium, a digital journal of fiction and poetry, and Clockwork Phoenix, a critically-acclaimed anthology series that showcased stories that don’t easily fit within standard market boundaries.
Please join us! Free tickets available on Eventbrite for our Celebratory Zoom Reading! Free! Virtual! 2 years with an Indie Press specializing in the Beautiful and Strange!
Sign up at our Eventbrite page below to receive reminder emails and the Zoom link!
Guess who’s reading? Nah, JK. You don’t have to guess! I’ll just tell ya!
Mythic Delirium 26th Anniversary Author Bios!
Born and raised in upstate New York, Amy Aderman enjoys fairy tales, research, and tea. Her fantasy short stories have most recently appeared in the “From the Lockdown” contest by Rochester Speculative Literature Association, Mythic Delirium, and the anthology “Ain’t Superstitious.”
Anita Allen is an enigma. She is a small Press publisher, editing books and short stories with her husband for Mythic Delirium books. She has a handful of writing publications. She is also an artist who has had her own shows and sold work internationally as well as done illustrations and cover art for several small press magazines. She is a semi retired competitive costume designer holding the rank of craftsman.
Given her druthers she would prefer to spend her days listened to rain on a tin roof or breezes through the pines, painting, sculpting and creating things with fabric all while living in a stone cottage deep in the woods growing moss, studying philosophy, drinking tea and playing with her pets. Instead, she lives in a tiny house beneath giant oak trees in the heart of the city. Somehow managing all of the aforementioned things while occasionally filling in as an adjunct reader for various writing projects her beloved is working on.
Mike Allen has written, edited, or co-edited thirty-nine books, among them his new horror collection, Slow Burn. His first two volumes of horror tales, Unseaming and Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, were finalists for the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Story Collection, and his dark fable “The Button Bin” was a nominee for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. As an editor and publisher, he has twice been a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Ruadán Books intends to publish Mike’s sidearms, sorcery, and zombies sequence The Black Fire Concerto and The Ghoulmaker’s Aria in 2025 and 2026, respectively. With his wife, Anita, he runs Mythic Delirium Books, based in Roanoke, Virginia. Their cat Pandora assists.
Marie Brennan is the Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award-nominated author of the Memoirs of Lady Trent, the Onyx Court, other fantasy series, several poems, and over ninety short stories. As half of M.A. Carrick, she’s also written the Rook and Rose trilogy. Find her at swantower.com and on Patreon.
Edith Hope Bishop writes fiction, poetry, and music. She grew up in South Florida and spent several years in the Northeast, but her home for more than twenty years now has been the Pacific Northwest. She proudly holds degrees from both Harvard and Columbia Universities. She’s worked as a public school teacher, curriculum developer, and school volunteer. She’s mom to two teens and one schnoodle. With her partner, Edie publishes music as Foulweather Bluff. She loves to make elaborate costumes for her whole family and is fond of photography, beachcombing, gardening, and live theater. When she isn’t making art, volunteering in her community, or spending cherished time with family and friends, she can usually be found on, in, or near a body of salt water. Edie is currently hard at work to launch Songborne & Seabound Press in 2025.
Novelist, poet, and community organizer Leah Bobet works where climate fiction, the counterfactual, and food sovereignty meet. Her latest novel, An Inheritance of Ashes, won the Sunburst, Copper Cylinder, and Prix Aurora Awards and was an OLA Best Bets book; her short fiction is anthologized worldwide. Her poetry has appeared in Grain, Prairie Fire, and Canthius, and has shortlisted for the Prix Aurora Award and the Muriel’s Journey Poetry Prize. She edited poetry for the Utopia Award-winning 2021 issue of Reckoning: creative writing on environmental justice, read for Grist’s Imagine 2200 contest, and is studying food security policy at Toronto Metropolitan University. She lives in Toronto, where she makes jam, builds grassroots infrastructure projects, and plants both tomatoes and trees. Visit her at leahbobet.com.
Beth Cato is the author of the Chefs of the Five Gods duology with 47North and The Clockwork Dagger series and the Blood of Earth trilogy with Harper Voyager. She was a 2015 Nebula Award finalist in the novella category. Her short stories and poetry can be found in hundreds of publications, including Fantasy Magazine, Escape Pod, Uncanny Magazine, and the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Beth hails from Hanford, California, but now resides in beautiful Red Wing, Minnesota, with her husband and two feline overlords. For more information about her writing and to explore hundreds of free, delicious recipes, visit www.bethcato.com.
C. S. E. Cooney (she/her) is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: for novel Saint Death’s Daughter, and collection Bone Swans, Stories. Other work includes The Twice-Drowned Saint, Dark Breakers, and Desdemona and the Deep. Forthcoming in 2025 is Saint Death’s Herald, second in the Saint Death Series. As a voice actor, Cooney has narrated over 120 audiobooks, and short fiction for podcasts like Uncanny Magazine, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Tales to Terrify, and Podcastle. In March 2023, she produced her collaborative sci-fi musical, Ballads from a Distant Star, at New York City’s Arts on Site. (Find her music at Bandcamp under Brimstone Rhine.) Forthcoming from Outland Entertainment is the GM-less TTRPG Negocios Infernales (“the Spanish Inquisition… INTERRUPTED by aliens!”), co-designed with her husband, writer and game-designer Carlos Hernandez. Find her website and Substack newsetter via her Linktree or try “csecooney” on various social media platforms.
Francesca Forrest is the author of the novellas The Inconvenient God and Lagoonfire, both from Annorlunda Books, the novel Pen Pal, and a number of short stories—most recently “Semper Vivens,” from Andromeda Spaceways magazine. For many years she was a copy editor for the Mythic Delirium zine and helped out with proofreading a couple of Mythic Delirium’s Clockwork Phoenix anthologies. She was super honored when Mike asked her to write the intro to Yukimi Ogawa’s short story collection Like Smoke, Like Light, which Mythic Delirium published. Mike, Anita, and Mythic Delirium are the center of a great writing community!
Theodora Goss is the World Fantasy, Locus, and Mythopoeic Award-winning author of the Athena Club trilogy of novels, including The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter, European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman, and The Sinister Mystery of the Mesmerizing Girl. Her other publications include short story and poetry collections In the Forest of Forgetting, Songs for Ophelia, Snow White Learns Witchcraft, and The Collected Enchantments, as well as novella The Thorn and the Blossom. She has been a finalist for the Nebula, Crawford, and Shirley Jackson Awards, as well as on the Tiptree Award Honor List. Her work has been translated into fifteen languages. She is currently a Master Lecturer in Rhetoric at Boston University. Visit her at theodoragoss.com.
New York Times best-selling author Carlos Hernandez wrote the critically acclaimed short story collection The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria (Rosarium, 2016), the novel Sal and Gabi Break the Universe (Disney Hyperion, 2019), which won the 2020 Pura Belpré Award, and its sequel, Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe. He’s also written dozens of short stories, poems, and works of drama, usually in the SFF mode. Carlos is Professor of English at the City University of New York (CUNY), where he teaches Composition, Creative Writing, Science Fiction, and other courses at BMCC. His work at the CUNY Graduate Center in the Interactive Technology and Pedagogy Program, where his academic interests have centered around game-based learning in postsecondary environments, has led him to work extensively game writing and game design. He has served as lead writer and a game designer on the CRPG Meriwether, as a writer and designer for the installation art of Mary Miss, and as literary curator on the Apple Arcade game Dear Reader, among other video games. As a co-founder of the CUNY Games Network and of the Board Game Designers Group of New York, he’s contributed to the development of many board and card games, both educational and commercial. Negocios Infernales, a GM-less roleplaying game designed by Hernandez and his wife, author C. S. E. Cooney, will be published by Outland Entertainment later this year. You can find him on socials at @writeteachplay.
John Philip Johnson has published literary and spec poetry in numerous journals and reviews. In 2021 he won a Pushcart Prize for a spec poem he had dedicated to Mike Allen, who had inspired the poem in 2011. His comic book of graphic poetry, The Book of Fly, won an Elgin Award. He’s proud to report he’s still off drugs and out of jail. He hopes to live long enough to see people on Mars and would go there himself if he could, but only if his wife, Sue, went with him.
David C. Kopaska-Merkel, a retired geologist, won the 2006 Rhysling award for best long poem (for a collaboration with Kendall Evans), and edits Dreams & Nightmares magazine (since 1986). He has edited Star*line, an issue of Eye To The Telescope, and several Rhysling anthologies, co-edited the 2023 Dwarf Stars anthology, has served as SFPA president, and is an SFPA Grandmaster. His poems have been published in Analog, Asimov’s, Strange Horizons, and more than 200 other venues. Some Disassembly Required, a recent collection of dark speculative poetry, won the 2023 Elgin award. Unwelcome Guests (2024) is his latest book. Find his blog at https://dreamsandnightmaresmagazine.blogspot.com/
Barbara Krasnoff has had over 40 short stories appear in a variety of publications. Her story “Sabbath Wine,” published in the anthology Clockwork Phoenix 5, was a Nebula Award finalist, while “Baby Golem,” from the anthology Jewish Futures: Science Fiction from the World’s Oldest Diaspora, was a finalist for the 2024 WSFA Small Press Award. She also has a mosaic novel, The History of Soul 2065, published by Mythic Delirium Books. A full list of publications can be found at BrooklynWriter.com. When not writing genre fiction or hanging out with her partner, WBAI radio host Jim Freund, Barbara earns a living as Reviews Editor for The Verge.
Rich Larson was born in Niger, has lived in Spain and Czech Republic, and is currently based in Canada. He is the author of the novels Annex and Ymir, as well as collections Tomorrow Factory and The Sky Didn’t Load Today and Other Glitches. His fiction has been translated into over a dozen languages, among them Polish, French, Romanian and Japanese, and adapted into an Emmy-winning episode of LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS.
Sandi Leibowitz writes fantasy fiction and poetry, often based on myths and fairy tales. Author of the poetry collections Eurydice Sings, Elgin-nominated The Bone-Joiner, and Ghost-Light, her speculative poems have garnered second- and third-place Dwarf Star awards and been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, Rhysling and Best of the Net awards. Her poems and stories for children appear in Cricket, Highlights, Ember, Spellbound, Orbit and other magazines; Her picture book for older children, Magotu and the Leopard, illustrated by Christiane Krömer, has been published by Library for All. A native New Yorker, Sandi also sings classical, folk, and cabaret music. Don’t ask her to dance for you, however, as a recent vigorous cha-cha ended with her breaking her wrist. If you ask nicely, she will say something to you in Gaelic.
Virginia M. Mohlere was born on one solstice, and her sister was born on the other. Her chronic writing disorder stems from early childhood. Other than Mythic Delirium, Virginia has emerged infrequently from her fort built of yarn and fountain pens to publish works in venues such as Jabberwocky, Fireside Fiction, Goblin Fruit, Strange Horizons, Cicada, and Through the Gate. She was the 2019 winner of the WSFA Small Press Award for her short story, “The Thing in the Walls Wants Your Small Change,” which appeared in Luna Station Quarterly.
Yukimi Ogawa lives in a small town in Tokyo, where she writes in English but never speaks the language. She still wonders why it works that way. Her fiction can be found in such places as Clarkesworld, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Strange Horizons. Her debut collection, Like Smoke, Like Light, was selected as one of Publishers Weekly‘s best Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror books of 2023.
Cameron Roberson, who writes under the pen name Rob Cameron, is a teacher, linguist, and lead organizer for the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers. Poetry. His stories, essays, and poems have appeared in Star*Line, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Foreign Policy Magazine, Tor.com, Apex, Bestiary of Blood horror anthology, and Clockwork Phoenix 5!!! Daydreamer, his debut middle grade novel, came out from Random House in August and his solarpunk noir novelette Ice Like Honey comes out in Lightspeed magazine in early 2025.
S. Brackett Robertson lives near many bodies of water. Brackett’s work has previously appeared in Goblin Fruit, Mythic Delirium, Inkscrawl, and Stone Telling. Brackett enjoys museums and math zines and can be found online on BlueSky.
Kenneth Schneyer’s short fiction has been nominated for the Nebula and Sturgeon awards, found its way into various Years Best anthologies, and been translated into five other languages. His second collection, Anthems Outside Time and Other Strange Voices (featuring an introduction by Mike Allen!) received starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Library Journal in 2020. His most recent stories are “Tamaza’s Future and Mine” (Asimov’s Science Fiction) and “Winding Sheets” (Lightspeed Magazine). By day, he is a professor of humanities and legal studies, teaching courses as varied as advanced Shakespeare, criminal procedure, and introductory logic. Born in Detroit, he now lives in Rhode Island with his spouse, occasionally his grown children, and something with fangs.
Sonya Taaffe reads dead languages and tells living stories. Her short fiction and poetry have been collected most recently in As the Tide Came Flowing In (Nekyia Press) and previously in Singing Innocence and Experience, Postcards from the Province of Hyphens, A Mayse-Bikhl, Ghost Signs, and the Lambda-nominated Forget the Sleepless Shores. She lives with one of her husbands and both of her cats in Somerville, Massachusetts, where she writes about film for Patreon and remains proud of naming a Kuiper Belt object.
Jessica P. Wick is a writer, poet, and editor. She co-founded Goblin Fruit with Amal El-Mohtar, a quarterly e-zine of fantastical poetry, and is a passionate advocate for the reading aloud of poetry and fiction. Her poetry has been nominated for the Rhysling Award and received honorable mentions in Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthologies. Her short fiction can be found scattered across the internet; recently, her novella “An Unkindness” appeared in Mythic Delirium’s A Sinister Quartet. Jessica’s experience as an editor runs the gamut, from full-length novels to short fiction, poetry collections to magazine articles, academic papers to audio works. She also reviews books for NPR.
This is, possibly, the wildest update I will ever post on this site. Not that many people will read it here, but rest assured, I’ll be sharing this information in other places where it will be seen. As widely as possible, in fact.
For starters, the biggest news in my career since my story “The Button Bin” made the Nebula Award shortlist: I’ve signed a two-novel deal with Ruadán Books, a newcomer to the horror and dark fantasy publishing scene that’s set to be a big player in the upcoming year. I didn’t start 2024 with any notion that something like this would happen, and it gets even wilder in the details: Ruadán intends to republish my short novel of “magic, music, and violence,” The Black Fire Concerto, and follow it up with the completed but never-published sequel, The Ghoulmaker’s Aria.
Though the fact that The Black Fire Concerto even made it to print in the first place was something of a freakish miracle, I’ve always felt that Olyssa, Erzelle, Reneer, and their friends and foes never got a fair chance to find their audience. Opportunities for super-charged do-overs are rare in publishing, and I sure as hell never expected I’d have such a chance. I wasn’t even looking for one! My heartfelt thanks to R. B. Wood with Ruadán for opening the unexpected door.
Because of him, I finally have incredible news to share with stalwart few who through the years have kept asking me when the The Black Fire Concerto sequel will come out.
Lasse Paldanius has produced truly stunning cover art for this new edition. Hopefully I’ll get to show and brag soon!
And now the really off the chain part — this two-novel deal is only one (though the biggest) of several announcements.
I’m also thrilled to announce that my new novelette, “Lewisburg,” will appear in December in Ruadán Books’ Winter in the City anthology, which is available for preorder now. (In fact, it was while Anita and I were visiting Lewisburg, West Virginia, on a research trip for this very story, that R. B. first reached out to me with a query that led directly to our two-novel deal! Talk about serendipity.
Winter in the City, which will serve as Ruadán’s christening launch, holds tales of wintry horror and dark fantasy set in cities all over the world. My contribution, a novelette of alternate dimensions and homicidal ghosts, is named “Lewisburg” after the city where it happens.
I wrote the first version of this story, original title “Last Legs,” soon after my knee surgery last year. I submitted that version to a themed anthology that bounced it with a form rejection (and I get it, it wasn’t ready yet, though I was too pain killer-addled to notice). But as sometimes happens when luck breaks in a writer’s favor, after R. B. asked me to contribute to WITC, I saw ways to use his book’s theme to shape the draft I had on hand into something bigger, better, and stranger. I’m so, so thrilled the results worked for R. B.!
“Lewisburg” also expands the “MikeCU,” tying into stories found in my collection Aftermath of an Industrial Accident — specifically, the character of Kori, first encountered fighting a phantasmagorical shape-shifting monster in my novelette “Follow the Wounded One,” reappearing for a cameo in “The Cruelest Team Will Win.”
And speaking of forthcoming things I can’t wait to share:
Newly revamped podcast series The Weird Library will record an audio adaptation of my newest published horror tale, “Machine Learning,” available in the June issue of Cosmic Horror Monthly and in my latest collection of horror tales, Slow Burn.
I’ve previously described the elevator pitch for “Machine Learning” as “What if Nyarlathotep controlled SkyNet?” and I’ll stick by those guns. It’s another “MikeCU” story, featuring the Virginia town of Grandy Springs and the character of Vanissa Carter, who made her first public appearance last year in my short story “Slow Burn.”
Right now you can (and should!) listen to the Weird Library adaptation of Samantha Henderson’s “Maybe the Stars.”
And also:
Fred Coppersmith, editor of Kaleidotrope, has let me know that my horror tale “Service Sector” will appear in the next issue, scheduled for October. Again, so excited that I’ll at last get to share! This is a tale rooted in real-life horrible on-the-job experiences, though names, and locations, and many other significant details have been changed. It’s also a story that, I’m proud to say, is spectacularly gross. Surely all of you will love it.
And also:
Yes, there’s even more, but now we’re in the territory of things that I’m not yet cleared to publicize. How refreshing it is, though, to be filled to bursting with good news.
I want to extend some additional acknowledgments: to Nicole Kornher-Stace, who endured more than one draft of this monster in its early years; to Jennifer Barnes, whose feedback toward the end of the multiple revision processes proved most insightful; to Erzebet Barthold, who published “The Hiker’s Tale” — the short story that would ultimately expand into this novel — in the lovely second paperback volume of Cabinet des Fées: A Fairy Tale Journal in 2007; and to John Benson, longtime editor and publisher of Not One of Us magazine, for publishing the sequel novelette, “Follow the Wounded One,” as a standalone chapbook in 2009. 
