DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

A new issue of Goblin Fruit is always a reason to celebrate. And I’m delighted that this issue’s guest artist is none other than longtime Mythic Delirium contributor Paula Friedlander. Goblin Fruit co-editor Amal El-Mohtar is also a contributor to the latest issue of Mythic

My dark fantasy short story “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade” just appeared in the newest issue of literary fantasy adventure zine Beneath Ceaseless Skies. It was inspired by a nightmare I had while attending the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, OH in 2010 — though the scene

I have been through many a cringe-inducing conversation in my life wherein someone identifies themselves to me as a fellow published poet, and then reveals that they were published by the National Library of Poetry, one of the most infamous scams in recent publishing history.

I’m very pleased to be able to announce the publication of my new short story “Twa Sisters.” It’s a highly experimental science fictional lark that came together from several different point of origin. The most important threads in the weave come from two places. First,

“Kandinsky’s Galaxy,” the latest and for now last of the poems in my Disturbing Muses series, has just appeared in the new issue of Strange Horizons. You can read it here. I owe Strange Horizons Poetry Editor Sonya Taaffe for the existence of both this

As I continue to work on my Secret Second Novel, a number of cool things sort of accumulated all at once. I shall enumerate them here. I have a new poem, “Surcease,” out in Issue 3 of the recently-revived Inkscrawl, edited by Samantha Henderson, published

I’m pleased to be able to show off the cover artwork for Mythic Delirium 26. Not long now at all until it’s introduced into the postal system bloodstream. If you want to subscribe or need to renew, now is a good time, click here to

Three months later than I originally planned, I’ve finished converting Clockwork Phoenix 2: More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness to e-book format. It’s available now on Amazon for Kindle and will soon be available in EPUB and MOBI format at Weightless Books. Between reacquainting myself

Here’s Paula Friedlander‘s illustration for G.O. Clark‘s “Lost in the Static.” For even more of Paula’s work, here she is at artistrising.com, Cafe Press, and Etsy. This ends the preview for this week. You can see the issue’s complete table of contents here. If you

Here’s Daniel Trout’s illustration for “The Forest King” by Alexandra Seidel. (Intriguingly, this is a case of art begetting art begetting art; Alexa’s poem was in turn inspired by this painting by Anita, also included in the issue in a b&w version.) Don’t want to