DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

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:

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

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.) As of today, both The Collected Enchantments

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! So yes, as of today, The Twice-Drowned Saint is available everywhere books are sold. And if your local store doesn’t have it,

Six dark fantasy and horror titlesdiscounted to 99¢for an early Halloween start See a map of how my stories and upcoming novel connect Read the beginning of my 30th anniversary interview Read the second part of the interview Read part three Reflecting on your published

Six dark fantasy and horror titlesdiscounted to 99¢for an early Halloween start See a map of how my stories and upcoming novel connect Read the beginning of my 30th anniversary interview Read the second part of the interview How did you rise to become the

Six dark fantasy and horror titlesdiscounted to 99¢for an early Halloween start See a map of how my stories and upcoming novel connect Read the beginning of my 30th anniversary interview How do you feel about the way your poetry was distributed versus your prose?

1992 was the year I graduated from Virginia Tech, and also the year Anita and I got married. We celebrated that anniversary with a two-part adventure; the first part took us on an artists’ retreat by beautiful Burke’s Garden in Tazewell County, Virginia; the second

Who reads blogs anymore anyway? The purpose of this post, basically, is to play a sheepish game of catch-up. My work-life balance got completely tipped over in 2021 — though for an arguably GOOD reason, a promotion — and because of that I let posts

In case you missed it last week — though, if you follow me on social media, you likely didn’t, I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops — A Sinister Quartet, the new anthology featuring C. S. E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee and