DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

So a year ago today, more or less, I launched my first Kickstarter, to make Clockwork Phoenix 4. And thanks to amazing support from this community, that ended up going really, really well. Today, my second and much smaller Kickstarter is less than $300 away

This review of Clockwork Phoenix 4 at Strange Horizons pulls no punches. But here’s how it ends: … this anthology, and this anthology series, are serious about working on the edge of commercially viable fiction. There is room here for the confusing, intentionally or otherwise;

The anthology Kickstarter built is available for everyone to buy. Kindle Price $4.99 Canada $5.07 UK £3.28 Watch Weightless Books for e-book editions in alternate formats. Trade Paperback $15.95 (Discounted at some stores) Amazon.com Amazon.ca Amazon.com.uk Barnes & Noble Powell’s Indiebound Don’t see it on

See? I write things too!   Pic by Anita, who knows how to make me look less ugly. ;-p #SFWApro The Black Fire Concerto is not available for sale just yet, unless you buy one from me. But it won’t be long now. (UPDATE: I

The latest edition of Tales to Terrify contains a new “Tour of the Abattoir” column from me, in which I discuss why I’m not a Scott Sigler junkie. And I’ve been so swamped these past couple months that I completely neglected in this space to

I’m still too busy for my own good — in other words, nothing new under the sun. The writing life isn’t the only reason why I’m busy … but it’s reason enough! So all but a handful of the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter rewards have

Funny how when I haven’t blogged in a while, I get worried. Yet I’ve just been flat out too busy to do it. Reason #1 pictured below. For two weeks straight (maybe longer?) I’ve been mailing out the rewards for the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter,

Writer and poet Francesca Forrest, who took on the daunting tasking of proofreading the soon-to-be-finalized (VERY soon!) manuscript of my Clockwork Phoenix 4 anthology, brazenly took to the Internet to share how much she liked what she had just read. I’m pleased to point people

Pandora continues her publicist duties. The newest preview/review of Clockwork Phoenix 4 popped up this week, this time from Tangent Online. (No one seems to want to wait till June — thank goodness the buzz is so good so far.) Here’s the crux of it:

The official Clockwork Phoenix 4 publication date is still three months off — though I’ve made the anthology available for pre-order through my Mythic Delirium account, see below — and the second review just came in, from writer, poet and book blogger Bonnie Joe Stufflebeam.