DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

I’m quite honored to be part of the ensemble gathered in Nowhereville, the latest anthology of dark fiction from Broken Eye Books (and not just because appearing in the book got me name-checked in USA Today, though that was still really cool!) Editors Scott Gable

After a couple of years of what has felt to me like relative dormancy, I actually have a reasonably extensive list of shiny new stories and poems to highlight for the consideration of those who concern themselves with nominating and voting for awards, genre-related and

Over at my low key Patreon page, I have begun serializing the latest draft of my new horror novella of more than 30,000 words, “The Comforter,” the third installment in the series that began with my Nebula Award-nominated story “The Button Bin” and continued in

Vlogger Morgan Scorpion has a YouTube channel in which she narrates new and classic horror tales in her delightfully stentorian voice. The likes of Edgar Allan Poe, Oliver Onions and M. R. James mingle with many of today’s most fascinating writers of horror and the

My second published story in 2018, just like my first, is a form of exquisite corpse! I am nonplussed but also tickled. The joke in journalistic circles is that if something happens three times, you can call it a trend, though I’ve not been invited

I wanted to acknowledge that I’ve had a new tidbit of fiction appear, and that it’s quite a bit different from anything I’ve had pop out before. First, it’s part of an ensemble piece, written for what the publishers called a “screaming corpse.” That’s not

Laird Barron, one of my favorite horror writers of all time and a really generous guy (don’t miss his latest, Swift to Chase), started a series of posts over at his journal simply titled “Authors to Read.” Part I, from late February, highlighted great books

Overall, 2016 was a pretty mixed year for us. We lost our dog, Loki, a sweet soul who’d been the cheerfully goofy center of our household since 2003. I had injury-related health issues that haven’t fully gone away and Anita had an unwelcome surprise on

In the Sudden Plot Twist department, I’m taking another pause from preparing for the World Fantasy Convention to share that: A) My 20,000-word horror novella “The Quiltmaker,” sequel to my Nebula Award-nominated monster story “The Button Bin” and centerpiece (more or less) of my Shirley

Since mid-April, I’ve started a new chapter.   Not so much in any particular writing project, of which I have several ongoing, but in my writing life as a whole.   This “new chapter” feeling comes not from fresh goals I’ve set for myself, but