DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

In hopes of providing a fleeting but fun distraction in these tense days of justified protest, I’m pleased to be able to share with you more excerpts from A Sinister Quartet, which gets released in a mere six days, and a bit of silly business

Just two weeks left until the debut of A Sinister Quartet, and it makes sense that this unusual book inspires unusual behavior. I have never before put together a Spotify playlist. Many other authors do this as a way to keep the inspiration fountain flowing.

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

Writing-career wise, 2017 was a deceptively quiet year for me, with a lot of hard work going on behind the scenes but not a lot to show for it publicly. With 2014, 2015 and 2016 being as lively as they were, I concede that a

Back in September, I threw myself full tilt into a long overdue redraft of my fantasy/horror novel Trail of Shadows, after about a year and a half of occasionally pecking at it while dealing with obligations related to Clockwork Phoenix 5. This past Sunday, I

2016 was a strange year for me (and a stressful one, too, though in ways that have little bearing on this post). My output as a publisher was pretty spectacular by personal standards — my awards eligibility post for Mythic Delirium Books can be found

For reasons good and bad, I’m awfully behind in promoting my latest writing and publishing hijinx. So, belatedly but enthusiastically, more than three weeks after the fact, I’m thrilled to announce that my second short story collection, the ultra-ultraweird The Spider Tapestries: Seven Strange Stories,

This weekend: Readercon. I’m so looking forward to seeing people there, as well as the folks we’ll visit as we’re on the way.   My schedule changed a little since I first posted it. (Post is updated to reflect that.) My autograph session now happens

My kooky career path has led me to a place where two major aspects of my life have overlapped unexpectedly: speculative poetry and Rammstein fandom. Horror house Raw Dog Screaming Press has published an English translation of Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann’s second poetry collection, On

I’ve got two promotions going on simultaneously to tell all y’all about:   Promotion one: My Shirley Jackson Award-nominated horror story collection Unseaming is the featured book today at Kindle Books and Tips. Coinciding with this, the ebook is available on Kindle, discounted from $5.99