DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

Fans of weird fiction have been very good to my debut collection, Unseaming — it’s easily the fastest-selling title I’ve ever produced in my 20 years of doing this kind of thing. (And though out-selling my previous titles leaps a pretty low bar, had you

My first published novel, The Black Fire Concerto, started its term of undeadness in this world as an Amazon exclusive. This past year I’ve been gradually pulling all my books (or having them pulled out) of all such Amazon-only deals, and Black Fire Concerto is

Actually, it’s been available since New Year’s Eve, but I’ve only now gotten around to writing a blog post about it. If you’re willing to brave a 30-day free trial of Audible.com, than you can get my new book free along with it. I’m thrilled

So this was a surprise. A reader (or is that listener?) contacted me in late September via Twitter to tell me how much he enjoyed The Black Fire Concerto excerpt that appeared on Tales to Terrify (“Part One: The Red Empress,” read by the amazing

So it turns out the rejuvenated Roanoke main library has a room that’s the perfect size for a reading. The first official launch reading for Unseaming turned out to be quite cozy. My thanks to Roanoke librarian Shalon Hurlbert (my good friend, whom the book

Anita and I are gonna be at the World Fantasy Convention in D.C. in two weeks, and I have my schedule in hand. Both of my scheduled events are Friday, Nov. 7:   Poetry in Fantasy: Yesterday and Today Time: 11am-12pm, Nov. 7, Regency F

Michael M. Jones of Schrödinger’s Bookshelf has posted a new review of my novel The Black Fire Concerto, and gamely posted it to Amazon and Goodreads, too. It’s thorough, honest, and quite a lot of fun:   His traveling duo, the seemingly ageless Olyssa and

Sharing some of the entertaining consequences of my big ole Goodreads/Kindle giveaway (details here):    

My slugline there isn’t hyberbole if you understand that I’ve comparing this one to all the other giveaways I’ve personally done.   There’s five more days to go in the Goodreads giveaway for my upcoming short story collection Unseaming: twenty paperback advance reading copies are

Recently I was recruited for back-to-back “MindMelds” at SF Signal, in which assorted panelists of authors are asked to riff on sometimes esoteric topics.   In the first, “Our Favorite Food and Drink From Scifi and Fantasy!” I talk about the cooking and eating of