DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

Tonight I’m going to read three brief short stories as part of a Studio Roanoke event called “The Big Idea.” I adore how they’ve billed me: Featuring Death Newman, Chris Shepard, Illusions by Nelson Oliver, and creepiness from Mike Allen! Sat. Oct. 29th, 8PM, $5.00

As well as some delightfully pulpy artwork. Cthulhu fhtagn! The podcast also contains an interview with me afterward, full of awkward pauses, strange skips, and giggle fits. I reveal, among other things, that the inspiration for “Her Acres of Pastoral Playground” owes more to John

JoSelle Vanderhooft’s anthology Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, which contains my novelette “Sleepless, Burning Life,” is now available in e-book Nook format at Barnes & Noble. (It was already available in Kindle format on Amazon.) Fantastique Unfettered Issue 3, which contains a lengthy interview with

I learned something today that leaves me especially tickled. As a part of the “Mike Allen feature” in issue 4 of Fantastique Unfettered, the zine is reprinting my science fiction novelette “Stolen Souls.” Whatever flaws it may have, this piece holds a lot of sentimental

The upcoming fourth issue of Fantastique Unfettered has cover art based on my poem “Binary,” plus a feature devoted to my poetry. There may be other stuff, too, yet to be determined. Plus Scottish novelist and activist Hal Duncan! They shared it on their website,

Google shows me this blog review of my short story “An Invitation via Email,” which appeared in the July/Aug. 2008 issue of Weird Tales (#350), edited by Ann VanderMeer. I think the review is longer than the story! Again, I include it for grins. …

Within the past couple days I found this review of an issue of the 2006 issue of H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror (!!!) that contains a short story I co-wrote with Charlie Saplak, “Strange Wisdoms of the Dead.” I share it here merely for the

Progress on the rewrite of my novel (revised and expanded from my short story “The Hiker’s Tale”) continues apace; ordinarily I would post something like this on my LiveJournal but that forum continues not to function, so, I share here. Today I actually reached the

Twitter revealed to me David Hebblethwaite’s review of Apex Magazine 23, which contains a passage about my “Button Bin”: The first of the issue’s two reprints, Mike Allen’s “The Button Bin” (reproduced from a 2007 issue of Helix), is disquieting in both its style and content. Searching

Congratulations to the following writers from Clockwork Phoenix 3: New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness who have received honorable mentions from Gardner Dozois in the newest edition of The Year’s Best Science Fiction. “Braiding the Ghosts,” C.S.E. Cooney “Hell Friend,” Gemma Files “Lucyna’s Gaze,” Gregory