DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

Sometimes the writing life smiles on you. Much of the time it doesn’t, but sometimes it really does. Two weekends ago I was stabbing at a creepy-crawly, half-finished horror story called “Tardigrade,” unsure what direction I wanted to take it, hoping I could figure it

Antimatter Press is giving away 20 ARCs of my debut horror collection Unseaming. For details, click the widget! Goodreads Book Giveaway Unseaming by Mike Allen Giveaway ends July 31, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads. Enter to win

This latest episode of Tales to Terrify concludes an epic four-part serial of William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland … and it also contains my latest “Tour of the Abattoir” audio column, in which, at the suggestion of Dominik Parisien, I talk about

I’m thrilled to announce that my first short story collection, Unseaming, will be coming out in October from Antimatter Press, in time for the World Fantasy Convention in Washington, D.C.   This is a project that’s been in the works for at least three years,

A big announcement coming (though you might be able to guess what it is) … but first, catching up on some print publications that have arrived chez moi. * * *

Because of a multitude of projects and developments, some of which have been documented over at the Mythic Delirium Books site, I’ve been remiss in posting new updates here. (Part of the reason is that I’m planning a major revamp of this site, so that

A couple of bits of news from opposite ends of the literary spectrum this week.   My poem “A Curtain of Stars” is being reprinted in Artemis Journal, a beautiful Southwest Virginia literary magazine that’s being revived after more than a decade of dormancy. Like

This is actually old news, but it’s taken me quite a while to get around to making a note of it, so please forgive. The Ian Whates-edited anthology Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, which contains my far future sf story

My brief, strange short story “The Lead Between the Panes” has just appeared at the new online fiction and poetry zine Lakeside Circus. My story falls somewhere between an M.R. James pastiche, a dark meditation on life’s cruelties, and a tone poem. (EDIT LONG AFTER

Last year this time I was ill and bedridden. This year, I’m simply inconvenienced thanks to a kaput computer. I consider this a step up.   In fact I was so sick at this time in 2012 that my year-end summary didn’t turn up until