DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

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

Strange Horizons today released an all-poetry issue, complete with an extensive two part podcast, and I’m honored that my new poem “The Paper Boy” — the only new poem I produced last year — gets to be part of it. (You can read it here.)

Anita and I will be on all kinds of panels and workshops at the upcoming MystiCon convention right here in Roanoke. I’ll be reading from my novel The Black Fire Concerto and Anita and I together will be talking about Clockwork Phoenix and anthologies in

The Tales to Terrify horror fiction podcast has returned after a two week hiatus (while host Larry Santoro took care of some pressing deadlines.) The new episode contains my first “Tour of the Abattoir” audio column of 2014, in which I talk about horror music,

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