DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

The Raleigh Court Branch Library is holding the Roanoke launch party for my first novel, The Black Fire Concerto, the story of a pair of sorceress-musicians who fight necromancers and ghouls in a post-apocalyptic future. My friend Anne Sampson will provide some beautifully eerie music

I’m pleased to report that Strange Horizons is buying my new poem “The Paper Boy,” a grim meditation on a crime’s aftermath. Thanks go to Romie Stott for accepting it and to Dominik Parisien for motivating me to write it. #SFWApro   I’m also pleased

The reviewer behind the Just Book Reading blog just came out with a review of The Black Fire Concerto. Not all reviews are like surprise presents, but this one is.   I listened to the first part of this book when it was featured on

Locus Magazine short fiction review Rich Horton has some really cool things to say about my short story “Still Life With Skull” in his just-published review of Solaris Rising 2.   Mike Allen’s “Still Life With Skull”, set in the same very strange world as

The folks at SF Signal are generously hosting a giveaway of my novel The Black Fire Concerto. There’s two trade paperback copies up for grabs. Anyone anywhere in the world is eligible. Click here to take part if y’wanna.   Also, Haunted Stars publisher John

My contributor’s copy arrived today of the Russian edition of Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year One, which contains my poem “The Thirteenth Hell.” This is the first time my work has ever been translated. It’s neat to see my name in Cyrillic. (Photos

I’m pleased to announce that my strange somewhat science fictional poem “Dearly Beloved” has just sold to Canadian anthology series Postscripts to Darkness.   I’m especially tickled because “Dearly Beloved” is part of a series — it’s set in the same far future world as

The folks at Black Gate have been doing a wonderful job of promoting my new novel, The Black Fire Concerto. This past Sunday they posted an interview with yours truly conducted by the magnificent Patty Templeton.   Q: Do you talk out your works in

So the official launch reading and launch party for my first novel, THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO, took place at ReaderCon, and I ended up selling all the copies I had, which in the land of small press translates to “smashing success.”   The online launch

Ellen Datlow has posted her annual “long list” of honorable mentions (Part 1) (Part 2) selected from the material she read for this year’s edition of The Best Horror of the Year.   I was pleased to discover I earned four this year for stuff