DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

My poem “The Shadow Train” has appeared in Sherlock Holmes Mystery Magazine issue 6, which is now available at Amazon.com. It’s a curious place for it to end up, as it’s not particularly Sherlockian — it’s about railroad fatalities and ghosts. On the other hand,

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. …

I’m pleased to be able to share that a poem I wrote just a week ago (and shared at last week’s No Shame Theatre) has sold to Rose Lemberg and Shweta Narayan at Stone Telling. It’s called “Surviving Wonderland” and it’s slated to appear in

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

Last night Anita and I sorted out the official table of contents for Mythic Delirium 25. And here it is: Myths and Delusions • Editorial • 2 Elegy for Robert Sheckley • Florence Major • 3 Joseph Carey Merrick • Florence Major • 5 Babel

Monday brings me two new precious things. First, my new poem “La Donna del Lago,” dedicated to Claire (C.S.E.) Cooney, has appeared at Strange Horizons. Fitting, as it’s the last of the “Claire-dare” poems that she inspired (though not the last to appear in print.)

A new website, Versification, chartered by Erzebet YellowBoy Carr, posts reviews of speculative poetry. The site debuted this week, and three of its reviews, all reprints, concern me: there’s Amal El-Mohtar’s review of my last collection, The Journey to Kailash; Deborah J. Brannon’s review of

Bull Spec poetry editor Dan Campbell offers a review of the poems in the upcoming Fantastique Unfettered 3, and makes mention of the interview with me that’s appearing there. …do read it for a hint of how Allen performs his poems and an insight into

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