DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

I received word this morning that my poem “The Vigil,” dedicated to Nicole Kornher-Stace (and one of the last unsold poems in the “Claire-dare” series) has sold to Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica Wick at Goblin Fruit, and will appear in their Fall 2012 issue. Most

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,

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

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

Yesterday Alexa Seidel with Fantastique Unfettered informed me she’ll be adding my poem “Seed the Earth, Burn the Sky” to the pair (“Sisyphus Crawls,” “Binary”) she already has lined up for the Nov./Dec. issue, making it a triptych. I also understand the issue’s cover will

After a week full of rejections for both new poems and new stories — so it goes — I finished up with a nice poetry sale, to Strange Horizons. The poem is called “La Donna del Lago,” and it’s dedicated to Claire Cooney. It was