DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

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 progress with anyone or is all the work done in self-reflection?
 
I’m very superstitious about that. Sometimes I’ll share an idea with Anita and let her float suggestions, but generally I do not like to talk about works in progress. I think there’s a number of reasons for that. I don’t want to lose the momentum by talking it out rather than writing it out. I don’t want to invite criticism too early. I want to get the piece to the point where I think it at least looks like what I imagined it would before I let the rest of the world in.
 
I do sometimes sketch outlines. A couple nights ago I inadvertently stumbled across the first outline I did for what become Part I of The Black Fire Concerto. That was funny to see…the characters had different names!

 
Earlier, Black Gate overlord John O’Neill discussed my career and my new novel in one of his “New Treasures” posts.
 

I read Mike’s book in draft last year and was wowed. He has created a singular feat of the imagination, a world of shape-shifters, ghouls, and worse things, where two young women with a very unique form of magic may be the only hope against a sorceress of untold power.

 
Next up, I’m supposed to provide a guest post discussing the monsters in Black Fire Concerto. I’m a little behind on this, because I’m a little behind on everything. But it’s in progress. I’ve received a new batch of paperback copies as well, so review copies are also going out. (If you’d like to consider the book for review, by the way, get in touch!)
 
Speaking of catching up, my poor neglected audio column “Tour of the Abattoir” has resumed at Tales to Terrify. This time Shalon Hurlbert and I discuss two movies that purport to examine dybbuk possession, The Unborn and The Possession. It’s a fun column, though its informative value may be dubious, heh. #SFWApro
 

Posted in Audio, Fiction, Interviews, Novels, The Black Fire Concerto, Writing

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 of the novel has lagged behind by about a month — such are the ways of publishing. But it’s definitely here. You can read and/or listen to Part One, “The Red Empress,” and read the beginning of Part Two, “Bone Mosaics,” and of course buy the book, in trade paperback or Kindle formats. Because folks have asked: there are no other e-book formats being offered for sale at this time. (Psst! Review copies are another story.) #SFWApro
 
Most of my posts about my own writing are just of the “Hey, look at this!” variety. But here’s where I feel I should finally say: “The Red Empress” and The Black Fire Concerto represent the best writing I’ve produced since “The Button Bin” — and I really hope folks will take a look and listen.
 
Here’s the finished website for Haunted Stars Publishing, who published The Black Fire Concerto. Links to buy are here, plus blurbs from Tanith Lee, John R. Fultz, Tiffany Trent and R.S. Belcher.
 

 
Here’s the Haunted Stars sample chapter page, where you can read the opening section, “The Red Empress,” and also listen to C.S.E. Cooney’s amazing reading of same.
 

 
Here’s the excerpt from Part Two, “Bone Mosaics,” at Haunted Stars’ sister publication, Black Gate.
 

 
You can also listen to Claire Cooney’s reading of “The Red Empress” at Tales to Terrify.
 

 
Obviously, I hope you’ll check all of it out!
 

Posted in Fiction, Novels, The Black Fire Concerto, Writing

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 I had published in 2012. Ellen gave nods to three poems:

• “Budding” in Phantasmagorium 2 (a short-lived zine edited by horror master Laird Barron)
• “The Duelists” in the July-September issue of Star*Line
• “The Vigil,” dedicated to my buddy Nicole Kornher-Stace, in the Autumn 2012 issue of Goblin Fruit.

And she gave a nod to one story:

• “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade” in the April 2012 issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies.

 
I’m also proud to report that poems published in 2012 in Mythic Delirium received nods.
 
From Issue 26:

• “The Daughter of Lir” by Sandi Leibowitz
• “Scythe-Walk” by Sonya Taaffe

From Issue 27:

• “The Bones of the Girl Muscians” by Sandi Leibowitz

Congratulations to Sandi and Sonya!
 
#SFWApro
 

Posted in Editing, Mythic Delirium, Poetry, Short stories, Signal boosts, Writing

I’m proud to able to announce the sale of my short story “The Lead Between the Panes” to Lakeside Circus, publisher, editor and writer Carrie Cuinn’s new online zine. (By the way, she’s still looking for submissions for the first issue.)
 
“The Lead Between the Panes” was inspired by a stained glass window on display in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts — and a reflection of that window that appeared to hover disembodied over the museum’s atrium, as if it were the ghostly manifestation of a church that once stood in that spot. Spiders, storms and a rural family’s dysfunctional history also figure in the mix. Of course they all live happily ever after. *wink* #SFWApro
 

Posted in Short stories, Signal boosts, Writing

 
The snarky redhead behind the Little Red Reviewer blog takes on my first novel, The Black Fire Concerto, and has some really kind and downright awesome things to say about it:
 

Exploding with magic, music, and violence, this short novel has the magical feel of an old school suspenseful fantasy adventure as filtered through the eyes of H.R. Giger. …
 
Allen’s dark imagery includes temples and catacombs made of thousands of bones and body parts, clockwork machines that run on vertebrae and brain matter, and [heroine] Olyssa quickly dispatches anything and everything that gets in her way. This is a woman you do not want to piss off! …
 
If you’ve got a strong stomach and want a story with a unique magic system, give The Black Fire Concerto a try. Allen is under the radar, but he shouldn’t be.

 
I’ll be getting new copies of The Black Fire Concerto Concerto soon for those who might want a signed one directly from me, but other than that it’s available in print or on Kindle exclusively at Amazon. #SFWApro
 

Posted in Fiction, Novels, Reviews, The Black Fire Concerto, Writing

The completely free e-book only poetry anthology Flying Higher: An Anthology of Superhero Poetry, edited by Shira Lipkin and Michael Damian Thomas, just came out today. It contains among many other things my incredibly silly poem “Darksein the Diabolic Plots His Comeback from Beyond the Grave” and my wife Anita’s not quite as silly poem “Mrs. Freeze.”

A lot of cool people contributed to this project. To see the full table of contents, click here.

To download as many free copies as you want, click here.

Posted in Poetry, Strangeness, Writing

My first novel, The Black Fire Concerto, is available for Kindle (click here to check it out — if you’re an Amazon Prime member you can borrow it free) as well as in paperback (click here to check that out). One presumes that in the near future you’ll be able to go to one page for both editions — mysterious and strange are the ways of Bezos.
 
There’ve been a couple of early review of The Black Fire Concerto that I’m pleased to share here.
 
At Lynn’s Book Blog, there’s a lengthy, thoughful review:
 

I don’t want to give away too much in terms of the plot and what’s going on. It’s basically a rescue mission with a difference. There’s dark magic involved and it would be remiss of me at this point not to mention that this is a fairly brutal world. I would describe this as fantasy/horror I suppose if pushed. … I could easily see these characters taking on more adventures in a sort of chase between good and evil. I would definitely like more from these characters and a chance to see this world expanded upon.

 
Lynn’s Book Blog also just posted an interview with me about The Black Fire Concerto and writing in general.
 

When I wrote Black Fire Concerto, it was the first time I ever took a “glued to the keyboard, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead, no stops for any reason” approach to a first draft of that length … Here I have to give a universe of credit to my editor, Claire Cooney, who was able to look over 200-some pages of raw dreaming and say, you steered in the right direction the whole time, but these are all the places where you left the path.

 
Another interview appeared at My Bookish Ways that also covers my anthology Clockwork Phoenix 4.
 
And neither last nor least, A Fantastical Librarian offers another review, saying that though the zombie-style violence and gore was a bit much for her, she did still enjoy it.
 

The Black Fire Concerto shone in its world-building. It’s a post-apocalyptic United States, which due to a calamity called The Storms has been altered to be almost unrecognisable. In this new reality magic seems to have returned to the world, along with an infestation of ghouls and the creation of new, changed peoples, plants, and wildlife. The magic in the book is interesting as there is an almost evil connotation to it, not just in the way the villains of the book use it, but even in the way it affects Olyssa and Erzelle. … if you enjoy dark fantasy and zombie-esque monsters, The Black Fire Concerto will be right in your wheelhouse and this slim novel might prove an unexpected delight for you.

#SFWApro

Posted in Fiction, Novels, The Black Fire Concerto, Writing

The special signed edition that was the top reward in the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter is continuing its travels.

Clockwork Phoenix 4 contributor Yukimi Ogawa writes, “I went to the shrine to wish for its safe journey, and got a traffic safety amulet. I put it between my story’s pages…”
 

 
Yukimi also sent terrific pictures of the table of contents that show how the edition is progressing:
 

 

 
Next stop, Hong Kong!
 
Don’t forget, SF Signal is hosting a worldwide giveaway of two copies of the anthology. The giveaway ends this coming Friday. #SFWApro
 

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Kickstarter, Signal boosts

Two things newly available on Amazon.com today. Click pix for more details. #SFWApro

A thing I wrote:

A thing I edited:

 

Funny story about the thing I wrote — I had a very successful launch reading and launch party for The Black Fire Concerto at ReaderCon. Sold out of all my copies. Then my publisher (and I) were waiting for the book to go live on Amazon in order to start Phase 2. We waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Black Gate and Haunted Stars overlord John O’Neill contacted Amazon. Still nothing. And more nothing.

Finally, a friend of Anita’s, Becky Mushko, saw the listing through Anita’s Facebook page, and noticed that the promised publication date was July 15, 3013 — a thousand hundred — and to think I got an A in college calculus! years from now! Could that really be the problem?

This morning, John asked Amazon to fix the date. And the book went live within a couple hours.

So let that be a lesson to you all. Of some kind.

Posted in Editing, Mythic Delirium, Novels, The Black Fire Concerto, Writing

I was too buried in Kickstarter promotion and website building to signal boost this when it happened, so apologies for the lateness. Podcastle has posted an audio adaption of Kennenth Schneyer‘s much-praised short story “Selected Program Notes From the Retrospective Exhibition of Theresa Rosenberg Latimer” from the pages of Clockwork Phoenix 4. Here’s the teaser they offered up:

34. Magda #4 (1989)
Oil on poplar wood, 30 x 21″
Private collection

Sometimes called “Devotion” by critics, this nude the earliest extant work featuring Magda Ridley Meszaros (1963-2023), Latimer’s favorite model and later her wife. The lushness of the flesh and the rosiness of the skin are reminiscent of Renoir’s paintings of Aline Charigot (See, e.g., The Large Bathers (1887) (Fig. 8)). Latimer maintains microscopic hyperrealism even as she employs radiating brushstrokes which emanate from the model, as if Meszaros is the source of reality itself.

Discussion questions:

a. The materials and dimensions of this painting duplicate those of Da Vinci’s La Gioconda (c. 1503-1519) (Fig. 17). Is this merely a compositional joke or homage by Latimer? How does it change the way you see the painting?

b. Most biographers agree that Latimer and Meszaros were already lovers by the time this work was completed. Is this apparent from the composition or technique? From the pose of the model? As you proceed through the exhibit, note similarities and differences between this and other portrayals of Meszaros over the next 34 years.

Click here to have a listen. #SFWApro

Posted in Audio, Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Signal boosts