DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

I’ve also updated the Clockwork Phoenix guidelines. Though this too is still a bit of a work in progress.

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Strangeness

So last night and this morning I got the go-ahead to share two very exciting bits of news that came to fruition in the month following the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter.

First, I’m pleased to announce the sale of my novel, tentatively titled The Black Fire Concerto, to Black Gate. The few and proud who have followed my blog entries this past year have heard me refer to this work as the “Claire-dare novel.” That’s because my wonderful friend and colleague Claire Cooney, who writes as C.S.E., solicited this work from me late last fall (and just spent the last four months editing it, bless her heart.)

Set in a post-apocalyptic world where magic works, ghouls walk and fox-people populate hidden cities, my book chronicles the adventures of a sorceress, musician and sharpshooter named Olyssa, told from the point of view of Erzelle, a young harpist whom Olyssa rescues from a death cult and ends up taking under her wing.

The book is an experiment on two fronts: Black Gate intends to tackle the e-book market, so that’s the form in which Black Fire Concerto will first appear. (No publication date’s set at the moment; there’s a lot still to do to reach that point.) Second, inspired by Black Gate’s sword and sorcery roots, Black Fire Concerto is an effort on my part to capture that Elric and Moonglum/Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser feel — filtered through my own dark and twisty sensibilities, of course — and thus it’s not a solid brick of a novel, but rather two episodes, a free standing novelette (The Red Empress) followed by a two-part short novel (Bone Mosaics/Burning Horses.) For those of you who know your Elric, the latter aspires to some of the same over-the-top magical extravagance that marks the “Sailing to the Future” episode that kicks off The Sailor on the Seas of Fate.

Of my published work, the novel’s probably closest to “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade” in style and tone … and yet, not really.

I’m grateful to Claire and to Black Gate overlord John O’Neill for giving me this opportunity. And I’m certainly grateful to Nicole Kornher-Stace, Elizabeth Campbell, Virginia Mohlere, and definitely Anita, who all gave me oodles of essential beta reading. More news as things develop.

Now, second — I’ve already announced the sale of my first short story collection, The Button Bin and Other Horrors, which contains, among other things, the novella “The Quiltmaker,” which is the sequel to my Nebula Award-nominated short story “The Button Bin.” I was excited to sell this to Apex Books earlier this year, with a planned release of later summer/early fall.

Well, you might note what time of year it is. As things shook out, for reasons it wouldn’t be my place to divulge, Apex wound up unable to provide any sort of timetable for when the book actually would appear, and we had an amicable parting of the ways.

But now here’s the great news … within a day(!!!) I resold the collection to Carrie Cuinn of Dagan Books. Carrie is just coming off her own successful Kickstarter, that will let her finish two new anthologies, Fish and Bibliotheca Fantastica, and launch a line of e-book novellas.

Dagan Books editor Don Pizarro has attended my poetry workshops at ReaderCon in Boston, and I had my first substantial conversation with Carrie there this past summer, with no clue at the time that she and her crew would end up becoming my publishers. They’re a dynamic bunch and I’m delighted to be on board.

The Button Bin and Other Stories will have cover art by frequent Mythic Delirium contributing artist Paula Friedlander and an introduction by Laird Barron. Thomas Ligotti has written a blurb that says, among other things, this:

“…there’s one thing that I feel especially urged to say: these stories are fun. Not “good” fun, and certainly not “good clean” fun. They are too unnerving for those modifiers, too serious, like laughter in the dark—unnerving, serious laughter that leads you through Mr. Allen’s funhouse.”

More as things develop. This is going to be fun.

Posted in Fiction, Kickstarter, Novels, Short stories, Signal boosts, Writing

In the latest edition of Larry Santoro’s Tales to Terrify podcast, I talk about the Weird Tales/Save the Pearls controversy and review two new novels, Ennis Drake’s 28 Teeth of Rage and Laird Barron’s The Croning.

Posted in Audio, Reviews

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Strangeness

† This coming Wednesday at The Lyric Theatre in Blacksburg, I’ll be giving a presentation, “How to Run a Successful Kickstarter,” as part of PechaKucha Night Volume 3. The music starts at 6 p.m., the show at 7 p.m., space and tickets are limited. (The organizers would no doubt appreciate it if I finished my overdue PowerPoint and turned it in. I’m working on it, guys!)

† Speaking of Kickstarters, there are a handful of pledge levels that required the corresponding reward be given out in August. I wasn’t quite able to get this completed, not because I didn’t have the reward ready — I most definitely did — but because, I’ve learned, and I suppose this is a consequence of being so successful and having such a wide net cast, there seems to be a percentage of Kickstarter backers that just won’t respond to any message, even when the message is, “Hi, I want to give you the thing you paid for, how do I get it to you?” (So anyway, if you’re a backer who’s supposed to get an August 2012 prize and you haven’t yet, check your e-mail or the Kickstarter site.)

† Mythic Delirium 27, which I’m unofficially dubbing the “romance” issue, is at the moment in the process of being proofread. I’m hopeful to have it out this month, though I’m still waiting on cover art. (And, as above, subscriptions to Mythic Delirium are a Kickstarter prize, too, and I’m hopeful that set of backers will tell me where to mail their issues, hee. Messages still going out regarding this.)

† This past week has seen some very cool developments regarding the project I’ve been calling “the Claire-dare novel” (a tribute to Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney, C.S.E. for short, who is the reason it exists.) It’s not clear to me how much I can say yet, as the Person Ultimately In Charge is currently living it up at WorldCon, but hopefully things will be clearer in the coming week.

† Speaking of things I can’t share quite yet, I have a new web site in progress (finally!) that will, when it’s done, take the place of both mythicdelirium.com and clockworkphoenix.com. When exactly that will happen, I can’t say, because I’m nowhere close to finished yet. But it will happen.

† And speaking of web sites, I can say with certainly that the reading period for Clockwork Phoenix 4 will be Oct. 1 through Dec. 14. I haven’t updated the actual guidelines on the Clockwork Phoenix website yet because there’s a couple other details I want to work out. But that’s coming soon too.

That’s me these days, in a perpetual state of “Stay tuned.”

Posted in Appearances, Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Fiction, Kickstarter, Mythic Delirium, Novels, Writing

With LJ Crossposter

Posted in Strangeness

I’m pleased to report that my truly strange short story “Monster” that combines serial killers and fractals has sold to the new horror journal [Nameless] Magazine, and is currently scheduled for a Spring 2013 release.

I’ve got a number of other behind-the-scenes things going on right now in regards to my own writing that I’m dying to share but can’t yet, so for now this tidbit will have to do.

Posted in Fiction, Short stories, Writing

I apologize that this is so late in coming. For a number of reasons, neither Anita nor I have had much of a chance to stop and reflect since the Kickstarter for Clockwork Phoenix 4 reached such a stunning conclusion on August 9.

In case anyone needs a reminder what that conclusion was:

Reflecting back on the days leading up to launching the Kickstarter, and what my expectations were, this result wasn’t something I weighed as a serious possibility. More along the lines of “Wouldn’t it be wild if…”

This simply would not have happened without the amazing breadth and depth of support this community gave, to help Clockwork Phoenix, to help Anita and me, to help bring more art into the world.

It would not have happened without the help of all our backers — and as of this writing, as long as this thank-you list is (click here to view) this still represents just barely half of the people who stepped up to support us.

It would not have happened without all the people who chose to signal boost us, many more than once, from fans with 50 Twitter followers to bestselling authors. It all mattered. It all helped. It was all amazing.

It would not have happened without the platoon of friends and colleagues, fellow poets and writers and Clockwork Phoenix contributors and fans, who made suggestions and let me bounce ideas off of them in the weeks leading up to the launch. (I want to single out Rose Lemberg, Elizabeth Campbell and Ken Schneyer in particular for excellent advice, and Cherie Priest and Paula Friedlander for signing on for the game-changing chapbook project without hesitation. Thank you folks.)

And it certainly wouldn’t have happened without Anita’s artistic skills and sensible instincts. Thank you so much, sweetheart.

I’m already working on getting rewards to people. I have a lot to do in the coming months. (Our submission window’s going to run from Oct. 1 to Dec. 14, so recruiting slush readers will be a priority task.) But I’m grateful that I get to do these things. Anita and I are grateful for this wonderful mandate, this unexpected, stunning, beautiful show of support.

We did it. You did it. Thank you so much.

Extra bonus: if you’re interested in my thoughts on the nitty-gritty of Kickstarter, there’s an interview with me on that topic now posted at Twisted Scifi.

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Kickstarter

Just one last reminder: there’s less than 24 hours to go in the Clockwork Phoenix 4 Kickstarter.

Aside from pre-orders of the anthology, two rewards have been especially popular: Anita’s hand-crafted Clockwork Phoenix pins (of which there are 5 remaining to be had) and the signed, limited edition chapbook of Cherie Priest’s fantasy story “The Immigrant,” illustrated by Paula Friedlander. The chapbook, in particular, will never be offered again outside this Kickstarter. Your last chance to get them ends 11:15 a.m. Thursday morning.

Then the celebration begins. Thanks, all of you!

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Kickstarter, Signal boosts

Hello, folks! Please feel free to repost this.

As of this posting there’s less than 48 hours to go in the Clockwork Phoenix Kickstarter. It’s not at all clear to me whether we’re going to make our final stretch goal that lets us found a companion webzine for Clockwork Phoenix and Mythic Delirium; I guess that will come down to the wire. Regardless, I want to emphasize that whether we make this last goal or not, the book will still happen, we will pay pro rates, and every little bit we get still helps with assembling, printing and marketing this anthology.

I want to do one more quick rundown of the rewards we’re offering, too, because if any of them look tempting, you only have until Thursday morning to make them yours.

Of utmost importance, most all of the rewards involve a pre-order of the new book once it’s made, in e-book or trade paperback form.

A very popular new reward combines the pre-order of Clockwork Phoenix 4 with a special limited edition signed chapbook edition of Cherie Priest’s short story “The Immigrant,” which I originally published in an anthology series called MYTHIC, the precursor to the Clockwork Phoenix books. This chapbook will only ever be offered through this Kickstarter.

Another popular reward: Anita’s Clockwork Phoenix pins. The photo to the left depicts two of them in progress.

And there’s a whole palette of other things to choose from: some have been nibbled at, some are untapped.

Short story critiques:

Tote bags full of books;

Custom hats;

Poems to order and story Tuckerizations;

Your stories or novels formatted as e-books;

Books hollowed out and decorated to create e-reader cases;

The last remaining 10th anniversary issues of Mythic Delirium,featuring Neil Gaiman;

And lots more. I hope you’ll give them all at least one more look before we’re done.

And lastly, in case you missed it; during the course of the Kickstarter I promised to do something special if the campaign paused at $6,666. It did, and I did indeed do something off the wall. Here I am reciting my devilish poem from the pages of my collection The Journey to Kailash, titled “lis pendens“:

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Kickstarter, Mythic Delirium, Signal boosts