DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

“Mike Allen’s ‘She Who Runs’ gives flesh to spells moving faster than time.”

— Publishers Weekly

No girl had ever lived so long wearing the curse of She Who Runs.

Lassamtu was not her name, but the name forced on her by the high priest in the temple where she’d been enslaved since her mother’s murder. Nor had she asked for the suicidal task thrust upon her, to hurl an enchanted spear into the eye of Abzu, the Serpent that strove to crush the Egg of the World. The priest doomed her to the curse of She Who Runs, a spell that forces her to run at inhuman speed with no control over her destination. It won’t release her until she strikes Abzu blind.

But Lassamtu will discover that all she’s ever learned about the creation of her world amounts to lies and deception. Her tormentors will learn she’s nowhere near as helpless as they thought. And that’s only the start of this sinister yarn.

Part mythical fiction, part science fiction, part horror tale, “She Who Runs” first appeared in the anthology SKY WHALES AND OTHER WONDERS (ed. Vera Nazarian, Norilana Books, 2009.)

Art by Luis Beltrán

Posted in Fiction, Short stories, Writing

I’m pleased to be able to announced the official table of contents of Mythic Delirium 27.

• Carve Me by Alex Dally MacFarlane
• Sonnet 20: From Nikola Tesla’s Clockwork Assistant to Thomas Edison’s Automaton by Ken Liu
• What Would You Think by Theodora Goss
• She Fell in Love with Winter by S. Brackett Robertson
• Vivian to Merlin by Theodora Goss
• The Tears of Sigrune by Anna Sykora
• The Gardener by Sandi Leibowitz
• The Architecture of Grief by Rachel Swirsky
• Kalligeneia 2012 by Sonya Taaffe
• The Bones of the Girl Musicians by Sandi Leibowitz
• More by Sofía Rhei (translated into English by Lawrence Schimel)
• The Oracle Never Dances by Shira Lipkin
• The Magic Window by Sofía Rhei (translated into English by Lawrence Schimel)
• The Light of Dreams by Alexandra Seidel
• The Pied Piper vs. the Sirens by Gwynne Garfinkle
• Ereshkigal’s Proposal to Hades by Shira Lipkin
• Plucked from the Horo by Rose Lemberg
• My Grandson Never Dreams of Dragons by Lida Broadhurst

If you don’t want to miss this issue, getcher subscriptions here.

Posted in Editing, Mythic Delirium

Art by Avery Liell-Kok

Art by Luis Beltrán

Posted in Clockwork Phoenix, Editing, Fiction, Short stories, Signal boosts, Writing

As far as I know, I’ve sent everyone who sent in work for the March-Arpil submission window a response at this point. If you submitted poetry for this issue and you haven’t heard from me, please query.

Posted in Editing, Mythic Delirium

Rich Horton reviewed two of my short stories in the June 2012 issue of Locus, and put one of them, “Twa Sisters,” on the magazine’s monthly Recommended Reading List. That’s the first time that’s happened to me, so needless to say I’m thrilled.

Here’s what Rich had to say:

In the second April issue [of Beneath Ceaseless Skies] I enjoyed Mike Allen’s “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade”, another very dark story, about a girl orphaned when her parents are murdered for rebelling against a cruel Lord, who escapes her orphanage only to come to the sinister Manse Lohmar, where she encounters great kindness, but a horrible secret as well. The only weakness is a deliberately off-center telling — a letter from the protagonist to a lover we never meet, long after the central action — I think I see where Allen is going with this strategy, but in the end I think it frustrates the reader more than needed.

Mike Allen is good again in Not One of Us for April, with a very odd SF story, “Twa Sisters”, set in a city controlled by the Hierophant, and beginning with a deliberately retro painter encountering a person half tree/half woman and just getting stranger from there.

Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Short stories, Writing

This handsome new hardcover short story collection from British puckster (prank-star?) Ian Watson….

…contains the wacky novelette that he and I co-wrote, “Dee-Dee and the Dumpy Dancers,” accurately described by The Guardian as a “bizarre vision … featuring aerial ballet and alien turkeys.”

Posted in Fiction, Short stories, Signal boosts, Strangeness

Versification has published a poem-by-poem review of Inscrawl #3 by Amal El-Mohtar. About my contribution, “Surcease,” she writes:

Mike Allen’s “Surcease” puts his characteristic horror-spin on things, and very vividly and evocatively describes a plague-ridden man in the last moments of his life. The rhythm and pace of it are extremely well-wrought, and I both wrinkled my nose and shuddered a bit at the last line, so well done Allen, well done.

Posted in Poetry, Reviews, Writing

Karen Burnham, who runs the Locus Roundtable at Locus Online, has rounded up a series of speculative poetry-related posts, podcasts and interviews for the month of May, and I got to be first out of the gate.

Here’s my guest blog post: “Let us go then, you and I: an introduction to speculative poetry”

And here’s a podcast I did with Karen and Star*Line editor F.J. Bergmann.

In both I’ve taken the names in vain of a number of poets and poetry publications.

Posted in Appearances, Audio, Interviews, Poetry, Signal boosts

My new short story at Beneath Ceaseless Skies, “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade,” has garnered a couple of reviews I’m pleased to share.

First a review from Tangent Online by Chuck Rothman. He writes:

“The Ivy-Smothered Palisade” takes the form of a letter from Daeliya, a woman who has managed to escape her terrifying past and make a new life for herself. But she is forced to return, and to explain to her lover Eyan why and all the things he doesn’t know about her. What follows is a tale of fear and terror, and of her meeting with a man in a mysterious castle to whom she owes everything. Mike Allen creates a very convincing world and strong and memorable characters.

Elsewhere in the Internet wilderness, my story apparently found its ideal reader at the Sword and Sorcery blog. The writer states:

I loved this story. It brought to mind, in the best possible way, Brian McNaughton’s “Throne of Bones” or a less hashish suffused Clark Ashton Smith story. The roots of “The Ivy-Smothered Palisade”, like so much great S&S lie deeply in horror. I’m glad to encounter them in such an well told tale.

Tags: Beneath Ceaseless Skies
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Short stories, Writing

As part of its National Poetry Month series, Tor.com has posted a lovely review by Brit Mandelo of the latest issue of Mythic Delirium. Among the things she had to say:

Every poem in Mythic Delirium 26 has powerful imagery; capturing in words a startling scene or visual is something that speculative poetry lends itself to. The majority of the poets also have fun with syntax and diction in ways that produce interesting tensions. Another thing that is intriguing about this issue is something that Allen notes in his introduction: the sense of community among speculative poets in on display here. That closeness produces and inspires so much continuing work — poems for birthdays, poems for other poets’ recent work; the strands of influence and inspiration are an intricate spider’s web to trace across the readings in the issue.

The issue itself is organized in a thematic arc — it opens with science fictional poems and then shifts through fantastic genres, with poems grouped along the spectrum. That, in particular, is one reason I thought to include Mythic Delirium 26 in our Poetry Month discussions: it’s a good introduction to spec-poetry, thanks to the variety within.

Art by Tim Mullins

Congratulations to all the contributors, and special congratulations to G.O. Clark, S. Brackett Robertson, Rose Lemberg, Alexandra Seidel, Amal El-Mohtar, Sonya Taaffe, C.S.E. Cooney, and Virginia M. Mohlere, whose works were highlighted for further praise and scrutiny. (And of course, if you want to read them yourself, here’s how to get them.)

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that this series also contains a review of Stone Telling 7, an appreciation of Goblin Fruit, and excellent poems by Catherynne M. Valente, Jo Walton and Roz Kaveney. To Tor.com, the Poetry Guy doffs his hat in gratitude.

I’d also be remiss in not pointing out that tomorrow is the final day of the Mythic Delirium 27 submission window.

Posted in Editing, Mythic Delirium, Reviews, Signal boosts