DESCENT INTO LIGHT: Mike Allen’s Home Page

99¢ HORROR SPECIAL

Throughout all of October 2020, Mythic Delirium Books is running a Halloween Horror Special, in which all e-book editions of our principle horror titles — our Shirley Jackson Award- and This Is Horror Award-nominated bestseller Unseaming, our newest anthology A Sinister Quartet, and our newest collection Aftermath of an Industrial Accident — have been discounted to 99¢. You can find direct links to these editions under the book covers below.

Unseaming     Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA Amazon AU Nook Kobo Apple Google Play

A Sinister Quartet   Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA Amazon AU Nook Kobo Apple Google Play

Aftermath of an Industrial Accident   Amazon Amazon UK Amazon CA Amazon AU Nook Kobo Apple Google Play

I’m going to drop publisher-voice for a moment and just add that these three books contain some of the best writing I’ve ever committed to paper (or pixels) and the anthology has the added bonus of terrific long form fiction from C. S. E. Cooney (“Sublime,” Locus), Jessica P. Wick (“Really fine work,” Locus) and Amanda J. McGee (“Fascinating and bold,” Locus), so for about $3 you’re getting way more than your money’s worth. And finally . . .

How to get a free e-book!

 
HOW TO QUALIFY FOR ANOTHER FREE E-BOOK: Contact us (well, me) at mythicdelirium[at]gmail[dot]com and let me know that you have purchased and now own all three books in the sale (and this also applies if you bought any or all of the trio prior to the sale, in print or as an e-book) and I will let you pick another Mythic Delirium e-book of your choice in the format of your choice (PDF, EPUB or MOBI). Proof of purchase or ownership (such as screencaps or photos) much appreciated but not strictly required. I look forward to hearing from y’all!

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in A Sinister Quartet, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Signal boosts, Unseaming

I am celebrating an important day for one of Mythic Delirium Books’ authors by sharing that both of the original stories that Theodora Goss wrote for her collection of fiction and poetry Snow White Learns Witchcraft are getting reprinted in year’s best collections.

Both stories are riffs on beloved Hans Christian Andersen yarns.

Paula Guran’s latest The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror, scheduled for an Oct. 20 release, (and numbered “One” instead of 2020, I presume because the publisher has changed from Prime to Pyr), contains Dora’s “Conversations with the Sea Witch,” which imagines a friendship between two key characters from the fable of the Little Mermaid, both older and considerably wiser. You can also read the story free at Tor.com.

And also, Rich Horton’s The Year’s Best Fantasy and Science Fiction 2020, scheduled for a December release, will feature Dora’s novelette “A Country Called Winter,” which adds some modern twists and turns to the tale of the Snow Queen. “A Country Called Winter” was also a finalist for the 2020 Locus Awards. You can read it free at Lightspeed.

Congratulations and happy birthday to Dora Goss!

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in Awards, Fiction, Mythic Delirium, Poetry, Signal boosts

Last month (man, has time gotten away from me) I had the privilege to take part in two group readings promoting my most recent offerings as a writer and as a publisher, and those readings have since been archived online where I can share them. Not to mention, I’ll be giving yet another one this Friday at 10 p.m. EST as part of the 2020 Virtual Outer Dark Symposium on the Greater Weird, and in the hour leading up to that I’ll be taking part in a panel hosted by Lesley Wheeler on the topic of “Weird Metamorphosis or Life Change,” a concept I definitely play with a lot in my writing.

Clicking the graphic will take you to a page where you can get more info on the whole Virtual Outer Dark Event.

Now for the videos! The first I get to share with you is the livestreamed Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading from July 15, hosted by Ellen Datlow and Matt Kressel, in which I read excerpts from my new collection Aftermath on an Industrial Accident and from my novella “The Comforter” in the new Mythic Delirium Books anthology A Sinister Quartet. Benjamin Rosenbaum read the delightful opening from his forthcoming debut novel The Unraveling.

The reading is also available as an audio podcast.

The second video comes from July 18, when C. S. E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee and I (a.k.a. the contributors to A Sinister Quartet) were reunited via a Zoom for a group reading hosted by Doloris Vest of Book No Further, the downtown indie bookstore in Roanoke, Virginia, where Amanda and I both live. It was just as much fun the second time through. I chose to self-censor one of the chapters of “The Comforter” that I read from, for reasons that should be plainly evident should you pick up the book yourself. (And obviously, you should!)

I get a kick out of Claire Cooney showing off Brett Massé’s artwork in the still image.

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in A Sinister Quartet, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Appearances, Audio, Signal boosts

The original plan for this coming Wednesday was for Anita and I to travel to New York, stay alternately with Dan Stace and Nicole Kornher-Stace and then with C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, and then I would arrive in Manhattan with copies of books to sell and read from my second horror collection, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, at the KGB Bar, alongside Benjamin Rosenbaum, who would read from his first novel, The Unraveling.

The reading, at least, is still happening! Hosts Ellen Datlow and Matt Kressel have continued the prestigious series during the pandemic-related shutdown by moving it to virtual space. The reading will take place Wednesday, July 15, 7 p.m. and livestream on YouTube. I’m likely also going to read from “The Comforter,” my novella in A Sinister Quartet.

Don’t miss out! Click here on or the graphic below and bookmark the link!

 
As for buying my new books, you can do that using the links below:
 

Order Aftermath of an Industrial Accident here

 

Paperback: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE
Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Bookshop

Ebook: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA
Amazon DE | Amazon AU | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

 

Order A Sinister Quartet here

 

Paperback: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE
Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Bookshop

Ebook: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA
Amazon DE | Amazon AU | Kobo | iBooks | Nook | Google Play
 

 

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in A Sinister Quartet, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Appearances, Audio, Signal boosts

Alas, C. S. E. Coooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee and I won’t literally be together in Roanoke, Virginia, for this upcoming reading from A Sinister Quartet.

However, we will reunite Saturday, July 18 at 3:30 pm. on Zoom for this new event hosted by independent bookseller Book No Further and the shop’s wonderful proprietor Doloris Vest.

The good news is, you don’t have to travel all the way to far Southwest Virginia to see us — you can just sign up for free!

To further whet your appetite, let me share this excellent review A Sinister Quartet from Zig Zag Claybourne:

There’s a theme in this book, likely unintended, grown organically out of the times, of not giving up, regardless of fatigue, pain, unfairness or a sense that you are small and meaner forces are grotesquely big. I think, if anything, this collection speaks to the fact that there’s no amount of horror, predation, murder hornets, trickery, or even self-delusion that ought to make folks digging upward for light raise a flag of surrender. Hope’s a sinister thing to folks peddling strife.

Lord knows, I needed that message. You might too.

Click here or the graphic below to sign up.

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in A Sinister Quartet, Appearances, Reviews

My newest horror collection, Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, came out today, at long last. It’s a book that took years to come together, and it had a bit of a rough birth, though I console myself that it wasn’t anywhere near as difficult a process as it was for my first horror collection, Unseaming.

Nonetheless, it’s here, it exists, and it is probably the most rounded representation of who I am as a writer of any book that I’ve produced.

Without further ado, here’s where you order it:

Paperback: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA
Amazon DE | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Bookshop

Ebook: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE
Amazon AU | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

A wild twist is, for all the pre-production troubles Unseaming had, the timing of its release hit some kind of bull’s-eye. It remains the best-selling book of all the books I’ve produced (in fact it sold about 1,000 more copies through the 99 cent e-book special that started this weekend). Given the pandemic, the protests, the political turbulence, I suspect the opposite is true for Aftermath — a problem that also afflicts its sister-book, A Sinister Quartet. As a recent NPR review put it, “Horror isn’t many readers’ first choice during times like these.” But I don’t see waiting for a mystical “good time” for horror (Ha! Ha!) as a sensible option. Full steam ahead!

No, that’s not what makes this day bittersweet. The reason for that is because right now, in a different world, maybe one where our government took the advance of COVID-19 seriously soon enough (maybe!), Anita and I should be packing books and clothes and groceries to head to Boston for Readercon, stopped for a day along the way to pick up Nicole Kornher-Stace and maybe meet up with Laird Barron or Paula Arwen Owen if schedules allowed.

Then off to Readercon proper, where Nicole, Patty Templeton, Zig Zag Claybourne and I were going to do a group reading (a feat I still would like to pull off virtually, but I haven’t had the brainspace available to figure out how to arrange and promote it). C. S. E. Cooney and I would likely have done a reading for A Sinister Quartet (Jessica P. Wick and Amanda McGee, alas, likely weren’t going to make it). And Anita and I would have run a dealer’s table and thrown a big room party for these new books and hopefully showcased many of our older books too. After that, coordinating somehow with Nicole, Cooney and Carlos Hernandez, we were going to back to New York and join Matt Kressel and Ellen Datlow at the Wednesday Fantastic Fiction at KGB reading, which would double as the launch reading for Aftermath.

The KGB reading is still happening; more details on that tomorrow. And Claire, Amanda, Jess and I are are actually going to get to do a reading together, virtually, with Roanoke indie bookseller Book No Further: it’s free to sign up, please do, more details coming on that too.

But instead of spending thousands of dollars on travel, we’re going to be spending thousands of dollars on surgery. Anita has discussed this on her Facebook page; we’re actually in self-isolation right now before she gets surgery to remove a basal cell sarcoma from her face, and plastic reconstruction surgery afterward. It is sort of horribly fortuitous that all the time we originally blocked out for this book tour will be used for isolation and recovery instead. It’s not a life-threatening process but there is still a lot to worry about. I’ll be grateful for any good thoughts you can send Anita’s way.

These sort of things tend to make me feel like the making of art is a frivolous thing — and yet, it’s what we do, so we do it.

Danielle Tunstall’s cover art for Aftermath really does match my mood right now, in a way I didn’t plan. I still love it though!

Cross-posted to Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Fiction, Short stories, Writing

I’m pleased to announce that for the first time Mythic Delirium Books is participating in a StoryBundle, thanks to an invitation from writer, editor and Bundle curator Rhonda Parrish! (Seriously, thank you, Rhonda!) You can go straight to the StoryBundle by clicking this link.

Rhonda has taken a quirky but intriguing theme and pulled together a really cool package that includes two Mythic Delirium Books, the World Fantasy Award-winning Bone Swans by C. S. E. Cooney, and the critically-acclaimed novel Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace, which is the sequel to her dynamite Andre Norton Award-nominated novel Archivist Wasp from Small Beer Press, also included in the bundle!

For even more about what went into this StoryBundle, read on to see what Rhonda Parrish herself has to say about it:

THE CROSSING THE VEIL BUNDLE

The Crossing the Veil Bundle – Curated by Rhonda Parrish

I’ve spent the last several years curating and editing short stories and poetry for anthologies and this year I’m very excited to expand that into curating books for a StoryBundle. I’m excited to share my first ever StoryBundle which is all about psychopomps and crossing the veil.

A couple years ago I stumbled across a word I’d never heard before — psychopomp. When I looked up its meaning I discovered that I’d been aware of the concept of a psychopomp for a long time, I just hadn’t known the word for it. A psychopomp is a being which acts as a guide for the souls of the recently departed, helping them move from this world to the next and occasionally carrying messages between the two.

It’s kind of impressive that I went so long without knowing the word psychopomp because I’ve always loved stories that involve crossing over from the world of the living to that of the dead. Always. As a kid we took Greek Mythology in school and while all the stories interested me it was those set in Hades that really fascinated me. I would seek them out and devour version after version. And as I grew, that never really changed. I still love stories set in the places we go after we die, or featuring characters that can cross between those worlds, which made choosing that as the topic for this StoryBundle an easy decision.

The Psychopomp/Crossing The Veil bundle includes fourteen books by eleven different authors. Excitingly, two of those books are short story collections which means there are actually far more than fourteen stories contained within all these digital pages.

Included are C. S. E. Cooney’s World Fantasy Award-winning book Bone Swans, Nebula-nominated author Beth Cato, Norton Award finalist Nicole Kornher-Stace, and New York Times–bestselling author Lilith Saintcrow. I could keep listing awards and recognitions, but you’re not here for them, right? You’re here for the stories.

And we’ve got them.

A woman grudgingly helping a ghost move on to the other side (so he’ll leave her alone)? Check.

A soul-devouring protagonist who has her life turned upside down by a harpy attack? Check.

Characters walking between worlds as casually as you and I cross the street? Check.

A snarky Newfoundland heroine dealing with an undead infestation in her hometown? Check (x3!)

A leucostic magpie with a lot of personality? Check.

There’s so much more. If, like me, you’re drawn to the stories about passing through the veil between worlds, or shepherding souls through it, this bundle is not one you’ll want to miss. And best of all, because it’s on StoryBundle, you get to set the price you want to pay.

And you can donate 10% of your purchase price to our charities, Mighty Writers and Girls Write Now, which aim to help foster the writers of tomorrow. – Rhonda Parrish

* * *

For StoryBundle, you decide what price you want to pay. For $5 (or more, if you’re feeling generous), you’ll get the basic bundle of four books in any ebook format—WORLDWIDE.

• The Illuminated Heart by Thea van Diepen
• Hollow by Rhonda Parrish
• Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace
• The Spirit Caller Series – Books 1-3 by Krista D. Ball

If you pay at least the bonus price of just $15, you get all four of the regular books, plus eight more more books, for a total of twelve!

• The Undine’s Tear by Talena Winters
• Soullless by Skyla Dawn Cameron
• The Blood Queen by October Weeks
• Latchkey by Nicole Kornher-Stace
• The Marked by Lilith Saintcrow
• Seeing the Light by E.C. Bell
• Bone Swans by C. S. E. Cooney
• Red Dust and Dancing Horses by Beth Cato

In case you didn’t notice that means for $15 you can get twelve books which include Archivist Wasp and its sequel Latchkey!

This bundle is available only for a limited time via http://www.storybundle.com. It allows easy reading on computers, smartphones, and tablets as well as Kindle and other ereaders via file transfer, email, and other methods. You get multiple DRM-free formats (.epub, .mobi) for all books!

It’s also super easy to give the gift of reading with StoryBundle, thanks to our gift cards – which allow you to send someone a code that they can redeem for any future StoryBundle bundle – and timed delivery, which allows you to control exactly when your recipient will get the gift of StoryBundle.

Why StoryBundle? Here are just a few benefits StoryBundle provides.

• Get quality reads: We’ve chosen works from excellent authors to bundle together in one convenient package.
• Pay what you want (minimum $5):You decide how much these fantastic books are worth. If you can only spare a little, that’s fine! You’ll still get access to a batch of exceptional titles.
• Support authors who support DRM-free books: StoryBundle is a platform for authors to get exposure for their works, both for the titles featured in the bundle and for the rest of their catalog. Supporting authors who let you read their books on any device you want—restriction free—will show everyone there’s nothing wrong with ditching DRM.
• Give to worthy causes: Bundle buyers have a chance to donate a portion of their proceeds to Mighty Writers and Girls Write Now!
• Receive extra books: If you beat the bonus price, you’ll get the bonus books!

 

StoryBundle was created to give a platform for independent authors to showcase their work, and a source of quality titles for thirsty readers. StoryBundle works with authors to create bundles of ebooks that can be purchased by readers at their desired price. Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com.

For more information, visit our website at storybundle.com, tweet us at @storybundle and like us on Facebook.

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in Appearances, Signal boosts

The second scary summer release from Mythic Delirium Books is less than a month from release — the first of course is A Sinister Quartet, available most everywhere — and if you have a Netgalley account, then you can request a copy of our second spooky release and preview it for yourself. Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, the newest collection of horror stories from Shirley Jackson Award finalist Mike Allen (a.k.a me!), debuts June 7.

You can request it from Netgalley here.

“From heartbreaking character studies to exercises in Grand Guignol excess, from scalpel-sharp poetry to sledgehammers of blood-soaked prose, Mike Allen displays not only his own considerable range, but the range of the horror genre as well. Aftermath of an Industrial Accident will surprise and delight you at every turn.”
—Nathan Ballingrud, author of Wounds

 
“So what does Mike bring to this particular collection? Well, I’m thinking he brought pretty much everything he’s got … and that’s a lot, to put it mildly. What I’ve said above, and what I’ll be going on to say below, illustrate perfectly how extremely versatile Mike Allen is, and that’s a quality I highly prize; a quality I am ever striving toward, myself. Many writers endeavor to establish a certain style or voice or tone, to clear a small but distinct plot of ground they can build within, so as to create a kind of brand that inspires recognition in a reader. Maybe this is just their natural inclination, or maybe it’s a calculation. Perhaps they do this partly out of fear that if they extend themselves toward too many horizons on the compass, readers won’t be able to get a grip on their work overall. And there’s nothing wrong with such an approach! But those writers who do as Mike does have a special place in my heart.
  “And what Mike does, as I say, is just about everything. In these pages you will encounter straight up horror. Experimental horror. High fantasy. Science fiction. Poetry. The consistency, here, is simply excellence.”
—from the introduction by Jeffrey Thomas, creator of Punktown
 

pre-order links

Paperback: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound | Bookshop

Ebook: Amazon | Amazon UK | Amazon CA | Amazon DE | Amazon AU | Nook | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, Fiction, Short stories, Signal boosts

Even though this news has been out for a couple of weeks, Anita and I are still thrilled to share it: our collection of stories and poems from Theodora Goss, Snow White Learns Witchcraft, is a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Collection, and on top of that, one of the stories she wrote specifically for the book, “A County Called Winter,” is a finalist for the 2020 Locus Award for Best Novelette.

We are so proud of Dora and glad to see her work recognized with this well-deserved honor — and we’re all thrilled to have a new benchmark to celebrate, as this is the first time works from Mythic Delirium Books have made the Locus Awards’ final ballot. We wish Dora all the best at the June 27 ceremony, which by the way is virtual this year and only $35 to attend, with that admission fee including a six-month subscription to Locus Magazine.

“A Country Called Winter” has since been reprinted at Lightspeed Magazine and can be read there for free. You can find all the ways to order Snow White Learns Witchcraft here.

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in Awards, Editing, Signal boosts

In case you missed it last week — though, if you follow me on social media, you likely didn’t, I’ve been shouting it from the rooftops — A Sinister Quartet, the new anthology featuring C. S. E. Cooney, Jessica P. Wick, Amanda J. McGee and myself, premiered as scheduled on Tuesday, June 9. (To see all the different ways to buy a copy, click here.)

Quite a few terrific and incredibly thorough new reviews appeared, too, including this one from Little Red Reviewer:

And this one from Anthony R. Cardno:

(There’s more but I believe I am going to save those for a future post.)

This next bit almost feels like it should go without saying, but I think it’s clear it should be said: if you’re instead paying attention to the Black Lives Matter protests and the long-overdue and necessary changes that are happening because of them, by all means keep doing that. And stay safe, as the COVID-19 pandemic has not gone away either.

All that said, if our not-so-little book of dark fantastic tales has caught your eye and made you decide to take a break and check it out, and if you happened not to hear about last week’s launch, there’s some fun things the four of us did to promote the book that you’ll probably enjoy catching up on.

On launch day, we all turned up at John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, contributing an essay to the “Big Idea” series he curates in which we all “interviewed” each other about our stories in Sinister Quartet. (Click on the screenshot to check it out…)
 

 
As you can see, we have the distinction of setting a new record in the history of Big Ideas.

The next day, all four of participated in a Reddit Ask Me Anything held on the r/Fantasy forum, and the result doubles as a pretty terrific interview with the authors. (Again, to check it out, click on the screenshot.)
 

 
Just in case you missed our other stunts in the weeks leading up the book’s premiere, here’s the group Zoom reading we did, here’s a post about cocktail mixes that match our stories that has matching tongue-in-cheek photos, and here’s one about playlists that match our stories with cool matching graphics by Amanda McGee.

I’m grateful my co-authors for all the work they are putting into making this book a success — above and beyond the excellent stories they contributed.

There will be more to come, including a second virtual group reading scheduled for Wednesday, June 24, orchestrated by Book No Further, the downtown indie book store here in Roanoke, Virginia, which just recently re-opened to admitting small groups of customers.

More news on all of that as it develops.

Cross-posted from Mythic Delirium Books

Posted in A Sinister Quartet, Appearances, Fiction, Interviews, Writing