His first novel, The Black Fire Concerto, a dark fantasy of music, magic, and the undead, is being published as a trade paperback and as an e-book by Haunted Stars Publishing. Furthering the experiment, three of his short works, She Who Runs, Stolen Souls, and Sleepless, Burning Life, are also available as e-books.
Other short stories have appeared in Weird Tales (during the Ann VanderMeer years), Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Not One of Us, Cabinet des Fées, Interzone, the podcast sites Pseudopod, PodCastle, and StarShipSofa, the anthologies Cthulhu’s Reign, Steam Powered: Lesbian Steampunk Stories, and Solaris Rising 2: The New Solaris Book of Science Fiction, and other places. His horror tale “The Button Bin” was a finalist for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Dagan Books is bringing out his first collection of short fiction, The Button Bin and Other Stories.
He’s also written five collections of poetry, one of which, Strange Wisdoms of the Dead, was a Philadelphia Inquirer Editor’s Choice selection. His poems have turned up in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, Goblin Fruit, The Best Horror of the Year One, Nebula Awards Showcase 2005, Nebula Awards Showcase 2008, Nebula Awards Showcase 2009, Stone Telling, and over a hundred other publications.
He’s employed his voice talents, such as they are, recording podcasts for Clarkesworld Magazine, StarShipSofa and Stone Telling, and with periodic help from his fellow scary movie fan Shalon Hurlbert, he records a mostly monthly column, “Tour of the Abattoir,” for the horror podcast Tales to Terrify.
In addition to the Clockwork Phoenix series, he’s edited and published a long running do-it-yourself poetry journal, Mythic Delirium, which is about to transform into a possibly long-running webzine that will showcase both fiction and poetry. You can find it and other Mythic Delirium Books productions at mythicdelirium.com.
You can find Mike, by the way, at descentintolight.com, and he also sometimes pops up on LiveJournal, Facebook and even on Twitter, as @mythicdelirium, of course.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
So many people to thank: the creation of this book was a community effort.
Thanks, first, to Anita, who in addition to helping me select the stories, drafted the order they follow in the book and gave me the support and strength to see this through.
To Sally Brackett Robertson and Sabrina West, my assistant editors, who helped me cope with more than 1,400 story submissions. To Elizabeth Campbell, who tackled formatting the e-book edition, and who helped Anita and I copyedit, and to Francesca Forrest, who took on the daunting task of proofreading.
To Michael M. Jones, who gave me the idea to try Kickstarter in the first place. To Rose Lemberg, who was an indispensible sounding board and generator of ideas both before and during the Kickstarter campaign, to Liz Campbell again for the same, and to Ken Schneyer for his insights as a Kickstarter veteran. To the others who made suggestions and offered critiques, including but not limited to Mike Jones, Leah Bobet, Samantha Henderson, Michael DeLuca, Scott Andrews, Alexandra Seidel, Matt Kressel, and Nicole Kornher-Stace. To Eric Van, who threw every ounce of showmanship into promoting the campaign launch at Readercon 23.
To Anita again, and Liz, and to Cherie Priest and Paula Friedlander, who selflessly donated their talents to the Kickstarter reward prizes and kept the campaign energized. To Neil Gaiman, Jeff VanderMeer, John DeNardo, Charles Tan, Marshall Payne, John O’Neill, the Interstitial Arts Foundation, the members of the Secret Poetry Cabal (you know who you are), and the dozens and dozens of others who helped signal boost the campaign to all corners of the virtual world.
An extra special thank you to the following, who because of their generosity are from now on designated as supporters of Mythic Delirium Books: Saira Ali, Cora Anderson, Anonymous, Patricia M. Cryan, Steve Dempsey, Oz Drummond, Patrick Dugan, Matthew Farrer, C. R. Fowler, Mary J. Lewis, Paul T. Muse, Jr., Shyam Nunley, Finny Pendragon, Kenneth Schneyer, and Delia Sherman.
And last but not at all least, thanks to the more than 270 people who contributed to our Kickstarter campaign. The list below is not complete, but contains all the names of those who have granted their permission to have their pledge publicly acknowledged.
Our gratitude goes out to the following:
Danny Adams
Djibril al-Ayad
Saira Ali
Erik Amundsen
Cora Anderson
Julie Andrews
Scott H. Andrews
Anonymous
Anonymous Fan
Liz Argall
Daniel Ausema
Kate Baker
Dominic Balasuriya
Michele Bannister
Helena Bell
Martin Bernstein
Deborah Biancotti
Chris Bissette
Ellen Blackburn
David Blakeley
David Burkett
Deborah J. Brannon
Rosemarie Brizak
Samantha Brock
Dean Browell
Dana Bubulj
Dan Campbell
Lisa Cantara
Leilani Cantu
Loki Carbis
Niki Carlson
John Chu
Neal Chuang
Blase Ciabaton
Alicia Cole
Judith Collard
Cathy Cordes
Linden Couteret
Patricia M. Cryan
Carrie Cuinn
Matthew J. Davis
Christian Decomain
Rhel ná DecVandé
Pablo Defendini
Vincent Degrez
Michael J. DeLuca
Arinn Dembo
Steve Dempsey
John Devenny
Evans Donnell
Patrick Dugan
Oz Drummond
David Eggerschwiler
Caroline Elliott
Amal El-Mohtar
ElectricStory.com
Patricia Engel
Elizabeth Fallon
Matthew Farrer
Fabio Fernandes
Gemma Files & Stephen J. Barringer
Sam Fleming (ravenbait)
Deanne Fountaine
C. R. Fowler
Stephanie Franklin
Deby and Daron Fredericks
Fran Friel
Joanna Galbraith
Peter and Hilary Galbraith
Gwynne Garfinkle
Zvi Gilbert
Jenny Graver
Arthur C. Green
Cathy Green
Sandra L. Green
William Groenendijk
Stephanie Gunn
Alex Haist
Amanda Halperin
Jessica Hammer
Dr. MJ Hardman
Andrew Hatchell
Paul Hattrem
Michael Haynes
Kate Heartfield
Kevin Hemingway
Samantha Henderson
Woodrow “asim” Hill
Erin Hoffman
Jeremy Holmes
Rich Horton
Andrew Hovanec
Claire Humphrey
Shawna Jacques
Chandra Jenkins
Keffy R. M. Kehrli
Brian Kitchell
Steven Klotz
Brent Knowles
Yoshio Kobayashi
Jay Kominek
Jeanne Kramer-Smyth
Matthew Kressel
Stefan Krzywicki
kytyn
Jamie Lackey
Ai Lake
Eric Landes
Lauowolf
Corky LaVallee
Lucas K. Law
Michael Lee
Richard Leaver
Sandi Leibowitz
Rose Lemberg
Kirsty Lewis
Mary J. Lewis
Shira Lipkin
Geoffrey Long
Joanna Lowenstein
C.S. MacCath
Alex Dally MacFarlane
Kate MacLeod
Stefanie R. Maclin
Kris Marchu
Duffi McDermott
Mo McFarlane
Ian McHugh
Kate McKinley & Melissa Kennedy
Corey McKinnon
Ieva Melgalve
Frederick Melhuish III
Merry Blacksmith Press
Andrew Mike
Adam Mills
mobile247
Virginia M Mohlere
Ian Mond
Nayad Monroe
Brendan N. Moody
Sunny Moraine
Lisa Nohealani Morton
Brooks Moses
Andreas Mügge
Simo Muinonen
Cathy (Nolly) Mullican
Deirdre M. Murphy
Paul T. Muse, Jr.
Next Friday
Larry Nolen
Shyam Nunley
Michael O'Brien
John Osmond
Nancy E. O'Toole
An Owomoyela
Sarah Page
Dominik Parisien
Chuck.Parker
Caitlyn Paxson
Hélène Pedot
Finny Pendragon
Lisa Poh
Rrain Prior
Professor Raven
TJ Radcliffe
Cat Rambo
Suzanne Reynolds-Alpert
Julia Rios
Sally Brackett Robertson
Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell
Helen Rodriguez
Gessika Rovario-Cole
Eric Rosenfield
Anastasia Rudman
A. Merc Rustad
Sofia Samatar
Shirl Sazynski
Ken Schneyer
Scorcha
Alexandra Seidel
Diane Severson
Wendy A. Shaffer
Delia Sherman
Alex Shvartsman
Silvernis
J. Simmons
Jason Sizemore
Michael Skolnik
Sabrina Sloyan
Cislyn Smith
Janice Smith
Tara Smith
Bennett Snyder
Mary Spila
Jeff Spock
Jasmine Stairs
Ferrett Steinmetz
John Stevenson, Community Developer
Tad Stewart (milliondollarloser)
Rabbit Stoddard
Bryce Stoddart
Jason Sturner
Robert E. Stutts
summervillain
Julia Svaganovic
Tamathy
Cecilia Tan
Dave Thompson
Kendra Tornheim
Tori Truslow
Twelfth
TwistedSciFi.com
UncommonGrace
Dave Versace
Vnend
Zoe Wadsworth
Emily Wagner
Ann Walker (just_ann_now)
Rachael Walker
LaShawn M. Wanak
Brittany Warman
Jen Warren
James Weber
Anke Wehner
Sabrina West
Lindsey Wicks
Betty Widerski
C. Glen Williams
Cai Wingfield
Beth Wodzinski
Missy Woford
Sandra Woodbury
Amanda Wright
Micah Ian Wright
Wyrdwright, Inc.
Alan Yee
Kaila Yee
Books by Mike Allen
Available on Kindle
As Editor
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX
Tales of Beauty and Strangeness
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 2
More Tales of Beauty and Strangeness
CLOCKWORK PHOENIX 3
New Tales of Beauty and Strangeness
The Clockwork Phoenix series is also
available in diverse formats at Weightless Books.
Novels
THE BLACK FIRE CONCERTO
(available in diverse formats)
Short Fiction
SHE WHO RUNS
SLEEPLESS, BURNING LIFE
STOLEN SOULS
Also by Mike Allen
Collections
THE BUTTON BIN AND OTHER STORIES (forthcoming)
Short Fictions
FOLLOW THE WOUNDED ONE
Poetry Collections
THE JOURNEY TO KAILASH
STRANGE WISDOMS OF THE DEAD
DISTURBING MUSES
PETTING THE TIME SHARK
DEFACING THE MOON
As Editor
MYTHIC 2
MYTHIC
THE ALCHEMY OF STARS:
Rhysling Award Winners Showcase (with Roger Dutcher)
NEW DOMINIONS:
Fantasy Stories by Virginia Writers