It’s been six years since my last (and first) collection of horror stories, Unseaming, appeared in the world and fared shockingly well on multiple fronts.

Cover art by Danielle Tunstall

My second collection of horror tales (and third story collection overall), Aftermath of an Industrial Accident, will debut July 7; and, since I’ve been too swamped to make any kind of formal announcement, most folks are finding out the book exists via the starred review posted Saturday on Publishers Weekly, a development I am incredibly pumped about. I don’t think I could have dreamed of a kinder review (or at least what passes as kind when discussing horror):

Allen (Unseaming) overflows the tank with nightmare fuel in this collection of 23 stories and poems that showcase his ability to find the monstrous in almost any setting. Bracketed by two poems (“Six Waking Nightmares Poe Gave Me in Third Grade” and “The Night Watchman Dreams His Rounds at the REM Sleep Factory”) exploring Allen’s drive to write horror tales, the collection dances through hauntings, carnage, body horror, and psychological chills. … Readers will be impressed by the variety, intensity, and skilled craftsmanship Allen brings to this collection. These horror shorts are sure to linger in the dark corners of readers’ minds.

It’s a nice break after having a number of promotional plans go awry. I had originally hoped to offer previews of A Sinister Quartet at Outer Dark 2020 and a full-fledged party at Readercon in July that would have encompassed both Sinister and Aftermath. Instead the events are postponed, arranging reviews is proving challenging, and promoting new books is going to require a lot of creativity and trying of new things. (Luckily with Sinister my co-authors, Amanda J. McGee, C. S. E. Cooney and Jessica P. Wick, also make for a formidable marketing team.)

The Aftermath review has been “featured” all this on the Publishers Weekly landing page for reviews, a development that I can’t believe will ever happen again but which I’m sure not going to complain about.

(At risk of coming off like I am gloating — but let’s face it, I am — I note with glee that Unseaming also got a Publishers Weekly starred review when it came out. So this is promising! Another resonance with Unseaming is that Aftermath has the same cover artist, Danielle Tunstall, and the same cover model, Alexandra Johnson, and I’m delighted to welcome them back!)

Aftermath is available for pre-order just about everywhere, it has an introduction penned by Punktown creator Jeffrey Thomas (who is responsible for the existence of the title story) and it’s also received some humblingly wonderful blurbs from the likes of Nathan Ballingrud, Craig Laurance Gidney, Christina Sng, A. C. Wise and R. S. Belcher. Gonna share a bit of all of that below:

“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, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of Wounds

“Aftermath of an Industrial Accident puts the weird in Weird Fiction. The stories range from clever twists on the Lovecraft mythos, to the downright madcap (spider demons nesting in suburban souls!). Allen weds the brute visceral punch of early Clive Barker with the demented whimsy of darker Neil Gaiman.”
—Craig Laurance Gidney, Lambda Award-nominated author of A Spectral Hue

“From a university library’s forbidden collection, to a manse occupied by cursed souls, to seemingly ordinary suburban homes haunted by memories and otherworldly beings, Aftermath takes readers on a journey, and Allen deftly imbues each world visited with its own own special kind of dread.”
—A .C. Wise, Nebula Award-nominated author of Catfish Lullaby

“From World Fantasy Award-nominated author and editor Mike Allen comes a mesmerizingly beautiful, classic horror collection of short stories and poems. Each tale in Aftermath of an Industrial Accident packs a punch that will keep you willingly pinned to the wall. A master of the hook and a perfect ending, Allen’s fast-paced, fluid prose engages you from the very beginning and does not let you go until it is done with its story; and the stories will keep resonating in your mind like a wonderful, terrible memory that haunts and thrills you.”
—Christina Sng, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of A Collection of Nightmares

“In this collection, Allen demonstrates again and again his masterful ability to infuse cosmic, existential terror into the most intimate, and mundane aspects of our lives, while never failing to point out the self-made horror already there: from his introductory piece that credits Poe as a conjurer of inescapable, psychic horror and a muse-sinister for Allen, to the title story that force-marches the reader through rising terror, like a tea kettle screaming, for which there is no escape, no sanctuary, even within your own mind..”
—R. S. Belcher, Locus Award-nominated author of The Brotherhood of the Wheel