Michael J. Allen's Blog, page 2

Heritage Road Trip – Day 4, Part 2

Day 4 continues with more pictures and video. I'd like to apologize once more for my camera skills. These definitely aren't professional. Hedrin, they're can't even be generously labeled amateur photographic poetry - well, maybe Apollo-level haiku. I enjoyed walking around in Deadwood. While the geographic topography caught my imagination first, the old-style buildings continued […]

Heritage Road Trip – Day 4, Part 1

Where day 3 was long and arduous, Day 4 was filled with interesting stops. So many, that it seemed best to break out all the pictures onto multiple posts since even cut in half, they're killing the load time of this page. I stared off in Murdo, South Dakota with hot coffee and a toasted […]

Heritage Road Trip – Day 3

Day 3 was a rough day. I'd driven hard from Bardstown, KY after falling down a ravine while trying to get a picture from the civil war village. I'd started the day tired but pu,ped for what I expected to be the hardest travel day of the trip. My morning started in Eureka Springs, Arkansas - […]

New Release: Starflight: Tales from the Starport Lounge

Starflight!Man, oh, man, have you ever just adored a gamed so much you played if every waking hour for days or weeks?Starflight was one of those for me. Geeky, poor, socially awkward Michael lived in this game, never knowing that the simple digital creatures within would inspire alien cultures in novels not yet born.This anthology […]

Too Ignorant to Succeed

I want to tell you a horror story. What's different today is that this isn't a piece of fiction. This truth could keep you, the reader, from ever discovering a new favorite author. This true tale could keep you, the aspiring writer, from your dreams like it almost did me. Years ago, I was going along trying to become […]

Heritage Road Trip – Day 2

The Disclaimer (If you want to read it again.) I am not skilled at cameras. For the most part, I've avoided cameras, especially being captured by them, most of my life. As such, I make no promises to the quality of the photographs or videos I took along the trip. I've also learned that when […]

Heritage Road Trip – Day 1

The DisclaimerI am not skilled at cameras. For the most part, I've avoided cameras, especially being captured by them, most of my life. As such, I make no promises to the quality of the photographs or videos I took along the trip. I've also learned that when doing videos, I want to look the speaker […]

IASFA Urban Fantasy Book Giveaway

As a member of the International Association of Science Fiction & Fantasy Authors (IASFA), I'm honored to have been included in their April Urban Fantasy ebook giveaway. For my submission, I've made Ashes of Raging Water, the first book in the completed five book Blood Phoenix Chronicles,  free for the first time ever. The ebook […]

My Little Kender Moment

This is the Delirious Scribbles 2020...crap...2021...you know what, it's our new convention booth. During the early months of Covid-19 quarantine, the pressures of staying inside working the day job and my writing gig from the same seat really started to make my feet itch. I needed to get out, see something other than beige wood-paneled walls. […]

Clank. Boom. Hiss.

Gears, explosions, and steam. What's not to like about steampunk? Me? I've loved inventing ever since my very first set of space Legos. Add in trains and a romantic era of chivelry and elegant garb - they might as well have created the genre just for me. I could wax poetic about steampunk all day, but that […]