Mastodawn

Stelliform Press Jun 6, 2025

What an excellent mail day! Two Stelliform authors (Rae Mariz and Michael J. DeLuca) who are also publishers sent me their latest flyers and zines! New swag printed with algae ink (!!) from Reckoning and zines from Toxoplasma Press filled with the kind of wry humor that made me fall in love with Weird Fishes 💙

#smallpress #indiepress #reckoningmagazine #toxoplasmapress #michaeljdeluca #raemariz

Stelliform Press Feb 1, 2025

The 2024 Locus Recommended Reading List has dropped, highlighting the excellent work of science fiction, fantasy, and horror writers in 2024, including Michael J. DeLuca's THE JAGUAR MASK in the First Novel category. Huge congratulations to all the recommended authors!

https://locusmag.com/2025/02/2024-recommended-reading-list/

2024 Recommended Reading List

Welcome to the annual Locus Recommended Reading List… We saw some fabulous books come out last year and are so pleased to let you know about them! This list is compiled by the Locus editor…

Locus Online

Paul Semel Jul 29, 2024

While we've all heard stories about the Greek and Roman gods, we've heard far less about the Yoruba ones. It's something author Michael J. DeLuca is hoping to rectify with his surrealist fantasy novel "The Jaguar Mask," which you can learn more about in this exclusive interview.
https://paulsemel.com/exclusive-interview-the-jaguar-mask-author-michael-j-deluca/
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#MichaelJDeLuca #MichaelJDeLucaInterview #MichaelJDeLucaTheJaguarMask #MichaelJDeLucaTheJaguarMaskInterview #Books #Reading #Fantasy #Noir #BookTok

Exclusive Interview: "The Jaguar Mask" Author Michael J. DeLuca .

Exclusive Interview: "The Jaguar Mask" Author Michael J. DeLuca \ In which he talks about this surrealist fantasy noir novel.

paulsemel.com

Laura Blackwell (she/her)Jul 18, 2024

Fantasy can transport you. I'm not just talking about settings; I'm talking about feelings. I'm talking about the stories @MichaelJDeLuca and @RachaelKJones just read for Story Hour. Beautiful, intense, dangerous, wrenching, and even hopeful. You really have to watch this one to understand. #StoryHour2020 #ShortStories #ShortFiction #AuthorReading #Fantasy #Literary #MichaelJDeLuca #RachaelKJones https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=1054667176311598

Story Hour (feat. Michael J. DeLuca and Rachael K. Jones) | Michael J. DeLuca reads "Grace in Orangeland" and Rachael K. Jones reads "The Fall Shall Further the Flight in Me." Hosted by Daniel Marcus. | By The Story Hour | Facebook

Michael J. DeLuca reads "Grace in Orangeland" and Rachael K. Jones reads "The Fall Shall Further the Flight in Me." Hosted by Daniel Marcus.

Laura Blackwell (she/her)Jul 16, 2024

This week's Story Hour is going to be fantastic! @MichaelJDeLuca returns (ask to see his new book cover) and nominated-for-everything @RachaelKJones makes her Story Hour debut! Behold the verdure that accompanies them! Wednesday, 7:00 p.m. PDT! #Authors #StoryHour2020 #ShortStories #AuthorReading #MichaelJDeLuca #RachaelKJones https://www.storyhour2020.com/

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Story Hour

Stelliform Press May 6, 2024

Huge thanks to Rebecca Campbell for these lovely, generous words about Michael J. DeLuca's THE JAGUAR MASK! This debut neo-noir fantasy is available for pre-order from our website. In Canada the book is also available to order via Raincoast/PGC.

#bookstodon #fantasy #fantasybooks #literaryfiction #speculativefiction #surrealfiction #ecofiction #climatefiction #clifi #rebeccacampbell #michaeljdeluca

November Grau Jul 15, 2023

Just finished the first volume of Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, an anthology by Mike Allen. This one came out in 2008, and is very loosely themed around fire, gears and resurrection, with an unconventional introduction about a phoenix and a magical train.

The line-up of contributing authors (or "pinions" as Allen calls them), features many of the decade's big names in SFF and horror. Catherynne Valente's "The City of Blind Delight" is most closely tied to the themes and has the rich multisensory charm for which she is known. The Cats Rambo ("The Drew Drop Coffee Lounge") and Sparks ("Palisade") both make fine appearances, and Tanith Lee provides a characteristically glamorous look at another world where all the gender and sex stuff has Gone A Bit Wrong ("The Woman"), though not without a few silver linings!

There are a lot of dystopias here, and though in most cases the promised element of beauty is certainly there, as the anthology proceeded through one awful future or parallel world after another I did struggle with the downbeat vibe. There are also a couple of high fantasy numbers that have dated badly, both as regards shallow depiction of women and/or rape and in terms of general cliched style (though I guess anyone who deliberately reads a story called "Choosers of the Slain" deserves what they get).

My favourite stories were both set in what is pessimistically referred to as the "real world": Michael J. DeLuca's "The Tarrying Messenger", about a self-righteous student on a cycling tour who comes upon a strange form of evangelism in the Arizona desert, has beautiful writing of a kind that seems to have fallen from fashion lately, and which draws a strong feeling of magic from sharp observations of places and buildings (and, of course, people). I also liked "The Occultation", an early one by Laird Barron. Like many Europeans I am a bit obsessed with American motel culture, especially when things get ghostly.

And finally Leah Bobet's "Bell, Book and Candle" also deserves a mention. None of the main characters in it are truly human but Bobet makes the reader identify with them as if they were, while still keeping their essential otherness and weirdness intact. That's difficult to achieve - so difficult, in fact, that I tend to avoid books with casts of non-human characters.

Anyway, although I'm by no means a fan of all speculative fiction - I skew towards horror and dark fantasy - the quality in most of these stories is high, there's plenty of variety, and I sense I will be reviewing more of these books in future! I also recommend ordering directly from Mythic Delirium: mine crossed the Atlantic impressively fast and with a signed dedication!

https://mythicdelirium.com/clockwork-phoenix-tales-of-beauty-and-strangeness

#MikeAllen #LairdBarron #LeahBobet #CatSparks #CatRambo #CatherynneValente #TanithLee #MichaelJDeLuca

#Horror #Fantasy #HorrorReviews

CLOCKWORK PHOENIX: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness • Mythic Delirium Books

The first volume in the acclaimed CLOCKWORK PHOENIX anthology series, gathering difficult to classify stories with elements of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Mythic Delirium Books

Sonnenbarke Jul 15, 2023

Just finished the first volume of Clockwork Phoenix: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness, an anthology by Mike Allen. This one came out in 2008, and is very loosely themed around fire, gears and resurrection, with an unconventional introduction about a phoenix and a magical train.

The line-up of contributing authors (or "pinions" as Allen calls them), features many of the decade's big names in SFF and horror. Catherynne Valente's "The City of Blind Delight" is most closely tied to the themes and has the rich multisensory charm for which she is known. The Cats Rambo ("The Drew Drop Coffee Lounge") and Sparks ("Palisade") both make fine appearances, and Tanith Lee provides a characteristically glamorous look at another world where all the gender and sex stuff has Gone A Bit Wrong ("The Woman"), though not without a few silver linings!

There are a lot of dystopias here, and though in most cases the promised element of beauty is certainly there, as the anthology proceeded through one awful future or parallel world after another I did struggle with the downbeat vibe. There are also a couple of high fantasy numbers that have dated badly, both as regards shallow depiction of women and/or rape and in terms of general cliched style (though I guess anyone who deliberately reads a story called "Choosers of the Slain" deserves what they get).

My favourite stories were both set in what is pessimistically referred to as the "real world": Michael J. DeLuca's "The Tarrying Messenger", about a self-righteous student on a cycling tour who comes upon a strange form of evangelism in the Arizona desert, has beautiful writing of a kind that seems to have fallen from fashion lately, and which draws a strong feeling of magic from beautiful, sharp observations of places and buildings (and, of course, people). And I also liked "The Occultation", an early one by Laird Barron. Like many Europeans I am a bit obsessed with American motel culture, especially when things get ghostly.

And finally Leah Bobet's "Bell, Book and Candle" also deserves a mention. None of the main characters in it are truly human but Bobet makes the reader identify with them as if they were, while still keeping their essential otherness and weirdness intact. That's difficult to achieve - so difficult, in fact, that I tend to avoid books with casts of non-human characters.

Anyway, although I'm by no means a fan of all speculative fiction - I skew towards horror and dark fantasy - the quality in most of these stories is high, there's plenty of variety, and I sense I will be reviewing more of these books in future! I also recommend ordering directly from Mythic Delirium: mine crossed the Atlantic impressively fast and with a signed dedication!

https://mythicdelirium.com/clockwork-phoenix-tales-of-beauty-and-strangeness

#MikeAllen #LairdBarron #LeahBobet #CatSparks #CatRambo #CatherynneValente #TanithLee #MichaelJDeLuca

#Horror #Fantasy #HorrorReviews

CLOCKWORK PHOENIX: Tales of Beauty and Strangeness • Mythic Delirium Books

The first volume in the acclaimed CLOCKWORK PHOENIX anthology series, gathering difficult to classify stories with elements of science fiction, fantasy and horror.

Mythic Delirium Books