Skye Allen's Blog

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog, but I haven’t been totally quiet. I finished a novel and sent it into the query trenches. Ditto a few short stories. And I made an album.

Writing songs is different from writing fiction, but not that different. The songs I picked for Ten Mile Creek are mostly story songs. And every one is about loss. Heartache, mourning, the broken places that never made you stronger. Even the one about the rancher who got cheated by a bartender is about wat...

“Once, in the grocery store parking lot, Leo had grabbed my car door and said if he ever caught me and Harriet together, he’d put an end to me and my sick ways. I’d never told her. Harriet was a wild bird; she’d be across the river in a breath if you startled her. I needed to be quiet and observe, leave out small soft things for her to find, things to tempt her to build a nest.”

I always thought we should hear Paulina’s version of events in The Winter’s Tale. My story “Runoff” is out now in ...

Friends! I have a story coming out in Cloud Lake Literary. I’m more shocked than you are because 1) this story is a very personal and weird retelling of the Winter’s Tale and honest to god I never thought anybody would want to read it, 2) this was the story I wrote during Viable Paradise, meaning I bashed it out in 2 delirious days and it doesn’t feel or act like any other story to me, and 3) it’s science fiction. Cloud Lake Literary is literary.

And! This is my first Canadian sale. I moved ...

Mythaxis Magazine is out today and my story Alight is in it! This was one of my submission stories for Viable Paradise, but I’d despaired of it ever finding a home. I’m still astounded that it has. And all the other stories in the issue are so damn good. And the story art by Andrew Leon Hudson captures the exact abandon-hope-all-ye-who-enter vibe I was going for.

Friends! I have a story coming out in Mythaxis Magazine. I’m beyond thrilled to have my weird little nightclub fire tale in this delightful publication. Coming soon!

We dont know for sure if William Shakespeare wrote King Lear during a bubonic plague lockdown, but we may be closer to his state of mind than ever, still being deep in the plagues that hang in this pendulous air today. I hope you and your loved ones are well and safe, with all the TP and sourdough starter and job security one needs to get a decent nights sleep.

This month, to celebrate Shakespeares 456th birthday, lets examine the terrible life choices and morally reprehensible leadership...

Friends, in the time of coronavirus, I trust youre safe and well, or if by some feared but daily increasing chance youre not, I trust what is infirm from your sound parts shall fly, health shall live free, and sickness freely die. *

In the meantime, once you have enough toilet paper stocked to satisfy the most anxious in your household, the next thing you need is a good story. Richard III is a very good story.

Richard III might be the best (worst) Shakespeare villain. I know I said that about...

I’m going to be at FogCon!

I’m excited about my first trip to this con, and double goodness, I can actually be there for the opening ceremonies to hear both Honored Guests, Nisi Shawl and Mary Anne Mohanraj. I’ve gotten a lot from Mary Anne Mohanraj’s wisdom on Writing Excuses. And I was lucky enough to attend the Viable Paradise writing workshop last fall, where Nisi Shawl was an instructor and gave an unforgettable lecture on dialect and dialog; their novel Everfair is one of those luminous...

It’s time for Henry VI this month on What Happens in Shakespeare. At long last, patient Free Folk of Westeros, we kick off the Wars of the Roses.

This Henry somehow merited three plays – Henry IV Parts 1, 2, and 3. We literally go from Henry’s cradle to his grave. But we get Joan of Arc. Witchcraft. Rebel alliances. Dolphins. And a band of oh-so-convenient Shakespeare pirates.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company tweeted:

HENRY VI, 1
Henry V-play AND king-is tough act to follow. Not even a genius...

This month on What Happens in Shakespeare, it’s Henry V. It’s gruesome. It won’t make you like Prince Hal any better. In a mock trial in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court debated whether Henry V was justified in his slaughter of French prisoners of war. So you know going into it that the sort-of happy ending comes with a serious body count.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company tweeted:“A king’s gotta do what a king’s gotta do. MORAL: England good, France bad.”

What happens in Henry V
(King of England...