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Welcome! My name is Roland Allnach. Visitors to this site will most likely know me from some of my published fiction, which so far has appeared in both print journals and on the Internet. I've secured publication for stories in various genres. My taste for the written word is eclectic, as my stories attest. If there's a general feel to my fiction, it is a sense of 'darkness', most often portraying strange people in perhaps even stranger circumstances. Along the way, I try to do some mainstream fiction as well, just to keep things well rounded. I created this site to serve as a resource for readers interested in the stories I've put to paper (or web page). I want this to be a casual read, so the tone will be conversational. The tone of my fiction, as you may already know, can be quite different. That aside, the point, of course, is that these stories entertain you, the reader. So, if you wish, delve this site, and enjoy. I intend this site to be an evolving project. I update on a regular basis, and highlight areas I've added or revised in the monthly news posts below. I was recently interviewed for
Lifetime's morning show, 'The Balancing Act', regarding my latest book,
Oddities & Entities (air date June 14,2012). Here's the
video trailer:
At present, I've secured publication for numerous stories. There are also two stand alone anthologies of my novellas, Remnant (published 2010) and Oddities & Entities (published 2012).
An
excerpt of Remnant is
available here
for your reading curiosity.
Remnant placed as 'Finalist' in the Science Fiction Category of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards. To read market reviews of Remnant, please click straight through to the following page, REVIEWS.
JUST RELEASED! Oddities & Entities is available at ATTM Press, Amazon (print), Kindle, and Barnes&Noble (Nook). An
excerpt
of Oddities & Entities is available here for your reading curiosity.
In the meantime, I invite you to follow the links below:
And to those who have taken the time to visit this site and read my stories, I offer my thanks.
Visit me at:
AuthorsDen.com
Visit me at:
LibraryThing.com Visit me at:
facebook,
at my page,
www.facebook.com/roland.allnach Check out my blog at:
rafictionzone.blogspot.com
May, 2012 This month starts off with a few
goodies, in addition to me getting back to writing. I'm working on
some story ideas, and along that line I'm putting the final touches on
one story, "Defaeco", and I started work on a novella, the first of what
I plan as another set of novellas to follow up Oddities & Entities. April, 2012. . .turning into another action-packed month! 4/18: Here's an
exciting new step in my writing career. . .
My next 'phase' for this year starts now, that is, time to get some market reviews for Oddities & Entities. There's another blog review for Remnant, at 'Everyday Life'. Just scroll down the page for the review and giveaway.
3/29:
Here's a wonderful blog review, this one at 'The Mommy Bunch'.
And yet another giveaway... 3/1: This month's post is going up right away, in preparation for the publication of Oddities & Entities. I'm going to create content here similar as to what I have for Remnant, so I have to put on my construction hat and get to work on the website. Once Oddities & Entities is out I will publish the updates to this site as well, and everything will be available for your curiosity. February, 2012 Things are moving right along with Oddities & Entities, with the edit phase concluded and entering the phase of cover design, back cover blurb, and so on. I'm very proud of O&E, as I feel it represents a nice growth in my abilities as an author, and for all the pride that I have for Remnant, I think O&E shows a step forward. All that, of course, is open to opinion, which I'm eager to hear once O&E sees the light of day. In another nice piece of news I'm happy to announce that I will be doing a book signing at ICON, a large science fiction convention. When I was in college I went to several ICON's and dreamed about being 'on the other side' of the convention tables, and now that is going to happen. I don't have hard info as to my signing time or anything else I might be participating in at ICON, so that info will follow. General information can be found at the official site, www.ICONsf.org And in breaking news...One of my short stories, 'The City of Never', has been named among Aphelion webzine's 'Best of 2011' fiction. Read 'The City of Never' here (takes you to Aphelion's website), or, visit the associated Behind the Stories essay right here on this site. January, 2012 Well, well, well, the new year has arrived and Mother Nature so far has given us a little bit of a break with Winter (at least in my locality). Now that the holidays have raced by it's time to get back to business, and I have a few plans cooking toward that end. Here on the website I'm going to review and reorganize and/or re-title my hyperlinks over the next few weeks. It's part of a little thing called SEO: Search Engine Optimization, or to a self-taught site designer like myself, another project to undertake. In essence I'll be departing form vague, generic link text such as 'read here' to 'read story X here'. I'll also be taking all the news posts I've been adding each month and putting them a new page I'm going to call 'The Vault', as the home page here is getting rather lengthy. My plan is to keep the current month's post on the home page and provide a link to the Vault page, which will have bookmark links by year. That may seem like boring stuff, but in retrospect it's pretty exciting and satisfying to think I've done enough things to both have monthly posts and also have enough of them to need to reorganize. On the all important writing front it's back to the lengthy process of researching markets for my stories and the patient process of submissions. I've been gathering ideas for some new stories (I like to refer to them as story seeds) and I'm looking forward to getting those written. In short order I should be moving into the edit phase of my second anthology, Oddities & Entities, so that's something I can't wait to get into. December, 2011 So here we are at the close of 2011, and another year has raced by (not to mention this month). I'd like to start by once again thanking everyone who has visited me here at my home on the internet to spend a little time with my literary pursuit. It's been a good year of growth, with thousands of hits and page views, so it seems word is spreading, and I have my visitors to thank for that growth. Happy Holidays to all of you, in all the ways in which you may celebrate. And what prospects come with the new year? My second anthology, Oddities & Entities, will see publication. As always I continue to write and ply the publication market for short stories and reviews. The future is open, and despite what the Mayans might have said, I look forward to the vast unknown of the coming year. November, 2011 Mid-November: Remnant
has been reviewed by Midwest Book Review. The capsule
review is part of their November Reviewer's Bookwatch.
From the review: "With plenty to ponder and plenty to keep readers
reading, 'Remnant' is a fine assortment of thought, highly recommended."
Early November: The first item of news is right here on the screen, which would be what I like to think of as 'version 2.0' of the website. I was proud of the old presentation, as it was my first go at building pages from scratch, but now that I have a little experience under my belt it was time for a more polished presentation. I'm happy with the way it came out, and I hope it's more pleasant for viewing. I may be doing a little more remodeling over the next weeks or months, but this was enough of an undertaking for now. Second item of news concerns the upcoming publication of "Conquest's End", which I mentioned here in last month's post. The publication schedule of Bewildering Stories has been moved back a bit, but once the issue is out and the link available I will have it here. I have the corresponding "Behind the Stories" essay already posted, in case you want to get a little taste for the story. October, 2011 Autumn is well on its way, and with that change, a few changes here as well. In the ever-evolving world of the Internet things don't often stay in the same place, and in respect to that, two of the publications where I've been published have gone through changes of their own. I'm sad to say that one of those changes has been the closure of Absent Willow Review, which is a real loss to quality genre fiction. As a result of such changes, two of my published stories, "Memento" and "Flowers for Colleen" are now available for reading right here on this site. In other news, I will have another story coming out to the light of publication. My story "Conquest's End", a piece of high mythic fantasy told in a form of prose poetry, is due out the end of this month in Bewildering Stories. Once the story is out and the link goes live I will post it here, along with the usual essay on my "Behind the Stories" page. September, 2011 Hurricane Irene has blasted through and left a bit of mess behind, but life goes on. It's early in the month, but one small addition to the website here, in the form of a new page: the 'Media and Presskit' page which will serve as a source for promotional reference material. The media page hosts links to view/print/download PDF files for both a book fact sheet for Remnant and a full presskit. The ForeWord Clarion review for Remnant has posted and it is very flattering. It is posted on the 'Reviews' page or you can jump over to ForeWord Clarion and read the review here. August, 2011 Some exciting news here--my second published book is on the way! I've mentioned this title here and there with the hope that it would make it to press, and my publisher, All Things That Matter Press, has decided to accept it for publication. So along with Remnant, I will have another title for readers to explore. Like Remnant, this second title will be an anthology of short stories and novellas, but this time I'll be exploring the paranormal/supernatural/horror genres. The collection will go by the title of Oddities & Entities, and to get a taste of it, check out my short story "Shift/Change", which will be included in the anthology, and was previously published on its own in the web-zine Aphelion. If you'd like to read it, jump over to Aphelion right here. I also sent out to Kirkus Indie Reviews
the manuscript for a mainstream fiction novel I wrote, Yonville,
to get some feedback. Yonville marks my first foray into this genre of
writing, and gave me the chance to portray something a little different, and perhaps not so different, from my other published
writing. The review is very flattering, more so considering that the book is in manuscript stage, with only my personal
editing to polish it up. July, 2011 All the latest reviews have posted, except for Foreword Clarion, which should be available soon. I'll have a link for that when it's available, but in the meantime, I've posted all the reviews to the "Reviews" page right here on my site. I've also included on that page links to a number of interviews I've done for Remnant. It was a pleasure to do the interviews, and I hope they are as interesting for readers as they were for me. Other than that I've been proofing and rewriting a number of older projects to bring them 'up to snuff' for potential submission, and my education in the very big world of marketing continues to remind me how little I know about this precious skill. Summer has arrived in all its glory, the weather is wonderful, and all the snow and cold of winter is a distant memory-- at long last. This also marks a one year anniversary for this site, and I have to say, it has grown much to my satisfaction and appreciation both in terms of content and visitation. So to all who have dropped by to take a gander, once again I offer all of you a hearty thank-you! June, 2011 My plans for getting some more exposure for Remnant will be coming together this month. I've received some great reviews, have some interviews, and there may be some other goodies coming along. Here are some links and descriptions of what's 'cooking' (I'll be adding this content to my site on the 'Reviews' page once everything has been posted on the host sites, probably some time in July, but for now, the links below will take you away from this site): Feathered Quill: Check out
the great review for
Remnant
here (you'll have to scroll down the home page to see the review). I also did an
interview, which you can read
here. The review is also viewable on Feathered Quill's blog, accessible from their home page. On the perhaps not-so-exciting
front... Mid-May, 2011 While I was out in LA I had the opportunity to do a little a video promo for Remnant, courtesy of the good folks at Authors Den. You can find the video at my facebook page. I'm the second presenting author in the video. Enjoy! And also on the topic of Remnant, it is judged a 'Finalist' in the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards in the Science Fiction Category (which you may have already noticed above...). May, 2011 Well, there I am, in Los Angeles at the LA Times Book Festival
for my first book signing. To all who came by to visit I would
like
to offer my thanks. I had the opportunity to meet a good number
of interesting people, considering that I was a little fish in the big
ocean of a massive event spread across the USC campus. The
Book Festival was great, and I learned a lot of things, and found
some good leads I'll be exploring in the future to help promote my I'd also like to thank the people at Authors Den, who hosted my signing session, and helped make all this possible. If you're a writer, and you haven't taken a look at Authors Den, I suggest you explore your options. By the way, I even managed to squeeze in some time to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean. On a more traditional note, Remnant is now available at a traditional book store, a wonderful place in Huntington, New York known as the Book Revue. It's an honor to be part of one of the few remaining great independent book stores. If you are in the area and happen to drop by the store, you'll find me on the Long Island Authors table, straight in from the front doors. Or, check out their website at www.bookrevue.com. April, 2011 This just in...My book signing is 3:00 to 5:00 pm April 30. Hope to see you there! LA TIMES BOOK FESTIVAL, April 30/May1, is rapidly
approaching...and I'll be there! I have not yet Aside from that nice piece of news, here on the website I plan
on expanding the entries on my 'For the Last but not least, in my continuing goal to host my published
stories right here on this site, I have added Late March, 2011 I'm posting this later than I had hoped. I built myself a new computer, as the old workhorse was sputtering its last breaths, only to have the voltage regulator on the new motherboard die. So I was on minimal computing power for awhile, but as the saying goes, I have returned. Good news- another review, and another great critique of Remnant, this one from San Francisco Review. It comes at a great time as the LA Book Festival is approaching at the end of April, and Remnant will be displayed there courtesy of Authors Den, so the review will hopefully spread some buzz for the book. You can find the review here, at San Francisco Review's website, or you can take a look at it on the 'Reviews' page I have set up on this site. And while I'm discussing Remnant, it is now available at Barnes&Noble, at their website. March, 2011 Well, this is actually going up at the end of February,
but oh well. As you can see I reorganized the home In a bit of unfortunate news, my entry to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest did not make it past the first round. Yes, that is a major disappointment, but the first round was based solely on a short pitch, not any of the actual book itself. So I look it more as a rejection of the sales pitch I wrote, rather than my book. I know my pitch-writing skills are somewhat lacking, but it's not as easy as it sounds- there are firms and specialists for doing nothing but sales pitches. Something I may have to consider at some point, I guess. I also posted some pictures on my 'A Few Words About Me' page. Not too serious, though. Mid-February, 2011 Reviews are starting to come in for Remnant, so
I have created a separate page, "REVIEWS",
where I'll I have also added to this site my short story "Return", which
was previously only available in print in February, 2011 Good news, the first reader reviews for Remnant
have appeared on Amazon, and so far, it's a solid In a side note, I've submitted one of my full length novels to
Amazon's 2011 Breakthrough Novel Award I also added to my 'A Few Words About Me' page a copy of my
'professional' bio that I use for marketing This February post will update as the month moves along. I have plans. . . January, 2011 The new year is upon us and time has been tight.
Unfortunately I did not get to write the post-read essay As you may have noticed I have registered this site for security scanning so you, the visitor, can
browse I have also added to the website the entirety of "Creep", my
Pushcart prize nominated story. You can find In regard to 2010 and the growth of this site, after site launch in June 2010 there have been several hundred visits spanning readers from thirty-three countries. To all of you, I thank you, and I hope to deliver more published writing for your enjoyment in 2011. December, 2010 To all the people that have been reading Remnant, I thank you and hope you have been enjoying the stories. Now that the book has been out for a few weeks and some may have finished reading the stories, I hope to add some more to the Remnant page, namely, a post-read addition getting a little deeper into the story elements. At present I'm working to get a second anthology together, but that's more of a 'medium-range' plan, as I have one more novella to write to finish the collection. So, in the meantime, Happy Holidays! 2010 was a great
year for pushing my writing career November, 2010 November has arrived, and as noted above, Remnant has gone to publication. I'm very proud of the three novellas that make up the anthology. For those who choose to give it a read, I thank you, and I hope you enjoy the book. I have set up a page on the site here similar to one of my "Behind the Stories" blurbs, but just for Remnant (jump to it here). Ordering information for Remnant is linked just above on this page. The links are also on the page I created for Remnant so if you want to get a feel for the book, you can take a look on this page before you consider a purchase. Mid-October, 2010 The Fall 2010 issue of Rose & Thorn Journal has
posted, including my story "Apogee". October, 2010 Fall is here, and with it will be coming a new edition of Rose & Thorn Journal, which will be home for my tenth publication credit, "Apogee". So far 2010 has been a great year; at this point I've doubled my publication credits, and, of course, my anthology, Remnant was accepted for publication. Work on that front is progressing without delay. Edits are done, I've reviewed the galley, and cover art is in the works. I set up a page on Author's Den, a great site for getting readers connected with material of authors they enjoy. So far the response has been great, and in one month, I've had readers from around the world. To all of you who paid a visit, I thank you, and hope you enjoyed the stories. I don't have a solid publication date for the issue of Rose & Thorn Journal in which "Apogee" will appear, but when that time comes, as usual I will update the 'Behind the Stories' and 'Read the Stories' pages. September, 2010 September has arrived, and with it, publication of another short story of mine, "The Great Hunter", appearing in Foliate Oak Literary Journal. This story is a bit of a departure from my usual style of writing, but I don't want to give anything else away. I've updated my pages here with additions to 'Read the Stories' and 'Behind the Stories'. Or, join the adventure of "The Great Hunter" here (this will take you to the website of Foliate Oak). In the meantime, work continues on Remnant, and things are moving right along. August, 2010 "Shift/Change", my eighth story to be
published, is currently online in the webzine Aphelion. I've
updated And in other news, I've just recently had an anthology of three of my unpublished novellas accepted for publication by All Things That Matter Press. I'll be putting a notice here when it is available... June, 2010 Hello, Internet. A website has just crawled from the cradle.
Site launch: June 2010 |