Trope-twisting adventure, inclusive found families, and wry humor.

Contact info:
You can reach me at munderwood(at)gmail(dot)com.

I’m represented by Kim-Mei Kirtland of the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency.

Film/tv rights to Geekomancy are managed by Jon Cassir of Creative Artists Agency.

Film/tv rights to Genrenauts are managed by Brendan Deenan of Assemble Media.

Hello! I’m Mike – a speculative fiction writer, game designer, and actual play producer. My pronouns are they/he.

I’ve circumnavigated the globe, danced the tango with legends, and I know why Tybalt cancels out Capo Ferro. I also roll a mean d20.

I live in Baltimore, MD, with my wife, our dog Oreo, and an ever-growing library.

My writing has been a finalist for the r/Fantasy Stabby Award for Best Serialized Fiction and I was a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Fancast with the Skiffy & Fanty Show. I was a finalist for Best Game Master (Video Actual Play) at the New Jersey WebFest for Valloward.

Before I became a writer, I spent six years in academia, earning a B.A. in Creative Mythology (through the Individualized Major Program) and East Asian Studies from Indiana University and an M.A. in Folklore Studies from the University of Oregon. What that means is that I’m professionally qualified to geek out about mythology, Chinese and Japanese History, and Folklore (anything from mythology to internet memes).

In 2007, I attended the Clarion West Writers Workshop. I’ve worked odd jobs from game store clerk to web design instructor, publishers’ representative, bookseller, and more.

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My works:

My latest novel is Annihilation Aria, published July 21st, 2020.

An exuberant space opera that dares us to lose ourselves in battle songs and nonstop action!

A woman who can wield a weapon like a song and her voice like a weapon. A man who can out-think any problem. A pilot who can outmaneuver the best of them. Lahra, Max, and Wheel live and work aboard the Kettle, salvaging artifacts from dangerous galactic ruins to keep scraping by.

But those artifacts can unlock an ancient power which threatens the iron-fisted rule of the galaxy’s imperialist overlords, the Vsenk. To protect their dominion, the Vsenk have humbled entire civilizations. They eat ships like the Kettle and her found family for breakfast.

Lahra, Max, and Wheel are each just trying to get home to the lives they lost, but they’ll have to evade space fascists, kick-start a rebellion, and save the galaxy first to do it.

Board the Kettle for a space opera like none you’ve ever read before; an adventure of galactic subterfuge, ancient alien lore, a secret resistance force, lost civilizations, and giant space turtles.

My first novel is an urban fantasy called Geekomancy (published July 2012 by Pocket Star, an imprint of Simon & Schuster). Geekomancy was inspired by stories like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Clerks, the Dresden Files, and The Middleman, as well as my experiences growing up geeky. The series continues with Celebromancy, Attack the Geek, and Hexomancy.

My other books are:

Genrenauts: A science fiction series in novellas. Each season is comprised of 6 episodes. The first two novellas, The Shootout Solution and The Absconded Ambassador, are published by Tor.com. Genrenauts: The Complete Season One Collection is now available.

Shield and Crocus: An action-packed mash-up of weird fantasy and superheroes

The Younger Gods: A supernatural thriller starring the one moral son in a family of sociopathic apocalypse cultists.

Born to the Blade – an epic fantasy serial with Cassandra Khaw, Malka Older, and Marie Brennan, published by Realm.

Press info

Micro bio (50 words)

Michael R. Underwood is the author of over a dozen books across several series.

Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife and their dog.

Short bio (100 words):

Michael R. Underwood is an author, game designer, and actual play producer. Their books include space opera Annihilation Aria, the Ree Reyes Geekomancy books, the Stabby Award finalist Genrenauts series, and Born to the Blade (written with Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan). He’s been a bookseller, sales representative, and was the North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books. They have been a co-host of the actual play show Speculate! and a guest host on the Hugo Award-finalist The Skiffy and Fanty Show.

Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife, their dog, and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with games and making pizzas from scratch.

Medium bio (200 words):

Michael R. Underwood is the author, game designer, and actual play producer. They’ve written over twelve fiction books, including Annihilation Aria, Born to the Blade (an epic fantasy serial written with Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan), the Ree Reyes Geekomancy series and Genrenauts (a finalist for the r/Fantasy “Stabby” Award.)

Mike grew up devouring stories in all forms, from comics to video games, tabletop RPGs, movies, and books. He holds a B.A. in Creative Mythology and in East Asian Studies from Indiana University and a M.A. in Folklore Studies from the University of Oregon.

In years past, he danced Argentine Tango and was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and studying historical martial arts. Mike has been a hobby game store clerk, a student archivist, a webmaster, a web design teacher, a bear-builder, a bookseller, an independent publishers’ representative, and more.

Mike is a game designer on the forthcoming Daggerheart from Darrington Press and provided writing and design consulting on Candela Obscura.

Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife, their dog Oreo, and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with video & role-playing games, studying historical martial arts, and making pizzas from scratch. They have also been a co-host on the actual play show Speculate! and a guest host on The Skiffy and Fanty Show.

Long bio (450 words):

Michael R. Underwood is the author of over twelve books, including the Ree Reyes urban fantasy series (Geekomancy, Celebromancy, Attack the Geek, Hexomancy), Born to the Blade (an epic fantasy serial with Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan), as well as Shield and Crocus,The Younger Gods, and the Genrenauts novella series, which was a finalist for a r/Fantasy “Stabby” Award. His latest book is Annihilation Aria, a found-family space opera.

Mike was born in Bloomington, IN, to parents who met through musical theater. He was, from birth, doomed to be a performer. He saw Star Wars: The Return of the Jedi in theaters before the age of one, instilling a love of mythic storytelling and speculative fiction from a very young age. He has lived in Texas, New York, New Jersey, Indiana, Oregon, New York again, and now Maryland. He hates moving. A lot.

Mike grew up devouring stories in all forms, from comics to video games, tabletop RPGs, movies, and books. Always books. He holds a B.A. in Creative Mythology and in East Asian Studies from Indiana University and a M.A. in Folklore Studies from the University of Oregon.

As a teen, Mike was raised by gamers at the Game Preserve in Bloomington, IN, playing nearly every CCG known to humanity, as well as miniatures games, lots of RPGs, and other whacky geek ephemera. His experience at the Game Preserve was a primary inspiration for the Ree Reyes series of novels.

Mike is a game designer on the forthcoming Daggerheart from Darrington Press and provided writing and design consulting on Candela Obscura. Their debut one-page rpg The Only Logical Solution is Hijinx was published in 2022 and they are developing Let’s Go Steal an Ending: The Genrenauts TTRPG.

In the proud tradition of writers everywhere, Mike has held a variety of jobs, ranging from retail mascot to web design instructor. He has also worked as a hobby game store clerk, a student archivist, submissions reader for Fantasy magazine, a webmaster, essayist and reviewer for PopMatters, a bear-builder, a bookseller, an independent publishers’ representative, and the North American Sales & Marketing Manager for Angry Robot Books.

In 2003, he participated in the Semester At Sea program, circumnavigating the world in a ship of someone else’s making. On the journey, he visited Japan, China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, India, Tanzania, South Africa, Brazi, and Cuba.

Mike lives in Baltimore with his wife, their dog, and an ever-growing library. He also loves geeking out with video & role-playing games, studying historical martial arts, and making pizzas from scratch. They have also been a guest host on the Hugo Award Finalist The Skiffy and Fanty Show and co-host of Speculate, an Actual Play podcast starring a rotating cast of speculative fiction professionals.

In years past, he danced Argentine Tango, performed in an alternative tango band, and was an active member of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Complete Novel & Novella publication list:

The Ree Reyes books
Geekomancy (2012)
Celebromancy (2013)
Attack the Geek (2014)
Hexomancy (2015)

Shield & Crocus (2014)

The Younger Gods (2014)

Genrenauts
The Shootout Solution (2015)
The Absconded Ambassador (2016)
The Cupid Reconciliation (2016)
The Substitute Sleuth (2016)
The Failed Fellowship (2016)
Genrenauts: The Complete Season One (2016)
The Wasteland War (2021)

Born to the Blade (2018) – written with Malka Older, Cassandra Khaw, and Marie Brennan

Game Design

Daggerheart (forthcoming) – Game Designer
Candela Obscura (2023) – Game Design Consultant, Additional Writing
The Only Logical Solution is Hijinx – Designer
Let’s Go Steal an Ending: The Genrenauts RPG (forthcoming) – Designer/Creator

Short Fiction:

“The Unlikely Turncoat” (a Genrenauts story) — Hath No Fury

“Can You Tell Me How To Get To Paprika Place?” — Upside Down: Inverted Tropes in Storytelling

“There Will Always Be a Max” (a Genrenauts story) — Tor.com, April 2016

“Last Tango in Gamma Sector” — Crossed Genres #19

“Kachikachi Yama” — Escape Pod 266 and Soundproof Escape Pod #2. (audio and epub versions, respectively).

Non-Fiction:

Everything is Miscellaneous: Why Publishing Needs Tagging at Boing Boing

25 Secrets of Publishing, Revealed! (Or: Inside the Bookish Shatterdome) at TerribleMinds

Prisoners, Deserters, and an Age of Heroes at A Dribble of Ink

“The Friends That Game Together: A Folkloric Expansion of Textual Poaching to Genre Farming for Socialization in Tabletop Role-Playing Games” at the Journal of Transformative Works

“The Middleman Season One” review at the Internet Review of Science Fiction

Appearances

Keep an eye on this page to see me out and about in the world.

If you’d like me to attend as a guest for your conference, convention, or festival in 2024 or 2025, please contact mikeunderwoodassistant@gmail.com

2024:

• LavenderCon
• GenCon
• New Jersey WebFest
• BigBadCon
• PAX Unplugged

2023:

• Nebula Conference
• New Jersey WebFest
• BigBadCon
• PAX Unplugged

2022:

• WriteFest
• Flights of Foundry
• BaltiCon
• Nebula Conference
• BigBadCon

2021:

• Capricon
• BaltiCon
• Nebula Conference
• FIYAHCON
• DisCon (WorldCon)

2020:

• ConFusion (Novi, MI)
• BaltiCon (Baltimore, MD)
• BFGCon (Frederick, MD) [cancelled due to pandemic]
• Nebula Conference (Los Angeles, CA)
• Worldbuilders

2019:

• ConFusion
• BFGCon
• BaltiCon
• Nebulas
• Origins Game Fair
• Baltimore Book Festival

2018:

• ConFusion
• Emerald City Comicon
• Philadelphia Science Fiction Society (April 6 – Philadelphia, PA)
• Balticon (Baltimore, MD)
• Galactic Philadelphia (June 12th – Philadelphia, PA)
• WorldCon (San Jose, CA)
• Quarry Festival of Books (Oct 13 – Bloomington, IN)
• World Fantasy Convention (Nov 1-4 – Baltimore, MD)
• New York Review of Science Fiction Reading (Nov 13 – Brooklyn, NY)

2017:

• ConFusion (January 19-12), Novi, MI
• Emerald City Comic-Con (Mar 2-5), Seattle, WA
• NorWesCon (Apr 13-16), Seattle, WA (Angry Robot – Spotlight Publisher)
• Pike’s Peak Writers Conference (Apr 26-28), Colorado Springs, CO (Faculty)
• SFWA Nebula Conference (May 18-21), Pittsburgh, PA
• BaltiCon (May 26-29), Baltimore, MD
• CONvergence (Jul 6-9), Bloomington, MN
• WorldCon 75 (Aug 9-13), Helsinki, Finland
• Baltimore Book Festival (Sep 22-24), Baltimore, MD

2016:

• ConFusion (January 21-24), Novi, MI
• Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo (March 18-20), Chicago, IL
• Emerald City Comic-Con (April 7-10), Seattle, WA
• SFWA Nebula Conference (May 12-15), Chicago, IL
• BaltiCon 50 (May 27-30), Baltimore, MD
• CONvergence (June 30-July 3), Bloomington, MN
• GenCon (August 4-7), Indianapolis, IN
• MidAmeriCon (August 17-21), Kansas City, MO
• NerdCon: Stories (October 14-15), Minneapolis, MN (Featured Guest)

2015:

• ConFusion (January 16-18), Dearborn, MI
• BaltiCon (May 22-25th) Baltimore, MD
• BEA/BookCon (May 27th-31st) New York, NY
• CONvergence (July 2-5th) Bloomington, MN
• GenCon (July 30-Aug 2) Indianapolis, IN
• Sasquan (Aug 19-23) Spokane, WA
• Baltimore Book Festival (Sep 26-27) Baltimore, MD
• Baltimore Comic-Con (Sep 25-27) Baltimore, MD
• New York Comic-Con (Oct 8-11) New York, NY
• World Fantasy Con (Nov. 5-8) Saratoga Springs, NY

2014:

• Legendary ConFusion (Detroit, MI)
• FOGcon (Mar 7-9, San Francisco, CA)
• BaltiCon (May 23-26, Baltimore, MD)
• Book Expo America (May 29-31, New York, NY)
• Phoenix Comic-Con (June 5-8, Phoenix, AZ)
• Shield and Crocus launch party (June 20, Baltimore, MD)
• CONvergence (July 3-6, Bloomington, MN)
• ReaderCon (July 10-13, Burlington, MA)
• LonCon (August 14-18, London, UK)
• Baltimore Book Festival (September 26-28, Baltimore, MD)
• New York Comic-Con (October 9-12, New York, NY)
• World Fantasy Convention (November 6-9, Washington, DC)

2013

• ConFusion (Jan 18-20, Dearborn, MI)
• Bergen Country SF Association (May 11th, 2013) 
• WisCon  (May 24-27, Madison, WI)
• Book Expo America (May 30-Jun 1, New York, NY) supporting Angry Robot, Strange Chemistry, and Exhibit A
• American Library Association (Jun 27-Jul 2, Chicago, IL) supporting Strange Chemistry
• Convergence (Jul 4th-7th, Boomington, MN) supporting Angry Robot
• ReaderCon (Jul 11-14, Burlington, MA)
• WorldCon (Aug 29-Sep 2, San Antonio, TX)
• BoucherCon (Sep 19-22, Albany, NY) supporting Exhibit A
• Baltimore Book Festival (Sept 27-29, Baltimore, MD)
• New York Comic Con (Oct 10-13, New York, NY)
• World Fantasy Con 2013 (Oct 31-Nov 3, Brighton, UK)

Interview/Podcast/Places Mike has been on the internet archive:

Hangout on Air Interview with Literary Escapism

Guest Writer on The Roundtable Podcast (20 Minutes With…Mar 1 and Workshop episode Mar 5th)

Dungeon Crawlers Radio

Once and Future Podcast

Speculate! The Podcast For Writers, Readers, and Fans:
Episode 55 – State of the Field, with Special Guests Mary Robinette Kowal and Michael Underwood

Hangout on Air with WDG

Lessons from a Sales Rep: How to Market Your Book Like a Pro

Interview at Terribleminds (the blog of Chuck Wendig)

Interview at the blog of AmyBeth Inverness

Interview at the blog of Alethea Kontis 

5 Questions at the blog of L.S. Murphy

Interview at My Bookish Ways

Interview at Hollywood Jane

Interview at the Qwillery

Guest Blog at the Qwillery

Interview in Comics, Culture, and ‘Geekomancy’ on Artworks

FAQ

I figured it was about time to do a FAQ. If you have additional questions to add, go ahead and post them in comments.

Q) Will there be a sequel to Hexomancy?

A) I have outlines for more Ree & Drake stories, but the sales on the series were trending down and the publisher did not offer on more books. I’d like to continue the series, but it’ll be a question of putting together a new pitch for a publisher or (more likely) deciding to put the effort into a crowdfunding campaign to raise enough $ for it to make sense to write the next Ree & Drake story instead of a different project on my list.

Q) How do I get a paper copy of Geekomancy/Celebromancy/etc.?

A) In 2022, I re-published Geekomancy, Celebromancy, Attack the Geek, and Hexomancy. They are available in new ebook forms as well (with minor edits).

Geekomancy and Celebromancy are both available as audiobooks.

Q) Can I read Geekomancy if I don’t have an ereader, tablet or smartphone?

A) Google, Kindle, and Nook all have browser-based reading programs available, so you can read the book on nearly any computer.

For a more complete breakdown, this post is very thorough: http://www.laurendane.com/blog/2013/06/24/how-to-read-ebooks-without-an-ebook-reader/

Q) Do you have any fiction I can read for free to sample your writing?

A) My short stories have appeared in Escape Pod and Crossed Genres, and are still available for free online.

Q) I want a signed copy of Geekomancy/Celebromancy/etc. Can you make that happen?

The cool folks at Authorgraph have set up a system where readers can get ebooks signed. All you have to do is sign up with Authorgraph (which is free), then find my book and request a signature (also free). Then Authorgraph contacts me, and I can go to your request and respond with a personalized message and a signature. Hurray for the future!

Q) What’s Shield and Crocus? Is that a new Ree Reyes book?

Shield and Crocus is a separate series in a totally different universe. The first book stands alone, but I have two more stories in that universe in mind, if sales and response are strong enough to justify continuing the series. But if you’re afraid of incomplete series, don’t be! Shield and Crocus tells a whole story, and should be satisfactory without any further stories.

Q) Okay, but what about The Younger Gods?

The Younger Gods is a separate urban fantasy story, and like Geekomancy, it’s designed as the first book in a series. And like bothGeekomancy and Shield and Crocus, it tells a complete story by itself, while starting a series narrative.