mEET MICHAEL
My Story
Hello, and welcome to my site. Here, you can learn a bit about me and how to acquire two books I have written. One of them, a novel called My Secret Radio, relates the life journey of a young man coming of age in the deep South in the 1960s. The story follows him throughout the years until roughly the present day. I can only hope that it speaks to you, but I can promise you that I took great joy and care in writing it.
The other book, titled Burning Snow,contains a selection of lyrics and poetry that I have written over the years. About two thirds of the book is devoted to lyrics, since people who have not read a“book poem”since high school can often recite the lyrics to 100 songs, the words they recite being nothing more or less than oral poetry, a continuation of such great artists as Homer, “singer” of the Iliad and the Odyssey.I have also taken the liberty of providing recordings of some of the songs corresponding to the written lyrics in the book.One additional offering of the site is a gallery of illustrations. In the course of compiling Burning Snow, I created a handful of illustrations using my imagination, an AI program, and an image enhancement program. I make no personal artistic claim regarding these illustrations, but rather present them for their inherent interest and beauty. Art is where you find it, and I hope you find something here to your liking.
ABOUT MICHAEL
I grew up in pre-Disney and early post-Disney Orlando, watching it change from asleepy, lake-dotted town (a little bigger, if not that different, from the fictitious Hopperton, Georgia in My Secret Radio) into a city gaining jobs and losing charm by the hour. I fled to the hippie haven of Gainesville, dropped out of the University, got married, worked, did a tour in the Vietnam-era Navy, helped produce two high-functioning children, got divorced and,after a few years spent learning how to think straight, married Carol,with whom I have shared a home in Pittsburgh for over thirty-five years. I got interested in writing at the University of Pittsburgh, where, among other things, I served as co-editor of the student literary magazine along with Michael Chabon. I worked in software sales,but did manage to produce a book of poetry called Still Be Beautiful,not widely available in that distant, “pre-Amazon” era. Hence, the current book of poetry, Burning Snow, to capture the best of my work from Still Be Beautiful,as well as the best lyrics from several CDs worth of my original songs, recorded with the bands Lost Marbles and High on Loretta.These days I like to garden, play chess, cook, watch revenge movies and mess around with art programs to unleash my inner Rembrandt. And that’s enough about me. Anyway, I’m sure my art, for good or for ill, will tell you more about who I am than anything I can consciously conceal or reveal.
Peace,
Michael
Contact
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