In 1980, an editor at Penguin Books she said she had read the sample of Jihad I’d sent and she wanted to read the rest of it.

During my book research, I had figured out there was a good chance the U.S. was supplying weapons to the Mujahideen. I also realized that the Afghans would never win while the Russians controlled the air.  It seemed to me that the recently disclosed Stinger missile would be the ideal weapon to turn the tide.  The story line of the book followed U.S. agents getting Stingers to the Mujahideen.  And years later, the scenario turned to have been true.

Months later the agent I’d contracted said she had heard back from the editor. “I’ll read you her note,” she said.  “Dear Michael – Didn’t like it as much as I hoped I would. Dictated but not signed by [editor name] Penguin Books”. Then my agent let me know that she didn’t handle fiction and didn’t see any point in peddling my work.  I was shattered. I put Jihad on the shelf next to The Kimendo Road.

Click the link below for a free copy in either .pdf of Kindle format.  Also available in serialized format on the blog.  Subscribe to receive updates on the podcast.  And enjoy.

Sometimes when the road get easier

life gets harder

The Kimendo Road relates how the first paved road to a village very like Kpagouda brings unexpected change.  While I never even submitted it to a publisher, Nancy claims to this day that it is the reason she married me. I guess it suggested I wasn’t only a systems geek.  Having a condo, car and a steady job probably didn’t hurt either.

I borrowed a lot from my experiences in Togo.  For example, my snake stories.  That is more fully described in Fall Line, reproduced as Snakes! in my blog.

a new PROSTHETIC prototype is ready for testing

Dominican organ harvesters take a job to find a victim with a specific wound  

I received a book contract in the mail. It was from a place called ‘Books In Motion’.  They signed on to make it into an audiobook, and it left me with my printed book rights still intact. What a deal!

But like my other publishing misadventures, this was doomed to fail.  Two years down the road, I still had no audiobook in sight.  Then I got a letter from them saying ‘Our business plans have changed.  So has our Editor.  We no longer plan to move forward with Cut Loose’. Oh well. 

Click the link below for a free copy in either .pdf of Kindle format.  Also available in serialized format on the blog.  Subscribe to receive updates on the podcast.  And enjoy.

when a sociopath meets a widow

in madagascar

all hell breaks loose

blah…blah…Research suggests that a third of us will look back on our lives and realize that we never accomplish what we most hoped to achieve.  We will learn to put our goals aside, like an outgrown toys, and get on with our lives.   But we will always remember the ‘one that got away’ and how we adjusted to that loss.

Fall Line is the story of how I plotted my course along this path.  It focuses on my years abroad, primarily in Africa.  In some ways, it is a story of finding the right path.  It is also a last gasp effort to realize my original goal. 

Click the link below for a free copy in either .pdf of Kindle format.  Also available in serialized format on the blog.  Subscribe to receive updates on the podcast.  And enjoy.