My passion is writing. It is one of the things that gives me purpose as I’ve been laid off because of my cancer and am home alone a lot. I am thankful to have Ramsey here for much of the summer. Writing is my art, my hobby. Like most artists, it is a craft that I want to develop as time goes on.

I wrote my first book in high school, and published it myself (including the binding). So, I’ve always wanted to be a writer. However, raising five children and working these medical jobs that took 50-60 hours a week, made writing impossible (except for scholarly articles and a couple of books). Now, I have the time. It is a late start I know.

I am happy to say that I’m at chapter 20 of my new book, Retribution. I have two more chapters and it will be finished! Then comes the hard part of editing. My imagination has me living in Yemen for the past month. I feel connected to Yemen as we were a host family to about 20 Yemenis students at Eastern Michigan University and, we were assigned to go to Sana’a, Yemen as missionaries when our organization folded while we were still living in Egypt.

As I promote my books, it is not a business endeavor. Most books, including most of mine, never earn 10% of what it cost to produce them. So, when you see me marketing my books, it has nothing to do with money. It is about quality of life. I’ve given away many books. I have also sold about 200 and that means to me that eventually 300 or more people will read those books. My goal is to have 1,000. But all artists want people to admire their work, to get pleasure from it, and to give feedback, positive or negative.

I am so thankful for those here who have purchased my book and read it. If you have not yet written a review on Amazon, that would be helpful. I must have at least 10 reviews to have newspapers and etc. review the book. I am stuck at 8 right now.

I have an ad that I have posted on this page. I own the rights to the photo. You can share this ad by right clicking it, copying it, and then pasting it into your Face Book timeline or other media outlets. This would be a help.

But what brings me the most satisfaction, as the ad depicts, is for someone telling me they enjoyed the book, that it made them think, or at least, distracted them from the ugly in the world.

I have several other articles I’ve been working on for this blog site (not about my writing). I’m trying to find a way to make those shorter.

Denise just left her position at the hospital yesterday. I hope we will have more time together now as her new job is less intense. I will also do an update about my cancer situation in the next week.

Mike