COMING SOON - Nine In The Morning

NEWEST VERSION......would look a little better if you could see the outline of the book and not just an image an words against a white background.....

Candy's Smile

I have a new story: CANDY"S SMILE up at A Twist of Noir as part of Christopher Grant's 600-700 word challenge (my first story was NO TEARS FOR CRYING).  You can check it out at the following link:

http://a-twist-of-noir.blogspot.com/2011/09/twist-of-noir-683-kevin-michaels.html

There are also some excellent stories from Christopher Grant, Matthew McBride, Richard Godwin, and Albert Tucher to check out while you're there.

New Reviews For Lost Exit

A couple of excellent new reviews for LOST EXIT at both Amazon and Goodreads from Paul Bishop (author and one of the stars of ABC's Take The Money And Run) and Jeff Dawson.  "Basketball noir" and "A compelling read" that is "brutally honest and thought provoking."

10-60

Over the past few years I’ve written stories about 9/11 and its impact, especially on those of us who lost friends, neighbors, and people we knew.  With the 10^th anniversary of the attacks this Sunday I’m re-running one of my stories written about that day (part of the collection: THINGS WE LOST ON TUESDAY ).

Hardly a day passes that I don’t think about that day, friends who are no longer here, and what so many have sacrificed and lost since then.

          It looked like snow falling from the buildings but in reality it was raining flesh; the streets were covered in it as Fire Fighter Michael Stone rushed into the South Tower and headed up the B stairs with five others from Ladder 10/Engine 10.  Over his handie-walkie radio Stone could hear “MAYDAY’S” as they joined other fire fighters and climbed the stairs, pushing past single file lines of evacuees streaming down from the lower floors.  Everyone was reasonably calm considering the chaos inside the building although Stone was scared about what he would be facing – when he had entered the Tower it looked like at least fifteen floors were burning and he had never seen a fire that big; Stone didn’t know how they would ever get it under control.  Around the twenty-first floor they came upon a pregnant woman taking the stairs one step at a time and one of the Lieutenants from Engine 21 told Stone to get her down while the rest of Ladder 10 kept going up.  Stone had the woman wrap her arms around his neck so it was easier to carry her; there was a mixture of fear and panic in her face and he gently reassured her that everything would be okay.  He thought of his own wife, due with their first child in a few weeks, and wished he had called her before entering the building to let her know everything was alright so she wouldn’t worry.

MY HOLOCAUST

Nick Triplow has a new site: STATUS STORIES (which features short fiction in 100 words or less).  One of my stories: My Holocaust, is up there - you can also check it out below:

My Holocaust

My father left when I was two – just walked out the front door and never looked back.  I grew up in a world suddenly different than the one my friends shared, shaped by something that had been out of my control, but carrying a pain that stayed with me forever.  I spent too many years emotionally crippled, chasing the shadows of ghosts I hoped could fill his space. 
I could never erase the longing.
The emptiness lasted a lifetime.
I wish I could explain to my own children why I left their mother, but those words never come out right.