How I Re-fell in Love with Writing

September 6, 2016September 6, 2016Eric Michel Books, Life, Uncategorized Tags: Advice, Author, Awesome, Book, College, Eric, Life, Productivity, Work, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

Ok, now that I have the Kaepernick thing out of the way, I can get back to my other work, which was my plan all along. (However, I do want to say a quick thank you to everyone who read that article, whether you agreed with it or not. We broke 100 views in 24 hours, which has only been done like two other times in the history of this website. So thanks.)

For those of you that read everything I post, you’ll know I recently started a fitness website. It launched in June, and so far I have a stream of about 20 dedicated readers that habitually click on whatever I put out. Shouts to you guys. For those of you that like my other work (ie the stuff that infrequently appears on this website) I’ve been inactive for a really long time. The reason for that is a simple, yet important one: I was disenchanted with the idea of becoming an author. I found myself thinking less and less about my career as a fiction writer, and more and more about pursuing a career as a personal trainer and fitness “expert.” My passion switched from writing made up things to analyzing scientific research and learning about the best ways to build muscle. Which would have been fine, if I didn’t quickly become disenchanted with that. Continue reading →

In Defense of Colin Kaepernick

August 30, 2016Eric Michel Life, Uncategorized Tags: 49ers, Author, Colin Kaepernick, Complaints, Eric, Football, Life, NFL, Rants, San Francisco, Writers, Writing 2 Comments

I really didn’t want to have to do this.

I mean, really didn’t want to have to do this.

I was actually in the middle of writing a very important post for this site, one that would have been the first in a few months. I’d rather be finishing that up. But instead, I find myself talking about the latest thing that has America’s panties in a bunch, Mr. Colin Kaepernick and his decision not to stand during the National Anthem.

Continue reading →

2016

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016Eric Michel Books, Life, Uncategorized Tags: Author, Book, Eric, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

new year

Sometimes I do this thing where I completely forget a have a website. Other times I remember it, but I have nothing of note to say, so I don’t say anything. This was a combination of those times, but it doesn’t really matter cause I’ve been away for a while regardless.

When I last left you wonderful people, Continue reading →

I’m not Actually Very Well-Read, and I Hate Myself For It

September 23, 2015September 23, 2015Eric Michel Books, Life Tags: Books, Classic Literature, Classics, Novels, Stephen King, Well-Read, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

I remember the day my mom told me a family friend of ours was opening up a used bookstore in our hometown.

“It’s called Shabby Pages. It’s going to sell mainly used books, and right now they’re only accepting donations, but I think later on you’ll be able to trade in for store credit.”

This information made seventh-grade Eric pretty happy. Not only could I stop begging my mom to make the 25 minute drive to Barnes and Noble, but I could also get books for hella cheap. At the same time, though, I was a little iffy on the whole thing because I had this aversion to buying used books, specifically paperbacks. If I didn’t put the creases in the spine, the book was no good. I was the only one who could damage my shit.

A couple weeks passed and we visited the store. It wasn’t too big, probably less than a quarter of the size of a typical chain store, but the walls were lined with books. Since the store was just starting out, the owner got her hands on pretty much whatever she could and sold it. As I walked around the store, I saw so many unfamiliar names that I was disappointed. Where was D.J. MacHale (my favorite author at the time, who wrote the ever-so-wonderful Pendragon series)? Dan Gutman? Eoin Colfer? Of course, the reason I didn’t know any names is because up until that point in my life I had been reading YA. That changed before I walked out of the store. Continue reading →

The Top 5: Books I’ve Ever Read

July 10, 2015July 10, 2015Eric Michel The Top 5 Tags: Books, Catcher in the Rye, DJ MacHale, Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin, Heart-Shaped Box, It, Joe Hill, Novels, Pendragon, Salinger, Stephen King, The Top 5, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

The topic of this post has changed so much in the last three days that you wouldn’t believe me if I told you my original intentions for it. I know it’s been a while, but I DID actually have something planned between these posts, but it fell through. I was going to post a review of Finders Keepers to follow up on my Mr. Mercedes one, but I was in the midst of writing it and got called into work. I lost all my mojo and didn’t get it done until it was too late to be relevant. (If you guys do want to know my thoughts, leave a comment and I’ll post the review anyway, but otherwise I plan on letting it rot in the draft pile.

The other day, I was screwing around on the Internet when I realized just how long it’d been since my last post. That’s a no-no. So, last night I decided I wanted to do another The Top 5 list. (Way back in the day I posted this, said I’d be doing them quite frequently, and never did.) At first I thought it was going to be my top 5 favorite classic novels. I got halfway through the draft before I realized that I was narrowing the parameters too soon. In the end, (and after much more deliberation that I’m not even going to begin to get into) I decided to go to something very basic. Today, I’ll be taking you through my top 5 favorite books of all time. It’ll set a good foundation for future lists, and it’ll help you learn a little about me and the way I work at the same time.

*Be warned. I’m not what most people would consider “well-read.” I’ve pretty much been reading the same five or so authors since 7^th grade. With that said, this list does happen to contain enough variety to keep you interested (I hope). In descending order, here are my Top 5 favorite books of all time. Continue reading →

The Struggles of Being a Writer Who Doesn’t Actually Write All That Much

June 1, 2015June 1, 2015Eric Michel Life Tags: Alex, Author, Baseball, Book, College, Reading, Writers, Writing 2 Comments

“So how’s the book coming?”

“What?” I thought I’d heard the words right, but I needed time to formulate an acceptable response. I was busy stocking the shelves at the store I work at in the summers, and my manager, innocently enough, asked how my writing was going, as she remembered that I wanted to be an author from my time there last summer.

“Uh… Not as well as I’d like, but it’ll get there.”

That seemed to jump around the question well enough, and the conversation moved elsewhere. But my mind didn’t. Continue reading →

I Went Without a Phone for Roughly Six Days, and Here’s What I Learned

February 17, 2015Eric Michel Life Tags: Author, Change, College, Complaints, Eric, Funny, Life, Life Lesson, Phone, Verizon, Water, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

“The insurance company should be calling you sometime tonight, and they’ll ship the replacement phone in the morning. You should have it by Tuesday.” The lady at Verizon Wireless looked at me, sounding all too annoyed by the situation. She wasn’t the only one. As I’d find out in the coming days, you don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone. You also don’t know you have a problem until you have to confront it directly. Continue reading →

My Horrendous Lack of Motivation— and What I’m Doing to Fix It

February 4, 2015Eric Michel Life Tags: Author, College, Complaints, Fitness, Get Motivated, Life, Motivation, Writers, Writing 1 Comment

Reality has this funny way of knocking you down a peg just when things are starting to look up. There have been multiple times this year where I’ve ascended to what I thought was the top rung of life, to the point where I could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel… and then I’ve fallen on the last step and come crashing down to the bottom. I’m not going to go into specifics, but a little background is necessary for you to understand why I’ve been such a lazy bag of shit for the last three months. Continue reading →

My Dinner with Jonathan Franzen

October 29, 2014Eric Michel Uncategorized Tags: Author, Awesome, Book, College, Discomfort Zone, Eric, Good Literature, Jonathan Franzen, Life, Napolese, Novel, The Corrections, Writers, Writing 1 Comment

I got the news a couple weeks ago. It started like any other day. I was bored after classes, and there was no way in hell I was going to start my homework— it was naptime. As is customary, I logged onto my laptop so I could check my email to ensure that I wasn’t missing out on some super-important club meeting that I wasn’t going to attend anyway. My inbox was full of the usual junk: the school newspaper, emails from professors about my classes, porn advertisements, (kidding) the works, until I stumbled upon an email with the subject header that read: You’re Invited to Have Dinner With Writers From the Visiting Writers Series, RSVP. I was ecstatic.

For those of you who don’t know, I attend Butler University in Indianapolis. Each year, they run a program called the Visiting Writers Series, where famous authors from around the country come and speak to the people on campus. The next morning, the author hosts a student-only Q&A in the creative writing center. In past years, Butler has had some pretty big names come to town: Tim O’ Brien, Margaret Atwood, and Jennifer Egan, to name a few. This year, there were some people I’d never heard of before, and one name I had: Jonathan Franzen was scheduled to come on October 28th. Continue reading →

Where I’ve Been— And What’s Coming

October 25, 2014October 25, 2014Eric Michel Uncategorized Tags: Author, Book, Change, College, Eric, Self-Improvement, Writers, Writing Leave a comment

In college, one of the first questions you get asked when you meet someone new is “What’s your major?” or “What are you studying?” When I tell people that my major is English, the conversation usually goes something a little like this:

“Oh, so do you want to be a teacher?” they ask.

“No, I want to write novels,” I reply.

“Oh, that’s really cool! What kinds of stories do you write?”

This question always freezes me because there’s an honest answer, and then there’s the one I always tell people. I always tell people I write horror stories, because for the longest time, I did write horror stories. Currently, though, and the more accurate answer to the question, I don’t write jackshit. But that’s about to change. Continue reading →

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