MY WORK
A small sampling, updated monthly
Next Update: Sample chapters from Isolation (novel) and two new short stories
"The Third Man"
I wrote a novel, None of This Has Happened Yet, which begins with this short story. Originally, I had intended this to be a one-and-done story, but then I started thinking about Elizabeth's history...and instead of writing what happened next, I decided to write about what happened before this story. So, the novel ended up as a series of short stories, each one set about ten years earlier than the one before it, until we track her history all the way back to before the events detailed in this first story. I think of it as my Memento book. I sold this story separately to Pulp Literature, and they even put my name on the cover.
Download"The Authorized Biography"
This is one of the stories that I got more excited about the longer I worked on it, and the more excited I got, the more worried I became that I'd screw it up. I sold it many years ago to a radio production site, so it's not really out there in print. Not yet, anyway. It's really a story about knowing the future and realizing you probably shouldn't know that sort of stuff--you can't resist trying to manipulate, no matter how self-righteous you might feel about what you do.
Download"Unsaid"
I sold this story to Blue Crow magazine back in 2015. I barely remember writing it, though I recognize my personal obsession with memory, loss, and loss of memory all over it.
DownloadFamily Album
I wrote Family Album because of personal demons I could not shake. I never expect to sell it, but I hope you'll read it. It's the real-life story of how a family can utterly disintegrate without one central figure to hold it together. Not even the strongest personality--just the glue. And my family--uncles, aunts, cousins--we all pulled apart and scattered like puzzle pieces, never to be put back together again. I hope you don't recognize your family in it, and if you do, I hope you understand why I really, really wanted to write it. This one is complete unto itself; I've not plans to sell it unless someone comes calling for it.
DownloadMeasured in Minutes
I am not ashamed to admit that I loved . I listened to it on cassette tape (don't judge me), and for most of the story, I thought meh. The I flipped over a cassette to the last side, and Kincaid was leaving while Francesca watched him driving away in the rain. I bawled. I also loved the movie Same Time, Next Year, in which a man and a woman, each married to someone else, meet up a single time each year for a weekend affair. I combined these ideas and combined it with my travels to Hong Kong to write this book. A good friend of mine wrote a song to accompany the novel's theme, and I hope someday to see them both sold and out in the world. I hope somebody else cries when they hear it, cries when they get to the end. This excerpt begins the story.
DownloadFall Line
Paul Simon sang a song on his Graceland album with the name "Fat Charlie the archangel" in it. I kept thinking and thinking about that name, wondering what kind of guy Fat Charlie was. Well, it turns out, he ain't such a nice guy, according to my imagination. I wrote this book well after 9-11, but it still felt dangerous to me as a topic: being suicidal and thus vulnerable to being manipulated by someone with terrorist schemes in mind. Becoming an unsuspecting suicide bomber. I still think it's a great premise. This excerpt is from the very start of the book.
DownloadCONTACT
Fan? Drop a note!
Email: michaelgryan1964@yahoo.com
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