Mike (that’s me in the picture up there) grew up in a ecological and cultural wasteland under the shadow of one of the largest plutonium plants in the world.\u00a0 While the radiation does not seem to have had any outward effects it is possible that there are some mental conditions that could be explained by this.\u00a0 More likely he is simply a product of the South.\u00a0 Which has its compensations. Notably a visceral and highly motivating fear of poverty and a respect for the origins of the great southern writers.<\/p>\n

Mike began telling stories at age six under a chinaberry tree in North Augusta, South Carolina where he grew up in a kerosene heated asbestos sided house built for the atomic workers.\u00a0 After years of struggle, Mike finally flunked out of the University of South Carolina and fled to the island of St. Thomas. There he nearly drank himself to death while entertaining nurses and dental technicians hoping to wring some adventure out of an economy one week air and hotel package.<\/p>\n

At the age of twenty nine he had a moment of clarity, quit drinking and fornicating and went back home. He bought a 1972 Plymouth Satellite and drove out to California to seek his fortune accompanied by a bi-polar woman he met on a seaplane.<\/p>\n

His early thirties were spent working in San Diego for the off-shore oil industry moving drilling rigs around the ocean. These travels took him to South America, Indonesia, the north slope of Alaska and Borneo.\u00a0 He became a regular at the clubs and hotels of Singapore, Rio, Caracas and Anchorage. Tiring of this he quit the bi-polar woman and San Diego for good. He moved to Los Angeles and went into to the video game business working for companies such as SEGA, Atari, Knowledge Adventure and Dreamworks interactive.<\/p>\n

Years of toil in the penal servitude of the video game development eventually took its toll. He left that world behind to walk the earth soaked in bitterness and anger. In time peace came to him, he settled down in Venice in a modest cottage with his wife and child and a large number of cats. Shortly after he resumed his story telling efforts.\u00a0 That is where he is today, surrounded by feral cats and the occasional racoon.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”52″ img_size=”medium” css=”.vc_custom_1538543187233{margin-top: -50px !important;}”][vc_column_text]This is the inevitable bio page. Mike (that’s me in the picture up there) grew up in a ecological and cultural wasteland under the shadow of one of the largest plutonium plants in the world.\u00a0 While the radiation does not seem to have had any outward effects it is possible […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":158,"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/82\/revisions\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/venicecreative.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}