Even after my debut novel was out in the world, it has been a lot harder than I thought to get more of my work out to the public. The path to publication was exceedingly rocky and took far longer than I would have guessed. Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome? Now I’m currently at work on some completely different stories, but fans of GRAVEYARD SHIFT need not fear as I’m also working on sequels, prequels, and spinoffs set in that universe. Critics received the novel well and it was a finalist for the Colorado Book Award. TOR published my debut novel, GRAVEYARD SHIFT, about an immortal pharaoh battling an ancient vampire conspiracy in modern-day Miami, in 2017.
After many rounds of revisions, I also finally got to work with my dream agent, Sara Megibow (of KT Literary agency). They helped me hone my craft.Īt a Colorado Gold Conference (hosted by RMFW), I met my future editor, Moshe Feder of TOR. Through those organizations, I met my critique group, the Highlands Ranch Fiction Writers. Luckily, I discovered the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers (RMFW) and the Pikes Peak Writers (PPW). I completed the novel in time and tried to shop it around. At the urging of author Michael Stackpole, I decided to write it as a novel during National Novel Writing Month (NANOWRIMO). I had a screenplay idea I thought was fantastic, but I knew it would never get made. Time moved on and I continued to dabble here and there. I tried to secure an agent, but that industry is notoriously hard to break into. A few years later, I re-engaged and wrote several screenplays. Then I joined the Air Force and my writing took a back seat for a long while.
I even won a fiction writing contest for a pretty insane Robin Hood time-travel story. Once in high school, I wrote for the school’s literary magazine, SLANT OF LIGHT. As an army brat, I moved a lot and didn’t make friends easily. I fought alongside Howard’s Conan and Burroughs’ John Carter, battled my way through Mallory’s LE MORTE D’ARTHUR, and relished Pyle’s Robin Hood tales. I spent my time haunting the stacks of the library reading everything I could get my hands on. I will be forever grateful for those years. My friends and I created our own worlds populated by horrifying creatures who would stalk the grounds of the Academy in the dead of night and, of course, only we cadets could stop them. At the time, I was at New York Military Academy and there wasn’t a lot to do in our downtime but read, write, and play role-playing games (mostly Dungeons and Dragons, but also Star Frontiers and some other games). I started writing stories to entertain my classmates in fifth grade. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.Īt my core, I’m a storyteller. Thanks for sharing your story with us Michael. Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Haspil.
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