MICHAEL R. FRENCH
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Home
  • About
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Contact
I sat at a typewriter behind a closed bedroom door for a lot of my adolescence. I can’t even remember what I wrote—probably some poetry and fantasies—but I do remember why. I  wanted to create a world that I controlled and that made me feel good. I became amazed and  confused by the weird person coming to life on the written page. I worried what would my  parents think. In reality, I was so ordinary and bland that I couldn’t stand my personality any  more than I thought I could change it—but my imagination insisted that I try...

Picture
 (continued from home page)
​
Forty years later, I still have the need to explore any and all things roaming through my heart, mind, and soul.  Exploring gets me up in the morning. I’ve come to love my random ideas about character and plot. They don’t always come to fruition, although they sometimes reappear years later in a different guise with fresh impact.  Where do ideas originally spring from?  A dream or a memory, sometimes. Comments overheard at a funeral.  Reading an expression on a stranger’s face. Novels become unique alloys of conscious and unconscious feelings. I think that’s true for a lot of writers.

I’ve rarely missed a day of writing (even if it’s  just rewriting one or two sentences in a manuscript). I cling to habit and persistence like someone lost at sea with only a life preserver to hang onto.  My imagination/Muse would never forgive me if I gave up on her. I wouldn’t forgive myself, either. I wake in the night sometimes and work on a  particular story-telling challenge,  unable to go back to sleep until I write down my thoughts.  They may be gibberish in the morning but, hey, they got me through the night and into the next writing day.  I’ve convinced myself a good explorer knows the inevitability and value in getting lost.  Freaking out is when things really get  interesting.

About Michael French

Picture
Michael R. French graduated from Stanford University where he was an English major, focusing on creative writing, and studied under Wallace Stegner.  He received a Master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.   He later served in the United States Army before marrying Patricia Goodkind, an educator and entrepreneur, and starting a family.  

​In addition to publishing over twenty titles, including award-winning young adult fiction, adult fiction, biographies  and self-help books, he has written or co-written a half-dozen screenplays, including Intersection, which has won awards in over twenty film festivals. He has also had a long business career in real estate, living in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His passions include travel, collecting rare books, and hanging with friends and family.  He describes his worst traits as impatience and saying "no" too quickly; his best are curiosity, taking risks, and learning from failure.

French’s work, which includes several best-sellers, has been warmly reviewed in the New York Times and been honored with a number of literary prizes.

Opinion

Writing opinion pieces about anything under the sun allows an author to connect the dots—for readers and reviewers—between the subjects that stir his emotions and actually show up in his storytelling. 
Copyright © Michael R. French 2023  |  Site Design by Angulo Marketing & Design

Home
About
Books
​Blog
Contact


Michael R. French graduated from Stanford University where he was an English major, focusing on creative writing, and studied under Wallace Stegner.  He received a Master's degree in journalism from Northwestern University.   He later served in the United States Army before marrying Patricia Goodkind, an educator and entrepreneur,  and starting a family.  ​
Subscribe to Receive Updates from Michael