#"The Swamps of Jersey" Imzadi Publishing

[michaeldaigle]

Stand with the theater kids as they stand up to censors

Cheers to some  Fort Wayne, Indiana high school thespians who defied religious censors and the local school board, which banned the play, by performing it on their own outside the  school. The play featured roles  of interchangeable sexuality and clearly expressed the world view of these kids which features tolerance, diversity and equality. They found community support and even some…

[michaeldaigle]

Maybe where we are today; right and wrong

I wrote this in part as a joke response to a conversation about an anthology call for a story that “writes a wrong.” So I pitched an idea to write something wrong:  Ideas, language, structure —everything breaking down. And then  over the last few days I had the feeling that this was about more than just word play. Maybe it described where we actually are. Maybe we are, as the last line says,…

[michaeldaigle]

In the end, we stole an aircraft carrier

I was attempting to write an apocalyptic time travel story for an entry to an anthology with the theme of time travel. I missed the time travel aspect, but ended up with this story about a stolen aircraft carrier. It’s called “A THOUSAND WORDS OF DAN.” Here goes: We were ping pong balls bouncing across the International Date Line. A day older. A day younger. The Earth was dying. Everything…

[michaeldaigle]

Talking about DRAGONY RISING with Steven Miletto

Please take a few minutes to listen to this fun interview with podcaster/educator Steven Miletto of Geogia. We discussed how the Frank Nagler Mysteries evolved, about techniques used to create lively, interesting characters, and how I paced the story so he would stay up at night reading, unable to put it down. DRAGONY RISING asks the question: What happens when Det. Frank Nagler discovers that…

[michaeldaigle]

The thing is gone. I'm alive

The moment wants noise, screaming Running leaping, rolling after falling laying in wetness back to the ground face to the sky shouting Yes! Yes! Yes! The thing is gone. Grey and white in the photos; fitting. That thing they found and cut out leaving a hole It was dead. I no longer feel dead. It is a time for color. And rain, And one long screaming, obnoxious running fucking celebration…

[michaeldaigle]

For hire: Free agent mystery writer

Baseball fans will understand the term: Designated for assignment. That makes  me, Mystery Writer, free agent. But I don’t have to pass through waivers. The want ad says: Open to right offer. This came about because the publisher of my five Frank Nagler Mysteries, Imzadi Publishing of Tulsa, Ok., is shutting down after than more than decade in  business. Thank you, Janice and Anita and Kay,…

[michaeldaigle]

Nagler 6: Does she know Nagler's secret?

In Book 6 of the Frank Nagler Mysteries, NAGLER’S SECRET, a work in progress, there was an event in September 1994 that is at the heart of the secret that left Detective Frank Nagler shaken. There is  also a young woman who reappeared in Ironton, N.J. many years later. Does she know the secret? Detective Frank Nagler’s friends try to recall her: “She had brown hair, cut short,” said Barry,…

[michaeldaigle]

Finding the hole at the bottom of NAGLER'S SECRET

Sometimes writing a story is like walking in a dark room blindfolded. You bump into walls a lot until you find the door. That’s what I was doing with the sixth Frank Nagler Mystery, “NAGLER’S SECRET.” I was writing fun scenes with Nagler chasing people around Ironton, N.J. and people chasing Nagler, especially a red head, who sometimes was not a red head, but who seemed to know a lot  about our…

[michaeldaigle]

Nagler's Secret: Silence and tension

In NAGLER’S SECRET, the work-in-progress Book six of the Frank Nagler Mystery series, Ironton, N.J. Detective Frank Nagler and others have been examining an  old farm house that could be the headquarters of a shadowy outfit called Sunshine Farms. In this scene Nagler  stayed behind to look for something  when two people enter the building,. He is on the second floor and they entered the front…

[michaeldaigle]

Fossils

The sun will consume us in a few billion years. Gas billows blow across space, so quick in an instant we won’t have time to look up to call to scream to whisper those last unsaid words; dust. The gray image is my innards, A hole where the cancer used to be. It is relief It is hope It is life. A fossil. We dig them up in the deserts. All the things that grew, walked and flew That…

[michaeldaigle]

Big NYC Award for DRAGONY RISING

I am honored and excited to announce that DRAGONY RISING, book 5 in the Frank Nagler Mystery Series, has been named a  DISTINGUISHED FAVORITE in the 2023 Big NYC  Book Awards. Dragony Rising joins other Frank Nagler Mysteries as multi-award winning works. The award announcement  can be found here: https://www.nycbigbookaward.com/2023distinguishedfavorites My thanks to the Big NYC award…

[michaeldaigle]

Tired of war

Tired of war. Tired of towers falling Of remembering battles with piled dead Of reasons that have no truth Blustering babble, too much noise From thrust out medaled chests, Fists raised then pounding Launching sky shrieking Red-tailed smoke filled sunsets Ground shaking Air filled with cries and loss and fear and mindless hatred Ancient grudges made modern The jingling of coins…

[michaeldaigle]

Mending fences

I started this story in the spring, intending to enter it in a holiday story contest. I didn’t read the rules carefully enough: It was a Thanksgiving-Christmas holiday contest, and this is a July 4  story. It’s not done and a little incomplete. I’ll finish it soon, in time for next July 4.I don’t  have a title, but it has an old man, a Black kid and a wrecked baseball field. It’s about how we get…

[michaeldaigle]

A letter from a burning world

They pulled us off the line last night, kid.  Out of the fire. But the air is burning still, tastes of ash, smells like wet charcoal. It gets sucked into your skin, where it grinds into your pores. When does it end? When do we stop burning the world with hate and anger, disinterest and disappointment? When does your love bring reconciliation? When  do your eyes find peace? They say all this will…

[michaeldaigle]

Emerging in book six of The Frank Nagler mysteries, NAGLER’S SECRET is the identity of a woman who has appeared as a redhead, in a couple of blurry snapshots, and might be a women in an undated Polaroid photo in which she stands next to Nagler. Is she someone from his past? Or pretending to be? Is she associated with the suspicious organization called Sunshine Farms? Or pretending to be? Or is…

[michaeldaigle]

Out of a Covid fog, comes writing clarity

Turns out the very heavy cold I had for the past week was Covid. It was like being in a waking coma. Everything shut down to a narrow focus as my immune system attacked the virus. Real time didn’t matter—light and dark passed,  the dog got walked, but everything beyond that narrow focus didn’t exist. My mind was set on reserve power, low wattage to protect the guts of the system, but all real…