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Michael Shean
| url |
http://www.goodreads.com/mshean
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| born |
November 24, 1978
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| gender |
male |
| place of birth |
The United States |
| website |
http://www.michael-shean.com
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| genre |
Science Fiction & Fantasy, Horror, Mystery & Thrillers |
| influences |
[a:H.P. Lovecraft|9494|H.P. Lovecraft|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1299165714p2/9494.jpg], [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1282769227p2/9226.jpg], [a:Cormac McCarthy|4178|Cormac McCarthy|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1302752071p2/4178.jpg], [a:Philip K. Dick|4764|Philip K. Dick|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1264613853p2/4764.jpg], [a:Clark Ashton Smith|57720|Clark Ashton Smith|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1221279024p2/57720.jpg] |
about this author
Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this, though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws inspiration.
In 2001 his grandfather, whom he idolized in many ways, died. The event moved him to leave West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry, and he settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a result his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In 2006 he met his current fiancee, who urged him to pick up his writing once more. Though the process was very frustrating at first, in time the process of polishing and experimentation yielded the core of what would become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star. In 2009 the first draft of book was finished, though it would be 2011 until he would be satisfied enough with the book to release it.
His work is extensively character-driven, but also focuses on building engaging worlds in which those characters interact. On the subject of writing, Michael says this: "I have gut myself if I want to write. You have to bleed out on the page, I think. That's what writing is to me, committing seppuku only to come back and do it all over again. I don't think you can really be believable any other way."
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