Michael Kenneth Smith's Blog, page 2

The Postwoman (Based on the true story of Andrée De Jongh): Excerpt 2

This week’s exclusive excerpt of my recent novel, The Postwoman, shines on a light on Dedée doing what she does best—keeping the Gestapo on their toes. 

The street lights were turned off, but Dedée could navigate well in her old neighborhood with just the ambient light from the sky. When she turned onto her street about two blocks from her house, she stopped to scan the area. The street slanted downward and she could easily see that no cars were parked anywhere near her home. In this area,...

The Postwoman (Based on the true story of Andrée De Jongh): Excerpt

The following is excerpted from The Postwoman—based on the true story of French Resistance fighter, Andrée De Jongh. Available on amazon.com in paperback and as an ebook.

June 1940

The young English soldier’s face lit up when Dedee approached his bed. His shrapnel-lacerated arm had mostly healed, and he was due to be released soon. She frowned, and put her finger to her pursed lips. The door to the fifty-bed ward burst open and two German SS officers entered. Dedee quickly dabbed a yellowish...

A Valentine Story

As a junior in high school, without realizing it, my hormones were asserting themselves…peach fuzz on my chin and red blotches all over my fifteen year old face. I liked girls. I liked the way they looked, moved, talked, smelled…everything. I spent a lot of time just thinking about them.

So, when the High School Valentine’s Day Dance came along, and even though I had no clue on the dance floor, I wanted to go. It was one of those I’m-afraid-but-want-to things. You know, like your first head-f...

Oh to Be King: A Christmas Memory

I was six years old and was looking forward to this Christmas because I had personally asked Santa for a special black onyx marble that was all I needed to become the world’s best marble shooter. I knew I would find it under the tree because when my Mom had taken me to Kresge’s, Santa had asked what I wanted and he said he thought he could arrange that. I even think he winked at my Mom when he said it. As far as I was concerned that was a solemn promise. Written in stone. As sure as I knew m...

The San Francisco Review of Books takes a look at Scarred

Book Review: ‘Scarred’ by Michael Kenneth Smith

Author and master storyteller Michael Kenneth Smith trained as a mechanical engineer, owned and operated a successful auto parts business, and after twenty years, retired to fish, golf, cook, playing bridge, and become an oenophile (a lover or connoisseur of wine), socialized, and even edited a local newspaper – his introduction to the written word. He now adds publishing novels to his resume – his first novel being the highly regarded HOME AGA...

August 19, 2017: #SaturdayScene

This week’s #SaturdayScene features Caitlin Hamilton Summie’s To Lay to Rest Our Ghosts of which Peter Geye (Wintering) noted, “If you’re a fan of Grace Paley or Ann Beattie or Tobias Wolfe, you’ll surely find something to love in these pages.” 

In these ten elegantly written short stories, Hamilton Summie takes readers from WWII Kansas City to a poor, drug-ridden neighborhood in New York, and from the quiet of rural Minnesota to its pulsing Twin Cities, each time navigating the geographical...

August 12, 2017: #SaturdayScene

This week’s #SaturdayScene features The Language of Trees by Steve Wiegenstein. The inhabitants of Daybreak, a quiet 19th-century utopian community, are courted by a powerful lumber and mining trust and must search their souls as the lure of sudden wealth tests age-old ideals. Love, lust, deception, ambition, violence, repentance, and reconciliation abound as the citizens of Daybreak try to live out oft-scorned values in a world that is changing around them with terrifying speed.

Charlotte T...

July 22, 2017: #SaturdayScene

This week’s #SaturdayScene is a continuation of last week’s excerpt from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner’s Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad—the dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. Here, we meet-up with Frederick Bailey, having just crossed the Hudson River to a dock at the foot of Chambers Street in New York City.  In spite of his exhilaration, Bailey was frightened, alo...

July 22, 2017: #SaturdayScene

This week’s #SaturdayScene is a continuation of last week’s excerpt from Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Eric Foner’s Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad—the dramatic story of fugitive slaves and the antislavery activists who defied the law to help them reach freedom. Here, we meet-up with Frederick Bailey, having just crossed the Hudson River to a dock at the foot of Chambers Street in New York City.  In spite of his exhilaration, Bailey was frightened, alon...

July 15, 2017: #SaturdayScene

“Illuminating . . . an invaluable addition to our history.”
– Kevin Baker, New York Times Book Review

“[A] detailed narrative . . . infused with the spirit of freedom.”—Bruce Watson, San Francisco Chronicle

“Riveting . . . a visceral chronicle of defiance and sacrifice.”—Edward P. Jones, O Magazine

More than any other scholar, Eric Foner has influenced our understanding of America’s history. In Gateway to Freedom, the Pulitzer Prize-winning historian makes brilliant use of extraordinary ev...