Michael Thomas Perone's Blog, page 11

The Back to the ‘80s Radio Show and Podcast Interviewed Me About Danger Peak and My Time in the ‘80s

I love the theme song to this show, especially the line, “My jeans are really tight!”

About a decade ago, I used to make fun of podcasts. I didn’t really understand their purpose nor completely understood how to listen to them. I thought you had to be tied to your computer staring at a blank screen; I hadn’t realized you could download them to your iPod or phone and listen to them while doing something else, like exercising or commuting, which is what I eventually ended up doing. Ten years after my smug dismissal of them as a serious entertainment/communication medium, podcasts have taken over the world. Everyone now either has a podcast or personally knows someone who does. (I know at least five people who do.) A few weeks ago, the popular ‘80s-themed radio show and podcast Back to the ‘80s asked to interview me about Danger Peak and my time in the 1980s, and as they say, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” The show will air tomorrow, Friday, February 24th on the Internet radio station KHits 92.5 at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST.

Here is the link to the radio station:

KHits 92.5 Radio Station

And here is the link to the podcast:

Back to the ’80s Radio Show

You can listen to the show live tomorrow at 4 p.m. PST/7 p.m. EST at the first link and/or download the show from wherever you get your podcasts at the second link when it becomes available. Enjoy!

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: A Surprise Announcement

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

It’s Yet Another (and Possibly Last) Danger Peak Goodreads Giveaway!

courtesy Goodreads

So…three time’s the charm? We’ll find out as the good folks at Goodreads host yet another giveaway for Danger Peak! (The direct link is below.) As before, there are 20 signed copies up for grabs. Like my headline notes, this may very well be the last time I do this. I don’t have many copies left of my book lying around the house to give away, though I may do an e-book giveaway at some point. Still, for those of you who are old-school like me and want a tactile hardcopy you can flip the pages through, take a moment from your day to enter the contest. This is possibly your last chance to win a signed copy from me, unless I figure out how to sign an e-book. (I’m sure the NASA scientists are working on it!)

While the last giveaway mostly focused on the first edition of Danger Peak, this one will be a smorgasbord. Will you receive an exclusive, limited-edition, typo-riddled first edition? Will you win a not-so-limited but slightly superior second edition? Or will you get the latest edition with all the recent revisions? (This is the one I’m most pleased with.) There’s only one way to find out!

Once more, if you don’t already have a Goodreads account, you need to sign up with the website to enter the contest. As the kids say, here are the deets:

Danger Peak Goodreads Giveaway

Good luck, everyone!

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Interviews! (not sure which one will drop first)

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

When Someone Tells You They Wrote a Book, the Proper Response Isn’t “I Don’t Read”

Okay, so the party wasn’t this fancy.

Warning: This blog is ideally meant for other frustrated writers like me—and maybe no one else.

When you tell people you wrote a book, you get a variety of answers—most of them good, some of them bad. This blog is about one of the bad ones. You will be surprised how many people—a few you considered friends—who, for reasons unknown, absolutely refuse to buy your book. I could understand this if my book cost a grand or one-hundred dollars or even fifty. Danger Peak is thirteen dollars, the price of about three coffees, and that’s rounded up. (Add a few more dollars for shipping and handling.) I’ve seen some of these people spend small fortunes on what I considered insignificant hobbies. I’ve seen them literally throw hundreds of dollars away on a craps table in Atlantic City, but ask them to spend a measly thirteen bucks on your book? Nah, that’s a bridge too far. I mean, how many people do you know wrote a book?

I was at a party last summer, and a friend of a friend (as you’ll soon discover, the person I was conversing with was definitely not a direct friend) asked me what I was up to. I kind of ran out of things to talk about (and I was never much of a conversationalist anyway), so I mentioned I had just published a book, and he replied, “I don’t read.”

First of all, this is, of course, an asinine response. Unless you’re blind or handicapped in some capacity, everyone on Earth reads. (And even the blind read braille.) In fact, I saw this jerk glued to his phone the rest of the party (probably clicking “Like” on some far-right hate blog), so he clearly reads. Secondly, that wasn’t the point of my bringing up my book. It doesn’t matter if you read or not, but you can express or at least feign some kind of interest, as it’s not every day you meet someone who wrote and published a book.

I happen to know this guy is a gearhead, which is why he’s friends with my friend. He spends day and night working on various pet cars in his garage. Imagine if I asked him what he was up to, and he told me, “Well, I just finished designing the blueprints for a new car, and I’m going to start making the first prototype next week,” and then I chose to respond with, “I don’t drive.” Even if that was true, it’s completely irrelevant! Not to mention incredibly rude. I do happen to drive, but I don’t pay any attention to the world of cars. I’m just happy my 2014 Honda Pilot gets me from Point A to Point B in one piece, and if it doesn’t, I drop it off at the mechanic’s. But I would never tell someone, “I don’t drive,” i.e., “I don’t care” about something that was clearly their passion in life.

Maybe I’m overthinking this (okay, I definitely am), and you can attribute the guy’s rude behavior to a few drinks (though he had just arrived at the party), but I just don’t understand people sometimes. I’m not much of a social person anyway. I guess that’s why I stay home and write.

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Interviews! (not sure which one will drop first)

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

Why “Groundhog Day” Still Matters

Phil & Phil

Today is February 2nd, Groundhog Day, so what better day to once again present this essay I wrote about my favorite movie? If you feel I’ve returned to this piece one too many times, well, then that’s just perfect considering the theme of the movie, don’t you think?

For over two decades now, “Groundhog Day,” starring Bill Murray, has remained my all-time favorite movie. Yes, it’s hilarious. Yes, it’s clever. Yes, it’s romantic. But there’s so much more that most people don’t see. On the surface, it appears to be just another “Twilight Zone” episode with a moral tagged at the end: a curmudgeon is trapped in the same day over and over again and is forced to overcome personal adversity to win the heart of his true love. But screenwriter Danny Rubin beautifully wove spiritual layers throughout this seemingly simple fable. Let’s peel back the layers:

Being obsessive-compulsive, I’m always thinking about the same things. And who hasn’t dwelled on what could have been if given a second chance, such as the disastrous date sardonic weatherman Phil suffers during the film’s turning point? The movie fantasizes about this marvelous idea: seeing all the second and third and 16th chances he has and how making simple changes to his behavior greatly impacts the world around him. Nothing in the Groundhog Day in “Groundhog Day” changes. Nothing. The snowstorm still comes, the television reporters are still stuck, the kid still falls out of the tree, the old women get that flat in the car, and Larry still says, “We better get moving if we want to stay ahead of the weather.” The only thing that changes in the entire day is Phil Connors himself. By adjusting what he says and does, he alters the world around him, for better or worse. It’s a powerful concept that is greatly overlooked and simply an inspiring message to learn.

More than just a metaphor for life, “Groundhog Day” teaches us that we all have the power to change—and even create—our environment. In the beginning of the movie, Phil considers Punxsutawney a hellhole, and by the end, it has become his heaven. God literally steps in to interfere with Phil’s self-defeating plans. He stops his life from continuing until Phil gets the day right. He tries everything: reckless abandonment, money, lust, and even suicide at one point to get through the day and onto the next, but none of it works. He isn’t allowed to continue his life until he becomes a better person—a lesson we can all benefit from. The only thing that saves Phil is being a man, facing his fears, and changing himself, and thus his world, for the better. In truth, the only thing that saves him is himself.

This movie perfectly characterizes the stages of overcoming misfortune. Being depressed a few times myself, I can easily relate to this. At one point, he tells Rita, “I’ll give you a weather prediction: It’s going to be cold, it’s going to be gray, and it’s going to last you the rest of your life.” He, of course, isn’t really talking about the weather but giving an ideal description of depression.

Phil goes through the classic motions after a tragedy in the same order most people experience (and many psychologists report): denial, fear, anger, bargaining, despair—until he ultimately reaches acceptance. Only then is he able to solve his problem, and consequently fix his life, by coming to terms with himself and, as crazy as it was, his world. Similar to a recovering alcoholic, he can only turn his life around for the better once he accepts the fact that he has a problem in the first place. Only then can he seek help. In “Groundhog Day,” Phil seeks the help inside himself.

Most Murray vehicles, whether it’s “Meatballs,” “Stripes,” or one of my favorites, “Ghostbusters,” feature sarcasm as the choice of humor. It makes sense, because he’s a natural at it. But in “Groundhog Day,” Bill’s patented sarcasm doesn’t come to his rescue this time. In the beginning of the film, Phil is constantly cracking wiseass comments at the world; in other words, life is the butt of his jokes. But as the film progresses, we see his world turned upside down. Life makes him the butt of the joke. Phil (and Bill?) eventually learns that his sarcastic approach won’t help him out of his predicament. We see sarcasm slowly put to death towards the film’s climax.

Then of course, there’s the love story. Besides being genuinely moving and featuring great chemistry between Murray and MacDowell, another reason why I love it so much is because of its realism. If you take away the time-warp element, what happens between these two would happen in real life. Based on my experience with women and stories from my friends, the more you try to impress a girl by spending lots of money and going out of your way for her, the less she seems interested. It comes off as needy and trying too hard, and nothing is less attractive than someone who can’t live without someone else.

And in the beginning, we see that happen with Phil. At first, their relationship has some natural spark, but eventually, it becomes strained as Phil tries to force the “right” situations into their dates: if he only says the right thing (the same things he was saying before that won her over), if he only lands next to her in the snow in exactly the right spot, if he only does the perfect thing or memorizes her likes and dislikes, etc. He even keeps a list: “No white chocolate, no fudge.” But of course, he’s doomed for failure, because bending over backwards to make someone interested in you never works. You can’t force love. It has to happen for real.

So what does Phil do? He does what everyone should. Instead of concentrating on Rita and their potential relationship, he works on himself. He learns to play piano (Rita did say she wanted a guy who could play an instrument), does favors around town (helping a group of elderly friends by jacking up their car when it gets a flat, catching the boy in the tree before he hits the ground, etc.), and, probably most moving of all, takes care of the old man, even though he knows he ultimately can’t save his life. No matter what he does—no matter how much money or food he gives him—the old man will die. And there is a frustration in that. Phil isn’t God, after all (not even “a god,” as he once attests). But there is also a powerful freedom in letting go, and Phil does so.

Rita notices all these changes in Phil and is naturally attracted to him, even asking him out—simply because of who he is, or who he became, not because he was going crazy trying to get her to like him. So is it any surprise when she eventually bids on a date with Phil at the bachelor auction for 339 dollars and 88 cents—the entire contents of her pocketbook—on a man who only a day before, she was ready to strangle?

Also notice that on the last night they spend together in the movie, when Murray declares his love and says, “I love you,” the movie doesn’t cheat, and she doesn’t respond with, “I love you, too,” because to her, it has still only been one day. Even though he has had literally years of experience getting to know her by repeating the same day over and over again, she’s only known him for the same 24 hours. (There’s a reason why the filmmakers chose the closing song, as Nat “King” Cole sings, “It’s almost like being in love.”) So instead, she says, “I think I’m happy, too.” In other words, even though it was soon, it still felt right to her, and he was finally able to make her happy—the crux of a good foundation to any relationship. At last, she saw potential in Phil as her lover.

“Why do you love this movie so much?” people sometimes ask me. “Because life is Groundhog Day,” I respond. When I used to commute into the city, after stepping out of Penn Station, I knew when I passed a certain deli sign before Madison Avenue, the light would change green. I knew when I crossed Madison, I’d probably pass the same happy couple kissing each other goodbye. And I knew I’d still see the same strangers pass on their way to work. We knew our faces but not our names. “It’s Groundhog Day,” I’d tell myself.

Think about it. Haven’t you experienced that odd sense of déjà vu by repeating the same tired routine every day? You get up at the same time each morning, take a shower, get dressed, eat breakfast, sit in traffic, make the same business calls, talk to the same people, etc. This movie teaches us that we all have the potential to live a meaningless “Groundhog Day” existence. But, more importantly, we also have the power to change it.

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If you enjoyed this essay, sign up for blog updates and you’ll receive my free book Lists, Life, and Other Unimportant Details, which includes this piece. Enter your email address in the box at the bottom of my blog page linked directly below, and after confirming your address in an automatically generated email, the book will be emailed to you as a PDF.

Danger Peak Blog Page

In other news, Danger Peak has been included in the Reader Views February Book Giveaway. (I guess I kinda buried the lede in this week’s blog.) You can enter for your chance to win one of two free copies here:

Reader Views February Book Giveaway

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: When Someone Tells You They Wrote a Book, the Proper Response Isn’t “I Don’t Read”

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

Why I Hate February

just the worst

The following is an excerpt from my book Lists, Life, and Other Unimportant Details. Get the book for free by signing up for blog updates. To do so, enter your email address in the box at the bottom of this page:

Danger Peak Blog Page

Since we’re almost upon that most dreaded of months, I decided to dust off this chestnut about February being my least favorite time of year. Why is February the worst month? So glad you asked…

1)      Weather

This one is fairly obvious. February is the coldest month of the year (at least in the Northeast U.S. where I live), and, as evidenced by the insane number of snowstorms to hit the area in the past few years, this time of year can’t move by fast enough. While we’ve been lucky so far this year with no significant snowfall yet, there was a period last year when I couldn’t remember what my front lawn looked like. In fact, I can definitely see myself moving to Florida 30 years from now with all the other geezers.

2)      Holidays

February has the worst holidays of the year. Although “Groundhog Day” is my favorite movie, the day itself is a ridiculous tradition arranged around a tunnel-dwelling rodent predicting the weather. In fact, this is part of the joke in “Groundhog Day.” There’s little suspense this day: Punxsutawney Phil almost always sees his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter. Hmm, maybe he did what Phil Connors (Bill Murray) did in the movie that bears his holiday’s namesake and just looked at a calendar: “I’m predicting March 21st.”

And don’t get me started on Valentine’s Day, a Hallmark-created holiday designed to boost revenue between Christmas and Easter. Look at your calendar: It’s no coincidence that Valentine’s Day (or “V.D.” for short) falls exactly between these two juggernaut, sales-generating holidays; it’s exactly two months away from each. V.D. is targeted for a very specific group of people: women in relationships. It’s not for single men and women or men in relationships; I’ll explain why. It’s obviously not for single men and women because this holiday, with all the cheesy commercials of couples exchanging gifts and holding hands and sales dedicated to romantic love, is almost singlehandedly responsible for plunging single folk into a deeper funk of loneliness and depression—all during the dead of winter. In fact, I’m surprised the suicide rate doesn’t spike as high this time of year as it does during Christmas. Also, this holiday is not really intended for men in relationships, because they’re challenged to buy bigger and better gifts and think of greater surprises for their significant others every year. A friend to their wallets, it’s not. To quote Homer Simpson: “I’m sick of all this Valentine’s Day crap!”

Finally, I still haven’t figured out if Presidents’ Day is solely dedicated to George Washington, our first president, and Abraham Lincoln, arguably our greatest, since they share the same birthday month, or is it supposed to celebrate every U.S. president who ever lived? (I hope it’s the former, considering who’s been in charge of this country in the past.) Still, it’s nice to get off work!

3)      Work

Speaking of which, February happens to be the busiest time of the year at my job as a Senior Editor. We start a season known as the dreaded “Boiler Code,” and it’s nonstop editing until the books get published July 1st. I’m talking thousands of pages here. Also, we’re discouraged from taking any vacation days during this time, save the aforementioned Presidents’ Day. Right, ‘cause we wouldn’t want to escape to a tropical getaway in the middle of winter. Better to do that during the intense, blazing heat of mid-August.

4)      Leap Year

Every four years, February gets to add another day to itself. Y’know, just ‘cause it’s cool. Also, it likes to mess with our heads and ruin our calendars and watches. “Dammit, I just reset this watch four years ago!!”

5)      Length

At 28 days (29 for Leap Year), February is the shortest month of the year. Actually, maybe that’s a good thing…

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Why “Groundhog Day” Still Matters (another oldie but goodie)

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (I hear good things!):

AmazonBarnes & Noble

Danger Peak Was Featured in an Electronic Billboard in Times Square

“Start spreading the news…”

When I was a kid growing up on Long Island, my parents used to take me into New York City to marvel at the usual tourist traps: Rockefeller Center, the Macy’s window display, The Empire State Building, and, of course, Times Square. When I gazed up at those huge, glowing billboards, secretly, I wished that something I created would one day be up there. Well, that dream has finally been realized. Danger Peak was recently featured in an electronic billboard in Times Square (specifically on the Nasdaq Board near Broadway and 43rd Street) as part of a promotion from The BookFest Awards. If you recall, Danger Peak won Second Place in the category of Young Adult Action and Adventure in The Fall 2022 BookFest. Late last year, I was contacted by the promoters of this book festival, and when asked if I was interested, I couldn’t say “Yes” fast enough.

The cover of Danger Peak was included in the 15-second ad for BookFest, and you can see video and images of it below. (It pays to live less than an hour from Manhattan, so I could capture the footage in person.)

As a side note, the first song I heard in the car on the drive to the train station to see the ad was Don Henley’s “Boys of Summer,” the very first song mentioned in Danger Peak. Out of the literally tens of thousands of songs that could’ve been playing, I’d like to think that was a cool coincidence. Also, after viewing the ad, I ate lunch at the Hard Rock Café across the street, and they played nothing but ‘80s songs: “Centerfold,” “Eye of the Tiger,” “Come On Eileen,” Janet Jackson’s “Come Back to Me” and “Escapade,” etc. I don’t want to sound too goofy or New Age-y (too late?), but I’m taking that as a sign.

I also want to give a shout-out to my fellow award winners, in case you guys are reading this, which, in all honesty, isn’t very likely: Marieke, Jeanne, Luminita, Karen, Amber, Vianlix-Christine, Mark, Orli, Shane, Vanessa, Rebecca, Tashena, and Christy.

That’s all I’ve got for today, folks. I don’t have much else to write, but needless to say, this was one of the two big announcements about Danger Peak I said I would post this year. The other is coming in March, so stay tuned, same Perone time, same Perone channel.

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Why I Hate February (an oldie but goodie)

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (I heard it’s good!):

AmazonBarnes & Noble

That’s Entertainment?!

courtesy Gracie Films, 20th Television, and I guess now Disney

I realize this blog will make me sound like an old man railing about kids today (hence the “Simpsons” meme I posted above), but I can’t help it. Like it or not, I am old, I am a man, and I do have kids that I just don’t understand sometimes (a la D.J. Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince’s 1988 hit). When I was a kid myself in the early ‘90s, I had a fake radio station called “W.I.E.R.D. T.V.,” despite the fact that I spelled “weird” wrong and it was really “radio,” not T.V. One of the characters I created was a weird dude (hence the name of the show) who did nothing but play videogames all day while narrating what he was doing, so, for example, if he was playing “RoadBlasters” on the original Nintendo, he would loudly and obnoxiously say the most obvious statements (while the videogame’s music and sound effects blasted away in the background). Things like, “OH NO, I BETTER WATCH OUT FOR THAT LAND MIND. THAT’S NOT GOOD IF I HIT A LAND (loud explosion)-OH NO! I HIT IT! I’M DEAD!!” His catchphrase was, “Yay. Yay! YAY!!” (in increasing volume as I placed my mouth closer and closer to my radio’s microphone).

The joke of the character/sketch was that he was becoming increasingly brain-dead while playing videogames all day, and it was almost an endurance test to listen to him go on for minutes on end. This was proven when I played a snippet of my character for one of my best friends, and, interrupting the tape while recording himself over it, he sneered (a la Bugs Bunny), “Nyaaaahhhh…shaddup!” We all had a good laugh.

I’m not laughing anymore. I should’ve patented that character right then and there; I could’ve made a mint (as we used to say in the old days). If you go online today, specifically YouTube, there are hundreds (thousands?) of channels devoted to people playing videogames while loudly and sometimes obnoxiously narrating what they’re doing while they’re doing it. And they literally have millions of subscribers and followers. If you have kids, you know I’m not exaggerating.

One of my kids’ favorite YouTubers is a guy called The Frustrated Gamer, who not only seemed to steal my idea from the early ‘90s but also stole Conan O’Brien’s “Clueless Gamer” shtick. True to his name, The Frustrated Gamer plays a series of Internet games on YouTube while loudly narrating what’s happening. That would be bad enough, but he rattles off his thoughts in a shrill, stream-of-consciousness shout and barely comes up for air to take a breath. So we get such witty bon mots as:

“OHMYGODWHATISTHISHOWDOIEVENOHWOWLOOKOVERTHERE!AMISUPPOSEDTOCLICKONTHISBUTTONNOPE!GUESSI’LLTRYTOWHATJUSTHAPPENED?THISISCRAZY!”

And on and on. I wish I was exaggerating, but exhausted parents know I’m not. Of course, every video of these YouTubers ends with, “Don’t forget to Like and subscribe!” so they can grow their minions, I mean followers.

I suppose these videos are better than the simple “unboxing videos” my kids used to watch when they were younger: clips of kids and young teens slowly opening presents to see what’s inside. That was it. That was literally the entire video, and again, they were and still are enormously popular. If you showed me a video of a kid opening a present when I was younger, I would last maybe 30 seconds (“Why would I care about what some other kid got?”) and then go watch an episode of “Transformers” or “G.I. Joe.” You know, something with an actual plot.

I’ll wrap this up with a tenuous connection to my book, since this blog is ostensibly still about Danger Peak. You don’t have to love Danger Peak. You don’t even have to like it. But you can’t deny that the book has a story, with a clear beginning, middle, and end. It has a plot fairly easy to navigate with actual characters who have specific personalities and share (dare I say it?) witty dialogue. There is action, drama, conflict, and comedy. Again, you don’t have to like how I treated any of these elements, but the elements are nevertheless there. In these endless YouTube videos my kids and seemingly the rest of the world’s kids watch, these elements are nonexistent.

Call me old-fashioned, which this entire blog seems destined to do, but the story elements I highlighted above were what I was raised with. Lucas. Spielberg. Judy Bloom. Even Dr. Seuss. Yes, Seuss invented words, mangling the English language just to force a rhyme, but he actually told full-fledged stories, with morals to boot. Last month, I had to basically force my kids to sit through “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” (the animated original, not the Jim Carrey abomination), and, not to make too grandiose of a statement, but I feel we as a society have lost something. Is this the way kids are going to consume entertainment in the future, the importance of story be damned?

In the meantime, I’m hoping my kids grow out of this stage and come to learn to appreciate the fine art of storytelling, particularly since a storyteller is how I’m gradually classifying myself these days.

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: Surprise Announcement #1

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

The Website The Book Commentary Gave Danger Peak a Perfect Score

courtesy The Book Commentary

Promoting a book, especially an independent one, is exhausting. Even though I have a publisher, for nearly a year, I’ve basically been a one-man marketing machine. I’m Danger Peak’s sole PR consultant, publicist, and advertiser. Everyday I’ve been hustling to get reviews, post tweets, place ads, write blogs, answer interviews, etc., just to get the word out there about my little book and how it’s worth reading. There were days I was so overwhelmed that some things completely slipped through the cracks, which brings me to the news of this blog: a review by the book-reviewing website The Book Commentary. Even though I submitted Danger Peak for a review back in July last year, I had completely forgotten about it until last month. Since I never received a notice that the review was posted, I assumed it got lost in my spam box. After all, it doesn’t take nearly half a year to read and review a book that’s less than 200 pages. It turns out the website forgot about it too (Oops!) but only because the review’s author saved it as a “Draft,” which means the website’s owners couldn’t access it to proofread and post it.

After I inquired (okay, complained) about where the review was, they figured out the snafu and finally posted it this week, and it’s a rave! It received five out of five stars. (For those keeping score, this is the third time Danger Peak has been awarded a perfect rating professionally.) To read their review on the website, click on the link below, or simply read the highlights posted directly below the link.

The Book Commentary Review of Danger Peak

Danger Peak by Michael Thomas Perone is fierce, laden with humor, and features characters that come alive through the pages. Through the eyes of Robert Kin, readers contemplate what it means to be passionate about something and the thrill of adventure. Themes of teamwork, loyalty, friendship, and adventure are so skillfully woven into this tale. Perone’s characters are richly written and believable. Chris is fun to be with — witty and engaging — and Rinnie’s empathy shines through the narrative. “Doctor” is a quirky character who immediately inspires laughter. These characters make for a wonderful company and while this adventure features teenage characters, it contains lessons for older readers. It is fast-paced and exhilarating, a story you can’t put down. It is intriguing to discover how the challenges encountered shape the inner worlds of these characters. The writing is wonderful, filled with vivid descriptions, and whether it is what Robert feels riding down the street or his experience as he watches his brother lying in the casket, there is an inebriating sense of realism that permeates the writing. A delightful read, indeed. Five out of five stars.

The Book Commentary

As Danger Peak has been out for over half a year now, this will likely be its last professional review, not counting all the Amazon reader reviews. Let’s put it this way: I’m not interested in submitting it for any more reviews. The book has had over half a dozen professional reviews, and not to pat myself on the back (Oh, who am I kidding? This entire post is patting myself on the back), they have been almost universally positive, save a nitpick or two. (Yes, my book “isn’t completely realistic.” It’s magical realism, people!)

In other Danger Peak news (this closing aside is becoming increasingly common in my blogs), I haven’t forgotten about the promise/tease I made in my last blog about there being two major announcements this year about the book. (Needless to say, this blog isn’t one of them.) I’m not going to completely spoil them in this blog, but I will give you the timeline: The first one will be revealed later this month, and the second one will be announced in March. Not to sound too vague, but most people will probably be more impressed with the first announcement, but I’m actually more personally satisfied by the second. Don’t worry; all will be revealed and explained in future blogs.

Stay well, folks, and Happy New Year!

MTP

P.S.: Next week’s blog: That’s Entertainment?!

P.P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble:

AmazonBarnes & Noble

Danger Peak Is Going on Sale for Christmas!

This should be required viewing every year.

Ho, ho, ho! It’s Mikey Claus, and I’ve got a treat for every good little girl and boy out there, especially if you love action-adventure stories set in the ‘80s. The price of Danger Peak is getting slashed Christmas Day, from $9.99 to $2.99! It’s an Xmas miracle! I decided to take advantage of a Kindle Countdown Deal; for a very limited time, the eBook of Danger Peak will be discounted, starting this Sunday, so if you don’t have a Kindle or an eBook reader, now might be a good opportunity to ask Santa for it.

As stated, this is a limited time offer, and if you don’t know what a “Kindle Countdown Deal” is (don’t worry; I didn’t either until a month or so ago), it means the price will slowly but steadily increase after the first few days it’s on sale. The price will go up one or two dollars (depending on the day) until the last day of the year. (For those who don’t own a calendar, that would be December 31.) At that point, the book will go back to its original listing price.

Again, this price discount only applies to the Amazon eBook located here:

Amazon

In other Danger Peak news, this will probably be my last blog of the year unless something monumental happens with this book between now and the aforementioned last day of the year, but that’s unlikely. I do have a few major announcements to make about Danger Peak, but I will save them for next year. I know; I’m such a tease.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank everyone who picked up a copy of Danger Peak, read it, reviewed it, or, if you did none of the above, simply followed my blog this year. It was definitely an interesting adventure—and one that went on far longer than I anticipated, since I thought I would stop blogging as soon as the book was released in June, but we all know that didn’t happen.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Festivus, and Happy New Year to all, and to all a good night! See you in 2023!

MTP

But Seriously…What Is Danger Peak About?

Best. Album. Ever.

Warning: You may not want to read this blog if you haven’t read Danger Peak yet and don’t want the story to be spoiled.

When you tell people you wrote a book, you get bombarded by the usual questions. One of the most common, even from people who haven’t read a single page of your book, is, “What are you working on next?” (Kill me now.) But another favorite question is, “What is your book about?” It reminds me of a scene at the end of Wonder Boys, one of my favorite movies of all time (and probably my favorite movie about writing; I watch it every February). A minor character asks Michael Douglas’ main character, an author who is furiously writing an over 3,000-page novel over the course of a decade, what his book is about. “I don’t know,” he simply answers.

Another character is incredulous. “What do you mean you don’t know?” he asks. “Then why were you writing it?”

“I couldn’t stop,” Douglas answers.

I wrote the first draft of Danger Peak in four months. That’s not a lot of time for a novel. Why so fast? “I couldn’t stop.” But if you were to ask me why I wrote it in the first place, you may be surprised to learn that I didn’t really know. It just poured out of me. It was the book I was waiting to write my entire life. Yes, I realize how pretentious that sounds. I don’t care.

In fact, I couldn’t really put into words exactly what my book was about until I was researching how to sell it years later. As documented in a previous blog, I read over half a dozen books, one over 500 pages long, on how to market and sell a novel. Then I came across a passage that struck me like a bolt of lightning. It was discussing the major themes of most novels, and one of them is the following:

Throughout the book, the main character wants X, but he really needs Y.

Yes, I thought. That’s it. Of course, every book is open to interpretation, and I would never claim there’s only one correct answer to what Danger Peak is about, but if you were to ask me now, I would say that major theme above runs throughout it. In other words (huge spoiler if you haven’t read the book yet), Robert wants to climb and conquer the supernatural mountain Danger Peak to prove himself to his school, friends, and town and also get revenge for the death of his brother, but what he really needs is a reconnection with his departed brother and a reconciliation with his estranged father. Bam. That’s the skeleton key to my book. Oh, also a lot of geeky nostalgia for the ‘80s.

In other Danger Peak news, the latest Goodreads giveaway recently finished, and 2,470 people entered, which is more than my last giveaway. (Again, opening up the contest to Canada might have had something to do with it.) Congratulations to the 20 winners! I’ll be shipping out your signed, first edition copies of Danger Peak soon. Check your mailbox in a few weeks or so. (For those in Canada, it might be longer.)

MTP

P.S.: Danger Peak is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

AmazonBarnes & Noble