Böcker av Michael Matre

When I was a sophomore at Princeton High School in northern Greater Cincinnati in 1964, my English teacher, Ms. Sally Morrison, assigned each student to choose a book to read and present to the class as an oral book report. The only requirement was that the book be a novel. As a class, we had already read several books, none of which appealed to me to the point of great expectation or excitement. The boring high-society tales of Henry James and Jane Austen had nothing for me. I was stimulated, however, by Herman Melville's Moby Dick, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Charlotte Bronte's Wuthering Heights, and H. G. Wells's The Time Machine. I chose for my book report a paperback novel entitled The Invasion of the Body Snatchers, a science fiction tale about alien creatures who come to Earth disguised as giant pods and steal the identities of Earthlings. Ms. Morrison gave me an astonished look when I submitted my choice, but since my selection met the novel requirement, she approved it. I am proud to say that my performance drew my classmates' very focused attention. Even Ms. Morrison liked it, accepting that I was simply a boy whom God had made differently. I have always loved stories of adventure, action, and intrigue salted with a dash of horror. Lighthouse is such a tale with an ending that will shock you. It is definitely a book for late at night, or perhaps the beach. Beware, my dear reader, but realize that it is only a story, a work of fiction. Or is it? Could it really happen? Moo-oo ah! Ah! Ah!

A Spider in the Tub is a collection of short stories, essays, poems, and one commercial script, none of which have ever been published or produced. They were all written over a period of many years and tossed into a box in my den with the hope of one day finding a way to share them with readers. Page Publishing has once again given me that opportunity, just as they did with my first book, Why I Never Had Kids.The title accurately describes the book's contents, as each entry will very likely surprise, even sting you in some way, and take you to places you never expected to go. Some of the short stories, particularly "e;To Steal a Tombstone,"e; "e;Cruel and Unusual Punishment,"e; and "e;The Devil in the Deep, Dark Water"e; may make you squirm and send a sharp chill from your toes, up your neck, and into your brain, causing your eyes to abnormally widen. Read them by a gentle fire late at night when you are alone to get their maximum effect.I believe that you will find the essays to be entertaining and informative, especially the pieces entitled "e;The Day I Met Jane Fonda,"e; "e;An Evening with Jimmy Webb,"e; and "e;Meeting the Clooneys."e; I am sure that local readers will very much enjoy "e;Crosley Field Memories."e;The poems will take you down a snaking road that is pleasant, sweet, jovial, dark, and rocky. They represent life's perpetual roller-coaster ride of human feelings. Long before you read this book's final word, you will more than likely ask yourself, Where does Matre come up with some of this stuff?Don't worry. The kid's all right. I'm just using and enjoying God's gift to me and doing what I do best-write!

After writing and publishing myriad newspaper and magazine articles beginning in my junior year of high school, as a journalism major at Bowling Green State University, and during my four-year career as a military writer in the United States Air Force, I wanted to write and publish a book. Beyond the many plays I have written, two of which have been produced by community theater groups, writing a book is the only writer's challenge I have yet to accomplish. Knowing that nonfiction is often the better choice for a first-time author regarding publication as opposed to fiction, I decided to write a memoir about my adventurous and mischievous childhood through my maturation as a fulfilled adult. The title Why I Never Had Kids struck me as being appropriate because it is the truth. Neither my wife, Fran, nor I ever wanted to deal with the childhood antics, some just downright dangerous, related in this book. I started making the notes two years ago and wrote the book in about two months after retiring from my corporate job in late 2018. Most of the incidents were fun and easy to write, but some were not. The pieces "e;Losing Pepper"e; and "e;The Wreck in West Virginia"e; resurrected painful memories but had to be included. This book is absolutely a work of nonfiction. The dialogue is as close to being exact as I can remember it. The incidents are correct. Everything you read here really happened. Reference is made to my mother's sometimes stinging sense of discipline, but she was in no way a child beater. She was a lovely, loving woman who made sure that my brother, sister, and I were properly fed, clothed, and grew up in a well-maintained home. She reveled in our successes and softened our failures, but Mom had rules. You didn't talk back, swear, sneak cigarettes, or drink Dad's beer. We all came out the better for that. Mom and Dad did things that I do not think I could have done as a parent, particularly the family vacations that took us hundreds of miles from home by car, with Dad doing the driving. I had a wonderful childhood, and the intent of this work is to deliver testimony to that and to entertain you as well.