Fiction Meets Life with Michael Phillips

I grew up in a home where I was encouraged to read, perhaps not
in the healthiest of manners, but encouraged to read nonetheless.
My natural adversarial personality did not accept such prodding
easily, my push-back coming in the form of, or preference to,
physical activity. Give me a ball of any kind, and I was happy.


I happened to have the good fortune of growing up in Pittsburgh,
the second cloudiest city in the US, with winters unfriendly to
little boys wanting to run and play outside, our periodic
football games in the snow a rare opportunity. Nasty weather
drove us indoors, restlessly impatient, looking for something to
do. Once bored enough, the ample books awaited to be opened by
hesitant youthful eyes.


While a few classics were consumed in such moments, before long I
discovered various genres more to my liking. The Hardy Boys
mystery novels were consumed along with Nancy Drew and her
equally challenging exploits. Next escape novels from WWII were
discovered in abundance. Reading itself could be an escape I
realized, something much needed in my abusive, unfriendly
childhood home.


I guess there is something good about learning the value of books
for escape and enjoyment before accepting their value for
learning itself. It was many years later I embraced the enjoyment
of education, expanding one’s mental geography while traveling
through time between the pages of a book. 


I picked up a new author a few months ago, wondering if he would
be worth reading. My rule is to read at least fifty pages before
rejecting the book for good. I was cynical about this guy for
reasons not worth elaborating upon, but I got through the first
fifty pages, more than a little intrigued. I’m on my fourteenth
book now and recently discovered I have the option of going for
fifty more.


The characters are deep, real, multidimensional, and struggle
with the same issues in life as I do. They live in times I want
to know more about and in places, I want to go. Their
relationships struggle with things I struggle with and their
doubts seem to match my own as well.


So today on Church Hurts And you get to meet that author along
with me. His name is Michael Phillips and he doesn’t do many
interviews. He’s a writer, not a public speaker, but he has
graciously agreed to come out of his Shire, of sorts, to be with
us.  Welcome, Michael Phillips to Church Hurts And.


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