ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I grew up in the New
York area and I’ve lived there my entire life. I worked in retail
and taught high school English before I got my first book contract.
I have gotten several additional book contracts since then, which
is fortunate because I didn’t have the patience to work in retail
and, while I quite enjoyed teaching, my approach was a bit too
unconventional for most school systems. One school administrator
told me that, “there are more important things than being a dynamic
teacher.” Since I couldn’t name any of those things (at least in
the context of school), I figured I didn’t have a long-term future
in the profession. Hence, I became a writer, where I believe people
appreciate a certain level of dynamism.
My first several book
deals were for nonfiction books. Though I started with nonfiction,
I have always loved fiction and I have always wanted to write it.
I’ve always had a particular affection for love stories. In fact,
the very first book-length thing I ever wrote, when I was thirteen,
was a love story. Mind you, it was the kind of love story that a
thirteen-year-old boy would write, but it was a love story
nonetheless. I have a deep passion for writing about relationships
– family relationships, working relationships, friendships, and, of
course, romantic relationships – and I can only truly explore this
by writing fiction. My novels have given me a way to voice the
millions of things running through my head.
My wife and kids are
the center of my life. My wife is the inspiration for all of my
love stories and my children enthrall me, challenge me, and keep me
moving. One of the primary reasons I wrote my first novel,
When You Went Away was that I wanted to
write about being a father. Aside from my family, I have a few
other burning passions. I’m a pop culture junkie with an especially
strong interest in music, I love fine food (as well as any
restaurant shaped like a hot dog), and I read far too many sports
blogs for my own good.
“Michael Baron” is a
pseudonym. This isn’t because I’m in the Witness Protection
Program, or anything of that sort. I’m writing these novels
“undercover” because they’re not entirely compatible with the
nonfiction books I write and I didn’t want to confuse readers.
We’re all different people sometimes, right? I just decided to give
my alter ego another name.
My next novel is
called The Journey Home. It’s a love
story, too, naturally. It follows three people going through three
different types of emotional battles.
Joseph, a man in his
late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t
recognize. Several people are near him when he opens his eyes, all
strangers. All of them seem perfectly friendly, but none of them
can explain to him where he is or how he got there. They offer him
a delicious meal and pleasant conversation in a beautifully
decorated room. This would be a very nice experience if not for one
thing: Joseph doesn’t know where he is, and he has no way to
contact his wife, who he is sure is worried sick over him. Thanking
the people for their hospitality, he leaves to make his way back
home. The only problem is that whatever happened to him has
stripped him of most of his memories. He knows he needs to get back
to his wife, but he doesn’t know how to find her. He sets out on a
journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only
the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide
him.
Antoinette is an
elderly woman in an assisted living facility. She’s spent the last
six years there since her husband died, and most of those years
have been happy. She enjoys the company of others in her situation,
and her son comes to visit often. But in recent months, she’s had a
tougher and tougher time leaving her room. Her friends seem
different to her and the world seems increasingly confusing. She
spends an escalating amount of time in her head. There, her body
and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a
husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live.
There, she is truly home.
Warren, Antoinette’s
son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year
of his life. His marriage ended, he lost his job, and in the past
few months, his mother has gone from hale to increasingly hazy.
Having trouble finding work, he spends more and more time by his
mother’s bedside. But her lack of lucidity both frustrates and
frightens him. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to
try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his
mother’s greatest dishes using the rudimentary appliances available
in her room. He finds the challenge surprisingly rewarding,
especially because the only time he feels his mother is truly with
him anymore is when she is eating the meals he prepares for
her.
Joseph, Antoinette,
and Warren are three people on different searches for home. How
they find it, and how they connect with one another at this
critical stage in each of their lives, is the heart of the story I
tell in The Journey Home.
The novel goes on
sale May 11, 2010. Check www.michaelbaronbooks.com in the early spring
for a preview of it.