Michael Forman's Blog: Michael Forman - Author

February 17, 2024

Reply to Reader Review

Author reply: Now go to here wp.me/pdf8Mh-11AH
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Published on February 17, 2024 18:50

May 8, 2022

Shooting The Hero: Write Against Plot Tropes

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Fairy tales are sweet as sugar. They reward heroic characters with happy endings. Good triumphs over bad, love prevail and every loose end is nicely resolved by The End. H.E.A warms our souls by saving us from reality. Yes, let’s read about the good fight while finding social harmony and love everlasting. Give me a gooey fairy tale so I can smile.

"Heroism is accessible. Happiness is more difficult."
-Albert Camus


Dreams and fairy tales are fantastic but life itself has beautiful stories too. They lead us along peculiar paths that take us to worlds we wouldn’t expect to visit. Take the happy girl who, at the age of six, dreamed of mermaids and unicorns, was a studious university graduate at twenty, but at the age of thirty, struggled to keep her life together because one bad decision followed another. The desire to make everyone else happy and put herself last had ruined her. At fifty, she’s now alone, poor and abused by strangers. Or let’s talk about the popular guy who has wealth and good looks on his side but is being torn apart by poor mental health. Through no fault of his own, he has a mind cancer growing inside his head. It’s causing disturbing visions to appear. He’ll die crossing the street because he imagined it to be a flooded river with his mother trapped on the other side. Some will mistake his death for suicide. Both characters are heroes in their own right but neither of them will appear like that until the last second. Their stories aren’t conventional fairy tales. Their endings won’t be conventionally happy either.

Burn those clichés! Prepare to shoot the heroes!

-Michael

SEETHINGS by Michael Forman
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Published on May 08, 2022 23:28 Tags: fiction, giveaway, novels, thriller, tropes

November 22, 2021

SEETHINGS — Thriller (on sale)

A darker look at marriage, sex and photography — about a photographer eager to shoot the perfect lightning storm, but ends up in the middle of a psychological one instead.
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https://bit.ly/smashwordsthriller
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July 6, 2021

A Short Book Sale (Fiction)

For a very brief time, my novel, SEETHINGS 2, is on a serious sale at Smashwords ( free coupon avail at end of link below). It is dark adult fiction (psycho-thriller styled) and weird, but good weird. Download now.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

-M

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June 26, 2021

Giveaway Time - Free Stuff!

My psycho-thriller (e-book only) SEETHINGS is available (short time) for free.

Download it first and then decide if you want to keep it in your library. It won't be free forever. Once again, that link is:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...

Read it and do a review on Goodreads after you're done. (A star review will do - thanks)

That is all!

-Michael

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All digital formats available.
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May 10, 2021

The Catholic And Not-So Abstinent Church (Novel)

description Children, hookers, and the occasional swipe-right for our Clergy. Just how celibate is the Catholic Church?

The Church has always had a weirdly obsessive grip on the sex life of its own (and everyone outside it too). I mention it several times in my book. Assuming you believe in the abstinence of the Catholic Church, this authority counsels parishioners on many things, including, can you believe it, sex. Strange. That’s like a coach training players to play a game he refuses to play. How do we get to accepting this arrangement for so long? We must want to be blind. It’s no wonder we’re shocked when a Priest is caught raping a child. Where not prepared for what should appear as blindingly obvious.

This child sex abuse thing is only the tip of the iceberg. It just happens to be the one we identify with most because it’s appearing in the news so frequently. Don’t think for a moment that their sex is confined to minors. We don’t hear about the rest of The Church’s sexual exploits because it’s not newsworthy. Priests sleep with hookers, parishioner’s wives, each other, and anyone else. Sex is as prevalent behind the robes as it is out here with you and me. We need to open our eyes and accept that. The Church is NOT celibate and, most likely, never has been.
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In the earlier days of the Church, it had nothing to say about celibacy — a time when Popes, Priests, and all Clergy could marry anyone.

Say what?

Oh yes, thirty-nine Popes were married men (women were Priests too) and could bonk their brains out, even before they held Mass. And then one anti-social, asexual Pope was voted in and changed it all.

'You're married to God now.'

This decision simultaneously turned sexual abstinence into doctrine and an outright lie. If Clergy wanted to get laid, they had to sneak around. This initial change didn’t turn into an atrocity-sized issue immediately. At first, I imagine that it was just a bit of bed jumping and hallway giggles after sunset. The new decree took its time to work its evil into the generations that followed.

Laypeople soon went searching for answers about their sexual inadequacies, fears, guilts and doubts. They liked the idea of a home for the celibate. Church rescued them from the pain of sex by excluding it. The Church then became a beacon for many more lost souls — and a perfect environment that would go on to nourish generations of frustrated, confused men (women too).

Priests f*cking children? No surprise there! Those poor, frustrated and confused men still needed sex, no matter what promises they made to God.

‘It’ll only be one time.’

‘God will forgive me.’

‘No one will believe a child's word over one from a man of God, right?’

We can't stay shocked. It makes us all look foolish to remain naive, pretending that we don’t know anything. Let's get it straight, we know. It’s a Church full of sexually active men (and women) and that’s that.

The Catholic Church (and others) isn’t celibate. It simply likes using the word. It makes itself sound important to know something of sex when people come asking about it. Celibacy is safe advice. It’s like a pause button, or an off switch. No-sex is better than a bad outcome. Church is off the hook. Meanwhile, back in the Presbytery, our resident Priest returns to jerking on his boner while swiping right for his next hot Tinder date — thank God he’s looking for a consenting adult and not a vulnerable child, right?

I'm not anti-Church. I'm anti-celibacy for the Church. I like sex. You probably like it too. I applaud the Tinder Priest for doing the right thing and leaving doctrine out of it. I don’t applaud Church for making him tell us that he’s a celibate man and then have us believe that he’s an authority in good sexual advice — and I absolutely hate any church protecting its paedophiles.

What's also wrong is to make a vulnerable younger man take an unreasonable vow of chastity and then expect him to honour it for all of his life. This is sexual abuse too. And any form of abuse can easily turn any abused into an abuser, right? Abuse has consequences. The Church abused its men. They abused the community.

The largest Churches in the world are now confronted with the reality of what celibacy has done to it and its people. The community has lost faith in Church because of this one ridiculous, nonsensical rule about what its Clergy (and us) shouldn’t be doing. They should revert to the previous rule and let all of them (and us) have the opportunity to engage in sex.

In my novel SEETHINGS , I examine how much the celibacy rule has negatively affected the modern marriage — the Church's tendrils extending deep into the bedrooms of good Christians.

-Michael

‘Forman’s writing style is artful, with the protagonist Mitchell’s warped thought processes masterfully exposed. The author has a powerful and vivid command of language and his word pictures are stark and disturbingly real.’

Linda J Bettenay, author of ‘Secrets Mothers Keep’ and ‘Wishes For Starlight’
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Published on May 10, 2021 21:40

November 14, 2020

New Book Release - SEETHINGS II

After a long-term hiatus, the Storm Killer returns and so does the torment that leads a dark mind down a murderous rabbit hole. A body is discovered and the crime has all the tell-tale signs that the killer is on the move again. (free for a limited time) https://bit.ly/SEETHINGS2

Available on SMASHWORDS in all the digital formats you can poke a stick at. Get it now, before we start charging for it! (Reviews most definitely welcome during this period!)

-Michael

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Published on November 14, 2020 17:00 Tags: crime, discover, fiction, free, free-books, latest-releases, neo-noir, new-release, noir, psycho-thriller, reading, thriller

October 4, 2020

Free From Smashwords - SEETHINGS

Psychological thrillers don't get any better. SEETHINGS is avail for free for a limited time. Go here to download it. So get it now and read it later!!!!

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[DOWNLOAD HERE]

-Michael Forman (Author)
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November 28, 2019

New Review Has Just Arrived

Waves of Darkness, officially released a day ago, has had its first review. Thanks go to Bec Murray for the five star recommendation.

Bec Murray will receive the first signed copy of its prequel, Darkness Awakes.

-Michael

https://www.mfp.com.au/amazon-reviewe...
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November 25, 2019

Official Release of New Novel and Giveaway

Waves Of Darkness Novel - Dark Adult Fiction Giveaway

Yay!

An official release of this new dark novel was made on social media this week and with it comes a giveaway!

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Read and review Waves of Darkness to get a signed copy of its prequel Darkness Awakes sent directly to you from the author's desk.

A short video was recorded and posted to the home site (https://www.mfp.com.au/latest/) today that contains all the details. There aren't many strange requirements, just a request to leave a review on the Amazon page from where you got the novel. Oh, and to contact Michael after it's done.

The first three reviewers will get a signed copy of the prequel for free!

Both books are dark (of course), sexy and twisted.

For a synopsis, visit this page. (https://www.mfp.com.au/books-by-micha...)
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Michael Forman - Author

Michael  Forman
Hi. This is the Goodreads blog for Michael Forman, Dark Fiction Author.

Some posts here contain full content while others are excerpts from the main site located at https://www.mfp.com.au/michael-forma
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