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Michael Ransom

Goodreads Author

Born

in Decatur, The United States

Website

http://www.michaelransombooks.com

Twitter

MRansomBooks

Genre

Mystery, Thriller, Crime

Influences

Michael Crichton Michael Palmer Robin Cook Tess Gerritsen Thomas ...more

Member Since

February 2014

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/michael_ransom

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MICHAEL RANSOM is an American author and poet (b. 1968) originally raised in rural Mississippi who now makes his home in northern New Jersey. He is a molecular pharmacologist and a recognized expert in the fields of pharmacogenetics and toxicogenomics. He is widely published in scientific journals and has edited multiple textbooks in biomedical research. He is currently a pharmaceutical scientist and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

The Ripper Gene is his first novel.

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What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Michael Ransom As the famed death row inmate once intimated, and which was swiped and slightly modified by the CEO of Nike in the 70's: Just Do It.

I'm focusing mainl…moreAs the famed death row inmate once intimated, and which was swiped and slightly modified by the CEO of Nike in the 70's: Just Do It.

I'm focusing mainly on young aspiring writers in this Q&A. If you're older, like me (forties), then you probably already know that in theory, you can "just do it" anytime you want, but you may simultaneously be tied down with familial responsibilities, or any of a myriad of other commitments, that weigh you down as if you're standing in the middle of Times Square with a cruise ship's massive anchor chained to your ankle, angry lines of traffic and pedestrians honking at you to keep moving, trying to maneuver around you, as you look wildly around and beg to be released from the situation in which you find yourself... and you know that it's an impossibility, no one is coming with the key to save you, you have to figure this out on your own.

I'm not speaking to you. I'm speaking to the younger ones now, who haven't yet created those webs of networks and commitments and responsibilities to other people loved and for whom they care. The time is now. Go do it. Be a writer. Be a writer when the only thing you have to worry about is where your body will sleep and eat. Write like crazy during those days, and try to hit it big. Be motivated, write even when you don't feel like it, or when it would be just as easy to wake and bake with your good friend Mary Jane, or whatever you do, just write and then go beyond "writing" and don't just store up those manuscripts and let them fester- find a mentor, take classes, collaborate with friends, and learn HOW to Write and more importantly how to Revise. Why? Because you want other people to read what you write, and you therefore desperately need to learn Craft. And then, even though you're just a young one, barely a few days or weeks or months or years removed from being nudged out of the nest for the very first time and tumbling down to the ground while you flap those tiny little wings to no avail only to land in the soft pine straw below...

Submit that manuscript in its best possible form, find an agent, work with him/her to find a publisher...and try to become a writer early in life, and let it be your job until the day you die.(less)

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What’s the best thing about being a writer?

Michael Ransom For me, there are two equally amazing benefits of being a writer that transcend time and space, and a third that is more immediate.

First, I thoroughl…moreFor me, there are two equally amazing benefits of being a writer that transcend time and space, and a third that is more immediate.

First, I thoroughly enjoy that sense of finally feeling a bonafide, mysterious kinship with all other writers, living and dead. In essence, I've finally joined a very specific subset of humanity whom I've respected for decades, ever since my teachers began cracking open the little walnut of my mind and exposing it to new ideas, new characters, and even new worlds...all created by those mysterious people otherwise known as "writers".

I'm equally buoyed by the idea that I will now transcend my own death in a tiny sense. That someone, somewhere, will one day crack open the spine of one of my books and read it after I'm long gone from the face of the earth, and find a new way to think, or experience a sort of kinship with one of my own characters, or simply be thrilled by a mystery. That is a powerful, exciting feeling and it's definitely another reason I love being a writer.

There is one more immediate benefit of being a (published) writer. I cannot begin to describe how many people whom I have never met nor will I ever meet, who have written reviews or in some cases even written to me, about how much they loved my book. That, too, is a powerful aphrodisiac for an author- to sense that you have now, finally, literally transformed into a very different kind of person than you were before. Previously, you could only impact people who came into contact with you or were within the range of your voice. And now? Now you can impact people thousands of miles away across the face of the globe... and if you're really tuned into it, you'll realize how important that is...you'll envision the tenuous, silvery web of your own creation surrounding the globe... and realize that for now and forever, each time you plink the string of your writing in one way or another, all those people will hear it. (less)

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Michael Ransom’s books

Average rating: 3.83 · 334 ratings · 83 reviews · 21 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Ripper Gene 3.83 avg rating — 334 ratings — published 2015 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	"Pulitzer!": A collection of my Generations of Today articles 2003 - 2019 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Loving What Death Can Touch: A father endures the loss of his son 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Best I Can Do 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	HOW TO TURN YOUR BLOG INTO A BOOK: 12 steps to turn your blog posts into a book 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Spy happy Easter coloring Book For Kids: Bunny, Easter Eggs, Rainbow and More! Coloring, Activity and Guessing Game For Little Kids, Toddlers and Preschoolers 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	I Spy happy Easter coloring Book For Kids: Bunny, Easter Eggs, Rainbow and More! Coloring, Activity and Guessing Game For Little Kids, Toddlers and Preschoolers 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ransom's Island: How it came to be 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	12 WAYS TO BE A BETTER MAN IN A RELATIONSHIP: How to Be a Good Husband 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	HOW TO MAINTAIN A BALANCED DIET: Maintain a Healthy Eating Lifestyle 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Michael Ransom's Blog

Michael Ransom Book Review: Deal-Breaker by Harlan Coben

Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Harlan Coben introduces a new character and cast of supporting characters in Deal-Breaker. Myron Bolitar is not your normal mystery-solving protagonist...he's a sports agent! More specifically, he's a northern NJ-based sports agent, working in the city and around the Meadowlands Read More Read more of this blog post »

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Published on April 15, 2017 22:00

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Michael is Currently Reading

Michael Ransom is currently reading

Relic (Pendergast, #1)

by Douglas Preston (Goodreads Author)

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Oct 12, 2020 01:02AM

Michael Ransom is currently reading

Travels

by Michael Crichton

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Jun 10, 2020 04:44PM

Michael Ransom is currently reading

The Reckoning

by John Grisham (Goodreads Author)

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May 12, 2020 09:30PM

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Michael’s Groups

¡ POETRY ! — 22489 members — last activity Oct 07, 2026 06:07PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

The Mystery, Crime, and Thriller Group — 33026 members — last activity 2 hours, 41 min ago
“It was a dark and stormy night. Lightning flashed and thunder rolled across the sky. Rain spattered a mysterious, hooded stranger who peered over the ...more

THE Group for Authors! — 13105 members — last activity 10 hours, 50 min ago
This is a group for authors to discuss their craft, as well as publishing and book marketing.

Authors Looking directly for Readers — 2222 members — last activity Oct 17, 2026 06:15PM
What's the main thing that a writer needs? A pen, paper, computer? Nope -- It's someone to read their work and give feedback. This is a group where: ...more

Book Club (Young Adult Edition) for Authors Looking directly for Readers — 687 members — last activity Nov 30, 2023 11:15AM
Welcome to the Official Book Club for Authors Looking directly for Readers -- YOUNG ADULT edition

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