Pushcart (Sur)Prize!
I’m more than happy (something George Carlin described as a mental imbalance) to announce that “Silver State”, one of the stories in my short story collection, The Silver State Stories, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The Silver State Stories remains available for purchase via Cornerstone Press (Great folks to work with), Barnes and Noble, and, of course, Amazon.
To order copies, click here.
Please click below to view an excerpt.
https://michaeldarcher.net/4614-2/
Pressing On
My poetry chapbook, Odd Comfort, from Finishing Line Press remains an actuality and a handsome one at that. To order copies (Note the plural), please click here.
Also available for purchase, if you’re in a spendy mood, is Muddy Backroads: Stories from off the Beaten Path, a short story anthology from Madville Publishing that contains a story of mine, “Jackpots Only”. To order your copy, please click here.
Objectives
Concerning my fiction: I’m seeking a literary agent, or better yet, a publisher who’s seeking me because she’s as driven as I am to have my novels find print. Concerning my poetry: I’m working to gain acceptance and publication of a second poetry chapbook while continuing to publish individual poems.
Biography
Michael Darcher grew up on the mean cul-de-sacs of Ho-Ho-Kus, New Jersey. He received a BA in English from the University of Portland. Prior to receiving an MFA in Creative Writing and an MA in Literature from the University of Montana, he spent a decade as a casino dealer and gaming instructor in Reno, Nevada. Until he retired in 2016, Michael was an English professor at Pierce College, a Washington state community college, where he taught creative writing and founded SLAM, a student literary arts magazine. His stories have appeared in numerous literary reviews including High Plains Literary Review, Green Mountains Review, The Carolina Quarterly, Rio Grande Review, Zone 3, and others. Twice, his fiction has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. His poems have appeared in The Orchards Poetry Journal, Eunoia Review, Evening Street Review, The RavensPerch Literary Magazine, Crosswinds Poetry Journal, Front Range Review, and elsewhere. He is presently devoting his attention to writing novels and seeking a literary agent or a publisher who can help him gain publication as well as publishing more poems as a prelude to having a second poetry chapbook accepted for publication. Michael resides above Commencement Bay in Tacoma, Washington with his wife, Joanne, a retired journalism professor, and his 50 lb. rescue dog, Zelda. For the record, Joanne says, if it’s her only option, she would prefer to come back in her next life not as Michael’s wife but as his dog.
Novel Manuscripts
Living Proof
The first novel I’m shopping is Living Proof. Set in Saratoga Springs, NY, it chronicles a complex friendship between two men: Nick Fencik, who chose to remain a townie after college and now runs a successful travel agency, and John Bain, a bon vivant who has a history of one-upping Nick until his diagnosis of melanoma alters their relationship and sets off a series of escalating pranks. Living Proof explores the gaps between who we are and who we think we are, and how our desire for gratitude muddies these waters. The narrative for this novel is told from Nick’s point of view.
One side note: The first chapter of Living Proof appeared in High Plains Literary Review as a short story. I reread the story after falsely assuming contact from a boyhood friend was a tell that his melanoma had recurred and worsened. This time, I was struck by how the story read as a first chapter of something longer. That something became Living Proof.
Please click below to view an excerpt.
https://michaeldarcher.net/living-proof-excerpt/
The Unplayable Lie
The second novel I’m shopping is The Unplayable Lie. Set along the south shore of Lake Tahoe, this novel centers on, well, self-centered Crane Newton, a scratch golfer who has just been accepted into an in-house casino dealing school for craps. Over the course of two years, Newton, whose resolve has never been tested, searches for anything that will help him resurrect a golf swing run amok, hold onto a dealing job antithetical to his ego, maintain an unexpected friendship with someone who refuses to compete, and sustain a romantic relationship he can’t dictate. Soon after Newton’s world crashes, someone leaves atop his car a copy of The USGA Rules of Golf that Newton embraces as his vade mecum. But will adhering to the personal, social, and environmentally friendly moral codes inherent in The Rules provide salvation? And who did leave that copy of The Rules tucked underneath a wiper blade on Newton’s VW Bug? Thematic concerns in The Unplayable Lie include the consequence of adhering to a prescribed moral code and the havoc expectation can cause in one’s life.
Please click below to view an excerpt.
https://michaeldarcher.net/excerpt-from-the-unplayable-lie/
Peek
The third novel I’m shopping is Peek. Peek, a euphemism for a casino observation department employee, takes place in Reno during the mid 1990’s over a three month period in Fall when business slows and casinos look to trim their workforce. The novel chronicles what transpires when Ed Collier commits two acts a peek mustn’t. He reveals his position to another employee then compounds this breach by not documenting his suspicions that his confidant, Roberta, a blackjack dealer, is cheating.
Essential to the novel are the point of view shifts that occur in Peek. The novel follows Ed’s difficulties, but Peek is also an ensemble novel that recounts the events in eight other characters’ lives through a series of intertwined narratives. Ed gets to tell his story in first person, but the progressions of the other principle characters are presented in third person vignettes in alternate chapters. For good measure, Peek also contains half a dozen two page chapters focusing on Roberta that are told in second person.
Please click below to view an excerpt.
https://michaeldarcher.net/excerpt-from-peek/
Writings
Stories
“Six of One” – A man’s decision not to assist a distressed pet owner spurs a new regard for himself and others.
“Broken Bat Single” – A diehard (so to speak) Cubs fan attempts suicide with a baseball bat. Nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
“Dead Bob’s Story” – An aging casino dealer comes to grips with his pending termination.
“Jackpots Only” – A man’s search for a woman’s third tattoo leads to other discoveries.
“Point B” – While traveling through the Ozarks, migrating terrapins cause a woman to reexamine her own complaisance.
“Bank Job” – A blackjack dealer struggles with how big a part she played–and wants to have played–in a high-roller’s suicide.
“Bozophobia” – A man returning to his college haunts discovers a former antagonist isn’t as big an adversary as he expected.
“Curb Service” – An elderly man’s death bed request to be recycled and left curbside leads to his wife’s reassessment of their relationship.
“True Odds” (told in reverse chronology) – A man’s willingness to serve as a residency witness for a woman’s quickie divorce goes awry.
“Lobster Boy” – West Coasters must deal with a New Yorker’s cultural myopia when confronted with catastrophe.
“Sleeping Policeman” – A boyhood friend’s unexpected return during the height of racing season causes festering resentments to reemerge.
“Exotic Animal Paradise” – A transplanted high school basketball player takes unusual steps to befriend her teammates and appease her boyfriend.
“Suits and Bodies” – A casino dealer must decide whether to become a pit floorman or remain a dealer.
“Sand Shark” – A casino dealer’s inability to acknowledge his arrogance causes his eventual exile.
“Better Don’t” – A woman returning to her college town locates a man she once loved.
“Photo Op” – A casino observation department employee is determined to have her picture appear in the company magazine.
Poems
- “The Circuit” The Orchards Poetry Journal Summer 2024
- “Short Sands Beach, December 31st” Eunoia Review February 2024
- Odd Comfort (chapbook) Finishing Line Press 2022
- “Elegy for a Friend Not Yet Dead” Evening Street Review Autumn 2022
- “The Order of Things” Front Range Review 2022, The RavensPerch Literary Magazine December 2021
- “This Wretched Conscience” The RavensPerch Literary Magazine December 2021
- “The Reposition” The RavensPerch Literary Magazine December 2021
- “Star Power” Crosswinds Poetry Journal 2021
- “The Cons” Crosscurrents 2015
- “Sound Bites” Crosscurrents 2015
- “Damn, I’m Sexy” Crosscurrents 2011
- “The Periodic Table” Crosscurrents 2008
- “Upon Hearing for the First Time the Old People’s Shuffle Coming from My Mother” Crosscurrents 2006
- “Tri Colores” Crosscurrents 2005
- “The One-Armed Juggler” Crosscurrents 2005
- “Esperanto” Crosscurrents 2004
- “The Day I Became Charles Whitman” Crosscurrents 2004
- “The Soul of a Teacher, The Mind of a Student” Crosscurrents 2004
- “When I was Kicked Out of the Seminary” Crosscurrents 2003
- “Elegy for Bill Hedderly” Crosscurrents 2003
- “Sue Grafton’s 27th Novel” Crosscurrents 2003
- “Roll Call” Crosscurrents 2000
- “At Christ the King Cemetery” Crosscurrents 1999
- “Another State” Crosscurrents 1998
- “Name Tag” Crosscurrents 1998
- “Catch” Crosscurrents 1998
- “Matriarch” Crosscurrents 1997 (awarded honorarium for best poem)
- “The Assassins” Crosscurrents 1997
Please click below to view two poems.
https://michaeldarcher.net/two-poems/
Plays and Screenplays
- Fielder’s Choice – Screenplay made into a feature length film 1997-98
- Core Abilities – Play published in Crosscurrents 2005, produced for the Pierce College 10 Minute Play Festival 2005
SLAM
At Pierce College, I founded and served as editor-in-chief for SLAM, an acronym for Student Literary Arts Magazine. I dislike the description “award winning”. I mean, who or what hasn’t won an award?! You can win one just for attendance. Still, more than once, SLAM was named “best of” among the 19 literary journals Washington community colleges publish. SLAM, an annual publication, enjoyed a robust press run of 3,400 copies and routinely ran in excess of 200 pages. I’m immensely proud of the level of work we tweezed from our student writers and artists as well as the quality of our design, layout, and production. I believe our desire to matter trails only food, clothing, and shelter as a human necessity. My involvement with SLAM certainly accorded me a metric ton of subsistence.
Michael Darcher 