Michael Sheldon
Over the years my work has alternated between writing and photography—sometimes combining the two. The way I see it: it’s all story telling.
Novels
A MAGICALLY REALISTIC ECO-FANTASY
Reveille in Birdland
Through a unique blend of genres, Reveille in Birdland presents a satiric view of the interactions between birds and people…told from the birds’ point-of-view.
A BRUNO X PSYCHIC DETECTIVE MYSTERY
The Violet Crow—New Expanded Edition
“Michael Sheldon’s Violet Crow is an original debut that promises good things to come, and Bruno X is like no detective you’ve ever met.”
—Thomas Perry, Edgar and Gumshoe Award-winning author of the Butcher’s Boy and Jane Whitefield novels
“Crow plays in your head like a beautiful parody of a film noir, richly detailed in its hard boiled madness.”
—Susan L.M. Goldberg, PJ Media
Stories
FEATURED STORY
Better than Fresh Apricots
Goaded by their husbands, Marianne and Peggy head into the Montana wilderness where they attempt to emulate Nick Adams’ exploits as chronicled by Hemingway in the “Big Two-Hearted River” stories. “Better than Fresh Apricots” is the first story I wrote in the late 1980s for a collection I called Tales of the Cretins. It appeared in Liberty Island’s online magazine in April 2014, in conjunction with the publication of the first edition of The Violet Crow.
Fortunately, Liberty Island’s story archive remains accessible, despite the publisher’s demise. I plan to feature a different tale each quarter. If these prove popular, I’ll start issuing my unpublished stories as low-cost ebooks or, possibly, chapbooks.
THE FIRST COCO RICO STORY
Dark 'n' Stormy
An afternoon patron at Coco’s tells how he stumbled upon a long-running dispute between an actuary and a dentist over who is the better steward of the environment.
Coming Fall 2026
THE LAST TALE OF THE CRETINS
Death on Mondo Beach
This story presented itself to me in a dream and forced me to stop work on a different project until I got it down on paper. Yeah, it’s a dystopian tale, set near Hollywood, in a future that seems more likely every day.
In 1991 I wanted to learn “desktop publishing.” I designed “Death on Mondo Beach” as a seven page chapbook, limited to 100 signed copies. I still have a few left.
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“Metamorphoses,” Pesty drawled, “were common in ancient times.”
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