Welcome to the wonderful world of words

I recently retired from a 40-year career as a college writing professor, literally teaching all over the world, from universities in Thailand, Saudi Arabia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and finally ending my career with a 24-year stint at a California community college.

My two humorous novels on Amazon Kindle

I just published two short humorous novels on Amazon Kindle. THE FAMOUS UNION is a rollicking romp through the halls of academia with eccentric characters all caught up in the economic turmoil that has brought about absurd decisions by the powers-that-be. THE SURVIVAL OF MARVIN BAINES is a whimsical novel about life, marriage, and coming to terms with one's one quandaries and foibles as midlife suddenly rears its head.

About Me

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I recently retired from a 40-year career as a college writing professor. I live in Southern California wine country with my wife, Kitty, and our other two cats. I started my career in 1971 at Utah State University. I then taught writing at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand; the University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Portland State University; Shasta College; the College of the Virgin Islands on the island of St. Croix; finally spending 24 years at and retiring from Riverside City College in California.

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Monday, October 3, 2011

The Famous Union
Michael Meyer
Amazon Kindle
B005FZMVB6, $2.99, www.amazon.com

The Famous Union provides a fine novel revolving around two very different professors starting their first year teaching at Famous Union College, a small "pretty college, with pretty buildings and pretty coeds and a lot of trees."

The entire faculty at Famous Union is unexpected, from an overworked Chaucer expert who has become obsessed with literature after failed love to one "Bill, the hybrid", whose life changes after he's mistakenly accosted by a polite gunman.

Add an unexpected run on the Chaucer course, an exhibitionist school secretary, and a host of other crazy academics and you have a whimsical spin through a college that can best be described as 'quirky and off-beat'.

The coach's wife Bertha is a case in point: a writer by trade, she sees fit to hand her temperamental husband a loving 'script' for togetherness which he dutifully reads: until the canned last too-loving line drives him into swearing and sends her away in tears (""F...U...C!" he shouted out to the world, using the forbidden acronym that perfectly suited his current frame of mind...It isn't fair, she was thinking. I worked so hard on it this time just to insure that it would be short and sweet, and now this. She quickly ran off to the back bathroom in order to have a good cry.")

One of the lines in The Famous Union says it all: "life is absurd" - and so are the hilarious characters that keep entering and making impressions on the reader.

Any with a background in academic circles will recognize the zany politics and personalities that often revolve in upper echelon education - and will find the whole concept filled with fun; particularly when the entire football team gets behind a coach who wants to oust wayward English teacher Bill to get more school money for his team.

The Famous Union is a comedy romp through the halls of academic insanity - and presents a school whose motto is "just wait till next year". Readers - especially those familiar with academic ironies - will find it filled with fun!


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