Featured Interview With Michael Springer
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am proud to say that at age 55, my first novel, The Flower Bed, was published on 30 April 2024. I am a practising Barrister-at-Law (I wear the wig and gown to court) who is married and has an 11-year-old daughter. I live in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, where I was born, but have lived in other Australian cities and travelled to distant lands. There must be some unique substance in the water at my home because my dog, Marley (yes, she was named after watching the movie), is in her fifteenth year, and our cat, Be-Be, is in her twenty-second year. I am a trained actor and singer and have had a passion for creativity since my earliest recollection. I am also a mental health survivor, having lived with various mental health conditions for most of my life, and I am a passionate online advocate to normalise mental health.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been fascinated with books for most of life, commencing with my grandfather reading to me from when I was about two years of age. I have intermittently written poetry since I was 17; however, The Flower Bed, which I commenced writing in January 2016, is the first book I have written. When I was studying acting in Sydney during the early 1990s I wrote a film script, a document that has been regrettably lost with the effluxion of time.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
I find it difficult to nominate a ‘favourite’ author because I love reading fictional and non-fiction books, poetry, plays, essays and letters. However, I am doing my best to answer each question:
1. Ken Kesey, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Mark Twain, Harper Lee and Oscar Wilde are my favourite authors of fictional books.
2. Mike Carlton and Peter FitzSimons are my favourite non-fiction authors.
3. William Shakespeare, Elaine May, Tennessee Williams and George Bernard Shaw are my favourite theatre and film scriptwriters.
3. I like reading any fiction genre; for me, it is more about how engaging the plot is than whether it is a crime story or a love story. For example, I loved reading Dr. Zhivago.
4. Maya Angelou, Blake and Shelley are my favourite pots.
Who inspires me in my writing? My answer is not meant to be obtuse because it is the truth- every single person who has dared to write and been published inspires me. After all, literature is the heart and soul of humanity.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
The Flower Bed is a blend of a psychological thriller, a crime story, and a love story, which spans continents and most of the central character’s lifetime. I otherwise will quote this Amazon review written by a retired educator who lives in Ohio: “As a former educator, I started my career teaching English literature for 20 years. Amidst the standard required “classics”, I always added modern authors to the year’s required reading lists. If I were still teaching those classes and students, I would add Michael Springer’s ‘The Flower Bed’ as a required read for the year. Very few novels have all these strengths overlapping at the same time: intricate, surprising plot turns; characters who are not caricatures; a narrative that reaches beyond the book jacket’s message, and some unique surprise … something that the author did differently than anyone else. Michael’s level of detail, his literal juggling of plot twists and turns, his recircling attention on Louis while veering in multiples of other directions … just, just superb. I would choose ‘The Flower Bed’ as required reading just for its demonstration of a writer’s craft.”
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