Saline Alum and Published Author Returns for Release of New Book

“They’ll recognize some people if they grew up in the 80s, there for sure.”

Saline High School graduate (‘93) and novelist Michael MacBride is releasing his latest book, At The Wake, later this month. To commemorate its launch, the author will hold a book signing hosted by Saline’s very own Fine Print Bookshop, on September 9th. STN contacted the homegrown writer to learn more about his journey from small town graduate to published author.

STN: Can you tell our readers a little bit about what you write and where you get ideas?
MacBride: I write a little bit of everything that interests me. I try to write the kind of books that I would like to see on a bookshelf. So I’ve written a couple science fiction or speculative fiction books–books that are based in reality, but there’s some kind of ‘what if’ element to them. 

The first one that I put out was called Bidding Wars and the basic premise was that children’s futures were exchanged on the stock market and you could invest in a student doing well. 

Unfortunately, you could also bet against them. When they turn 18, they’re either crippled in debt by having to pay people out who invested and were disappointed, or they get money to go on and make a good future for themselves.

STN: That sounds incredible. How did you come up with such an original idea?
MacBride: My wife and I were just sitting there at the table one day, we had two small children at the time, and we were trying to figure out 529 accounts because we want to invest in their education and the future. I just asked ‘what if other people could invest in our kids’? Then my wife said ‘we would probably have to report to them about how they’re doing’. I just started rolling with that idea. 

The one that probably is nearest and dearest to Saline is called Lies From Beechwood Drive. That one takes place in the 80s and it’s really based on my childhood in Saline. The premise is a town gossip who wanders the neighborhoods and tells stories, spreads rumors and that kind of stuff. Based on some of the mothers that I knew at that time [who were] kind of gossipy, I took them all and mashed them into one character named Esther.

I think that one’s fun, especially for people who live in the area. They’ll recognize some people if they grew up in the 80s there for sure.

STN: What’s the new book At the Wake about?
MacBride: I think of it as a multi-generational family drama. The premise is the father of the family in the story commits a murder, goes to prison, and ultimately dies in prison. But it’s about how secrets–family secrets–aren’t told. Stories are kind of buried, and then people hear little snippets of those stories, and they kind of turn them into myth. 

Like you don’t really know what is true anymore or how exaggerated things are because people don’t want to talk about that trauma or the past, so they fill in the gaps with stories of their own. 

It’s kind of about trying to find the truth of what really happened with lots of different characters telling versions of the truth throughout.

STN: Can you talk about your path to becoming an author? 
MacBride: To be honest, I don’t do it for a living, it’s more of a passion. I set out initially to teach English, literature, and humanities at the university level. I went and I got my doctorate and I taught for 13 or 14 years, but it was never a tenure track position. I was always between buildings and universities and at one point, I was teaching at three different schools. I never found a place with a full time job in a place I wanted to live, so I tried to figure out what else I could do with my life. I kind of reinvented myself writing grants for nonprofits and now I’m a consultant.

But, do you remember Mrs. Weintraub? She was my English teacher and encouraged me to enter the America and Me essay. I didn’t win it but I did well and I’ve always enjoyed writing.

Even when I was teaching I was always writing short stories and putting together ideas for novels. When I decided that teaching wasn’t for me I talked to my wife and said I want to take a year to dedicate time to writing and get some of these novels out of my head. And so in that year, I wrote three books. They weren’t finished and they weren’t perfect, but I got the main ideas out on paper, and those were The Bidding Wars, Lies From Beechwood Drive, and Voyager was the third one, which is another science fiction.

(Author’s Note: This response is a small slice of what became a 20-minute sidebar about the strict but wonderful world of award-winning Saline Middle School English teacher Marlene Weintraub. Topics included Animal Farm and authoritarianism, Vocabulary-Word-of-the-Week, and the unforgettable writing advice she gifted to generations of Saline middle school students: “A good essay is like a mini skirt: long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to keep it interesting.”)

STN: Do you have any thoughts you would like to share with STN readers from Saline and the surrounding areas?
MacBride: There are so many things vying for our attention that it can feel impossible to slow down. But books offer us a chance to do just that. They invite us to take a deep breath, step into someone else’s shoes, and see the world through a new lens. Through reading, we can live vicariously, build empathy for others, and learn something new in the process. Books are little portals that allow for relatively inexpensive ways to travel. The more I’ve traveled and the more people I’ve met (whether in the pages of a book or in another state or country), the more it reinforces that we are far more alike than we are different. 

Many of Michael MacBride’s books are available at the Fine Print Bookshop and through its website, as well as on Amazon. You can chat with the author and get a signed copy of his latest book by stopping by the Fine Print Bookshop located on Michigan Ave between 6:00-7:30pm on Tuesday September 9th.