Michael West

Bio
In addition to writing fiction, I have been producing plays, writing and performing songs, publishing poetry, online hypermedia, interviews and essays since my undergraduate years.

My first novel, Dutch Reckoning, about the Gardner Museum art theft, features the reluctant amateur sleuth Tommy Shakespear. Dutch Reckoning and two other proposed Tommy Shakespear novels were taken up by Avon on a Friday, but the following week that company became part of a major acquisition and both my editor and the book deal went out the door. Shortly after that, my agent passed away.

I am currently at work on a new eco-thriller series set on Martha’s Vineyard. The debut novel in the Vineyard Mystery Thriller series, Xoc, appeared in an earlier form serialized on WordPress.

“Jaws was a simple, primal conflict: man vs. shark. In Xoc, also set on Martha's Vineyard, Michael West serves up a shark tournament, eco-protesters, a shark gambling ring, corrupt officials, mobsters and, for a hero, an ex-Marine who’s not quite over Afghanistan. This time, not surprisingly, it’s not just the beaches that aren’t safe.”
-- Jesse Kornbluth, HeadButler.com

The novel’s serial publication was timed to coincide with the run up to a town meeting vote and a formal ballot the following day, concerning the shark tournament that is fictionalized in Xoc. My intent was to influence the votes on a non-binding referendum to convert the annual shark tournament to tag and release. We won both ballots.

Meanwhile, I’ve begun a new novel in that eco-thriller series. My current agent hopes to sell Xoc and the Vineyard Mystery Thriller series in the traditional publishing marketplace. If my luck with agents and the publishing industry continues, I will launch that series in 2014 digitally on Kindle Direct Publishing and in print via CreateSpace, both under the Sepiessa Press imprint.

Sepiessa Press will also launch a number of digital and print books of poems. Stay tuned.