Biography
Mike's writing career began several years ago when writing an assignment for his college cooking program served double duty and became his first published article in a local magazine back in 1997.
Since then he has written and/or edited ebooks, articles, business plans, resumes, website content, short stories and screenplays.
Mike has a knack for taking existing material and making it flow. He does that by injecting logical, left-brain thinking into the right-brain, feeling based material. He marries the business mind with the artistic mind. He excels at streamlining wordy text and gleaning the 'nuggets' out of a series of materials (written, audio or other).
A particular specialty is creating company names, tag lines, log lines, titles, project names and concepts, etc.
A sample of his specific areas of interest and expertise:
Creative Writing
-Screenwriting, Filmmaking , short stories, poetry
Investing
- He has invested in revenue generating real estate for the past several years.
Investing
- He has successfully invested in the stock market for decades.
Outdoors
- He loves the outdoors and enjoys, in particular, hiking, canoeing, swimming, gardening walking his two Viszlas.
Coaching/Consulting
- He has successfully coached businesses to improve their bottom line including a landscaping and a greenhouse business
Food and Drink
- Mike loves his food. He graduated from culinary school in the top 3% of his class. He loves shopping for it, growing it, looking at it, harvesting it, smelling it, touching it, preparing it, cooking it and eating it and, after all that, loves to talk about every stage of it to anyone who will listen.
Mike has been described as a Renaissance Man of the 21st Century. He has an insatiable interest in a wide range of what life has to offer. His professional experience includes areas as far ranging as teacher, business coach, counselor for youth at risk, professional cook and rehab services for adults with cognitive disabilities as well as less professional duties including milking cows, returning captured poisonous snakes into the Australian Outback and opal ‘noodling’.
He often says, “For me, life is not a box of chocolates - it's a buffet. I sample a bit of everything once then go back for more of what I liked most.”
Interests
Stuff Mike Like: PLACES Kihei, Maui (esp. Kihei Surfside Hotel and Sensei restaurant) The Muskoka’s Salt Spring Island Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island, B.C. New Zealand FOOD Pure Maple Syrup (especially from Sundridge, Ontario) ‘Boylans’ black cherry soda Wild blueberries (when not in season or living out west - blueberry juice from Nova Scotia) Niagara peaches Wild raspberry pie Homemade butter tarts ‘Green and Black’s’ 70% dark chocolate Any truffle (or chocolate for that matter) from ‘Hot Chocolates’ in Courtenay, Vancouver Island, B.C. The best pancakes – ever (recipe to follow) The best waffles - so far (recipe to follow) ACTIVITIES: Snorkelling Hiking Canoeing Watching movies (old, new, foreign, domestic...) Cooking BBQing (with charcoal) Learning new songs to play on guitar Designing (landscapes, floor plans, interiors) Travelling Eating (in moderation) Stuff Mike didn’t ‘get’ at first but now likes: Talking/writing 3rd person Label makers The Internet (I know, I know...but I think this internet thing is really going to take off!) Cell phones Rice Cookers Panini Grills Blogging Movies/TV (random order) Good Eats Iron Chef America Jamie at Home TCM channel Myth Busters Planet of The Apes (of course the original!) Spartacus Lawrence of Arabia Twilight Zone (TV) Away From Her (if you ever wondered if you were/are in love – see this movie!) Knocked Up City Slickers 8 ½ Fellini Shadow of the Vampire (then see the original film it is based upon – ‘Nosferatu’ - creepy)
