avg_rating: 4.25
name: Michael Fillerup
about: One critic said my stories are like a journey “through hope and despair with a moment of genuine joy at the end.” I think “genuine” is the operative word, and as a writer I have to earn that. As a reader, so do you. In my stories, faith is a terrible gift, love is tough but fragile, and forgiveness a perpetual work-in-progress. Ambiguity looks both ways before crossing the street but still gets hit by a bus, but it’s all good because redemption, in some form or another, is waiting just around the corner.But that, too, must be earned: trust. At the end you may emerge a bit startled and shaken but hopefully a little wiser than before. And smiling. Because I’m a comic at heart, and a romantic but a realist too.I like to tackle big themes--suff One critic said my stories are like a journey “through hope and despair with a moment of genuine joy at the end.” I think “genuine” is the operative word, and as a writer I have to earn that. As a reader, so do you. In my stories, faith is a terrible gift, love is tough but fragile, and forgiveness a perpetual work-in-progress. Ambiguity looks both ways before crossing the street but still gets hit by a bus, but it’s all good because redemption, in some form or another, is waiting just around the corner.But that, too, must be earned: trust. At the end you may emerge a bit startled and shaken but hopefully a little wiser than before. And smiling. Because I’m a comic at heart, and a romantic but a realist too.I like to tackle big themes--suffering and insight, death and consolation, despair and hope, obsession and restraint—in ordinary and mundane settings, but I will also whisk you away to exotic or marginalized lands. Landscape always plays a starring role in my stories, whether it’s the desolate, barren beauty of the Navajo Reservation or the lush suburbs of southern California.I try to find beauty in every place and every person, but ordinariness often betrays them. They stumble and bumble and, when you least expect it, they reach up and catch a falling star. I often write about solitary people, profound loners in a crowd, not as stock oddballs but those who wish to fit in but can’t or those who have imposed a self-exile: unsung heroes in hiding. ...more