Author of Shattered and Tao of Apathy/ poet laureate
Shattered- A Novel
“The beauty of this novel is that on top of the fabulous characterization, simple, eloquent and evocative writing— the sad elements are balanced brilliantly with a quick-witted humor and a fast-moving pace. The novel cleverly uses Mikey’s (the protagonist) return home as a way to seamlessly reveal more about the characters and Mikey himself.” Reedsy review by Lukanyo Mbanga
Oversized comedian Mikey Haskell believes he has escaped the pain from his breakup with Karen by going on the road for six months. His first few days of being home in the Twin Cities sets him straight. At first, he believes he can only move forward by declaring he is in love with his best friend, Alaine. When that does not go well, he tries to leave all human emotion behind by becoming an animal-like being.
This animal persona sets himself loose on the comedy-circuit of 1995 and on all the people he cares about. Mikey is locked inside the persona and fights to make sense of what has happened to him.
I hope you enjoy my novel. If you do read it, please review it on Amazon and Goodreads. Your honest review helps out authors by making our books get more exposure. The best way to promote any book is word of mouth.
“Sure to spark meaningful conversations, mature audiences of contemporary dramatic fiction will have a hard time putting this one down.”
My name is Tom Cannon. I am the inaugural poet laureate of Oshkosh. I often get asked what that means. And what it means is there were not a lot of applicants.
But I am a poet I believe in the power of poetry and I take my role seriously.
I also love to write long fiction. I believe it is a powerful way for people to connect.
There is a lot of me in Mikey. Like many authors I have read, I wanted to share deep emotions to connect with a reader that needs a connection. Mikey cannot handle his grief and I wanted to write about bitterness. About becoming hardened after hardships.
However, I am not Mikey Haskell. For those of you that have read the book, I won’t throw any furniture around. The truth is that while my initial tone and concept of the story has remained the same, the story and Mikey got more intense as I became a better writer.
The goal of this blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many.
This blog feature amusing and heartwarming stories about our late Leonberger dog Bronco, as well as other Leonbergers. It also has a lot of information about the Leonberger breed, the history, care, training, Leonberger organizations, etc. I also wrote a Leonberger book, which I am featuring in the sidebar.
“Ruffled feathers and endless squawking over a minor difficulty is typical of a crow’s life. I lean back on the counter and realize that could be my line….”
Thomas Cannon Author 