Author: Michael Boyle
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Finding Fiona Part One
Welcome dear readers. Some memories don’t just tap you on the shoulder — they grab you by the collar and haul you straight back to childhood. A friend of mine recently shared one of those memories with me. It wasn’t funny at the time, but decades later it gives him a grin and a good…
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July 4th, 2000
Author’s Note: I never know what story will bubble up next, but when one does, I follow it. Fitzgerald once said, “You don’t write because you want to say something, you write because you have something to say.” Well… this one had plenty to say. Here’s the true tale of how a quiet holiday weekend…
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On the Finality of Emptiness
Author’s Note: Nearly sixty years ago, I wrote this piece in the uneasy quiet that followed my return from Vietnam. My family had moved away from the little Northwest Wisconsin town I suddenly found myself living in alone, my fiancée was preparing to marry someone else, and the only people who understood the weight I…
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A Pair of Tales
Author’s Note: Welcome to this week’s blog post. Thank you for joining me today. I appreciate you as a valued subscriber. Some stories stay with us because they touched something tender; others because they tested our patience, our sanity, or our ability not to scream in public. This week’s pair of tales lives on opposite…
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A Week After Never
Author’s Note I am sharing only this piece today, as it stands alone as my tribute to my long‑lost brother. Some writings belong to a larger collection, but this one carries its own gravity — a quiet, personal remembrance that deserves its own space. Ed’s absence has shaped the long arc of my life. In…
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The Places Fear Follows
Author’s Note: Hello dear readers, welcome again to my blog. Today I’m sharing something a little different—two pieces that walk the borderlands between fear, memory, and the unseen. There are places the mind wanders long before the body ever follows—shadowed corridors where memory, dread, and ancient names drift like ash on the wind. Today’s first…
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Two Stories For, Two Worlds
Author’s Note – Some days, the past arrives with a grin. Other days, it knocks on the door with a shadow at its back. This month’s stories come from those opposite corners. The first is a warm, mischievous memory from when the world was simple, sunlight was entertainment, and a three‑year‑old boy believed a mailman…
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Pot O’ Gold – Part Three
Author’s Note – Two weeks ago, I shared Part one of the story inspired by the poem I shared on March 3rd. Today, I’m posting the conclusion, but first, a recap: Previously on Pot O’ Gold… Young Seamus O’Donnell, desperate to save his family during the Great Hunger of 1847, set out across Arranmore Island…
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Pot O’ Gold (Part II of III)
Author’s Note: Two weeks ago I shared the poem, Pot O’ Gold, written years ago and recently expanded into a full short story. Today, on St. Patrick’s Day, I’m sharing Part One of that story — a tale set on Arranmore Island in 1847, during the darkest days of the Great Hunger. This first…
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Pot O’ Gold (Part One of Three)
Author’s Note: To begin the month of St. Patrick’s Day, I’m sharing a poem I first wrote more than twenty years ago. It’s a playful encounter with King Brian, the Leprechaun King, and it eventually inspired a much larger story set on Arranmore Island during the Great Hunger. The full tale will unfold here over…
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