Michael Poeltl
By the end of 2023, I’ll have published 15 books ranging in genres, with two trilogies, a series, and many standalone books. It has been my absolute joy to rediscover the love of writing. To revisit those childhood freedoms where you can do anything and be anyone (with the right training and discipline). It has also been fun getting to know my audience when readers approach me (or I them), and we have meaningful conversations about books in general. I'm a big reader too, and I want to hear what others are reading to fill out my 'to be read' pile. So don't be a stranger!
Cleo McCarthy Time Travel and Other Impossible Things, 2023: The first time Cleo feared for her life was when she was diagnosed with early-onset Parkinson’s at 23.
The second time is when she discovered she could travel back in time at 24.
Cleo Reviews:
Killing Karma Reviews:
The Blind Affect launched on June 22nd, 2021 to some great advanced reviews:
FIVE STARS “... a sometimes disturbing but always profound look at three characters whose lives take haunting courses... 'The Blind Affect' will leave you with a lot to think about.”
FOUR STARS “[Poeltl] doesn’t tell us, he shows us the lives of these characters. He shows readers what trauma looks like and what is healing. It’s a timely story...”
Other book reviews:
"I would absolutely recommend this novel to anyone, and I can not wait to read more from thi
“In such a person, sadness breeds purpose; finding inspiration in the darkness and often times, I believe, they will impress a hell onto their own lives in order to re-create it, that others might suffer the experience from the comfort of their armchairs. - Quote from Her Past's Present.”
“The storm long past, the night sky was beset with stars. Pointing upward, I asked her to pick a point of light and stay with it. Standing up, I eased Sara to her feet. Whispering into her ear, I asked, “Have you ever stood under a star... and felt the earth move under your feet?”
“When I wasn’t in the barn garden, helping out, sorting seeds or checking hoses I’d spend time alone, usually in the bathroom adjacent to Joel’s room, staring into the shattered mirror as my hand gently caressed my baby bump.More often than not I would cry. Not because my pregnancy upset me, or that my hormones were getting the better of me, but because I missed Joel, my baby’s father. That the baby would grow up without a dad made me anxious. Then again, if he had survived, what irreparable damage would he have suffered and how would his pain translate to his child? Jesus, I was studying myself in the very mirror he’d smashed the night he chose to take his own life.The bump had grown slowly in the last couple of months. With these limited resources, I didn’t have the privilege of eating whatever I craved. Had that been the case, I was sure I would have been bigger by now. Still, I tried to eat as well and as often as I could and the size of my belly had proven that my attempts at proper nutrition were at least growing something in there.Nothing made me happier than feeling my baby move. It was a constant source of relief for me. In our present circumstances, with no vitamins and barely any meat products save the recent stash of jerky Earl had found in an abandoned trailer, my diet consisted of berries, lettuce, and canned beans for the most part. Feeling the baby move inside me was an experience I often enjoyed alone. I would think of Joel then as well. Imagining his hand on my belly, with mine guiding his to the kicks and punches.”
“Life is a gift, and should be cherished, lived and experienced. Though experience often reveals itself as pain in this world, it is still purposeful, it still has its place in the evolution of our spirit.”
“The guns reminded me that this was just an attempt to punch holes in the darkness that enveloped us now.”
“Memories are of the ethereal, and not the material world, that is how I know I am forever.”