It is the oldest riddle in human history:  what do consumer advocacy, energy policy,  playwriting,  short-story authoring, novelizing, adventure traveling, environmental protection, non-profit administration, public speaking and drumming have in common?   Almost nothing.....except for Michael Shames. 

Michael has spent over 30 years as a director of non-profit utility advocacy organizations, environmental protection organizations and serving on boards of other non-profits.   In his spare time, he has traveled the world, written over 100 short stories, 30 one-act plays, three non-fiction consumer guides and two novels.  Oh, and he calls his parents on a regular basis. 

Most recently, he has produced two plays in New York City one-act competitions and has written two short-story compilations.  The first one,   "Fantastic Journals",  is a collection of 40 serio-comic short stories tied together by a metaphysical theme.   They are first-person narratives involving the implausible, impossible, improbable, imaginable, and immutable.   It will be published later this fall.

The second, "Whale of a Dragon's Tale",  imagines a world of sentient beings, none of whom are human.   A dragon and beluga whale fall in love and grapple with issues of life, death, friendship, identity and saving the world.  They are joined by a wise genderless colossal squid, humorless shrimp, networking clams, bumbling blue whales, crafty killer whales, cheeky crabs and a dimwitted owl and a wry seahorse named Trigger, Throughout it all, they maintain a dignity and humor that makes these stories a chuckle-filled roller coaster ride through an Earth epoch that may have once existed but about which our paleontologists will never admit.   Publication is expected in early 2015.

Stories from these two collections and numerous other writings can be found here as well as at his personal website (www.michaelshames.com).