Michael May

I discovered the joy of writing in 5th grade thanks to a creative writing assignment. My paper was essentially a piece of Star Wars fan fiction (and I clearly didn't know the difference between an android and an asteroid), but I had such a blast creating it that I was hooked. I've been writing ever since.

Writing mainly for myself (and a couple of school literary magazines), I didn't start thinking about doing it for money until around 2001. I wanted to get more involved in the comics industry, so I began writing reviews for Comic World News and eventually became Editor in Chief of the site.

Around that same time I began blogging on LiveJournal just to keep up with some online friends, but I soon became hooked on talking about movies and TV shows or just sharing news. That blog eventually became Michael May's Adventureblog, which is still my primary forum for talking about adventure stories, both mine and other people's.

In addition to that, I also contribute to the Robot 6 group blog at Comic Book Resources and an infrequently updated blog about Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

I've been interested in adventure stories for as long as I can remember. Certainly since I was a boy, reading the exploits of Tarzan, James Bond, and Shang Chi: The Master of Kung Fu. I come by the love honestly because my family was full of genre fans growing up.

My mom loves mysteries like no one else I know. She always had an Agatha Christie or Rex Stout book around the house and our family's favorite TV programs were '70s detective shows like Barnaby Jones and Cannon.

My dad is the science fiction guy. He loves to remind people that he's responsible for my (and my brothers') love of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. He also introduced me to authors like Robert Heinlein and WA Harbinson.

My love of comics is mostly because of my grandfather. My dad's dad owned a barber shop and always had lots of Marvel, DC, Harvey, and Disney comics lying around the waiting area. Mom was usually willing to drop a few cents at the drug store spinner rack too if I begged hard enough.