AUTHOR

cropped-cropped-cropped-Michael-header-via-Win-9-iand-blue-12-10-1.jpgI learned a lot of Important Stuff in law school, the most important of which was  that I did not want to spend my life practicing law and fighting other peoples’ Zero-sum Games. Despite that insight, I practiced some in New York, then Virginia.

In time, I segued into management consulting, where I found my niche. As a consultant, I got paid to explore (vicariously) varieties of careers and organizations, some in the business world, others in government.

My specialty was open-ended: discovering why organizations and the individuals within were under-performing, and crafting methods to help them function better. Which meant that I got paid to do a lot of fun stuff (fun to me, at least). Meeting with people on all rungs across organizational charts, from Top Dog to New Kid (and comparing different perspectives and skills). Riding with the best (and worst) performers and figuring out what made the differences, then developing remedies. Developing and presenting workshops: some for sales managers and reps in organizations including Xerox, Kodak; other workshops for overseas officers for the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute.

I boiled down the key insights from that work in my book series, Career Savvy People Skills. Book 1 is How to Ask the SMART QUESTIONS for Winning the Games of Career and Life. Book 2 is How to Use MENTAL PICKPOCKETING to Get to the Truth Without Seeming to Ask Questions.

But it was not all management work. Early on, I’d been fascinated by the work of Captain Cousteau (THE SILENT WORLD) and others exploring in the world beneath the ocean surface.

In a way, that early fascination with what’s hidden in the depths beneath the ocean surface transformed into a new fascination: to explore the as-yet-unrecognized deeper potentials latent within human beings. Are we just melanges of chemicals and synapses, or are we “transformers” (if you will) of other energies still mostly dormant within us?

My sense is that we are on the verge of breakthrough discoveries in the world of what I term, not “the para-normal,” but rather “the dormant-normal” — potentials within us waiting to be awakened.  I’m exploring those possibilities in a series of technothrillers: A REMEDY FOR DEATH: Playing God with Body, Soul & Bio-tech; THE GRAIL CONSPIRACIES: A Technothriller Exploring Deeper Human Possibilities; JOINING MIRACLES (not really a thriller, more a parable, though it plays a role in THE GRAIL CONSPIRACIES ; and another in progress.

Two other books, in the international mystery and crime genre, evolved from travels and interests:INFINITE DOUBLECROSS, set mainly on the French Riviera, explores art theft, art forgery, and artful duplicity.  THE MAN WHO INVENTED GHOSTS ranges from Washington to London, Amsterdam, Zurich and Geneva, exploring the duplicitous, dangerous world of hiding (and stealing!) dirty money.