My Book is Now Available on Amazon!

Great news! My novel, Some Kind of Vengeance, is now published and available (in e-book format) for only $4.99.

Check it out here:

It’s a blitz-read as I call it. In other words, you can finish it in 90 minutes or less if you read it all in one sitting.

Just a quick update for you guys. I should be putting up a full post soon. Stay tuned!

I Finally Finished! (Depending on Your Definition of Finishing)

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Michael Marino has finally finished the manuscript for his novel, Some Kind of Vengeance!  (Formerly known as Good Criminals)

Indeed, after three long, grueling years of typing like a crazed madman at all hours of the day and night, as well as taking looong hiatuses from writing (the last one being about 8 months I believe)… I have completed. It’s quite an ambiguous feeling because on one hand, it is done: the basic plot is there, start to finish, and it is a whole story. Most of the characters are fully developed, understandable and at least somewhat relatable. But on the other hand, there is still so very much to be done. I will have to edit all of it with a fine-tooth comb, and go through the process of getting it self-published on Amazon and the like. I refuse to go through a traditional publisher because it’s too much money and I have a super limited budget, considering I currently go to school full time and only work part time.

It’s taken a lot of coffee and a lot of support from people (namely my mother, and my two best friends) to get where I am today, and it will likely take a whole lot more to get to the final stage of actually publishing the book for the world to see. I am fully ready to go 110 miles per hour at this point to get it all done. I’m set to move on to my next writing project, although it will likely be difficult because I’ve grown so attached to these characters over the past 36 months.

Anyway, thank you for reading this update! I will be sure to keep you all in the loop as I round each corner to finally get this thing published.

The Winds of Change

A poem about autumn

The winds of change are blowing

I can feel its harshness as it rushes across my face

and see its hand print on all the leaves

As the grass turns from green to brown

And my skin from dark to white

I feel the world compressing, condensing

as Nature cleans out the closet of the living

and prepares for the yearly death.

Chapter 3 of Mystery Novel

I told you Chapter 3 would be posted VERY soon!  I have decided to wait until I am done writing it to give it a title, so for now you can call it whatever you want.  I think I’ll call it “My First REAL Book” since I am actually dedicated to finishing it. Haha. Please comment and tell me how you like it so far!

Chapter 2 HERE

Chapter 1 HERE

~Michael

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Daniel decided to go to the mall for a while to wait out the hoodie-guy.

He went to the food court and ordered a pretzel and a Coke, and sat down at a table.  He just hoped that the hoodie-guy didn’t follow him to the mall.

Making sure nobody was following him, Daniel got up to leave with his Coke still three quarters full, and his pretzel only partially eaten.  He wasn’t hungry.  It was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.  But you couldn’t let that deceive you; the actual temperature was somewhere around thirty degrees.  The sun glistened off the mall parking lot and all the cars, yet it felt like there should have been a foot of snow on the ground.  That’s weather in Ohio for you.

Still making sure nobody was following him, he hopped in. Well, more like he slid in.  Remember, this was a tiny-ass car.

When he got back to the dormitory, he didn’t see the hoodie-guy, so he figured it was safe to go in.  He quickly got on his laptop to finish his paper for Internal Biology.  He wasn’t going for a degree in medicine but figured the class would be interesting anyway.  He was actually going for a master’s degree in criminal justice.

He typed until his fingers hurt.  Luckily he didn’t have any other homework to do, so he put his computer away and ordered pizza.  The woman on the phone said it would be about a twenty minute wait.  Twenty minutes later, his doorbell rang. When he got to the door and answered it, nobody was there, but they had left a note. It said in swirly, scribbled handwriting:

I’m watching you.

Every phone call you make, I can listen to.

Every move you make, I can watch.

Want more answers?  Meet me in the cafeteria tomorrow, 8AM sharp.

-Caliban

Daniel felt his blood run cold.  He broke out in a sweat. He started to have hot flashes. His heart rate began to rise rapidly and he felt nauseous.  That’s it, he thought, this guy has gotten on my last nerve.

So Daniel started down the staircase, and halfway down, he met the pizza delivery woman.  He told her she could take the friggin’ pizza back, he didn’t want it.  “You still have to pay for it, sir!” she called after him.

“No I don’t, your website says you have a full refund policy. Just take it back.” Daniel called back, never breaking his trot.  Pizza woman said something else, but he couldn’t hear her, and frankly, he didn’t care.

He started walking around the building, looking for “Caliban.” His mind was going at thousand miles a minute. So his name is Caliban, he thought. It’s probably just an alias, but what the hell does he want from me? My lunch money? He could just ask, like a normal person.  But that’s just it, he’s no normal person.  Probably a damn pedophile.  And how can I be so sure it’s a guy? It could be a woman.  Whoever they are, they’re not normal.  No normal person wears a mask and hoodie and stalks people with creepy texts and notes.

Caliban was nowhere to be found.  Daniel’s adrenaline was running on high, but it was of no use, since he couldn’t find Caliban.  He returned to his dorm, clueless and hungry.

~

The next morning was difficult.  Daniel had endured a night of relentless nightmares and restless sleep. But luckily it was Sunday and he didn’t have anything pressing to do.  But he couldn’t get damn Caliban off his mind.

Isn’t Caliban a character from a Shakespeare play or something? he thought.   I’m definitely not meeting this creeper in the cafeteria.  It’s Sunday and nobody’s in there, so there’d be no witnesses if he did something stupid.  Does he think I’m retarded or something? 

Daniel decided not to use his cellphone, just in case Caliban was telling the truth and really could listen to his calls.  But he decided he would go visit his friend, Matthew Fernandez.

“Hey, Hupfer my man! What’s up?” Matthew said.

“I’ve got a stalker,” Daniel replied bluntly.

“What do you mean, man?”

“I mean someone is following me and sending me weird notes and stuff.”

“Well why don’t you just beat ‘em up?” Matthew asked sarcastically.

“It’s not that simple,” Daniel said, “or I would have already done that.”

Matthew looked at him oddly.

“I mean, the guy wears a mask and a hoodie over his head. I’m afraid he’s got a knife or something.” Daniel tried to explain.  It felt awkward talking to a guy about his problems like this. But then again, Matthew was his best friend.

“Well…” Matthew dragged the word out, “you could kill him…” he said mischievously.  He cackled like a witch.

“Yeah, thanks. You’re a lot of help,” Daniel retorted. “See ya’!”

“Later, bro!” Matthew called.

Daniel was up late that night working on the final version of his Internal Biology paper, and getting distracted with Facebook. He realized that he had not had anything to eat since the day before and decided to cautiously go down to the vending machine. He got a candy bar and a soda and decided to go sit out on the front entrance to think.

When he walked out the front door, he walked right into the person known mysteriously as Caliban.

Chapter 2 of My Mystery Novel (Still No Title Yet…)

The continuation of my new mystery novel… which still goes untitled.  Please enjoy Chapter 2, and I will be uploading Chapter 3 VERY soon. 

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Chapter 2

The next morning, the sky was gray and Daniel was tired.  A good night’s rest? Whatever. He should have known that sleeping was unheard of when you have neighbors like Doug Weismann and Cameron Comly.  Daniel was just glad that it was Saturday which meant no college classes, just his Taco Bell job from noon to five. And tomorrow was Sunday, which meant he could do whatever the hell he wanted to.

He looked out his window to find the mysterious man from the park bench, standing on the sidewalk diagonally from his dorm, staring straight up at him.  The guy was wearing the same outfit; a brown hoodie, denim jeans, skateboard sneakers. A typical college kid outfit, except for one thing.  He was wearing a blue mask over his face.  And Daniel realized that he too was wearing the same outfit he had worn last night.  He walked back to his bathroom to change.

Just as he was slipping on a new pair of socks, someone rang Daniel’s doorbell. He answered the door, hesitantly, only to find that there was no one there. Am I hearing things? Daniel wondered. That guy is really starting to creep me out.  Maybe I should go pull off his damn mask and hoodie and find out who the hell he really is.  And he would’ve done just that, but by the time he was down the stairs, the dude was gone. Nowhere to be seen.  Daniel checked the sidewalk, the parking lot, the commons area.  There was no one.

When he arrived back at his dorm after his useless trip to find the mysterious man, Daniel checked his phone.  Good Lord all-mighty, he thought, ANOTHER text from this number?  What does it say?  It said: “TRYING TO FIND ME? CHECK THE CAFETERIA!”

Okay, now Daniel was officially freaked out.  Whoever this guy was, and whatever sick joke he was playing, needed to end, now. He had a growing suspicion that the texts were coming from the mysterious masked-hoodie man, though he couldn’t be sure.  But neither here nor there, he texted the number back saying: “STOP TEXTING ME U LITTLE BASTARD.  I WILL HAVE U ARRESTED.”  The reply came no later than ten seconds. “THAT’S NOT NICE! WHAT DID I EVER DO 2 U?”

Alright, this guy wants to play games. Daniel concluded in his mind. If the masked-hoodie guy is the same guy sending me stalker-like texts, I’ll just play along.  So Daniel texted him back, “I SEE U!!!” just to see what the reaction would be.  The reply came as fast as lightning. “NO U DON’T. UR STILL AT YOUR DORM!” Damn it, Daniel thought, this guy really needs to knock this off.  Of all people, why would he choose ME to stalk?  I’d better just leave for Taco Hell and get this off my brain.  Yes, Daniel called his job “Taco Hell.”

Daniel walked down the long flight of silver stairs and out the door to his car, a 1996 Mercury Mystique.  It was maroon red, with an all gray interior, and other than the fact that it was a tiny-ass car, it had no problems. But it certainly wasn’t his dream car.

On his way to work, he turned up his radio to almost full blast and sang along, off-key, with all the lyrics he knew.  He had to get the stupid masked-hoodie guy off his mind.

He arrived to work ten minutes early.

“Hupfer!” his boss, John  Lovell, cried. “Your early! It’s like a miracle on Earth!”

Yeah, a miracle. Right. Daniel thought.

“Well good,” John said, “I need you at the third cash register, pronto! We got busy ‘cuz of the motorcycle show bein’ in town.”

“Right away,” Daniel said. Yay, my favorite post of duty, he thought. Talking to greasy, smelly old motorcycle riders about whether or not they would like chips and a drink with that.

“Yo, Danny-boy!” said Mark, a co-worker and not-so-close friend of Daniel’s.  “You here already? Are you trying to suck up to ol’ Lovell?”

Daniel said nothing.

“Cat got your tongue, Danny-boy?” he said.

“Hey, somebody pull Danny-boy’s string, he’s not talking!” Mark yelled back to the rest of the team.

Still, as they all laughed, “Danny-boy” said nothing.

So, after an hour of cash register duty, Daniel was reassigned to wipe off tables. After that, well, “Find somethin’ to do, Hupfer!”

So he pretended to be sanitizing the silver tables in the kitchen. He still couldn’t get masked-hoodie guy out of his head.  Daniel remembered that the man had blue eyes, but that was all he could make out about his face. He was not very tall, maybe about 5’9” at best.  And that was it, he couldn’t see any other distinguishing factors about hoodie-man except his clothing. And even that was not very “distinguishing” so to speak.  He looked like any other typical college kid at Ohio State University.  Daniel tried and tried to think of someone, anyone, at the college, that would want to stalk or terrorize him. He came up dry. He hadn’t ever done anything to anyone that would make them want to stalk him. Or so he thought, anyway.

As Daniel pulled into the parking lot at his dorm, someone was standing at the corner. Guess who?  His phone vibrated.  No, he thought, I am not going to look down.  I’ll give him the ol’ stink eye.  However, it soon became clear that the hoodie-guy wasn’t moving.

Daniel put his car in reverse and left.

Chapter 1 of My New Mystery Novel

I have started writing a mystery novel that does not have a title yet.  I do not want to give away the entire plot, but I promise you it is worth your time to read it.  I will upload each new chapter as I complete them, and provide side notes as needed. 

~Michael

Chapter 1

“Order up!”

“I said I need nachos with that!!”

“Let’s get a move on, Hupfer, we got hungry customers waitin’!”

It was a typical day at his part-time Taco Bell job, and Daniel Hupfer was ready to clock-out.  He was on his way out the door, when:

“Hupfer! Take out the trash on your way out!”

He let out a disgusted, exhausted sigh.

So he went back, got the trash, and trotted out the back door.  He tossed the garbage in the dumpster and his phone vibrated.  He took it out and checked his messages.  He had a text from a weird number that said: “I SEE U.” Daniel looked around, but saw no one. The parking lot looked like a ghost town, and there wasn’t anyone around the building except Lizzie, who was smoking a pipe, like usual. Maybe the text was just another one of her sick jokes.

Daniel arrived back at his dorm around five fifty.  He had ten minutes to get ready and be to his six o’clock American History class, and he looked like a wreck as usual. His dark brown hair scattered every which-way, dark circles under his eyes, and he’d forgotten to put on his anti-acne cream again. His skin was whiter than sour cream and he was by no means a buff guy.    Yuck, he thought as he looked in the mirror. What did I ever do to deserve these looks? Maybe it was that time I put a roach in Mrs. Sanberg’s desk drawer in 4^th grade. But it’s okay, I suppose.  I mean, look at Mark Zuckerberg.  He’s a nerdy Harvard drop-out. No one thought he would ever be anything, but now he’s laughing all the way to the bank.  Maybe I’ll do something like him. 

Daniel’s thoughts were interrupted by his cellphone.  He had another message from the same weird number as earlier.  It said: “WHERE DID U GO?”  Who’s the douchebag that keeps acting like they’re stalking me? Daniel thought to himself.  Seriously, get a life. Well, I guess I better get going. 

He arrived at his American History class fashionably late.

Joshua Adamsberg, the professor, stopped his lecture and said, “Those who are not responsible enough to be to class on time, should not waste mine.” The rest of the class snickered, as if it was so funny.  Daniel put on his “Sorry Next Time I Will Be Here Ten Minutes Early” face, but thought to himself, God, he’s such a friggin’ hard-ass.

At 7:15, Daniel headed straight for the campus library so he could study until 8:15, and perhaps get a good night’s rest.  At 8:15, Daniel got up to leave. The librarian said, “Daniel, don’t forget to return your book to the shelf.” He put the book back and said nothing to the librarian, even when she wished him a good night.  He was exhausted and just wanted to get back to his dorm and sleep.

Daniel was walking across the campus park as fast as he could, when he noticed a man sitting on a bench, looking directly at him with no expression on his face.  Suddenly, his phone vibrated.  He looked at his messages and there was yet another text from the same number.  This time, it said: “HEY THERE U R! NOW I CAN SEE U!”

When he looked up, the man was gone.