One barbarian prophecy says the legendary hero Bishortu will unite the three warring tribes. Another tribe has a prophecy that directly contradicts this, and they want Bishortu dead. And a third tribe, which may or may not be comprised of werewolves, refuses to let anyone know what their prophecy says. Meanwhile, the Duke on whose land the barbarians sit wants them all gone.

In the middle of all of this is squire Terin Ostler, who has been mistakenly identified as the great Bishortu. Under the Duke's orders to get rid of the barbarians, he heads to their lands without the slightest idea of what to do.

Along the way, he has to avoid assassins, werewolves, lovesick barbarian princesses, and confused goblins while attempting to figure out the meaning of the magical and mysterious Wretched Axes. Nobody said being a hero would be easy.

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The prophecy said that the hero would save the duchy from the evil gryphons that were about to escape from behind the magical arch.

But what if they got the wrong guy?

When cowardly young bard Terin Ostler is called before the Duke and told that he fits the description of the hero of the prophecy, he is certain there has been a grave mistake. When the Duke’s own men later try to kill him and he is forced to go into hiding, he realizes that it may be his own grave that is in question.

Our young hero struggles to overcome his inexperience and limitations to figure out the meaning of the mysterious prophecy, accompanied by two squires who are torn between obeying the orders of the knight they have sworn to follow and doing what they believe is right.

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Arr mateys! This be a collection of tales of pirates and magic, which include Michael's story "X Spots the Mark." Other contributors include Gail Z. Martin, B.A. Collins, Danny Birt, James R. Stratton, Laurel Anne Hill, M.J. Blehart, Tera Fulbright, Davey Beauchamp, Danielle Ackley-McPhail, Stuart Jaffe and Misty Massey!

The Alliance Rule Book contains all of the rules for the fantasy medieval live action game with chapters all over the United States. It's 166 pages full of photos, graphs, examples, advice, and explanations of all of the game rules, as well as tabletop rules so you can play at home.

This book is for the Ashbury campaign of the Alliance game with all of the "In-game" information available to players, such as the history of the campaign world, treatises, maps, laws, and more.

Articles about writing and acting from Hollywood insiders and published authors, many originally published in The Golden Goblet Newsletter, voted Top Ten Finisher in the 2007 Preditors and Editors Readers Poll.

Includes Michael's article "Basing Your Novel on a Game: What, are you Stupid?"

"Inside Scoop" won the 2009 Eppie Award for best electronically published non-fiction anthology!

Michael writes the afterword to the third collection of cartoons from the syndicated comic strip "Candorville" by Darrin Bell.