Sky Island Journal

My blog. DIYBIKING.COM.

It’s been a while.

Things have changed. I’ve changed.

My name is Michael K Norris.  I took a career detour during and after the pandemic and am now doing some freelance writing. Some of it is for nonprofits. Some of it is for me. 

Like this blog - and like the fiction I’m writing. Four novels, a novella, and ten short stories so far - all the result of a promise I made myself almost a year and a half ago: to write ten pages of fiction a day, every day, five days a week. 

I read Stephen King’s book ‘On Writing’ and I believe what he said that if you want to be a good writer, you have to write. A lot. I wrote myself into dead ends, plot holes to dwarf the Grand Canyon, and characters I realized I didn’t like two hundred pages in.

But I kept at it, and am keeping at it.

Then, about ten months ago, I continued writing but began submitting works to literary agents, literary journals, writing contests, and magazines. My experience in content management is serving me well as I’ve tracked every submission. 

Dozens of rejections followed. And they’re still coming.

But mixed in, there was an acceptance: Sky Island Journal published my 1,000 word short story: The Last Program, in their January 2025 issue. Here’s the link: https://www.skyislandjournal.com/issues#/issue-30-winter-2025/

It’s not what you’d normally see on a cycling build and travel blog that hasn’t seen a new post in over three years - and the story itself is a little dark - but there is a line said by one of the characters that hints at my relationship to travel. See if you can spot it.

Writing is becoming a bigger part of my life, and at some point soon I’ll have a different website to deal with it. You know: tasteful black and white photos of me that give an air of mystery, a blog about this weird writing life I’ve started, a place to sign up for a newsletter, and so on. But for now - because I have no author web site or social media to connect to fans* this cycling blog will have to do.

And I’m going to write more on bikes: I’ve built great** things over the past three years and have traveled a lot more since the first pandemic ended. I want to talk about them.

But later - right now it is about my fiction debut in Sky Island Journal - the editors of which I thank for believing in The Last Program, and in me as a writer. 

Here’s the link again: https://www.skyislandjournal.com/issues#/issue-30-winter-2025/

Thanks for reading and thanks for riding. 

*if and when I find some.

**well…to me