New book! “It’s A Time in the Land: The Best of the Soap Box” column

            I’m taking a short break from history to put a plug in for my new book, It’s A Time in the Land: The Best of the Soap Box.

            The book is a collection of 86 of the best columns that I’ve written for The Nashville Graphic over the last nearly 25 years. I sorted through over 1,100 pieces and took input from readers to make the selections.

            The Soap Box column won Best Humor Column from the North Carolina Press Association in 2000 and has covered a wide range of topics over the years, with columns such as “It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Stupidity,” “We Should Use Quarantines for More Things Besides COVID,” “What I Learned from Crab Fights,” “Messing with NC Barbecue is Like Slapping Our Mamas,” and “The Pioneers Would Think We’re Idiots.”

            Publisher Jo Anne Cooper wrote the foreword for A Time in the Land and I couldn’t have asked for a better person to work with — we’ve known each other since we both worked at the paper in the early 1990s.

“Mike has an incredible gift of storytelling while also the ability to take us back to our roots to remember times that are so influential and relevant to our lives today. This venture of offering a collection of his columns in a bound edition for the pleasure of thousands to read, reflect, and maybe even pass down to the next generation, is exciting and is a proud day for all of us at The Nashville Graphic and the generations before us.”

Claris Bissette, who was business manager of the newspaper for many years, gave me my first writing job. After seeing a story I wrote about the offensive lineman in the school newspaper, Claris offered me a sports writing job. I always be grateful to her for giving me that chance.

I went on to write sports, news, features, editorials and columns over the years. I cleaned the press twice a week, helped in the print shop, laid out pages, printed photographs, helped design ads and write copy, swept floors, inserted flyers, filled news racks, and made the post office run — about everything you can imagine needed doing.

It was a fantastic experience even when the jobs were terrible because I learned so much. And I had incredible editors who were always willing to help make my writing better. The newspaper has won well over 100 press awards and had a lot of talent run through those newsrooms.

I was blessed to grow up in a home that always had the Raleigh daily newspaper and The Nashville Graphic. Both helped me learn to read and it was a daily ritual to go through the entire paper.

I particularly loved columnists Dennis Rogers, Dave Barry, A.C. Snow and Lewis Grizzard. They were great stories who often used humor but never failed to make a point or commentary on our times in unique ways.

This is my third book, following 2020’s Galvanized and 2015’s Memory Cards. My copies are supposed to arrive on October 5 and I’ll be offering signed copies on this website for $13 + shipping and there will be copies at The Nashville Graphic’s office on West Washington Street in Nashville after October 5.

 It’s a Time in the Land is already available on Amazon here. Of course, I’m happy to sign those copies as well.