Mike Belcher - Creative writer

Mike Belcher wrote his first story at the age of six. It was an adventure about kings and monsters. He still has it in his attic at home.

Mike's ambition is to be a novelist and professor. He hopes to start an M.A. in Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal next year. He's currently taking French courses to increase his communication skills.

Mike likes creative writing because it can capture the place between reality and imagination, the place where life is located. Writing is a way for Mike to affirm himself and tell others how he experiences the world.

Mike's already working on a novel. When he writes something he thinks is good but isn't necessarily his best, he posts it on Teablogging, the blog he co-writes with his friend Jordan Heyano. For the moment Mike only shares the best parts of his novel-in-progress with close friends.
  
Mike is a fan of James Joyce, whose work influenced Mike to become a writer. Mike has read James' A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man ten times. Mike finds the novel lyrical and musical.

Mike also likes the writing of Ayn Rand, especially her novel The Fountainhead. Mike says Rand's belief in individual talent has helped him appreciate his own abilities.

Writer David Guterson has had a direct influence on Mike's development. Mike met and spoke with Guterson and discovered that they share the same creative drive. In addition, Guterson's book Snow Falling on Cedars opened Mike's eyes to the internment of Japanese-Americans in World War II.

Mike finds the emotional side of his life reflected in the writing of Michael Cunningham. Mike credits books like Flesh and Blood with helping him to accept being gay.

Although Mike's principal medium is writing, he also expresses himself through video. He sometimes brings physical objects to life in video "mini-adventures." Mike likes video because it lets him tell a story without having to be linear.