Michael In Hell is based on a short story I wrote in 1973 and sent to Isaac Asimov. He suggested I turn it into a novel, which I began writing in 1992. I sent the final version to my agent in 1995. The novel was considered too graphic by major publishers due to a periodic surge of complaints about the violence in media and games. It would later be compared to Dexter, Saw, and Seven, but I wrote it years before any of those popular works. Timing is everything, and I’ve always been told that I was either crazy or ahead of my time with my fiction. Maybe I’m both.
People assume I am Michael Tucker which is why I get so close to the character. I believe he is my subconscious tribute to Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian in a contemporary setting. Time has caught up with my story, and to keep in character, the reader must suspend belief to live the modern America I created back when 2005 was my distant future.