Reviews

She.
reader reviews

"i was the poet 
not the writer. 

The muse of words 
wrapped in her silence 
touched by her hands. 
(Thomas Michael, "She") 



And as you hold Thomas Michael's book "She" in your hands, it's as if your holding all the heartache and pain he experienced when love walked away. Each poem is a reflection of the loss he endured, of the solitary moments, when only words or the memory of her were there to keep him company.

What many of us have felt after a breakup, Michael's so beautifully captures in this book. He's a weaver of heartbreaking words that will move your soul in this vivid, touching portrait of one moment in his life, etched in his memory, but laid bare and naked on the pages of "She".

You can purchase the book at blackcoffeepress.net.  Do it!

Jill O'dell----Xanga.com

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She., a book by Thomas Michael, is a heart-wrenching study in the grief that comes from great loss. Every entry is a grainy, black and white Polaroid of a soul adrift. It’s a forgetting to shower, abandon shaving, scratch-your-ass-in-public account of what it’s like to have suffered a loss that claims a part of you. The recurring threads that run through these pieces – images of mindless routine, naked self-examination, and the inability to breathe – force open those doors hidden deep within, which hold back the torrents of sadness that would otherwise drown us. Tom has ripped off the bloody bandage and invited us to exam the wound.
 
This is a book you read alone with a glass of bourbon when the pain won’t go away and is threatening to make your heart implode. It’s a book that you will pick up and put down, and occasionally throw against the wall. It’s a book that will ultimately make you grateful to Tom, because it’s the book that will finally make you realize you’re not crazy after all.

Jacksoncroons----Xanga.com


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Thomas Michael has done a fine thing: he's shared his heart, no-holds-barred.  when candid honesty is involved, it can't help but result in writing which connects with the reader, and such is his new book of poetry, entitled, "she."

we've all experienced the pain and heartbreak of lost or unrequited love, but few of us can share it in writing without being either overly dramatic and sappy, or else too cold, bitter, and analytical.  our friend has found the balance, here, in his own voice, of being able to stab the reader in the liver with a dirty knife, and twisting it, yet the reader says, "ahhh.  man, that feels good.  I've been there before."  hurt so good.

what I find especially touching when reading his work, is how tender and caring he is.  this is a rare thing, to find someone who has been through it all, and still recognizes the hurt and loss of it all, yet still shares their regard and affection for the person who has gone on with their life, leaving the other behind, wanting.  this man has a good soul.

many of his poems carry into longer descriptions of inner travails and introspection, long flights of wet and dripping stairs, descending into blackness, which we don't mind going down, just to find what he has discovered at the bottom.  yet, my favorite of all of these poems is this short piece:


go to sleep
naked soul
breathless man

before daylight comes
and steals

all hope
from you.


how simple and concise is that?  how honest?  I have been there.  great job, Thomas Michael.

I'm telling you, go to www.blackcoffeepress.net and order your copy.  it's well worth every penny.  you'll learn about this man's heart, and probably discover a part of your own that you never knew was there.

John Glaze----Xanga.com


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"she." - somewhat of a short and late review

It's been a few weeks and I think I'm finally ready to comment on the latest book from Black Coffee Press.

It was a painful read, to say the least, but I couldn't put it down. It made me ache in ways I'd never want to, but the feeling was beautiful and real.

"she" is nothing like anything I've ever read before. It made me feel.

"she" is painful.
"she" is real.
"she" is beautiful.

---Josie Bunnie---Xanga.com


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A Review...Kinda (edited)

Like many others here, I purchased the fine book entitled "she". written by our own Thomas Michael.  And like so many others, I wanted to review. 

Because of my pathological procrastination, all the good words have been taken up by some extremely fine reviews - my favorite being the one by jacksoncroons.  But I don't want Michael's tender tidbit of poetry to go without nods here. 

The best I can do is this:

she. is the bucket
into which he vomited his grief
i'm happy to pick through the puke

his gashes still bleed
beneath bourbon band-aids
and we're all left licking our wounds

Go.  Buy.  Read.  Feel. 
Black Coffee Press store 

You may be able to still snap up a signed copy. 


---impossibleangles----Xanga.com

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Peer Reviews


I first read she in its original form – the notebooks. I was there when he met her and I was there when she went away. The man and the words however stayed. Penned over a few short months these words are a testament of what one soul can do to another. I remember all the conversations. The body and the damaged done to it. All the alcohol consumed and the countless cups of black coffee needed to nurse the soul back into daylight. I know these words. I was there.
 
This is what Kerouac felt like when he was in Mexico and received the first drafts of what would be Ginsberg’s HOWL.
 
You read the words and the hair on your arm stands on end. Your heart stretches and contracts just a little differently. And your mind flashes back to conversations or interactions of heartache now just shards of memories buried deep within.
 
This is what these words are. They are a plexus of heartache.
 
Michael says it best with the first poem of the collection.
 
because this is love
 
and the question of breath
is nothing
but the question of air
is sadness
 
while the movements
mimic the life that was
and the sorrows
bring new thoughts
 
there is never a place
where the memories can go
 
to hide
to sleep
to live
 
they are themselves
a cause
that has no home
 
I love the last stanza; “a cause/that has no home.” Those words will stab you quicker than a Puerto Rican in the schoolyard.
 
Michael is often compared, as most contemporary poets are, to the late Charles Bukowski. Although some of this comparison is true I see other influences in his work as well: Kerouac, Ferlinghetti, Harrison, and the great Michigan Bard Thomas Lynch. The real gift of each of these writers is the ability to pull from everyday life, break it down and create art from it. This where Michael falls with his poetry; he writes about the nuances of living day in and day out. There is an immediate connection between the poet, the poem and the reader. she is love. she is heartache. she is the aftermath. she is life.


Scott C. Rogers
author of Celluloid Cowboy and Love Like a Molotov Cocktail to the Chest




Celluloid Cowboy Reviews: 

Peer Reviews

"Read Celluloid Cowboy and was consistently amused..."
                                            ~ N. Frank Daniels, author of Futureproof


"[T]here is a lot of good writing in this - Bukowski-caliber good writing. For real... [He] is a very interesting writer... it's entertaining, it's funny, it's got good images...
                                             ~ Henry Baum, author of North of Sunset


" ...Scott Rogers is fuckin' awesome and readers should be made to bow down to be annointed by his holy manhood before being allowed to even buy the damned book! ...YOWZA! I laughed so hard I thought I was going to bust a gut! ...You know it's bad when you have to put the book down to keep from dropping it from laughing so hard... Celluloid Cowboy is intensely cool..."
                                        ~ G. Warlock Vance, author of The Missing Narrative of Neptune

"Celluloid Cowboy Rocks!"
                                        ~ Eric C. Novack, author of Killing Molly


"If you've seen Pulp Fiction and loved it - read this book. Please. You will thank me later."
                                        ~ Paul Genesse, author of The Dragon Hunters






Amazon Reviews

This book had me laugh out loud many times. I was reading this while on vacation and couldn't control myself. I had to share some of the passages with people around me. You will not be able to put this book down and will be pissed at yourself for finishing it so fast. READ THIS BOOK!


From the very first page, I became a silent character in this fast-paced week in the life of Billy . . . and I couldn't put the book down until the ending quotation marks on the last page. I laughed until I could hardly breath in the most unusual places throughout the story . . . and I must admit that at times I felt uncomfortable that I was laughing. But the truth is, it was hilarious, no matter how inappropriate or tragic the circumstance. This novel has a raw passion that made me blush at times, but not once was I bored or skimming the text. Each sentence had a purpose, all strung together in a way that attached this novel to your mind, and setting it down was not an option.
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    Not usually what I would choose for a Midnight read, but having picked this one up there wasn't an option of putting it down.
The "good guy" could be any one of us, beaten down but somehow always managing to gather the forces necessary to get back up and fight the good fight...albeit in a not so "good" way.
All in all a very good read with laughs that will literally make you sick.
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Reader Reviews

   A Review of Celluloid Cowboy by Audrey West                  

In the corner of a booth, in a noisy bar in Detroit , sits a guy, his feet propped up on the seat.  A drink in one hand and a pen in the other, a notebook lying open on the table.  Every once in a while, he'll scribble down something then continue gazing around the bar at the people, at nothing and at everything.  Don't be alarmed if you catch him staring.  It's just Scott C. Rogers, author of Celluloid Cowboy, the recently published novel of unforgettable characters surviving and thriving in Detroit City.

Rogers, who's had a love of writing since his teenage years, gets his ideas from watching people.  "I can be watching something and it will trigger a scene or a piece of dialogue.  I can be reading and it will happen.  One thing I do is I love watching people.  I quickly study them and then put it away in the back of my mind to be used later."

And, even though Celluloid Cowboy is a work of fiction, some of the people in it are real, people Rogers worked with on the docks, combinations of people he has known or imagined.  And Billy, the main character?  "He has a lot of me in him", admits Rogers, "but I'm not Billy.  So, it's a mixture of the two."

Celluloid Cowboy came to life after Rogers was influenced by 3 things:  Chuck Palahniuk's Choke, Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son, and the cult film of Quentin Tarantino, "Pulp Fiction".  Rogers studies the characters and rewrites a lot of things in his head.  "I wanted to tell a story with revolving chracters who just jumped in one scene and then were gone.  I wanted characters that just popped off the page.  For me", said Rogers, "its always been about the characters."

And those characters of Celluloid Cowboy take to the back alleys and streets of Detroit, where Rogers resides.  In the novel, he wanted to represent Detroit and show his readers all sides of the city.  "Detroit is a beautiful city", says Rogers.  "She can woo you and then snap your arm and steal your car.  She's awesome.  She's a bad ass city.  The entire world is represented here."

And readers will be the eyewitness to raw dialogue, hilarious encounters, steamy sex, gritty violence, and heartfelt emotions and interactions when reading Celluloid Cowboy.

The novel is published by Rogers and his business partner, Thomas Michael, who Rogers refers to as "the best writer in Detroit."  They started Black Coffee Press with mutual ideas and a passion for publishing, not what mainstream publishing houses offer, but as Rogers says, "a house of the coolest and most talented writers the world has to offer.  If it has our logo, then you know its gonna be worth your money and time."  Although Rogers and Michael's Black Coffee Press has only been up and running for a year, the feedback from both readers and the publishing world has been great.  "We're just getting started", says Rogers.  "I can't wait till we are full stride.  Like it says on the website (blackcoffeepress.net), we're "Putting the "F" back in Fiction."

And, for those who hope to someday be published by Detroit's finest?  Rogers advises would be writers to read.  "Read a ton of shit.  Always read, that's what keeps the flame going.  Also write.  Write every day.  Whether it be two words or two pages.  Just write.  And also share your work.  Writers are public domain.  Plus, buying my book Celluloid Cowboy is a good start!"




  Celluloid Cowboy Reviewed by Josh Rollins                       

People overuse the words, "gritty" and "raw" to describe books and cinema.  I'm no Peter Travers and this isn't rolling stone so let me sell you straight on the book "Celluloid Cowboy".  Its a slice of life and its a life I never experienced which makes it so intriguing to me.  To me books and cinema are meant to give you a chance to explore something, someone, somewhere at some point in time that you've never had or possibly will have the chance to in your life.  "Celluloid Cowboy" gave me that chance to delve deep into a world that I'll likely never get a chance to experience and I loved every page of it.

There's something about this novel, I don't know what but I couldn't put it down and also I couldn't sit down either.  I was literally standing while reading it, getting a work out in as I paced back and forth with my finger tracing over the words.I can say with full faith and credit that this book made me think about social situations and the effects of our decisions on life.  Yes its a simple idea, man makes a decision to change his life, but what makes the story is how he makes the decision and what he does to make the changes.

I have to give Scott Rogers credit, he does a great job setting the scene and spelling out the characters for us.  His words are poetry, sometimes making ugly things seem beautiful just by simple word choice.I heard this book referred to as an "indie" book and I can't buy that kind of bullshit.  The story can be found at the heart of any coming of age tale in any "mainstream" story.  I could easily see this book being made into a film, considering that's more of my medium I kept on imagining how the story would look on a big screen and Scott does an awesome job of making the book come to life.  The transition to the other medium would be so simple and something I'd love to see happen.

   A Review of Celluloid Cowboy By d.m.riggs.

As the story begins you feel so at ease you wonder if the narrator isn’t an old friend, the kind you so often chastise yourself for not seeing often enough. You remember now that he’s the guy who makes every situation a sitcom. His humor found in his way with words, a slang all his own that is as offensive as it is hilarious; his goofiness is just the shellac to give all this fun some shine. You’re thinking that you need to invite him to your next party, that you need to make sure you have his number. Then, as his rather usual story of a Wednesday night conquest ends not in sex but rather with “a midget standing with a samurai sword and if I’m not mistaken, I think he’s Mexican.”… That’s when you remember, he’s that kind of guy, the friend we all have who never seems to step outside his house without stepping into dog shit.


   You Gotta Read this!--Jacksoncroons (xanga.com)                       

I just read Scott Rogers' (scrogers) book Celluloid Cowboy . . . twice.

 

Yeah, it was that good.

 

This is the book that you wished your English teacher had assigned instead of The Oxbow Incident. It’s the book you used to read underneath your covers with a flashlight after it was lights out. It’s the book that, if you’re an aspiring writer, you wish to hell you had written yourself.

 

It’s like going home to the old neighborhood and ordering your favorite greasy grinder from the corner shop. It’s like reading the autographs from your high school yearbook. It’s like sitting on the stoop on a hot summer night with an ice-cold beer. It’s breakfast at ihop with your best friend.

 

The characters are delightfully bizarre, presented in living color and high-definition – some you’ll be glad you’ll never meet and some you’ve known all your life. The scenes are dark and will leave you wanting a toothpick after you’ve sunk your teeth in.

 

And at the heart of it all, there’s Billy . . . warm, quick with a joke, and sweetly goofy . . . not afraid to kick a little ass . . . and relentlessly trying to do the right thing.

 

Do yourself a big favor and buy this book(You can get it on Amazon).

 

And read it twice!

  Reading is Fundamental--Audrey West (xanga.com)           

I was the backseat passenger in a beat up, heaterless, bullet-ridden Gremlin this past weekend, riding through the streets of Detroit City.  Or at least it felt like I was!

Buckle in for the wildest ride of your life when you join down-on-his luck Billy Martin on his weekend adventure with a crazy cast of characters in Scott C. Rogers' novel, Celluloid Cowboy.  Rogers has captured the gritty side of Detroit through vivid, sometimes graphic, often hilarious, and yet, touching, portrayals of a guy who can't catch a break till he walks through the doors of an IHOP.

With an attention to detail (I could feel those bullets whizzing by!) and urban dialogue straight from the streets, you'll become an armchair participant in the life of a not so ordinary guy that you won't soon forget!

Read it and hang on!

Celluloid Cowboy, by Scott C. Rogers, can be purchased on Amazon.com.  Check out his website, blackcoffeepress.net for further info.

 Detroit's New Voice--David from Saugatuck MI

This funky quirky little novel is unusually funny Hilarious. A quirky love story with shades of Hiasson and Leonard. Set in the post-industrial darkness of Detroit.

 Rogers knows how to turn a phrase. The dialogue is quick.

I hesitate to call this grit lit, in response to chick lit. But it does seem to join a circle of other stories about literary young men in their twenties smoking pot, drinking, driving shit cars, and telling very funny stories. This is Detroit’s new voice.