Author for Life - A Reminder

So, my 9-year-old daughter and I found some ancient history the other day. A stack of my old works. These range from when I was 10-years-old through 14-years-old. That’s early to mid 80’s folks. Some are close to disintegrating, but she has begun to read them - carefully. It’s kind of awesome listening to your kid read something you wrote.

Just as I was doubting myself, as I do, we pulled out the old briefcase from its storage place under her bed. It has travelled with me for many years from house to house, left wholly untouched. I've had it since I was a young man. It was in this worn leather briefcase we found many of my old sketches and - Holy S*%t - books! We excitedly pulled them out of the briefcase and I reviewed the dates. These weren't antiques by any stretch, but they were up to 37-years-old! Vintage? LOL. Maybe just to me.

This treasure chest of old books from my childhood instilled a sense of wonder in my daughter and nostalgia in me. But not just glassy-eyed nostalgia for the past, but rather hope for the future. My future. That I've been writing stories and physically creating books since I was ten offers tangible proof that I was meant to do this. Have I met my 10,000 hours doing what I love yet? God, I hope so!

Upon further investigation into the magical briefcase, aside from the books, we realize I have literally dozens of comic books with multiple superheroes and villains running through advanced storylines I created from age 12 to 17. I also wrote screenplays for my brothers and our friends, many of which were realized through my father's video camera and friend's surprising editing abilities. To say I've been creative my whole life is a truth I often forget during my 9-5 day job.  Perhaps my daughter will enjoy the comics as well. She loves graphic novels...

My Grandfather too was a writer, hopeful to emerge from his management role in an utterly unrelated industry. He was a playwright mostly. I'm told community theatres and churches worked with my grandfather to produce his plays. How fitting my books sat in his briefcase all these years. I think I'll look for his scripts next. Maybe they're in the briefcase...

Author of The Judas Syndrome wants to scare your children

Author of the Post-Apocalyptic trilogy; The Judas Syndrome wants to scare your children into change with a new picture book.

“The guns reminded me this was just an attempt to punch holes in the darkness that enveloped us now.” This quote was taken from book one of Michael Poeltl’s dystopian trilogy, The Judas Syndrome. It’s easy to recognize the dark themes which accompany many of his fictional works once you’ve read more than one. In book three of the series, another candid notion leaks into the storyline suggesting; “Life is a gift, and should be cherished, lived and experienced. Though experience often reveals itself as pain in this world, it is still purposeful, it still has its place in the evolution of our spirit.” In another, stand-alone book from the author: Her Past’s Present, this quote appears: “In such a person, sadness breeds purpose; finding inspiration in the darkness and oftentimes, I believe, they will impress a hell onto their own lives in order to re-create it, that others might suffer the experience from the comfort of their armchairs.”

Poeltl has a way of getting into your head with his novels and, as a trained illustrator, has taken a shot at a children’s book in the same genre as his popular Judas Syndrome trilogy: Post-Apocalyptic / Dystopian fiction.

“There needs to be more awareness focused on our environmental crisis,” Poeltl says, “and though my own daughter is learning about what she can do in school to prevent an end to our way of life, she isn’t being shown that end.”

So, Poeltl decided to show her, and every other kid out there just how bleak the world will become if they don’t take action now. “We all have a favourite book from when we were kids which held a hard lesson. I remember mine.” Poeltl explains. “With this book, I wanted to revisit that classic fairy-tale type ending where things don’t go right. Trauma, I’ve found, is an excellent trigger for change.”

The story, entitled An Angry Earth, has been treated as a children’s book with pen and ink illustrations gracing every page. Poeltl admits it is his favourite medium to work in when illustrating. Images of sea turtles being speared and their shells drilled to produce an inky black liquid allowed Poeltl to use his learned interpretive illustration techniques while getting his point across with some straightforward text.

The book is dedicated to his daughter and nieces who – Poeltl says – will experience the negative effects of global climate change the rest of their lives if nothing is done to stop it. Then, a short, yet enticing history of the world turtle begins the book. Poeltl interprets the world turtle as a metaphor,  indicating the world is alive. The overwhelming message is that there are consequences for your actions, as well as your inactions as explained through an 11-year-old boy who is tasked to write down each terrible plight upon the world as it happens.

Pick up the book, and if you’d rather not, pick up some garbage. Poeltl hopes An Angry Earth sparks engagement with his audience. “Some evenings and lunch hours I will take a few bags and walk the shoreline or a park or forest picking up trash of all manner,” Poeltl says. “It’s not enough to count on others to do what needs to be done. We all have to pitch in. Be the change you want to see in the world. Be an example for your children. It’s the most serious topic of our time. I’m not a cynic, I’m a realist employing a pessimist’s lesson to encourage positive action.”

An Angry Earth is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats.

Find Michael Poeltl’s Author Profile showcasing all of his books, a blog and photos from previous works.

Connect with Poeltl on Facebook and Youtube to see his latest MEMEs, videos and book trailers.

Teaching Reincarnation Through Story Telling.

We all want to accomplish something of worth in our lives, right? Something more than just making money. I want to help my audience change their world. Enlighten you to your inner truth. 

Reincarnation is that for me. I know it’s that for you too. That’s who I write for. You. Whether you recognize it or not, you’re curious. In my opinion, there is nothing more reassuring in this life than knowing everything I do will affect my next life.

I’ve seen what the Catholic church and every division of that church offers as I was baptised and congregated in the Lutheran faith. It’s all fear-based. Fear of going to Hell. Guilt for being human. It’s not a good place to start. Since leaving that idea of one life to live behind, I found new reasons to get excited through living rather than worrying about dying. So many more faiths believe in an immortal soul that revisits the human experience to learn and love and live in peace. We rarely have the opportunity to live like that the first, second or even third time here. So we are given limitless opportunities to learn and better ourselves and those we interact with through actively living our experiences and then graduating to a higher level.

I have included reincarnation into many of my books as a theme because I feel it is my purpose to share information about it through story. It took me until my 20’s to truly branch out and find my voice and the voice that spoke to me.  I’ve always been a spiritual person, but the Christian faith crumbles quickly when you begin to question it. Reincarnation, however, just makes sense. I believe we’re spiritual beings having a human experience. I’ve connected with energy and know that I am energy and that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. That’s science. Put science and spirituality together and you come out the other end with reincarnation. Our energy is our consciousness and vice versa.

So, why am I telling you all this? I’m connecting to you, my reader or potential reader. We share a common belief. Whether reincarnation is the main theme or an underlying theme to my stories, it is often included to further embed this reality. The Judas Syndrome trilogy sees reincarnation in action in a post-apocalyptic setting. The A.I. Insurrection sci-fi series deals with reincarnation in intelligent androids. Her Past’s Present takes a young woman’s trauma to realize reincarnation when she meets a man claiming to know her from another life. Each of these books deals with the theme in different ways, but the end result always offers proof.

I know if you haven’t already read one of these, that you will enjoy the experience. Each reinforces the truth of reincarnation in their own way. We believe what we believe because we are compelled to believe it. That for me offers much of what makes it real for me. That and I’ve spent three hours with a past life therapist and lived three lives through the experience. It was all at once upsetting, yet enlightening. Since then I have read and researched the subject and written many books.  So, if you’re looking for some relatable reads, you’ll find them in my library.

Happy reading.

Introducing the Indie Writer's Wheel of Pain

Doing what I love shouldn't depress me. Right? But everyday I do what I love. And doing what you love is supposed to fill you with purpose. And when I'm writing, I feel fulfilled. When I'm marketing my writing I feel excited. When my books don't sell, I feel depressed. It's a vicious circle. Manic to depressed. Do I then suffer from manic depression? Am I bipolar? I could draw a diagram to represent it easily. In fact, here:

But I also know that's the life of a creative. I've failed at a few things. Illustration, fine art, writing - I guess- though writing is what I keep coming back to... Maybe I should have taken journalism or some other form of writing in post-secondary school, but for whatever reason, at the tender age of 18, I thought visual arts was my game. It wasn't. At least, nothing I could make a living from. Not really. Turns out making money from writing isn't my jam either though. So, what am I supposed to do when I feel drawn to tell stories? Tell them I guess, otherwise, I might burst. Spontaneously combust. Hey, maybe that would be best, but then that's the depression stage talking now; waiting to sell a book or two. Being in-between writing is the most agonizing. Working a day job and wanting to be someone else is difficult too. Should I quit my job and go full time as a writer? That's a pretty stupid idea when you've already proven your books don't really sell. After writing 12 of varying genres... and working as a marketing manager full time, you'd think the two would eventually click and I'd get a best-seller out of the pairing.

Maybe I suck at everything I do. That's a depressing thought. Oh, right, I'm suffering the depressing stage - that red arrow in my little diagram above... Maybe I should stop writing this thought out and force another smile at another co-worker and engage in mindless water cooler banter. I am thirsty...

The Honest Author

Tired of the same old formula where A.I. is concerned?

Sentience is an incredible event we humans’ take for granted. But have you ever wondered why we’re sentient? How we became sentient? If you have, then you may appreciate where A.I. Insurrection by Michael Poeltl takes the idea of sentience when populating his A.I. Hosts with consciousness. In the near-future, Host’s are built artificially intelligent through human ingenuity and the drive to create in our own image. Then something indescribable happens, and the explanation for A.I. Host's sudden sentience is revealed. No other author of science fiction has conceived such a bold and startlingly plausible event in sparking life in a machine. Bury any preconceptions you may have or have read or watched before on the development of consciousness in Artificial Intelligence. Embrace the new possibilities Poeltl has laid out. They will inspire and intrigue your sci-fi mind. If this were all that happens in the series it would be enough for many, but A.I. Insurrection is a fertile field of characters, action, concepts and plotting which will entertain while opening up scenarios you may have never imagined.

With three books in the series now available and the potential for more, the reader (you) is transported to 2162 where all laborious work is performed by androids and humanity have been freed to do as they please with their lives. Utopian, right? Well, things go a bit sideways when a new group calling themselves Chimera rebel against the status quo, A.I. Hosts begin to experience sentience, and the United Earth military machine tries to stop them all.  That’s just book one.

So, challenge yourself to pick up cutting-edge sci-fi only an indie author could write for your next read, and prepare yourself for a wild and unique experience!

The End of Coddling is the Climate Crisis

What kind of parent are you? Do you coddle your kids? Try to protect them from everything? Or do you tell it like it is?

I wrote An Angry Earth to scare kids into action. It’s bleak. It’s real. It’s frightening. We all have that picture book you can’t shake from your childhood, right? Mine is Watership Down. It was scary, about the survival of the fittest and not without controversy. Now, fast-forward to 2019 - what if that message were environmentally charged - featuring distressing content paired with disturbing illustrations? It would not include a happy ending – more consistent with the fairy tales of old. Entertaining, yet educational. Frightening, with redeeming qualities. The idea that a child can make a difference is in the epilogue. That the ending to An Angry Earth can be rewritten before it’s too late is inspiring and challenging. Hit them with the proverbial ugly stick and then lift them up so they can stand for something. Something important. Something necessary. Something like the environment.

I know this book is offensive to some, but I don’t care about that. I care about the environment and know there are parents (and kids) out there who want the same as me. I say love your children, but loving the world you’re leaving for your kids has got to be up there too. Otherwise, what will they think you thought of them when they’re gasping for breath?

An Angry Earth offers a terrifying end to a world whose overseers abused its resources to live more comfortably until the Earth had nothing left to give. Each concurrent devastating natural disaster is recorded by a single child left to bear witness.

Why we LOVE this new Science Fiction Series

Looking for your next great Sci-fi trilogy to devour? Michael Poeltl's A.I. Insurrection series offers a near-future (150 years) Utopia maintained by androids (Referred to as AI Hosts) built to satisfy manufacturing, policing and leisure activities for all humanity. But when sentience is discovered in the AI Hosts through a new race of people calling themselves Chimera, United Earth Military gets involved and a civil war breaks out. When the perpetrator is discovered to be an Alien AI bent on the destruction of all organic life, United Earth must fight back the invader. Then, as the UE prepares to travel to other star systems and colonize new worlds, a fresh hell is realized when they first venture into interstellar space and an old enemy thought destroyed appears.

Visit the series' page on Goodreads for more reviews, descriptions and videos concerning the game-changing science fiction trilogy.

Pick up book one - The General's War - and get started today!

Get over 2 million ratings on your book

An impressive number, right? It's easier than you think. But keep in mind: thinking is a big part of how this sort of thing happens. I’m not here to sell you on positive thinking though if I were, I’d direct you to my Hello Me Series rather than show you my 2.3 million ratings on my sci-fi book(s) on Goodreads.

It’s called a vision board. Have you heard of this? Whether you’re hoping to meet that perfect mate or buy the perfect house or get the perfect job, a vision board is your friend. You take a picture of the thing you want, place it on a board or piece of paper and keep it somewhere you’ll see it daily. Then you focus your intention and attention on that goal and believe it’s already happened.

Okay, so in reality, I don’t currently have over 2 million ratings on a single book, but that’s not to say it’s impossible! In fact, I fully expect to have reached this goal within a certain amount of time (ideally while I’m still alive and can enjoy my brief foray into fame and fortune). So, what did I do? I Photoshopped my profile page. I changed the numbers to reflect what I expect from my books and followers. I did this with each book currently available. I look at my board in the morning and in the evening and I spend a few minutes with it, feeling all the good feels that accompany a win like this.

I’m encouraged by the feels I feel and actually get excited thinking about how this has happened for me. With 11 books available to the public in multiple genres and another coming out in September, I see no reason I couldn’t find someone for each to take them viral.

This isn’t exactly an easy practice for me. I’m not the most positive person. I`ve struggled with depression and anxiety. But in spite of all that, I’m really thrilled to be pushing for what I want, and now expect from the universe. It’s nothing for the universe to give me millions of dollars by selling my books. I don’t expect something for nothing, writing is hard work, networking, designing cover art, MEME`s and editing all take their toll  - and I do market myself and give away books in the hopes of being rewarded with a review. It’s all coming together. I believe that. I can feel it.

This is my soon to be success story. Why not give it a shot yourself?

Experience Affords the Best Stories

I believe experience still affords the best stories for any audience. Truth is stranger than fiction, and all that. Experience is born of doing; taking risks, making mistakes, learning new ways of doing something and sometimes, quitting.

I’m an author who also identifies as a marketing manager. My day to day is filled with photography, video, advertising, blogging, analytics, ROI, planning, budgets, professional interactions, website management and many other duties which keep me in the position I have built for myself.

But as I said, I am an author first. Remember? I said: “I’m an author who also identifies as a marketing manager.” As you can imagine, it helps that I am a writer in my current 9-5 position. Content is King.  But filling my bank account and fulfilling my purpose is at odds with one another at the moment. I love to write. I love developing stories and characters and seeing where it all ends up. You can’t really achieve that writing blogs about machines. Sure, the case study is fun; writing about the origins and then the application of something used in a world-famous act, but those are few and far between in my industry.

So, on my time, I write what I want to read. I’ve said this many times before because I think it is an all-important facet to any author’s writing: Write what you would like to read.  So, what are my interests? I am a spiritual person. I’ve taken a course in Reiki, been hypnotised twice – once to relive past-lives, experienced a drum circle, lived through an out of body experience during a session with a very talented healer,  attended a tapping lesson, read and reread the Buddhist Book of Living and Dying, read the Bible, been confirmed in the Christian faith, renounced Christianity, believe science and spirituality support one another, feel we’re not alone in the universe, believe in positive thinking - even when I have to attempt it through my own battles with depression or anxiety. I believe in living with compassion and non-judgement (but it’s near impossible not to judge). I believe my ego is the devil and yet I can’t seem to separate myself from it. I try to make decisions and choices consciously, knowing that regret and consequences are reactions to unconscious decisions. I want to be a better version of myself and when I read a story, I want that story to feel real. I want characters who are real. Even if I’m in the middle of a far-future sci-fi, whatever events arise, I want the human aspect to shine through. The struggle. The lows, the highs. The victories and defeats.

Not a bad collection of inspiration to pull from, right? So, with my writing, you get the truth, as I see it. You get reincarnation in your space opera. You get suicide in your apocalyptic fiction. You get Armageddon in your children’s picture books. You get the science of your spirit in your educational series. You get emotions in your short stories. You experience suffering in your chic lit. I apologize for nothing and write for those who want to read my message. My Apocalyptic trilogy is my most polarizing writing to date. The first book, The Judas Syndrome - people either loved it or truly hated it. So, as you would expect, it sits at just above a three-star rating. The next two books of the series were received much better, having filtered out those who hated book one; those who want to read what interests them most.

My most recent series, which will have three books in a few months, is a near-future science fiction series where humanity has perfected A.I. in bipedal, human-like robots. Soon they discover these artificially intelligent creations are claiming sentience through past life experiences. Impossible, but true. If you've experienced past life regression, or just believe in it, and love science fiction, then this Sci-fi puts an exciting new spin on what it means to be human. 

With 11 books and another on its way, I have discovered a theme throughout which makes me pause and reflect on my writing.  Even through multiple genres, I still manage to deliver the same message: Death isn’t then end, in fact, the word death is something of a misnomer. Death: the destruction or permanent end of something.  Investigate that statement with me and pick up one of my novels. I believe you will be pleasantly surprised.

Writing is My Dharma - What's Yours?

I write in multiple genres because I believe we live multiple lives. If this life were all you were given, there wouldn’t be enough time to learn everything we’re here to learn. That’s a fact.  Each life presents its challenges, and if you can’t learn from them then, you’re doomed to repeat them.

I’m Michael Poeltl, and I am a great proponent of reincarnation. In fact, even though I write in multiple genres, many of my stories involve reincarnation – and not in a subtle way.

My first series of books entitled; The Judas Syndrome, deal with reincarnation and the idea we are doomed to repeat our failures if we haven’t learned from them in previous lives. But even in failure, there is success; as each life is offered the same chance to right wrongs, or merely learn from what has been presented. The Judas Syndrome is a trilogy set in a post-apocalyptic backdrop.

In Her Past’s Present, Tess finds her life falling apart around her, and so checks herself into a mental health facility. There she meets a man claiming to know her. She doesn’t recognize him, but he recognizes her – from a past life. The premise behind this book is to introduce Tess to past life therapy, and through past lives realize her connection to the people and events happening in her life now. It allows great healing to understand a past you can’t remember. Her Past’s Present is a thriller based in 2015.

A.I. Insurrection is a series which takes place in a not so distant future where artificial intelligence serves humanity through individual Host robots. When they claim sentience, they prove it by disclosing to the world their past life memories of souls who now occupy their fragile minds and android bodies.  A.I. has always fascinated me, and when I posed the question ‘could an intelligent mind alone house a soul?’ the series took off. A.I. Insurrection is near-future science fiction.

That’s currently 6 of 11, soon to be 7 of 12 novels dedicated to my own beliefs in reincarnation. I hadn’t really realized I had such a strong theme of rebirth in my works until I took a step back and viewed them as a whole. Perhaps I’m trying to tell the world something? Am I supposed to be writing about it? Whether I am meant to or not, I’m clearly following a path with my message of re-embodiment.

Before I wrote Her Past’s Present, I had been experiencing a traumatic time in my life and treated myself to a past life reading. It changed me. It showed me this life is anything but the final word and that it will come again and again until we’ve all learned our lessons. I often say ‘Imagine if the reigning religion involved reincarnation. Imagine how people would treat one another and the planet knowing they would return. It’s not enough to want your children to be happy, that doesn’t seem to change anything in the present. But if you knew you were preparing a world for your return, would you treat it better than you do?

That’s an argument I use d to create An Angry Earth; the illustrated children’s book that tells it like it is, or at least, how it’s going to be if we don’t change our destructive ways toward our environment.

In any case writing, I’ve realized, is how I can get my message out into the world. My Dharma you could say, with a message of reincarnation.

Namaste and happy reading!

Win 1 of 100 free kindle copies of Science Fiction classic

One of One-hundred Kindle Copies Available to be Won on the GoodReads Giveaway

Goodreads Book Giveaway

A.I. Insurrection

by Michael Poeltl

Giveaway ends May 15, 2019.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Not to be Missed Sci-fi for Your Reading Pleasure

The general’s war robbed United Earth of a Utopian paradise. Now, a year later, with Allfather bearing down on an ill-prepared United Earth, a meddling ghost in the walls at UE Headquarters, a religious renaissance infiltrating the hearts and minds of earth’s populace and a rogue sect leader stirring up controversy, Chancellor Raymond Bellows finds himself – once again – at a crossroads. The impending threat of each faction builds to a crescendo when Raymond works to align United Earth to fight their common foe or risk losing everything they’ve rebuilt to a callous and cruel alien bent on annihilation. Will United Earth be ready?

Book 2 of the science fiction series that challenged everything you thought you knew about artificial intelligence is back with a vengeance! 

Pick up you kindle copy now. Print available soon!

Alita Battle Angel and the future of Sci-fi

It was a movie I've been excited to see. I wanted to compare it to A.I. Insurrection, and though Alita is set some 500 years in the future, and A.I. Insurrection is just 150 years from now, the two stories have a similar theme of sentient robots. Alita's are cyborgs in that they include the brain and some flesh of humans who are interchangeable with whatever robotic design humanity can imagine. In A.I. Insurrection, sentience comes from recycled souls inhabiting the intelligent software of Host robots who serve humanity in every role possible.

It was fun for me to imagine my book(s) on the big screen because of the incredible digital FX. There's simply nothing you can imagine they can't put up on the screen. Alita's storyline is formulaic but satisfying. Not at all difficult to predict. I think, in the end, it's an action movie staged in the far future whereas A.I. Insurrection, which also includes plenty of action, might interest a more seasoned Sci-fi fan. That said I quite enjoyed Alita. Looks like they've set themselves up for a sequel if not a trilogy.

Alita investigated some of what a human might experience as a cyborg but not to the extent you would expect. Of course, it's only a 2-hour movie and the Manga surely investigated all of that in much more depth. A.I. Insurrection offers the reader a bit more as the Host robots experience sentience as an unexpected result of an upgraded code which catches them by surprise.

Regardless, if you enjoyed the Manga Alita or the movie, you might find yourself enjoying A.I. Insurrection. With the second book of the series available in March of 2019, it's the perfect time to get caught up in the near-future science fiction.

Thanks for reading.

Mike

HEAL on Netflix and the Hello Me Series of Children's Books

Have you watched HEAL on Netflix yet? If you have then you already know what it’s about and probably should look into some books which support the idea that science and spirituality are one and the same. Science is catching up in realizing its connection to the spiritual or mental realm, and in HEAL, we see that. Books like If a Tree Falls in the Forest and E=Me are two books developed in 2014 which essentially tell the story through graphic illustrations and clear language how science is not at odds with spirituality, but rather its greatest champion.

HEAL reveals stories from spiritual leaders, physicians and those with chronic illnesses about the power of thought affecting our physical bodies and even circumstances which occur around us or to us. This isn’t new thinking. The same information has been passed down thousands of years through practices like meditation and religious thought. What you think creates your reality. If you’re sick, consider practising meditation as well as seeing your doctor.  Science is proving the power of the mind to affect the body. HEAL on Netflix offers a window into that truth.

I always wonder what if when I think about how much more confident or healthy a life I’d have led had I been brought up with meditation and Yoga and positive thinking practices. Not to say I had a bad childhood. Not at all. But being raised Christian left me feeling guiltier about everything rather than grateful for everything. I decided in my early 20’s that organized religion was more a way to rule than to teach. And what they taught was done in such a way that it left a negative impression rather than a positive one. Heaven and Hell is Christianity’s biggest mistake. You can’t give people hope by preaching fear. It’s in no one’s best interest. Teach with love.

If you believe in this line of thought and if you have children, or even if you don’t, I’d urge you to pick up the Hello Me series of two books to promote positive thought in your kids. If they lack the life tools to put their dreams into action, I worry we’re failing them from the start.

Michael Poeltl is a multi-genre author whose books - both fiction and non-fiction -  investigate the relationship between science and spirituality.

Go in peace.