Inspiration Belongs to Everyone

That's why I'm writing stories and sharing them with you

My name is Michael and I am from St. Joseph

🪶 I'm a storyteller writing and sharing in common with others ☦️

I've been making up stories in my head my whole life. I made the decision to start noting down these ideas because the fear of forgetting was always close to me. My greatest struggle was finding the right creative outlet to tell these stories and developing the skills needed to achieve this. That's why I've spent the past several years on a journey learning the craft of writing and studying how best to share my art with the world. Along the way I fell deeply in love with words in every form and format. I found a depth of expression I never knew when reading or being read to as a child.

Ah! But Michael, I hardly know anything about you. What qualifications do you have to be a writer besides a childish dream?

Well, I believe a childish dream is the most important qualification. Besides this I have a variety of formal and informal training. My university degree is in legal assistance which will become evident by my incessant ramblings about intellectual property, copyright, and other such things people don't really care about. I've done various forms of technical writing and documentation in my career as a computer technician. I grew up an avid reader and worked to rekindle this passion with a more analytical eye. And I've worked very hard to overcome a peculiar illness closely linked with words, language, and communication; that being Tourette Syndrome. All of these elements combined have helped shape my approach to prose and poetry.

And why exactly do you care so much about boring stuff like intellectual property?

I grew up in an era of unfettered access to art of every kind, genre, variety, and medium. It is impossible to grow up in the post-internet world and not be exposed to great, wonderful, and sometimes terrible forms of inspiration. At the same time I have been browbeat my whole life to feel guilt for sharing a copy of an image, an excerpt from a book, or a link to a video. I once was one of the wide-eyed children filled to the brim with ideas "owned" and monopolized by the system of intellectual "property." After your stomach is filled with someone else's corporate portfolio you're told not to act on the inspiration you've been given. Anyone with an artistic bent knows this is an unnatural request. Please see the Share No-Resale Clause and the Michael of St. Joseph License to see how I'm attempting to fix this problem.

What are you trying to achieve with this project, persona... What exactly?

First and foremost I want to share what's been cooped up in my head for so long. I want this project to be the means to express this creative energy that's been bottled up inside me my entire life. I also want to solve a practical problem exacerbated by the digital age we live in; that being the legal snafu surrounding rightsholders, copying, sharing, and distribution. I want to demonstrate success in the arts with a different approach that leans more towards cooperation and less towards competition without throwing out the possibility of private financial success. And lastly, I want this project to be my portfolio piece to prove my writing ability and open doors to work with others.

AI is going to take all our jobs so it doesn't really matter anyways...

That may be true, but it won't stop me from writing because writing is what I enjoy doing. If you are at all interested in my thoughts on AI and other such technological advancements feel free to read my short essay, Artificial "Intelligence" and Your Creative Future. In short, I have no plan to use automated tools to replace my human intention. Art is expression and the process of creation is as important as the final product, perhaps even more so.

Is your name really "Michael of St. Joseph?"

Michael of St. Joseph is a pen name, although in some respects it is more real than my legal name. Michael is my Christened name, after St. Michael the Archangel who has so often been a great inspiration to me (and one who doesn't charge royalties either). I liked the ambiguity and thematic flair "of St. Joseph" added to the name. There's a tinge of middle eastern influence as last names from this region often derive from a geographic location. It sounds so much more interesting than simply "X. Y. Lastname" or "Firstname X. Lastname" don't you think? To spoil the fun I will tell you its most obvious meaning, I was born and raised in the city of St. Joseph, Missouri. The oldest town west of the Mississippi, the birthplace of the Pony Express, and the resting place of the infamous outlaw Jesse James.

"Copying is not the same as stealing."