2026 milestones, late summer

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Late summer 2026

Hey friends, currently over here in beautiful Coeur d’Alene Idaho, celebrating a milestone. I received a notification I’ve reached 100 million views on my meta platforms…and we’re only halfway through the year. This will easily be my biggest year yet on social and I want to thank each and every one of you for engaging. If you buy my books, or just one, or leave reviews or share my posts, you personally have contributed to this result. Thank you. To put those views into perspective, that is four times the USA tv audience of a MLB World Series.

I’m proud of how I went about this, too. I never chased trends, or used trending music, or became a court jester for an algorithm. Never chopped wood with my shirt off, lol. I did it with my art, from my wildlife and adventure photography and with my essays and novels and advocating for our epic public lands. Nature, wildlife, anti-sprawl and roadless areas have always played a part in my fiction and non-fiction, and will stay that way until the end.

One of the things I learned in this process is how important your circle is. Sometimes, the people closest to you that you think are rooting for you, secretly are not. And sometimes the people you didn’t think were on your side ended up sincerely cheering you on. This process has been a big social filter.

That is perhaps the craziest revelation in all of this. It’s all been a big learning experience. And as always, I strive to grow, to evolve, to improve. To grind at the gym, to read more books, to evolve my writing. All of it. And speaking of that I’m working on edits right now for a short story called “The Children of Huron Bog” for a great new anthology from Evil Twin (due in 2027), and I’ve got a short story with a top secret concept  due in 2027 in another anthology from Titan books. The story is currently under consideration for film so fingers crossed. I put a lot of work into both stories, and one of the marks a return to the legendary Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the location of my debut novel). Both anthologies will be in hardcover and distributed worldwide. I’ve also just finished a new screenplay for a film, a “dramedy” along the lines of “Planes Trains and Automobiles” rather than darker fiction. I’ll be down in LA for a couple days for that, and other meetings.

On the photography side, I’ve got a brand new camera and I’m ready to hit Glacier this fall big time. I’m really digging the new set up, ready to get iconic Glacier fall footage of grizzly bears and moose.  Speaking of that, all of us here in the inland pnw and northern Rockies need the clouds and rains of fall to arrive early, for obvious reasons.

Thank you all for showing up and being there.

Best,

– Michael


Spring Summer 2026

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Hey friends,

Checking in with an update from the north country. There’s a lot going on.  I’ve been traveling, filming, writing, including Glacier National Park, Northern Idaho, and various places in-between. I’ve got a couple new short stories being featured in great anthologies, in addition to (honestly, the overwhelming management of my Facebook page, which has 20 million views alone this week). The sheer volume of those views takes up considerable time in my day.

While in Glacier Park filming grizzlies there were several incidents and I was contacted by the media regarding the issue. Needless to say, always be alert in grizzly country.  And my thoughts and wishes go out to the family of the fallen hiker.

In addition to the writing and filming, I’ve got a full summer schedule, including various conservation group fundraisers and meetings in the entertainment industry.

Honestly, all I want to do is disappear into Glacier with my camera. But life is not that easy, ha. I feel most myself when I’m either writing on the laptop, in the field with a camera in my hand or lifting at the gym.

Speaking of that, I’ve been advised to start posting a lot more of myself to help combat AI imposters. So yeah.

Be well friends. BTW, I plan to update this site way more often going forward. So expect essays, posts that went viral on Meta, etc.

Best,

– Michael


My interview with the media about the Glacier Park bear incident

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Hey friends, I was interviewed by Cowboy State Daily in regards to the tragic grizzly bear attack on May 6th in Glacier National Park. I was in the park that day, and the news absolutely threw me. I’ve been filming grizzlies in the park for 20 years and it easily could’ve (or could) happen to me. You can read the interview here.

*excerpt from the interview

A silent guardian for a fallen traveler

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This photo is dedicated to the young man who lost his life during a grizzly encounter in Glacier National Park on May 6th 2026.

I was in the park that day, too. I’d never met him, but no doubt we were after the same things on that day. Things like adventure, escaping the sprawl, probably temporarily escaping girl problems (lol) and hoping to take a photo of something cool.  To bask in the most scenic park in the world. To just exist and be happy.

I was out hiking alone, too. Bear spray in one hand, camera in the other. He just had bad luck, and I did not. His trail was a bad one on that day and mine was not. Just bad luck. Just a flip of the coin. No one’s fault.

After hearing the news, I cut my Glacier trip short and left the park. I just didn’t have the heart to stick around. On my way out, I encountered this spectacular moment…a bald eagle perching on a lone branch with a ridiculous alpine backdrop. And I thought that in the end, we all fly free like the great eagle. Regardless of how it ends for any of us.

Update on the Montana bison issue

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This is a massive moment for the future of the American West, and it’s hitting close to home.

In Montana, the dust is finally settling on a huge decision from the Bureau of Land Management that has a lot of us feeling like the balance of the plains is being tipped.

​Governor Greg Gianforte and the Trump Administration just made it official by pulling the plug on bison grazing leases on federal land. For years, there has been a standoff over whether these public acres should be used for rewilding projects or kept strictly for the cattle industry. By siding with a narrow definition of livestock, the Governor and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum are sending a message that Montana’s public lands are for production, period. While Senators Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy are calling this a win for the rule of law, it feels like a heavy handed blow to the idea that our plains can be both a working landscape and a wild one. 

​For anyone who cares about the soul of the Big Sky, this is a tough pill to swallow. These bison aren’t just an “ideological experiment.” They are a keystone species that belonged long before the fences went up. They create a mosaic on the landscape that cattle just can’t replicate, supporting everything from songbirds to soil health.

Seeing a September deadline set to force these herds off the land feels like a step backward for conservation and a slight to the Tribal nations who have worked so hard to bring the buffalo back. 

​We have always been a state that prides itself on wide open spaces and a respect for the wild. If we lose the ability to have bison roaming alongside our ranching heritage, we are losing a piece of the Montana we all love. What do you think? Can we find a way to keep Montana balanced, or are we watching the wild get pushed out for good?