Interview With Award-Winning Short Story Writer Michael Thomas Perone

 

 

 

1. What inspired you to write this book? I’ve always wanted to put together a collection of the best short stories I’ve written over the years, but I was afraid readers would be ping-ponging back and forth between different themes, as theme is very important to me. But I chose my six favorites anyway and then read them back, and either out of sheer coincidence or dumb luck, almost all the stories had the exact same themes: a sane person trying to survive an insane world, and the rise of technology and madness—and the connection between the two. It worked out nicely, and I was very happy with the result.

 

2. What exactly is it about — and who is it written for? The Electric God and Other Shorts is a collection of six twisted short stories with twists. (Think Twilight Zone.) The stories range from sci-fi to thriller to horror. Fans of Ray Bradbury and Stephen King will love it.

 

3. What do you hope readers will get out of reading your book? First and foremost, I hope they’re entertained. Books are a source of entertainment, after all. I also hope they’re surprised—especially from the twists! Finally, I want them to think about the societal implications I make in the book—where we all seem to be headed and how it’s not necessarily a good place.

 

4. How did you decide on your book’s title and cover design? I wrote the title story back in the ‘90s when it seemed like television was taking over society. Almost every month, it seemed like there was a new cable channel being launched. I remember thinking there wasn’t enough people in the country to watch this much T.V., but I was proven wrong. A few things I did correctly predict were binge watching, remote learning via the T.V. and T.V.s being installed in the dashboards of cars. (We call them “screens,” but they’re basically

the same thing.) The title came to me because it felt like we were becoming a society that

literally worshipped the television set, and the cover developed from that idea. Originally, I

wanted a creepy smiley face instead of a sun on the cover’s T.V. screen, but it looked too goofy and cartoony, and I felt it would give potential readers the wrong impression. This isn’t a book for little kids!

 

5. What advice or words of wisdom do you have for fellow writers – other than run!?

I get this question a lot, and I never know how to answer it, because it implies I’m an expert. I’m here to tell you that I’m definitely not an expert; I’m making it up as I go, which is the very definition of writing. All I can offer are the standard cliches about writing what you know and never giving up. Publishing, as you know, is a brutal business, and if I wasn’t more motivated, I would’ve given up a long time ago.

 

6. What trends in the book world do you see -- and where do you think the book publishing industry is heading?  It seems AI is taking over everything these days, including and maybe even especially publishing. I feel that’s a shame, because if you’re using AI to write your books, you’re not a writer. Part of the reason why I write is because I’m trying to explain what the experience of being a human is like for me to others, and AI can’t do that because it’s obviously not human. The only AI I use is Spell Check. But I’m going to keep writing until the robot apocalypse enslaves us.

 

7. Were there experiences in your personal life or career that came in handy when writing this book? Most of my work is autobiographical, particularly my coming-of-age/sci-fi novel Déjà View. For The Electric God and Other Shorts, part of the story Paper Language is based on my difficulty with writing and getting published. With some of my stories, I try to imagine what I would do in a certain situation, especially if it’s an outlandish scenario—and then I sometimes imagine someone going too far or doing the exact opposite of what I’d do, like in my story The Shovel. Let me be the first to warn readers that the main character in that story is not a role model!

 

8. How would you describe your writing style? Which writers or books is your writing similar to? I’d say my writing is entertaining, funny, and smart—in that order. (At least I hope it is!) I don’t want to compare myself to the masters, but my literary heroes are J. D. Salinger, George Orwell, Roald Dahl, and Stephen King.

 

9. What challenges did you overcome in the writing of this book? Fear of having people think I’m a nut! Seriously, I know there are some people at work who are probably looking at me differently now. 

 

Abut The Author:  Michael Thomas Perone is an award-winning author who has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, Long Island Voice (a spinoff of The Village Voice), and The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), among others. Online, he has written for Fatherly, Yahoo!, WhatCulture!, and other websites that don’t end with an exclamation mark. His debut novel, the action-adventure Danger Peak, was the recipient of multiple awards, including The Fall 2022 BookFest Award in the category of Young Adult — Action and Adventure. His follow-up, the coming-of-age/sci-fi mindbender Déjà View, won First Place at the Spring 2024 BookFest Awards in the category of Young Adult — Literary and Coming of Age. It was also a finalist of The 2024 Eric Hoffer Book Award. His short story collection, The Electric God and Other Shorts, was the recipient of The Spring 2025 BookFest Award in the category of Short Stories and The 2024 Firebird Book Award in the same category, where it received First Place. It was also a Distinguished Favorite at The 2025 NYC Big Book Awards in the category of Short Stories and a Best Book Winner at The Fall 2025 PenCraft Awards in the category of Short Stories/Anthologies. He works as a Senior Editor for a nonprofit in Manhattan and lives on Long Island with his wife and two daughters.

A link to a website or social media page: www.michaelthomasperone.com  

 

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About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 6,400,000 page views. With 5,600+ posts over the past 15 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2026.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully) and (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/10-things-my-dog-taught-me-about-marketing-books). He was recently interviewed by the IBPA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0BhO9m8jbs

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, three times at BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association, Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, five times at Morgan James Publishing Red Carpet, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum