About

“You write with clarity and I find it very appealing.” — Tito Perdue, author of Lee and Fields of Asphodel.

“A talented, veteran writer.” — J.W. Stebner, editor of Hexagon Speculative Fiction Magazine

“Tuggle blends edge-of-your-seat scenarios with realistic and genuine dialogue.” — Kate Seabury, editor of Manhattan with a twist

“Tuggle skillfully ends most his sections with hooks redolent of the weekly movie suspense serials that provided filler between Saturday matinee double features.” — Gordon Osmond, author of Slipping on Stardust

“Tuggle ably captures the spirit of Dan Brown novels and Indiana Jones–style adventure stories.” — Kirkus Reviews

Mike Tuggle Pencil Sketch (2)I’m a native North Carolinian whose ancestors arrived in the South in 1647. Raised on a tobacco farm near High Point, North Carolina, I enjoyed a childhood of outdoor living, including rambling through the countryside hunting, fishing, and searching for arrowheads. In college, I took a double major in history and English, and completed my M.A. in English at Wake Forest on a university fellowship. My master’s thesis examined the Civil War stories of Ambrose Bierce.

A life-long tinkerer and science geek, I worked in property and casualty underwriting, project management, and operations research for several large insurance companies. In 1986, I completed the course of study for the Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriter designation, the insurance equivalent of a CPA, and taught CPCU for several years. The North Carolina Department of Insurance certified me as an instructor of statistics for professional CE. I also served on the Property Committee of the North Carolina Rate Bureau,  working with long-range weather models to determine future rate recommendations.

My first computer was a Commodore 64. (Yes, I’m that old.) A Certified Novell Administrator®, and proficient in the object-oriented programming language Visual Basic, I wrote an  automated risk selection program that was adapted by the Jefferson-Pilot Corporation. I served on a computer-based underwriting project for Kemper Insurance, and was a member of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

My fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories have been featured in several publications, including Mystery Weekly Magazine, Little Blue Marble, and Metaphorosis. Novel Fox  published my novella Aztec Midnight in December, 2014.

My literary role models include Ernest Hemingway, Flannery O’Connor, Robert E. Howard, and Mickey Spillane. In addition to fantasy, science fiction, and crime novels, my reading includes history, with emphasis on military history. I’ve given presentations on Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign to several historical societies.

Here are the non-fiction books that have primarily shaped my worldview:

The Resurgence of the Real, by Charlene Spretnak
Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
Sociobiology, by E. O. Wilson
The March of Folly, by Barbara Tuchman
African Genesis, by Robert Ardrey
Visions of Order, by Richard Weaver
On Aggression, by Konrad Lorenz

An avid weightlifter, electronic tinkerer, collector of American Indian relics, and student of martial arts, I’ve been married to Julie Tuggle since 1982 and am the proud father of a daughter, Jessica.

Interviews:

And there’s more!

My Internet Speculative Fiction Database entry

My Amazon author page.

Contact:

Facebook

Twitter

email

105 thoughts on “About”

  5. Hi, Mike! Weight-lifter and martial artist, eh? I’ll have to stop kicking sand in your face at the beach. Little did I know my peril! 🙂

    My main inspirations were Tolkien and Jack Vance. What boundless imaginations they had, in their very different ways. Even though you didn’t list him as an inspiration, you led off this About page with a quote related to Tolkien, so I infer that he’s not far from your heart.

    Liked by 3 people

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  6. Amazing Blair Peery,

    Notice it says “student of martial arts,” not master. You may continue kicking sand.

    Tolkien is indeed way, way up on my list. LOTR exudes a deep love for friendship and community and simple pleasures. Its celebration of the wondrous that inhabits the everyday makes it one of those rare books in which you can discover something new every time you read it.

    Liked by 2 people

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  8. mstoywhisperer,

    Thanks for that. I’ve found a number of creative folks in unexpected places. One was an exterminator with an encyclopedic knowledge of the critters he dealt with. Another was a house painter who aspired to write spec fic. He was an ex-WWE wrestler, and a walking storehouse of hilarious and wacky stories about the alternate universe that is professional wrestling.

    You just never know what treasures are out there for the taking.

    Liked by 2 people

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  10. Ipuna Black,

    Thank you for the kind thoughts! It’s a great deal more work plotting, composing, editing, and re-working a longer piece than a short story, so I’m both excited and apprehensive about the release of Aztec Midnight.

    And Hemingway remains one of my favorites. My debt to him is enormous.

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  20. Hey Mike, wanted to get out a quick thank you to you for looking at one of my recent post, I hope it gave you a laugh or two. Also loved your response to Blair here where you said—student not master, you may continue kicking sand. You obviously have a nice sense of humor.

    Liked by 3 people

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  32. Thanks for always being alert to my blog entries Mike… I have been changing my website, trying to make it easier to navigate… but I still have to create my portfolio of my art work; however, I will post 100 words posts onwards.

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  33. It was a real pleasure meeting you in the wide blogosphere. I really appreciate the posts I just visited, “How I write”, and “Can Literature Heal” – I could use myself some of the stuff you share: “To fuel a complex and lengthy writing project, you need to pour all of your love and all of your rage into it. Spill your guts. Pound away at those keys. Let the world know what you truly cherish and dare to uphold, and let it know what puts a fire in your belly.”

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  36. Hey there! I just found your site on WordPress and love the topics you have written about (being a crazed reader and writer myself). I’m fairly new here and I was wondering if you could have a look at my site. I would really appreciate it. Thanks a lot!

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  37. I wanted to check in and say I appreciate your faithful following on my blog. I just reread your bio here and am very impressed “again” YOU are always one of my first supporters when I write a new post and had to stop by and say thank you! It doesn’t go unnoticed!

    Liked by 3 people

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  38. Great bio, love that you cite Robert E Howard as an inspiration. That was one talented (and complex) human being. I’ve been reading his work on and off since I was 12 (I’m now 36) and never tire of it.

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. benrattle,

      I appreciate the comment!

      Yes, a long, long time ago, a not-so-young aspiring writer kept getting rejection slips from editors. He’d read stacks of Writer’s Digest, as well as an overloaded shelf full of writing books.

      Then he saw a post on a literary web site that mentioned Robert E. Howard as one of the best story tellers who’d ever lived. Said aspiring writer occasionally read spec fic, most mostly stuck to literary as a reader and aspiring writer

      I, I mean, HE, read all the Conan stories, loved them, and read them again to see what made them tick. The commenter on that lit fic site was correct. How to make a likable protag, how a story and character arc that will engage the reader, and heavens, that evocative and energetic prose!

      So yes, Howard was a major influence on me. I mean, on that mysterious not-so-young writer.

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  39. Thank you for liking my little tale. You have an impressive and interestingly written About page. It stirs me to reconsider how I present myself. In print I have a level of guarded reticence about self-revelation which appears to be at odds with my personality.

    I look forward to reading more of your blog. I admire those who can write good fiction. I can’t. Not really. I tend to stick to the safe, fascinating, and sometimes controversial mysteries of Reality. My own life has been a genuine case of truth being so much stranger than fiction that my imagination balks at the idea of emulating or exceeding it. (No. Not even an autobiography, though several friends have suggested it – it wearies me to even think of it, and some things are too complex to unearth accurately.)

    However, I will share one small bit of personal trivia – my first computer was an Osborne 1, and I still have my Kaypro. 😉

    Liked by 3 people

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  40. Lloyd’s of Rochester,

    Thank you for the nice comments and the follow.

    As for “self-revelation” in fiction writing — well, it’s pretty much what fiction writing is all about. You’ve heard TV stories that advertise how “the names were changed to protect the innocent”? It’s also okay to change the names, sexes, and nationalities to protect the guilty, too. That way, you can draw on all the bizarre tales of your life without fear of anyone guessing who inspired the character.

    An Osborne – whoa. The Commodore 64 also used CP/M, which I liked. Learning BASIC programming and discovering the mind-boggling audio and visual capabilities of that little machine was like discovering an entire new universe. I miss it!

    Liked by 2 people

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    1. I don’t really want to relive my truth-was-stranger-than-fiction life through writing; it wearies me to think of slowing down enough to put it on paper. It was also pretty unique and specific and I wouldn’t want to later field questions about the source of my inspiration. Fortunately, many of those who were there are now dead.

      Now is sufficiently fascinating/challenging. I’m not good at making things up, not even science fiction. I get too serious, so I seek mindless, but never crude, escapes. I enjoy Piers Anthony’s Xanth because it’s not intended to be taken seriously, and the kids’ book “The Phantom Tollbooth.”

      I’d prefer to watch “Interstellar,” or listen in on a discussion of String Theory, black holes, the omnipresence of God, the migration of mankind, historical/conceptual roots of the Chinese written language, the roots of reality in mythology, and such. There’s so much room for mind-boggling speculation on the incomprehensible nature of Reality that my inclination toward fascinating complexity would wrap me up in knots and give me a headache if I tried to write much beyond simple poetry, short stories and kiddie lit.

      But who knows? I appreciate other people’s good writing, so MAYBE someday I will grow up enough to attempt mature fiction, because right now my style can somewhat stiff and formal – I struggle to be engaging in print.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  41. Hello Mike. You have an amazing volume of literary work. I love history and Jack London, one of my favorite writers. I am now following you. I imagine I will learn quite a bit reading your posts. Thank you in advance! Karen 🙂

    Liked by 2 people

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Adventures and mishaps in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery