Published Work

The Runway: A Free Short Story

New to the author? Try The Runway for free!
Smashwords
Barnes and Noble

As two high school sweethearts and lovers are reunited after an eight-year absence, two tragedies are occurring. Pamela, at the age of twenty-six, is dying of cancer. Dwight, also twenty-six years old, is dying in a subtler way. Dwight has allowed financial success and prestige to erase his life’s passion. When fate brings these two long-lost romantic partners together during the last days of Pamela’s tortured life, everything that takes place after that is intended to allow you to meditate about difficulties and decisions that you will almost certainly have to face. Is all of your physical and psychological pain meant to simply be endured? Or is it your right to decide what limits you wish to place upon your own suffering? Finally, is it possible that a supremely patient and loving spiritual presence carefully knits together what might seem to be accidental or trivial events, so that even the darkest and most tragic of all of our lives disasters lead toward an ultimate state of ecstasy and transcendence? Because these subjects are so crucial in all of our lives, I am offering “The Runway” to you as a free download. If this story assists you in any way, that will make my work worthwhile.

NEW! The Summer Pier: A Short Story Collection

Smashwords

If your life feels more fascinating, mysterious, paradoxical, and full of delightful possibilities than other people have given you room to explore, then I wrote The Summer Pier for your benefit. A pier is, in itself, a world where landlocked realities and ghostly possibilities tremble through one another. Inside of this atmosphere, the characters of seven short stories do not hammer home predefined sermons or lectures. In all of these stories, I have deliberately set aside my own beliefs so that the stories’ protagonists are set free to probe out what the late author John Updike refers to as the ”infinitely fine” delicacy and complexity of all that exists in our cosmos. In “The Shell,” a romantic attraction between two cousins develops unexpectedly after both young people have been separated for most of their lives. This love is real. Should it be acted upon? In spite of the fact that our society stigmatizes and condemns such love relationships? In a longer story, entitled “Manhood,” the slow, persistent, and at-times bewildering stages that a teen-aged boy must go through in order to make a proper transition into his own adulthood are presented as they might occur in your own life. Whenever I complete a book and write to you about it, my heart keeps bringing me back to the same understanding. If a single story in this book assists you to better understand your life and to live that life more richly, I will feel completely satisfied and happy. My best wishes to you, Michael Naugle

Dinner with the Dark-Hearted Stranger and Other Stories

$12.99 - Available now on Amazon!

Dinner with the Dark-Hearted Stranger is a collection of six short works of contemporary fiction by author Michael Naugle. While each story stands alone, together they combine to create an intricate look at the darker sides of human nature, weaving a tapestry of characters and places that are both unsettling and fascinatingly familiar. Inspired by what Carl Jung called “The Shadow,” Naugle explores the dark, mysterious presence that can turn a heartbreaking and disastrous experience into something healing and redemptive. He thinks of you, his readers, as the subjects of his stories, and hopes that they will allow you to ponder the Shadows in your own lives.

Through a Fortress in Darkness

Kelly, an 18-year-old high school graduate who lives in a small Arizona town, has lost the last of her eyesight as the summer of this novel begins. Her boyfriend has abandoned her. These losses have crushed Kelly’s spirit. Physically and emotionally, she is withdrawn from the world. Then, slowly and mysteriously, three people alter Kelly’s life. Annette, Kelly’s best friend, unexpectedly becomes Kelly’s lover. Lance, a 19-year-old loner and drifter, challenges Kelly to take risks. Miss Edith Meyers, a blind 76-year-old poetry instructor, teaches Kelly Braille and gradually becomes Kelly’s mentor and confidant. As Kelly emerges from her shell, however, increasingly tormenting challenges confront her. Is her love relationship with Annette meant to last? Or should she act upon the growing attraction that she feels toward Lance? As these questions intensify into a crisis, we are plunged into Kelly’s world and into a state of suspense that becomes all-absorbing and mesmerizing.