Michael Puttonen was born in northern Minnesota to parents of Finnish ancestry.  He and his seven siblings grew up in a rural environment rich in areas for children to explore, with nearby fields, woodlands, and a small river that ran practically through the backyard providing endless opportunities for creative adventure.

 

Michael attended a small school that served all grades, elementary through high school, and discovered in the school’s tiny library a diverse and wonderful world of books, which led to a lifelong love of reading.  Spending a few hours with a good book remains a favorite activity. 

 

Michael graduated from high school as the Vietnam War was winding down and he joined the newly instituted all-volunteer military service, opting for the U.S. Air Force.  He served during what was then a still chilly Cold War as an antenna operator in the field of military satellite tracking at Vandenberg AFB, CA. 

 

Always curious about life and its meaning, Michael began what has become an ongoing spiritual journey.  He felt drawn to aspects of New Age philosophy and found enduring value in much of what he learned from that exploration.  Michael has always had a great attraction to the anomalous and to what lies outside of mainstream thought, feeling drawn to anything that challenges our accepted notions of reality.  That interest encompasses a wide range of subjects, from what simply attracts curiosity to what he feels serves a practical purpose.  Ghosts, elusive hominids, lake creatures, and UFO’s, all fall in the former category, while the latter includes ancient fields of formerly esoteric learning that have persisted into the modern era.  Michael has yet to master the intricacies of those fascinating subjects but finds they still deliver valuable insights. 

 

Seeking a broader understanding of consciousness, Michael kept a dream journal for twenty years, recording all dreams remembered, from exhilarating out of body experiences and lucid dreams to mundane ones of trips to the bathroom (which always woke him up because they were telling him he had to go!).  The knowledge gained about personal dream symbolism still rewards and enlightens, and although he no longer records his dreams, he feels the spiritual exercise was valuable.    

 

Michael’s interest in writing manifested a few years after leaving military service, one of several nascent creative urges he felt at the time.  Michael enrolled in a course for children’s writing, greatly enjoyed the experience, and began writing children’s stories with an eye toward becoming a published author.  After years of finding little interest from children’s book publishers, he set his writing and his writing goals aside, but in time found that compelling forces within himself would not allow a permanent cessation of either.  When he returned to writing, Michael decided to pursue a more adult readership and within a year finished his first action/adventure/fantasy novel, Sanyel.  After deciding that the exciting new world of independent digital publishing was the future, Michael self-published Sanyel, followed by sequels Disrupter, Circles and Stones, and Bones of the Gods.  He has also published a collection of his children’s stories, Seven and One Tales for Young Readers.

 

Michael still resides in northern Minnesota, where he works on his writing and spends an inordinate amount of time on the internet.