Mike Hayne

My mother died in M D Anderson hospital when I graduated from SWHS. My father, an alcoholic, kicked me out of the house, and I fell in with a ruthless Houston gang. 1973 = bad. 1974 = punished. 1975 = rehabilitated. 1976 = bad (gang returned). 1977 = punished. 1978 = rehabilitated. 1979 (gang returned, I escaped Houston). I've been going straight since 1980. Quit drinking in AA in Houston in 1986 = 30 years sobriety this year. Although Catholic and from New York, the Southern Baptists rehabilitated me. I watch Joel Osteen and buy his books. My life can be explained by AS GOOD AS IT GETS. What did we learn from Bill Clinton? When a Democrat has his hand in your pocket protect both your wallet and genitals!

I lived in Spring Shadows, had a paper route, bought an electric guitar and played every day after school. I became accomplished, but mom dying put a kink in the musical career. Nevertheless, I still kept playing five more years until the second time the gang stalked and harassed me. I never played music after 1977, but like the most interesting man in the world says in the TV commercial, "his regret is he never felt regret." I became a writer and became good at that. People can buy copies of INTO THE GROUND at my website (mikerogersthewriter.com) or Amazon. Also, mp3 vocal tracks on my website concern A FAR SUBURB about a desert town near Las Vegas where a successful criminal who was never caught retires.