Dispatch from the Razor's Edge, the Blog of Michael Stephen Fuchs
Things I've Learned From My Father, So Far (*)
  • Work hard.
  • Appreciate what you've got.
  • Especially if it's a great family.
  • Most especially if it's a great woman.
  • Never give up.
  • No, seriously – work hard.
  • Do as well as you can (even if it's not as well as you once imagined it might be).
  • You have to love your kids; but you're truly lucky if you also really like your kids.
  • The steering wheel is not a place to rest your hands.
  • Folding fitted sheets is really a spiritual exercise: if you can fold fitted sheets, you can do anything.
  • There's never any point in doing a poor job of something, no matter what the job.
  • Always meet your responsibilities.
  • Be generous.
  • Always, always support your family.
  • Even if they make choices that are slightly baffling to you.
  • Offer well-intentioned advice – but don't worry too much if it's not taken.
  • Accept well-intentioned advice you don't intend to take by saying, "Thanks very much for the advice."
  • Enjoy life.
  • Wear nice clothes.
  • Buy a couch.
  • Keep playing basketball.
  • Basketball provides several important life lessons: you don't have to be the fastest, strongest, or most talented – if you just run around a lot and keep hustling, good things will happen.
  • Keep lifting weights.
  • Call your father once a week.
  • It's very cool to be a Jew.
  • I can't eat the soup.
  • New York is a special place.
  • Take great joy and pride in the accomplishments of your family.
  • You're probably going to end up repeating your stories as much as your father; then, later, as much as your grandfather.
  • Always be doing something.
  • Yard work is a good choice.
  • So's reading political biography.
  • Also playing tea party with your daughter.
  • Cleaning the house can be like a meditation.
  • Pretty much every company (probably every organization) is at least somewhat screwed up and dysfunctional.
  • Don't let that get you down, or keep you from doing your best.
  • You can always start again.
  • Life's hardly worth living without chocolate chip cookies.
  • Matzoh Brei is very good for breakfast.
  • Carvel flying saucers can just disappear in the night.
  • There's always hope for your Scrabble career (even if your kids are know-it-alls who know all the two-letter and q-without-u words).
  • Use proper grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure in written English – even if it happens to be e-mail.
  • Everything in moderation.
  • Smile for pictures.
  • Relax.

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about
close photo of Michael Stephen Fuchs

Fuchs is the author of the novels The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, both published worldwide by Macmillan in hardback, paperback and all e-book formats (and in translation); the D-Boys series of high-tech, high-concept, spec-ops military adventure novels – D-Boys, Counter-Assault, and Close Quarters Battle (coming in 2016); and is co-author, with Glynn James, of the bestselling Arisen series of special-operations military ZA novels. The second nicest thing anyone has ever said about his work was: "Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt put in a firefight'." (Kirkus Reviews, more here.)

Fuchs was born in New York; schooled in Virginia (UVa); and later emigrated to the San Francisco Bay Area, where he lived through the dot-com boom. Subsequently he decamped for an extended period of tramping before finally rocking up in London, where he now makes his home. He does a lot of travel blogging, most recently of some very  long  walks around the British Isles. He's been writing and developing for the web since 1994 and shows no particularly hopeful signs of stopping.

You can reach him on .

THE MANUSCRIPT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
PANDORA'S SISTERS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
DON'T SHOOT ME IN THE ASS, AND OTHER STORIES by Michael Stephen Fuchs
D-BOYS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
COUNTER-ASSAULT by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book One - Fortress Britain, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Two - Mogadishu of the Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Genesis, by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Three - Three Parts Dead, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Four - Maximum Violence, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Five - EXODUS, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN Book Six - The Horizon, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Seven - Death of Empires, by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eight - Empire of the Dead by Glynn James & Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : NEMESIS by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Nine - Cataclysm by Michael Stephen Fuchs

ARISEN, Book Ten - The Flood by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Eleven - Deathmatch by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Twelve - Carnage by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Thirteen - The Siege by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN, Book Fourteen - Endgame by Michael Stephen Fuchs
ARISEN : Fickisms
ARISEN : Odyssey
ARISEN : Last Stand
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 1 - The Collapse
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 2 - Tribes
Black Squadron
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 3 - Dead Men Walking
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 4 - Duty
ARISEN : Raiders, Volume 5 - The Last Raid
ARISEN : Fickisms ][ – This Time, It's Personal
ARISEN : Operators, Volume I - The Fall of the Third Temple
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