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Author Spotlight

August 2009 --- Larry Michalove

War is no place for children. But for Larry Michalove, it was not the place to forget about the four little ones he had left at home when he answered the call to fly low-level night combat missions in Laos. While performing acts of courage during the Vietnam conflict that would earn him two Distinguished Flying Crosses and nine Air Medals, Michalove had also unexpectedly begun the process that would lead to earning an honor of a different type.

"While in Ubon," said Michalove, "I wrote my wife, Sybil, almost daily (she received some 300 letters from me) and periodically included a bedtime story that she could read to our four little children, ages 9, 7, 3 and 1½."

After spending 14 months apart during 1970-71, the couple reunited, ready to put the experience of the war behind them. The letters would also share a similar fate, stored in a box in the family's garage.

Decades later, after passing down copies to the "little children," the letters would begin Michalove's unexpected journey.

"In May 2004, one of my granddaughters in Atlanta asked her mother to read the stories to her kindergarten class," said Michalove. "Over a period of time, they read all of the stories except the final two chapters."

Michalove was invited to read the last two chapters to the class himself. The event even captured the attention of the Atlanta Journal-Consitution. "After reading the stories, their teacher told me that she felt the stories were so good that I had to get them published," Michalove said. "I then began a serious search for a publisher."

"After five rejections by publishing houses and the author rejecting a contract from a sixth publisher, it was recommended by a friend, who was also an author, to look into iUniverse," said Michalove. "She recommended iUniverse, and that I review their background. I did so and particularly liked their standing in the self-publishing business as well as their publishing relationships."

From publishing with iUniverse to successful signing events, reviews and appearances in publications such as Birmingham Magazine and Alabama Baby Magazine, Michalove has been pleased with how positive his experience has been. "What I consider my most significant accomplishment was being one of three authors to participate in the Mountain Book Elementary Writers Festival," he said. "I participated in the event along with two nationally known authors."

Honored as a multiple recognition program author, Michalove is currently hard at work promoting those old bedtime stories, which were collected in his book The Four Little Children: A Likely Story.

Michalove said, “I can honestly say that I could not have had a better experience and it still continues!"