(This is a pinned post summarizing the SneezingCow basics…scroll down for newer posts.)

Mike’s latest book (Forty Acres Deep) (indie booksellers scroll down to lower left for wholesale info). All the other books (including Population 485) and CDs and DVDs and whatnots.

The Voice Mail page. (This is the weekly podcast — for free samples, click on the episodes without the miniature padlocks.)

Mike’s ability to spin his 20+ books and wide range of life experiences into humorous and heartfelt live presentations have put him in great demand as a public speaker. In addition to his one-man theater shows, Mike has delivered entertaining keynote addresses at conferences for software companies, hospitals and health care organizations, fire and EMS providers, farming and agricultural groups, national and regional utility cooperatives, business and economic development entities, governmental agencies, mental health organizations, dental hygienists, faith-based organizations, logging conventions, book festivals, MFA programs, libraries, and countless others. If you’re interested in retaining Mike for your event, please contact his booking agent here.

The mailing list signup (explained very specifically). We hope you’ll consider joining; it’s old-fashioned but way more loyal than social media. It’s also the best and most direct way to know when Mike’s got something new or is performing near you.

Upcoming live events.

For years I’ve performed in boots. Not because I need steel-toes in case I drop my poem or my guitar, but because in the moment it takes to lace up I’m reminded of folks like my brother the logger, who perform physical labor daily in all sorts of conditions and with no spotlight or applause. I work hard at what I do. And I’ve gotten to where I’ll push back at this whole oversimplified gosh-darn idea that “if you can’t stack it or stack with it, it doesn’t count.”* But I also know how fortunate I am to have found the lane I’ve found, and I try to approach it with blue-collar intent.**

Photos by Lee Butterworth.

*Quoting myself, from Montaigne In Barn Boots.
**Gray socks reflect my Unified Laundry Theory, as detailed in Chapter 8 of Truck: A Love Story.

Howdy folks:

Welcome to Michael Perry’s Voice Mail, episode 262. This one’s available to free and paid subscribers alike. Click here to listen.

If you want to listen to a couple free episodes on us, please send an email to [email protected].

In this episode I sit down to read about canoes with a cup of coffee at hand, wind up reading an essay about autodidacticism and have my day lightened by a line about dandelion fuzz I wish I woulda wrote.

If you happen to be in the Eau Claire area on May 15, I’m doing a live event with my friend Frank Bures to promote his new book, Pushing the River. If you can’t make it, the book is available at Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Thank you for listening. We don’t take it for granted.

Forward,
Mike

If you’ve seen the [TK DATE] issue of Volume One, that beautiful cover is the work of Mike’s longtime family friend and Chippewa Valley artist Lori Chilefone. You also may recognize the artwork from the Population 485-based “Summer Here” poster. In honor of Lori and her work, from June 12th through July 4th, 2025, for any orders of or including the “Population: 485 “Summer Here” poster, we will make a donation to the Feed My Children Food Bank in Eau Claire, WI. You can purchase the poster here.

From Lori:

“The opening paragraph of Population: 485 inspired me in creating this collage. The figure in the collage is from a circa 1880’s gravure rendering by Smeeton & Tilly of a statue of Phoebe. A Titan goddess of the moon, worshipped by ancient Greeks, her name derives from the Greek for shining, bright, and radiant.”

It showcases butterflies that are native to the region of Wisconsin where the book Population: 485 is set.

Michael Perry’s Population 485 poster specifications:

• Size: 11×17
• Medium: Print
• Finish: Matte
• Paper: 100lb Environmental Smooth Cover

Inverse Customer Service Rule

Traveling friends sent this from their lodgings at Phantom Canyon Ranch near Livermore, Colorado. Long before I ever had a book deal I saved up and went to hear Tracy Kidder give a writing lecture in Maryland. I remember because the airline lost my backpack. And Louis L’Amour? When I was a farm kid reading his books in rural Wisconsin, they planted a hunger in me to see the far blue mountains…and beyond. And long before I thought of becoming a writer the bio at the end of his cowboy books subconsciously planted in me the idea that a roughneck midwestern kid could also become a writer. And I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve sat in a deer stand reading “Education of a Wandering Man” and marveled that I’ve been allowed a similar trip. Lately every day ain’t been all sunshine and spangles, but I’ll never become so jaded a photo like this doesn’t trigger a quiet gratitude. Safe travels, K & B.