Project Echelon: Deadly Innocence

Michael E. Perry grew up as the son of a career military father, rarely staying in one place long enough to call it home. From base housing to borrowed apartments, small towns to sprawling cities, the constant moves gave him something more valuable than roots: stories.

As a kid, Michael learned early to listen. Every new place meant new voices?sailors swapping war tales over cheap coffee, neighbors sharing local legends on front porches, strangers on planes and buses talking like they'd never see him again. He collected their fears, jokes, superstitions and small kindnesses, tucking them away long before he ever thought of himself as a writer.

Those years of travel turned into a lifelong habit of people-watching and world-building. Michael's fiction pulls from the places he's lived and the people he's met: blue-collar workers, exhausted parents, stubborn survivors, and the kind of everyday heroes who don't see themselves as heroic at all. Whether he's writing about plagues, warlords, or rogue AIs, his stories are always anchored in ordinary folks trying to do the right thing in impossible circumstances.

Michael is married to his high school sweetheart, the one constant through all the moves and all the drafts. Together they raised one son, who grew up on a steady diet of "just one more story" at the dinner table. These days, Michael's favorite role might not be "author" at all?it's "Opa" to his three beautiful grandchildren, who remind him daily why hopeful endings are worth fighting for.

When he isn't writing, Michael can usually be found telling stories anyway?around a kitchen table, at a grill, or anywhere there's good food, good company, and enough quiet to slip a "what if..." into the conversation.

Godswitch is one of many stories born from a lifetime of listening, traveling, and wondering what ordinary people would do when the world tilts sideways?and whether, together, they can tilt it back.