A year ago today, Winnipeg lost one of its rising literary stars, and I lost a great friend. Michael passed away while on tour promoting his third novel, A Criminal to Remember. As tributes were organized, I had the honour of being asked to speak about what Michael meant to me, both as a bookseller who loved to read his books and as an emerging writer whom he’d mentored.

Here’s what I had to say:

I first met Michael shortly after he sold An Ordinary Decent Criminal. At the time he was the restaurant manager here in Prairie Ink. Michael wasn’t a mentor yet, but he was still an inspiration. Here was someone who had done it. He’d made that first big sale.

Michael always had questions then. About how the store did its displays. What worked. What didn’t. What made me pick one book over another when…