John Counts

Creating Wild Characters and Events: An Interview With John Counts - Hypertext Magazine I grew up reading William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, who filled their places with wild characters and events. It made me want to create a place and fill it with wild characters and events, too. I...

Wild characters/wild events ... A recent interview I did in @hypertextmagazine.bsky.social ....

www.hypertextmag.com/creating-wil...

"The book capture small town life in the Great Lakes - the characters, their challenges, and the absurdity of it all. At times funny, sad, and touching." ❤️🐻

Hey, thanks for the kind words! Exactly the kinda vibe I was going for ....

You should have known me in high school ;)

This was my neighborhood restaurant! A Plymouth Rd institution. I think I took some homecoming dates here in high school.

I wrote an original soundtrack to my short story collection, 'Bear County, Michigan.' On music and stories

All songs are little stories. And short stories share a musicality of language. I talk here a little about the album I wrote based on my book Bear County, Michigan. jcounts.substack.com/p/i-wrote-an...

This is what it's like when John Counts' worlds collide The Michigan punk rock and journalism veteran recently published his first book of short stories ... and a companion song-for-story album to go with it.

So cool getting to talk to about BEAR COUNTY -- the album.

radioamor.substack.com/p/this-is-wh...

We were all 'Just Kids' like Patti Smith at some point On the derangement of the senses

To achieve Rimbaud's “ derangement of all the senses" -- sometimes it means LSD. Sometimes it means getting the mumps. Here's what I've been reading for riffage:
jcounts.substack.com/p/we-were-al...

Looking ahead to some BEAR COUNTY events -- next up is at Road Less Travelled Books in Farmington, Mich.

Michigan police reporter turns stories into darkly comic fiction - City Pulse Before “rural noir” became a popular literary term, there were writers like Flannery O’Connor,

City Pulse in Lansing says: John Counts’ new book, “Bear County, Michigan: Stories,” grabs you by the throat and shakes you with the collection of interconnected short stories. www.lansingcitypulse.com/stories/mich...

Letter from the Editor: Fact, fiction, journalism and ‘truth’ – our editor’s new book reflects a fascinating journey John Counts' 'Bear County, Michigan' goes to deep, dark places. Some are torn from the headlines.

I've been with @mlive.com for almost thirteen years now. They've been incredibly supportive as I've released my first book of short stories BEAR COUNTY, MICHIGAN. They were kind enough to run this interview with me: www.mlive.com/news/ann-arb...

Good Day Northern Michigan, Thursday, Feb. 20 Check out featured local stories from Good Day Northern Michigan's Thursday, Feb. 20 edition.

An exciting morning! @johncounts138.bsky.social was up in Cadillac, being interviewed about his new collection of short stories, BEAR COUNTY, MICHIGAN.

www.9and10news.com/2025/02/20/g...

I had the chance to talk to @rsdeeren.bsky.social about the journalism-fiction intersection, Michigan lit and other cool stuff.

John Counts’ “Bear County, Michigan”: A Story of Struggle and Hope - Current Magazine John Counts knows what desperation looks like. As a crime reporter, he’s seen it and heard it firsthand in courtrooms where defendants plead for second chances. But his latest work of fiction, "Bear C...

BEAR COUNTY, MICHIGAN is out now! Here's an interview I did with Ann Arbor's cool alt weekly, Current magazine: www.ecurrent.com/music/michig...

Today we officially release “Bear County, Michigan” into the world. I am celebrating quietly at home alone with five dogs —James, Ivy, Pepper, Charley and Cookie.

Is it baseball season yet?

Q&A: Journalist and musician John Counts on his new book 'Bear County, Michigan' The Whitmore Lake-based author also wrote an album to accompany his collection of short stories set in a fictional, rural Michigan town.

Bear County, Michigan comes out in one week! I did a Q/A with the @detroitnews.bsky.social about it! www.detroitnews.com/story/entert...

‘A broken system.’ Mental health patient complaints go nowhere in Michigan Michigan's mental health complaint system leaves patients and families feeling hopeless and demoralized.

Proud of the awesome work my investigative team does: www.mlive.com/public-inter...

A 525-Pound Bear Found a Crawl Space That Was Jussst Right An Altadena, Calif., resident came home after being displaced by the Eaton fire to find a large black bear still hanging out underneath his property.

A resident in Altadena, California, who had been displaced by the Eaton fire, returned home last week to find a 525-pound black bear still nestled in a crawl space underneath his house. The bear had arrived before the fires, and the destructive conditions had delayed efforts to remove him.

In every movie you’ve ever seen, if there’s a scene in a classroom, it’s always moments before the bell rings.

We love to see major outlets review books from university presses, and we're particularly thrilled by this look at Elita by Kirsten Lunstrum.

A Pacific Northwest take on Nordic noir, it's the quintessential winter read.

www.washingtonpost.com/books/2025/0...

Pepper thinks she fits in this little bed. #blacklabs

Michigan abruptly stopped burning millions of old tires. What’s next? Millions of scrap tires have ended up incinerated at power plants and paper mills. With the practice declining, how will the state keep them out of landfills?

Fewer tires in the fire?

Burning spent tires in power plants and paper mills has been a big disposal method in Michigan. But it's waning, and a change in state law only hastened the decline. I took a look the state of the recycling/reuse industry.

www.mlive.com/environment/...

Meet Pepper, who looks like she went 12 rounds with the U.P. backcountry while hunting this past fall. #labs #literature

I'm starting to do interviews for the book. One Q I keep getting is how working in journalism influenced the short stories (it has, of course). I feel like journalism and fiction used to be closer (Mark Twain, Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, etc.), but are now very separate worlds.

#BlackLab and #books.

Hi. My name is John. I'm new here. I will be posting only about books and black Labs. Thanks. John.

In John’s selfie, he’s holding up a copy of his new book, “Bear County, Michigan.”

Exciting week at our house! New book of short stories by @johncounts138.bsky.social has arrived. They’re all set in a fictional version of Up North Michigan.