Who are we? 
Who am I?

There are no guarantees in life.  A lesson most of us learn through the gut-wrenching pain of losing close friends and family to things like cancer and... well... mostly cancer. 

​

​I was born January 29th, 1976 in Edina, Minnesota, and throughout my 47 years, I've witnessed the final act of more than a few good souls.  People of exceptional character, humble in their ways and composed of a moral fiber typically reserved for Saints and celestial deities.  

​

In other words, people who had no business being taken from us too soon.   

​

In the spring of 2023 came the toughest blow yet, as the news made its way from Colorado that one of my closest friends, Jesse, had succumbed to brain cancer at age 48, leaving behind two beautiful kids and a wife and family who loved him dearly.   

 

​As humans go, Jess was made of the highest quality stuff, manifesting all things good and kind.   The kind of guy any father would want his daughter to marry.  

​

For me personally, Jess not only played a pivotal role in shaping who I was in my early 20’s, but he represented the all around greatness of someone I would attempt to emulate for years to come.   

​

As it happens, I’ve faced more pain in the past seven years than in the previous 40 combined.  

​

Not all of it has been associated with death​.  Culprits range from divorce to depression and include plenty of other things that don't begin with the letter "d".  

 

Suffice it to say, there have been times that brought me to the edge of sanity and, admittedly, my own mortality. 

​

Until recently, I spent nearly 20 years of my career learning, understanding and presenting the effect of human behavior on our natural environment. 

​

It always seemed like a role that suited me, seeing as I enjoyed things like skiing and fishing, let alone the fact that I find I’m most at ease alone in the woods.  But apart from selfish reasons, I also saw environmental work as a noble profession that may someday benefit future generations.

  

Throughout my time in the environmental space, I'd written for online and print publications including The Guardian, GreenBiz.com, Sustainable Brands, CR Magazine, Huffington Post, Grist and the Portsmouth Herald.  

Even back then though, I never imagined attempting something quite as daunting as writing a book. 

​

Fast forward five years, and now, at the ripe age of 47, on the heels of recovering from a condition that turned my heart from red to black to red again, I’ve come to realize I have a knack for two things in life: bass fishing and writing.  

​

While many see these as distinctly different outlets for occupying one’s time, in some sense I’ve found it pleasantly surprising to learn they somehow fit together hand in glove. 

​

Maybe because both fishing and writing require a pair of working hands and a mind that thinks in order to succeed (though I admit, fishing requires a little less thinking than composition). 

 

Regardless of why, 16 months into my first novel, it’s hard to imagine a profession other than writing for the sheer bliss of it.  The bonus, of course, is that more than a few ideas for the book were generated on the bank of a river while hunting largemouth lunkers.

​

To be sure, this writing business is not all roses.  It can be an immensely lonely path punctuated by moments of extreme self-doubt and uncertainty. 

​

And yet, as I sit in "the chair" today, it has become an unmistakable truth that my true passion resides in the written word.    

​

I may write a sentence six different ways before I uncover the words that fit best together, but when I make myself laugh, I always know I’m on the right track.  

​

​While I genuinely hope the end product will be regarded as sound literature enjoyed by legions of “Heathens” to come, the process alone has led me to the indelible concussion that I write for myself above all else.

​

And that, my friends, feels good.  

​

Of course, that isn't to say I’d be opposed to achieving commercial success in such a way that Bill Murray or Anthony Hopkins plays the lead of Marlo Binkman in the Big Screen adaptation of the book, but that’s hardly the end goal…

​

… for the end goal has been the journey in and of itself. 

​

​

Happy Reading,

​

Mike Bellamente

Author, Gospel of a Heathen

​

​

​

​

​

“Those who use the eyes of others to determine their own self worth are rarely on the path to inner peace.

Even more rarely, do they appear comfortable in their own skin.”

   

 -Marlo Binkman,

 Chief Philosopher/Pioneer/Poetry Officer (or C3PO)

​

​

 

​