My name is Michael C. Lee. I make this place in the American midwest known as Detroit, Michigan, my home. Like Al Bundy, I am married with children. Actually, I just have one child, but she's a handful. I spent 20 years of my, relatively short, life fighting crimes on the kind streets of Detroit. I scratched and clawed my way through the ranks almost to the top before deciding in 2005 to call it quits. I now do a couple of things that I am passionate about: I teach and I write.

I teach criminal justice courses at ITT Technical Institute. It just seemed like a natural fit. They tell me I am an expert in the field of criminal justice. I write about . . . you guessed it: Crime. Crime fiction to be exact.

I have published on my own two novels to date. They are the first two installments in what I hope will be a very long and endeared series. The series is named for the main character, Denard Blake. Some say his character was inspired by yours truly. I'll just let people think what they want to think about that.

Back to Denard Blake. He is a Detroit police officer who, in the first book, Chandler Park Drive is thrust into a high stakes game of drug-dealing, corruption, and deception, while he tries to juggle family life with work, and a healthy social life. His juggling act is complicated by Kathy London, a sultry attorney and ex-lover, Stone- the lean, mean, dope selling machine that Denard's trying to bust, and Kevin Clark, the country-boy-from-Spit Bucket, Mississippi-turned-Northen DEA Agent, who recruits Denard's undercover services to snag Stone. In the end, Denard finds himself deeply entangled in a web of murder, corruption, and deceit.

In the sequel to Chandler Park Drive, entitled Overturned, Denard Blake is back, and this time he investigates homicides. His most current investigation involves the murder of a young mother and her two small children. The investigation intensifies when the murder weapon, a nine-millimeter handgun, used to kill the young family was also used in a number of other unsolved murders.

In the meantime, Thelmon Kirkwood is doing federal time for a drug case. His wife, along with the help of attorney Kathy London, work dilligently to get his bogus conviction overturned. Thelmon Kirkwood's problems may just be beginning as all roads in Blake's murder investigations lead to Thelmon Kirkwood.

Both stories take place in none other than Detroit, Michigan.

I was inspired to write by my many, many exciting experiences while serving with the fine men and women of the Detroit Police Department. Having spent the Lion's share of my career in supervision, writing became part of my day-to-day ritual. I was constantly praised by superiors for being an "excellent writer". I figured, they should know. Lord knows we killed enough trees in an organization that big! So, here I am today.

Some of the literary influences that I credit with what is fast becoming my "style" are Elmore Leonard, Eric Jerome Dickey, Walter Mosley, and Joseph Wambaugh.

I certainly hope that you'll enjoy reading my books as much as I have enjoyed writing them!

My passion is ...

reading & writing & family

I know too much about ...

law enforcement and criminal justice, in general

My parents always told me ...

if you don't believe in yourself, then you can't expect others to believe in you

My childhood ambition ...

to be an artist

My favorite memory ...

ah, ah, ahh

Why I write ...

to entertain, primarily, to also inform

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

Waking With Enemies by Eric Jerome Dickey

My first job ...

caddie

My best moment ...

witnessing my child's birth

My inspiration ...

inspirational people

Health & Fitness > Diet Programs Is there such a thing as a 3-day diet?

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When considering whether or not there is such a thing as a three-day diet, one must first determine, exactly, what a diet is. By definition a diet is characterized in terms of the quality, composition, and affects specified foods have on one's physical health. Specifically, we must consider (1) what type of food is a person consuming, i.e., fruits, vegetables, proteins, starches, or candy . . . (2) whether the food is raw, cooked, organic, dried, or liquid . . . and, finally, (3) why the person consumes said food. Is it for weight loss? Is it for weight gain? Is it because of some othe...

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