Lister, Michael

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Lister, Michael

PERSONAL: Married; wife’s name Pam; children: two. Hobbies and other interests: Rock, blues, and alternative music, basketball, reading, movies, art, religion, Mustangs.

ADDRESSES: Home— Wewahitchka, FL. Office— Sunshine and Crime, P.O. Box 35038, Panama City, FL 32412. E-mail— michaellister@mchsi.com.

CAREER: Florida Department of Corrections, chaplain, 1993-2000; Triple Horse Entertainment, Atlanta, GA, senior staff writer; freelance writer, 2000—. Owner, with Jamie Lester, and writer and editor, of the Gulf Country Breeze (newspaper), Wewahitchka, FL, 2003—; Gulf Coast Community College, adjunct professor. Founder of the Direct Effect Project, Michael Lister Ministries, Pottersville Press, and Pottersville Productions.

WRITINGS

(Editor) North Florida Noir, Pottersville Press (Panama City, FL), 2006.

“john jordan” mystery series

Power in the Blood, Pineapple Press (Sarasota, FL), 1997.

Blood of the Lamb, Bleak House Books (Madison, WI), 2004.

Flesh and Blood and Other John Jordan Stories, Pottersville Press (Panama City, FL), 2006.

Reviewer at Sunshine and Crime online.

SIDELIGHTS: Before becoming a writer in 2000, Michael Lister was the youngest chaplain to work in the Florida Department of Corrections. He has continued his work on behalf of those who need it through his ministry and nonprofit, the Direct Effect Project, all the proceeds from which go to support the incarcerated, hungry, and sick, and provide educational support for children. Lister also teaches and speaks about writing, art, life, and religion and founded his own publishing and production companies, Pottersville Press and Pottersville Productions, the names of which were obviously inspired by one of his favorite films, It’s a Wonderful Life. He continues to volunteer in the prison system.

Lister began a series of books featuring the character John Jordan with Power in the Blood, called “a promising first novel” by Library Journal reviewer Rex E. Klett. John is a former police detective, now a prison chaplain, a flawed man of faith who does not believe in organized religion and who suffers from depression and alcoholism. In this story he witnesses what seems to be the death of a prisoner who was trying to escape, and investigates to learn the truth. His progress is hindered by Tom Daniels, his former father-in-law and a state prison inspector, and helped by nurse Strickland, classification officer Anna Rodden, and Merrill Monroe, the black guard who is his best friend. John fears that he may have contracted AIDS from the blood of an HIV-positive inmate, and struggles to control his lust for Laura, a Federal Express driver. The plot becomes more complex with the death of a local banker. Mary Frances Wilkens wrote in Booklist that “this competent, authentic tale carves a nice niche for itself.”

The second book in the series is Blood of the Lamb, and Lister followed with Flesh and Blood and Other John Jordan Stories, a collection of seven tales about seven different cases, which a Publishers Weekly reviewer felt “will appeal more to a Christian audience than general mystery readers.” In one story a young virgin nun who flees Hurricane Katrina becomes pregnant, and in another John’s ailing mother asks him to investigate the healing properties of the Shroud of Turin. In a review for the Panama City, Florida, News Herald, David Vest noted that each of the stories “provides a separate character study of Jordan. That character includes a strong current of spirituality— whether he likes it or not. The current runs outside the prison walls as well as within, often bumping up against Jordan’s skepticism and strong sense of reason.”