Mike Ellsworth – författare

Everything you heard about life, the Universe, and everything else is wrong. Yes, wrong. Misheard Lyrics examines the ways we misunderstand the world. It is an irreverent and often hilarious novel about misheard lyrics, religion, messiahs, friendship, and the nature of the universe. Each chapter title involves a misheard song lyric, and many are discussed in context throughout the novel.Charles, an agnostic newspaper columnist and struggling novelist, and Chip, a jovial minister who swears like a sailor and runs a Haitian United Methodist church in Miami, discuss Charles' various attempts at writing a book about messiahs. The pair's wide-ranging topics include the origin of religion, faith vs. science, dogma, evil, magic, existentialism, the end of the world, the meaning of swearing, masturbation, astrophysics' discoveries about the Universe, post-traumatic stress disorder, gay marriage, and whether we're all really just living in a computer simulation.The book alternates Charles' attempts at starting his book with the pair's discussions about the book and religion in general as well as biographical flashbacks from Charles' life that feature other characters. Edie was Charles' girlfriend back in 1975. PSTD from her tour in Viet Nam as a photographer for Look magazine complicated their relationship. Karen was Charles' wife until her lesbian romance with Munch caused their divorce and Charles' subsequent hatred of gays. Steve was Charles' piano virtuoso friend reduced to bankruptcy and working odd jobs. Poet Allen Ginsberg also appears as Charles' mentor.Along the way, Charles' blog posts and columns for the Miami World newspaper give insight into his agnosticism and other extreme beliefs.