On reading and writing

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...

On music and stories

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.

On the derangement of the senses

Before “rural noir” became a popular literary term, there were writers like Flannery O’Connor,

John Counts' 'Bear County, Michigan' goes to deep, dark places. Some are torn from the headlines.

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

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...

The Whitmore Lake-based author also wrote an album to accompany his collection of short stories set in a fictional, rural Michigan town.

Michigan's mental health complaint system leaves patients and families feeling hopeless and demoralized.

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.

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?