Modesto crime writer Mike Monson has independently published RIDE SHARING, a book that is described on the back cover as: “37 stories, vignettes, and sketches based on Mike Monson’s two years working as an Uber and Lyft driver in Northern California. Some of the material is verbatim accounts of events, some of it is completely made up, and some a combination of fact and fiction. At this point, the author can’t quite remember what parts are true and what is a lie.”
“Almost all of the stories started off as Facebook posts,” Monson said. “At first, if I had a bizarre or fascinating Ride, I’d take a quick break and post about it right away while parked on the side of the road. The posts got very positive reactions, so I started writing longer and longer pieces and making up more and more of the details. Finally, I started going home at night and posting completely fabricated tales merely inspired by my imagination.”
Monson said that many of his Facebook friends urged him to collect the stories into a book. “I’d been on a break from writing and publishing for several years, and I was surprised at how much I missed it.”
The Central Valley town of Modesto and the surrounding communities are a major subject of the collection. Monson’s stories are rich in detail about both the urban and rural locations in the Valley and he is as precise as possible when describing routes, neighborhoods, and various locations.
“This is a book about the San Joaquin Valley,” Monson said. “The people, the places, the sights, the smells, the weather – all of it. After reading only a couple of pages, you’ll know I’m not writing about being an Uber driver in LA or San Francisco. These stories could not have happened anywhere else.”
Mike Monson is the author of the noir/crime novellas The Scent of New Death, What Happens in Reno, and A Killer’s Love, as well as the crime novel Tussinland (all of these books with the exception of A Killer’s Love are set in Modesto). He has written feature scripts based on his novellas What Happens in Reno, and The Scent of New Death (retitled for the screen as Revenge Plot). He has recently published short noir/crime stories on Amazon: Bad Night in Mo-Town, and Insta Pulp — both set in Modesto.
