Michael was born and raised in San Diego, California and was educated there. After college he went into the military. When his military obligation was behind him he moved to Seattle, Washington and was in business for himself for the next thirty years.

He is a Commercial Pilot, a parachutist, an avid sailor, a wordsmith, author and lecturer. He is also a world traveler, a teacher, a survival instructor, a survival community planner a music lover and a reader.

Writing was always a passion and he pursued it with as much ambition as was possible until the idea and the story itself for Avalon came about. It began while he was teaching a survival course more than thirty years ago. More accurate, the story of Avalon is a reincarnation of a story that was written about thirty years ago. It was revised and in today’s version the characters were made to be much younger than they were in the original version. The character Mike Reynolds in the older story was a Vietnam veteran.

Mike Rusin himself is a military veteran, a husband and a father it is hoped there are some of you out there who will take the comments offered here as a means to help you with your survival plans at a time when there appears to be little time left to be ready for what appears to be a train coming at all of us at full speed, and there appears to be no one at the controls. As this blog grows so will the knowledge of those who come here and participate. The exchange of knowledge and ideas will enhance us all.

L. Michael Rusin is a masterful storyteller who incorporates real survivalist skills to captivate his readers. He uses the pseudonym L. Michael Rusin to honor his Father, who died in 1953 while serving as Chief in the U.S. Navy.

Currently retired and living in Costa Rica, Central America, with his wife, Nancy. Rusin enjoys writing, archery, flying, drawing, and target shooting. A native Californian, he joined the U.S. Navy after college and spent eight years serving his country before starting his own general contracting business.

He has been a practicing Survivalist since 1966 and has conducted numerous survival training sessions as a retreat planner for more than thirty years.
Rusin remains active in preparing for those unspeakable tragedies that we may all face in the not-too-distant future. He is a licensed Commercial Airplane Pilot, Instrument and Multi-Engine Rated; before going into business for himself, he flew as a Bush Pilot in Alaska, a Freight Transport Pilot in Africa and Central America and a Crop Duster Pilot in California, Arizona, Texas and Florida. Rusin is an accomplished scuba diver and parachutist who made his first parachute jump in 1961.