Remembering Tony Micros

Who is Tony Micros you ask? He didn’t find a cure for Cancer or run for President. He wasn’t a neurosurgeon who saved hundreds of lives. He wasn’t a billionaire. He was just a smart, honest, decent, family man in a world in desperate need of more of them.

My father has been gone for nearly six years now, but a day rarely passes where I don’t think of him. Unfortunately, as I wrote in Five Days, time has a way of fading even some of our most cherished memories to the point where it is difficult to tell if something actually happened that way, or is more the product of a vivid imagination that remembers things as we want to remember them. So before my memories of my father faded any further, I decided to put them in writing. The Music Box is my 6th novel, but without question, my most personal.  It is the story of Nick Reynolds, a dying man who has one final wish–to spend his remaining days with his estranged 12 year old son, Josh. As his ex-wife brings their son over to see him, and at her son’s urging, she stops at a seedy pawn shop in an even seedier part of town, so Josh can purchase a music box for his father. What he doesn’t realize is that every song it plays has the ability to transport both father and son back to the time when his father first heard the song. Through their visits, Josh begins to finally see who his father really is, as well as learn some valuable life lessons along the way. Is it the magic of the music box? The sway of the music itself? Or the sheer power of the human mind at work?  The Music Box is a story about a father and son, but it is for everyone who believes in family and second chances.

The character of Nick Reynolds is like my father in many respects, and many of the stories within this novel were straight from his life.  They were both honest, fiercely loyal, and kind. But unlike Nick, my father never put work before family. He never missed an event either my sister or I ever participated in. And he treated my mother with love and respect for nearly 50 years.

Quite often I find myself wondering what my dad would say in a certain situation if he was still here. If he would be proud of the man I’ve become. I strive each day to be more like him, knowing that I will probably never fully achieve that, but the thought of him encourages me to relentlessly pursue it nonetheless. This story is for him. I hope you enjoy it.

The Music Box is now available at www.mattmicros.com, www.amazon.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com, as well as a number of other book outlets.