Prolific CSUSB author Michael Burgess prepares book number 103 for publication – and there’s more to come!

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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. – Former Cal State San Bernardino Librarian Michael Burgess has had a full career at the university’s John M. Pfau Library – most recently, before his semi-retirement as head of collection development.

But that’s not the half of it.

Writing under the pseudonym Robert Reginald, Burgess has published more than 100 books, including many period mysteries called “The Phantom’s Phantom.” He put “opus 110” to bed in early February.

“It’s a 47,000-word novel set in Southern California during the fall of 1953,” says Burgess.“I had great fun researching both the period and the historical geography of the region.”

Burgess suffered a near-fatal heart attack in July 2003, an event that prompted him both to retire from his library position (though he is still working part-time for the library) and “to concentrate on writing projects I really wanted to complete,” Burgess said. “I had left a great many unfinished projects scattered about, so I started pulling them out of odd corners and rounding them off.”

The result is a burst of publishing activity by Burgess/Reginald this year: 10 new publications that are finished or nearing completion.

“One is my 103^rd book, ‘Trilobite Dreams’ or, ‘The Autodidact’s Tale: A Romance of Autobiography.’” Burgess said, self deprecatingly, that the title is almost longer than the book itself.

“It’s a collection of 23 short essays about my life and thought, including the pieces that I wrote after my heart attack,” he said. “Writing these bits of flotsam and jetsam helped keep me sane during a bad time.”

Burgess also published “CSUSB Faculty Authors, 1965-2005,” a compendium of pieces by professors at the university, this spring. Its issuance is part of the university’s 40^th anniversary celebration this year.

A companion volume he also issued this spring is “Cal State Cooks,” co-edited with CSUSB University Librarian Johnnie Ann Ralph. It’s a collection of recipes from the university’s faculty, staff and administrators.

“I’m an inveterate writer,” Burgess said.“For me it’s fun, not work.It’s what I love, and I intend to do so as long as I’m able.”

Burgess’s “Reginald” fantasy novels — “The Dark-Haired Man,” “The Exiled Prince” and “Quaestiones” — are set in a version of medieval Europe that he calls “Nova Europa.“The geography is more or less the same, but the history is entirely different,” he says. “And fantasy elements are part of the milieu. My main characters are ruling class, nobility, monks and the like.I like protagonists who are intelligent, sensitive and conversant with their world and its history.”

Burgess also doesn’t pander to the youth market in his novels.“I have middle-aged people wandering around; I find them so much more interesting than the young.Older folks ask real questions and demand real answers.”

The writer says he’s been writing pretty steadily for 38 years.“During the day I worked as a librarian.I wrote at night and on weekends,” he says.“I lost four months of production after my heart attack in 2003, but other than that, I’ve written steadily.”

Writing under the pseudonym Robert Reginald, retired Cal State San Bernardino librarian Michael Burgess has published more than 100 books.