Michael Harling has been a devoted listener of pop music for more than forty years. As a roadie, he has operated spotlights, polished cymbals and helped carry a B-3 up two flights of stairs while on tour with acts such as Loverboy, Bryan Adams, Journey and Joan Jett. He is also a former member of the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (CARAS). In 2012, Michael co-published (with Rob Howatson) HonkyTonkGirl: Loretta Lynn's Lost Chapter, a website (HonkyTonkGirl.ca) telling the long untold story of the chance 1959 discovery of a then unknown Coal Miner's Daughter singing in an old chicken coop in Vancouver, Canada. In addition to writing about popular music history, Michael has contributed to or edited more than two dozen books, most about hockey and travel. His books have been translated into Czech, French and Swedish.Michael is a Vancouver-based freelance writer who has written on sports for the Globe & Mail, Quill & Quire, Georgia Straight and the Vancouver Courier. He is an author of the Hockey Heroes series for Greystone Books. He feels that the Hockey Heroes books, which are written for children, made him a better writer. "When you write for young people, you have to choose your words more carefully and use very concrete images," he says. "And those are two very good habits that all writers strive for."Michael lives in Kitsilano, the first home of rock 'n' roll in Vancouver, with an extensive collection of vinyl. He is currently compiling a series of self-guided rock music walking tours of the city, which will accompany his chronology of rock and roll in Vancouver.