Biography
Welcome to my author's biography page. After learning a little about me, please also visit my monthly blog page, Michelle's Musings (posted on the 15th), where topics range from current events to the writing process.
A fan of mystery and suspense from an early age, I've been writing since my teens. However, my love for math and science as well as my upbringing in a family with mental illness led me to a career in medicine. Always the curious type, I enjoyed the detective-like nature of practicing Internal Medicine. But my penchant for writing revealed itself in lengthy patient chart entries!
Eventually, I reduced my work schedule and wrote health-related articles for a variety of consumer magazines. My goal was the promotion of disease prevention to a larger audience. However, given my professional exposure to complicated human behavior during times of stress, I found plenty of inspiration for complex stories about characters who face seemingly insurmountable obstacles.
I soon developed the story concept for my novel, Hide and Seek, a haunting tale about a troubled twelve-year-old girl who strives to find identity and acceptance. In 2019, my novel excerpt was recognized as a TOP-10 FINALIST for the She Writes Press (2019 Indie Publisher of the Year) and SparkPress Toward Equality in Publishing (STEP) competition that aimed to increase representation of BIPOC authors. Along the way, however, I set the novel aside to work on a memoir.
During the aftermath of the George Floyd murder, I was compelled to write personal essays that spoke to my own struggles with marginalization and racial profiling. Interestingly, the more I wrote on other topics, the more I recognized that humor often populates my work. Lo and behold, one of my short humor pieces won First Place in the 2021 SouthWest Writers competition. For their 2024 contest, another humor essay won Honorable Mention.
These days I'm more focused on nonfiction, but I've also delved into poetry. As a person with dyslexia, I'm finding works shorter than novel length are better fits when it comes to focus. I've been honored to receive a coveted Win (top-20 out of 950 submissions from around the world) in Writer's Digest's 2023 Annual Poetry Competition for a poem I wrote about the Middle Passage.
I'm also pleased to announce that as of December 2023, I'm officially a volunteer/mentor for WriteGirl, a global organization that empowers teen girls to develop their voices through writing. According to their website, "WriteGirl is a creative writing and mentoring organization that promotes creativity, critical thinking and leadership skills to empower teen girls and gender-expansive youth." WriteGirl alumna Amanda Gorman is an award-winning writer and the youngest inaugural poet in U.S. history.
My writing society memberships include: Dramatist Guild; The Authors Guild; The National League of American Pen Women, Inc.; San Diego Writers, Ink, and the Central Coast Writers (CCW) Branch of the California Writers Club. For nearly 15 years, I've written a member profile column for Scribbles, CCW's monthly newsletter (now the CCW Newsblast), and my opinion pieces and articles have appeared in the Monterey Herald and The San Diego Union-Tribune.