Michele Israel, the eldest of eight siblings, born and raised in the suburbs of New Jersey, now lives in middle Tennessee, near her son and his family.  As a new author, having found her passion for creative writing later in life, studied with the Institute of Children's Literature, in West Redding, Connecticut, expanding her knowledge with Writer's Digest University workshops. 

         

                  "The ability to create art one brushstroke at a time for a viewer's eye to  

            visualize and be transported to another place and time, is precisely how

            a novelist wants to be portrayed—with insight and a keen imagination while

            keeping it real."

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In addition to her writing, Michele is retired from a thirty-two-year career as a State employee in the IT industry, and continues to teach group fitness classes for the YMCA—Pilates, Cardio/Sculpt, H20, and SilverSneakers Classic. 

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What I Care About

With family and friendships at the top of the list, what many of us care most about, I also have a fondness for dogs, an enthusiasm for exercise, and a special interest in both reading and writing stories that are based on true experiences.  While there are dozens of genres that interest a variety of readers, it is my belief that true stories intrigue everyone, and in some form or fashion, we can identify with.  Most of us were not raised in picture-perfect, ideal situations, with Donna Reed or Leave it to Beaver role models.  Times were much different fifty years ago. Though we have come a long way in technology, with many more advantages, I feel fortunate to have experienced that era, when babysitting for my seven younger siblings at twenty-five cents an hour gave me spending money, and working in my parents salon as a young teen for a dollar an hour, doing receptionist and clean-up tasks, instilled a strong work ethic and prepared me for life in the real world.  It was also a time when attending a drive-in movie together was a big night out, summer vacations meant living it rough on an island along the St. Lawrence River, with no running water or electricity, and the rewards of having spent two months, alone, with my Canadian cousins at the age of ten, allowed me to learn and retain a second language.  We all have different upbringings, some good and bad, or mostly somewhere in between, but the take-away from those experiences, the lessons learned along the way, is what defines us as human beings.

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Some of my favorite books: 

• The Notebook, Nicholas Sparks

• The Glass Lake, Maeve Binchy

• A Dog's Purpose, W. Bruce Cameron

• Sarah's Key, Tatiana De Rosnay

• The Thorn Birds, Coleen McCullough

• Lessons of the Heart, Michele Israel

• Out of Darkness, A Testament of Love, Endurance, and Survival, Michele Israel