BIO
Michelle, the youngest of two daughters, grew up near the movie studios in Culver City, California. Before learning to read, she became enchanted with the illustrations of the Madeline stories. (She later majored in French, see below).
In grades 5 and 6, in imitation of her father, an aspiring author, Michelle tapped out short stories on a typewriter. She participated in a gifted program that allowed her to make reports in creative, often visual formats. Meanwhile, she read lots of inspiring biographies, mostly of baseball players.
Throughout secondary school and college (USC and UCLA, in pursuit of a BA and MA in French literature), Michelle penned stories and poems for student publications.
Choosing to explore a career in writing, she obtained a second BA in Journalism at California State University, Northridge. This gave her the opportunity to intern at The Los Angeles Times (where she wrote the front page obituary of Arthur Koestler, and covered the funeral of Karen Carpenter).
Later, as a freelance journalist, Michelle's stories and opinion pieces were published in The Wall St. Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers and magazines.
When her daughters were young, she started writing for children. Michelle's books span a variety of genres: fiction, nonfiction (alphabet and biography), and creative nonfiction.
Today Michelle and her husband, an anthropologist, live in West Hills, California with their cat.
Michelle is a founding member of The Children's Authors Network and has taught classes in writing for young people for UCLA Extension's Writer's Program.
In grades 5 and 6, in imitation of her father, an aspiring author, Michelle tapped out short stories on a typewriter. She participated in a gifted program that allowed her to make reports in creative, often visual formats. Meanwhile, she read lots of inspiring biographies, mostly of baseball players.
Throughout secondary school and college (USC and UCLA, in pursuit of a BA and MA in French literature), Michelle penned stories and poems for student publications.
Choosing to explore a career in writing, she obtained a second BA in Journalism at California State University, Northridge. This gave her the opportunity to intern at The Los Angeles Times (where she wrote the front page obituary of Arthur Koestler, and covered the funeral of Karen Carpenter).
Later, as a freelance journalist, Michelle's stories and opinion pieces were published in The Wall St. Journal, The Los Angeles Times, and other newspapers and magazines.
When her daughters were young, she started writing for children. Michelle's books span a variety of genres: fiction, nonfiction (alphabet and biography), and creative nonfiction.
Today Michelle and her husband, an anthropologist, live in West Hills, California with their cat.
Michelle is a founding member of The Children's Authors Network and has taught classes in writing for young people for UCLA Extension's Writer's Program.
