WOW! Women On Writing Blog: Michelle Rene

Interview with Flash Fiction Runner Up, Michelle Rene

Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Michelle Rene is a creative advocate and the author of a number of published works of science fiction, historical fiction, humor and everything in between. You may have also seen her work under the pen names Olivia Rivard and Abigail Henry.

She has won several indie awards under her Michelle Rene name for her historical fiction novel, I Once Knew Vincent. Her latest novel, Hour Glass, will be coming out February 2018 with Amberjack Publishing.

When not writing, she is a professional artist and all around odd person. She lives as the only female, writing in her little closet, with her husband, son, and ungrateful cat in Dallas, Texas.

To connect with Michelle Rene, please find her here...
Website: www.michellereneauthor.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/mrene.orivard/
Twitter: @MRene_Author
Instagram: mrene_author

interview by Marcia Peterson

WOW: Congratulations on your top ten win in our Winter 2017 Flash Fiction competition! What inspired you to enter the contest?

Michelle: I have entered your contest before and was really impressed with your organization. The judges are always great and the time you put into the competition is wonderful and noticeable. You are really passionate about this short form of writing. I love the challenge of flash fiction, and the WOW! Women on Writing contest gives me not only a deadline but a challenge.

WOW: Thank you for your kind words about WOW. Can you tell us what encouraged the idea behind your story, Six Percent? It’s a bit unsettling to read!

Michelle: I'm not really sure where the initial idea came from. Something about the image of children trying desperately to act as soldiers began it, I think. That led to the idea of a disease that mainly targets adults, leaving the world to children. What a frightening thought for children and teenagers to be left with a broken world and only six percent of adults around to help. How do you fight a disease when most of the doctors and scientists are gone? The premise was a fun, if not unsettling, rabbit hole to follow. I really wanted to challenge myself and try to convey all that complexity in under 750 words. It was a great exercise in showing a lot while saying very little. That said, with the recent success of Six Percent in this contest and the overwhelmingly positive reaction I got from the story, I am currently turning into a full-blown novel.

WOW: We’d love to know more about your writing routines. Could you tell us when and where you usually write? Do you have certain tools or habits that get you going?

Michelle: I am probably the worst person to ask this. I'd love to say something profound here but the truth is I work from home, I have a three-year-old son, and I write wherever and however I can. During naps, after school drop-off, and sometimes with Thomas the Train in the background. I carry ear plugs with me so when my husband and son are in the other room watching Star Wars for the millionth time, I can concentrate. I recently acquired an iPad Pro which has revolutionized my ability to be mobile and write wherever. People often ask how I can go straight from cleaning a poopy diaper to writing a chapter, and my response is normally that it's what I have to do to meet my deadlines. Outlines help me. Outlines keep me sane and remind me where I'm supposed to be in a novel. Outlines are my friend.

WOW: You have a novel coming out early next year. What was the writing and publishing journey like for you with this book?

Michelle: My novel is a historical fiction piece about Calamity Jane called Hour Glass. This will be my third novel published. I actually wrote the first draft of Hour Glass in sixteen days for NaNoWriMo. No one believes me on this one, but it's true. The title came to me before anything else did, and I sort of built this story about a boy, his autistic sister, Calamity Jane, and this family that came together around them. So many westerns and historical pieces of that time period leave out the amazing women who braved the west, and I wanted to change that.

As for my publishing journey, I had an agent a while back. We were not a good fit, so we went our separate ways. I sold my first two novels, a novella, a novelette, and several short stories myself to indie publishers and magazines. My novel, I Once Knew Vincent, won a few indie awards, so I decided to look for a new agent. I signed with RO Literary in early 2016, and they sold Hour Glass to Amberjack Publishing last year. Hour Glass will release in February 2018.

This sounds super easy all condensed like that, but to all you authors out there who are trying to get agents and trying to get published, it wasn't easy. There are pros and cons to all aspects of publishing whether you're agented, unagented, indie published, self published, or traditionally published. I've done all of these. The only thing I think I've done right is believe, with unwavering tenacity, that Hour Glass deserved a good home. I found that with Amberjack.

WOW: Thanks so much for chatting with us today, Michelle. Before you go, can you share a favorite writing tip or piece of advice?

Michelle: My constant and only bit of advice I give is to never give up. Never stop writing. I will have three novels published by 2018 and a number of smaller works. You know how many novels I've written since Hour Glass? Three. Well, two and a half to be fair. How many pieces do I have still not published? Four and a half novels, three novellas, and a ton of short stories. The point is keep writing. Keep working. Keep learning. Keep submitting. Don't let anyone convince you that you aren't good enough. Don't stop.

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Check out our contest page for details about our next flash fiction contest!

3 comments book publishing, flash fiction, Flash Fiction Contest, Michelle Rene, novel writing, Winter 2017 Flash Fiction Contest Winner, writer inspiration

Interview with Michelle Rene: 3rd Place Winner of the Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Michelle’s Bio: Michelle grew up in Texas and spent as much of her time either in a museum or a book. History, art, music, writing, anything was fair game. While most girls were writing about boys in their eighth grade diaries, Michelle penned her very first two-hundred-page novel by hand. No one should ever read that novel. Really, it’s terrible. She graduated from the Ringling College of Art and Design with her BFA in Illustration. She grew her art career as a production artist, painter, sculptor, designer, and video game artist. All along, what she really wanted to do was write. It was her passion and the thing she felt she was destined to do, so she decided she would focus on that instead. Since that epiphany, Michelle has had two novels, one novella, a novelette, and a short story published. Her historical fiction novel, I Once Knew Vincent, has won three different indie awards. Michelle didn’t stray too far from her video game days. Her game, Danielle’s Inferno, is set to release in November of 2016 with One More Story Games. Recently, she signed a contract with Amberjack Publishing to publish her novel, Hour Glass, in February of 2018. Michelle now lives in Dallas with her husband, son, and ungrateful cat. To learn more about her and follow her on social media, check out her website www.michellereneauthor.com.

If you haven't done so already, check out Michelle's award-winning story "Not Yet" and then return here for a chat with the author.

WOW: Congratulations on placing third in the WOW! Summer 2016 Flash Fiction Contest! What was the inspiration for your short story, or what prompted you to write it?

Michelle: "Not Yet" was especially close to me because unlike a lot of my work, this one was inspired by an event in my own life. I had c-section with complications when my son was born, and the whole experience was so surreal and unnatural I felt I had to channel that somehow into a story. I loved the challenge of taking a moment so complicated and weaving into a work of flash fiction. Even though it was fiction, the truth in it felt very cathartic.

WOW: Yes! I’ve also experienced how healing it can be to fictionalize true events to re-experience and understand them. Can you describe the epiphany that helped you realized your calling as a writer?

Michelle: I am an artist by training and education. Since I was little, I always wanted to be both a writer and an artist, but I chose art when I away at college because believe it or not, I thought I had a better chance at a job. It turned out to be true, and I worked as a professional artist for years. The problem was working for other people left me feeling empty. I was using my art to tell their stories. I wanted to tell my own, and what is any creative endeavor if not to tell a story? I started focusing on my writing, and after I had my son, I devoted myself full time to it.

WOW: That’s inspiring that you realized what you wanted and went after it. What do you enjoy the most and/or the least about writing?

Michelle: I enjoy those days you just get lost in what you're writing. You sit down to write and before you know it, it's dinner time in the blink of an eye. I love sending myself somewhere else to feel someone else's emotions for a while. The act of writing allows me to be a more empathetic person, and I love learning new things about the human story. What I like the least is not being able to write. My muse is a slightly abusive one. She likes to follow me around with a bell calling "SHAME" whenever I'm not writing. It can drive me nuts.

WOW: Oh yes. I think your muse must have siblings who follow many of us around with that same message, ha ha! What are you reading right now, and why did you choose to read it?

Michelle: I am currently about to start The Orphan Mother by Robert Hicks because my agents told me I should. They are like close friends, and whenever they have something beautiful for me to read, I always do.

WOW: How wonderful to get those beautiful recommendations. If you could give other creative writers one piece of advice, what would it be and why?

Michelle: It would be don't listen to advice, even mine. I see a lot of people try to tell aspiring authors what to do, and the thing is, it's different for everyone. Lots say, "Write something every day." I can tell you right now that doesn't work for me. I'm a binge writer, and that's what works for me. People say, "Read as much as you can," and while I personally subscribe to that idea, it doesn't work for everyone. One writer I know can't read anything while he's writing because he can't help but to write just like the author he just read, and it doesn't feel original. You as a writer will get a barrage of advice, feedback, criticisms, and notes. Listen to it, sit with it a while, and if nothing feels right for you, don't do it.

The only universal piece of advice I've ever found to be true is don't give up. I've won awards, but for every award I won, there are twenty I didn't even place in. The only way to succeed is to try. If you give up, you've already lost.

WOW: Fantastic advice. Thank you. Anything else you'd like to add?

Michelle: Success stories usually go something like this, "Her book was rejected dozens of times before it was published. Look at how she proved them wrong!" For every success story, even small successes, people tend to focus on the people who stood in a writer's way. The part that no one sees are the people who lifted the writer up. The group of family, friends, and colleagues who didn't give up on them. I'm so very thankful to my group. They never tire of lifting me up.

WOW: Thank you so much for your inspiring responses. Congratulations again, and happy writing!

Interviewed by Anne Greenawalt, who keeps a blog of journal entries, memoir snippets, interviews, training logs, and profiles of writers and competitive female athletes.