Thursday, August 25, 2011

WELCOME CAMPAIGNERS AND NEW FRIENDS

Hello everyone. As I am all sure by now most of you have heard about Rach Harrie's new platform building Campaign. For all the detail about joining click onto the badge to the left. 

Already I have had new campaigners dropping by to introduce themselves to me. What a great group! WELCOME! I will be by your blogs the first chance I get.

Since it is a custom at my blog to officially welcome my new friends to my blogging family, today I would like to give a virtual hug to Sarah, Mary, Brittany, Kathleen, Angelina, and Ladygwen. It will certainly be an exciting campaign reading about you and discovering you writing talent.

What I love mostly about all of this, is writers come from so many different places. All over the world we are meeting new friends and learning about their writing and cultures. It's amazing how writing styles and prose changes from country to country and even in the United States, depending on where you, our speech represented in our prose and dialogue is regional. How cool is that!

So for today, I would like to tell you a bit about my background. I was born in New York City and raised in the neighboring suburb of Pelham Manor. My parents were from a working class background and managed to purchase a small house in a very affluent neighborhood. 

It was tough being the poor kid amongst the rich. But it did open my eyes to a world of beauty and opulence. My artistic talent flourished by this influence and I quickly learned how to create stunning apartments on a budget. It's amazing what you can find in thrift stores these days if you have a good eye.

At sixteen, I was discovered by a catalog photographer and this began my modeling career. For over a decade I traveled the world and lived in many cities throughout the United states. Every place, person, and creature I met along the way influenced me. From this I have an amazing basis for my writing. Life experience is our best teacher.

How about you? What region or country are you from? How has your life experience influenced your writing? I would love to know.

Have a great day everyone!

12 comments:

Unknown said...

It's nice to meet a New Yorker. I'm a Canadian. I've been to NY twice and both times, loved it!

How has Canada influenced my writing? I'm not quite sure. I do know that, because Canada tries to be accepting of many cultures (and I think the same applies to NY) that I have opened my mind to the possibilities in my fiction writing.

Theresa Milstein said...

Hi, fellow campaigner!

I've known you for a bit. I was born in New York City. When I turned 13, I moved to Long Island. I went to undergraduate and graduate school on Long Island. Now I live in Cambridge, MA.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I was a military brat, so I've lived all over the world. The diversity really affected my knowledge and views.

Unknown said...

I appreciate the warm welcome, Michael. I spent the first 18 years of my life in an amazing theatre/university town in Southern Oregon, but traveled out of the country a few times and ended up moving to Paris at 18. I lived a couple of lives by the time I reached 23, then settled into a quieter life living all over the US. All of that has given me rich fodder for young adult stories. Thanks for asking.

K. M. Walton said...

Hey - fellow Campaigner here - I'm in PA and my time teaching middle school language arts definitely influenced my writing. My debut novel titled CRACKED has a focus on bullying - which was something I dedicated my teaching career on - facing it head on and talking about it with my students.

I look forward to getting to know your blog. See you out there....

Heather said...

You've had such an amazing life already. It's no wonder you're so kind and well rounded. :) I was born and raised in Oregon, which is a very liberal and diverse state (for the most part) despite it's rough history. I have no doubt it helped to make me as open minded as I am today. :)

Katharina Gerlach said...

Hi, I'm in the MG/YA campaign group. Just checked in to say hello. I'm from Germany where I have several published stories. A while ago I started writing in English and now, I'm looking toward self-publishing. Let's find out how it'll work for me.

Lorelei Bell said...

Hi, nice to meet you. Thought I'd stop by. I'm a newcomer, and am an author in the urban fantasy, but forgot to put an "a" after my name for "adult" fiction. Rookie mistake. Hope I'm forgiven?

Golden Eagle said...

I was born in China, but everything I can remember is from living here in the USA. It's interesting to be Asian in a culture like the one in this country; in the contrast, and lack of it, since appearances aren't seen by people to be as important as they used to.

Sarah Tokeley said...

I'm from the UK, but thanks to too much Stephen King at an early age I've always wanted to live in Maine :)

Natalie Aguirre said...

Great to learn more about you. Wow, you've had an interesting life. Thanks for sharing.

Melodie Wright said...

Hi Michael! *waves* I'm in your YA campaign group. Thanks for sharing about your life.
I live in Alaska and am a newbie blogger. Looking fwd to getting to know you during the campaign. And have a great vacation!