Let Me Introduce Myself

My name is Michele Zimmer and I’ve been invited to write a couple of posts a month for the BIAW blog. Here’s a little bit about me. Originally, I’m from Buffalo, NY but for the last four years, I’ve lived in County Limerick, Ireland, where there is no shortage of inspiration.

As for reading and writing, I’ve had my head buried in a book since God was a boy. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to write since the age of nine. During high school, I wrote a lot of angst-ridden Civil War dramas and knew more about the Battle of the Bull Run than is normal for a teenager. By my twenties, I had turned to writing coming of age stories — more angst. Mercifully, those manuscripts remained buried at the bottom of the closet. When I was 30 and in my last year of college, I wrote a mystery novel and although it did receive a lot of rejections there was also some positive feedback from agents. Unfortunately, during my 30’s, writing went from the back burner to off the stove completely as I concentrated on my nursing career, my marriage and my boys.

When we moved to Ireland, I was determined to concentrate on my writing, which is what I have done. I wrote a chick lit manuscript which did quite well in a contest but received 44 rejections nonetheless. Undaunted, I signed up for National Novel Writing Month in November 2008 and completed my 50 000 words but wasn’t fond at all of the manuscript. Currently, I’m on my third attempt at a paranormal young adult and I’m doing the first draft in longhand, which seems to be working for me. My first article will be published in Writers Forum UK in the fall. I also write two blogs: Chicklite about my lifelong battle with my weight and Novelista about all things relating to books and writing.

My aim here is not only to be informative but to have some fun as well. I’m open to any suggestions as to what you would like to see covered in this blog. I would also like to know what everyone else is working on and how it is going or whether you’re in a writing slump.