Monday’s post featured In Broken Places, the latest release from the multi-faceted novelist Michele Phoenix. Today, she gives us a glimpse into who she is and what she writes.

Michele, welcome. For people who may not be familiar with your work, what would you want them to know about you and the kinds of stories you write?

My writing is character-based and dialogue-driven. As weighty as some of the plot elements are, I try to balance the seriousness with generous servings of wit and levity. I’m an avid student of the human condition, so you’ll gain an intimate understanding of the characters and breathe with them as they grapple with their demons in a gut-honest and often humorous way.

What kinds of things fuel you during your writing process?

Honestly? Hamburgers, cheesecake, late-night hours, down comforters, and characters who grab my heart and twist it.

On your website, you share about turning 40 and the big challenges you faced that year. Can you tell us something about that and how it affected your writing?

I think my wrestling with two forms of cancer forced me to do some honest soul-searching.  As I faced my mortality in a very imminent way, I began to evaluate what was important to me and what was not.  A complete change of focus in my professional life resulted from that evaluation.  So did an increased desire to use story to convey truth in a palatable way.  It’s something I’d already engaged in before my medical crisis, but I came through my surgeries and treatment with an increased commitment to honor each day I live with a celebration of what I love.  Writing tops that list.

In addition to writing novels, you love snapping photographs. (And you share many of them on your website. They’re fantastic!) How does photography scratch your creative itch?

Photography is story.  Walt Disney used to make cartoons essentially by flipping quickly through the pages of a notepad, his drawings slowly morphing into movement.  Photography arrests the story’s evolution on a single page of that notepad.  Faces hint at history.  Places evoke memories.  Life gets suspended long enough for a slow, deep glimpse into something that would normally be gone in an instant.  I’m inspired by that kind of beauty. It sustained me through some of the darkest periods of my life and continues to lend me discovery and joy.

From your earliest years, you’ve loved to tell stories. Why does story matter to you?

There’s an intimacy to story that compels me.  I’m fascinated by the actions and reactions that flow out of events, by the slow exploration of a character’s flaws and by the mild discomfort of imperfect resolution.  I can’t think of a more effective tool for conveying pleasure, intrigue and truth than the arc of an intelligently crafted story.  I’ve always been a student of the human condition, and writing narratives allows me to pour that passion into something sharable that fosters understanding.

Visit Michele online at michelephoenix.com.