Michele Lee Sefton

I've always wanted to be a writer - I can't remember a time when I didn't feel like that was part of my destiny, my journey, my desire. But as a high school English teacher and community college instructor, I didn't have time for my own writing because I was busy grading and preparing lesson plans until 10:30 at night. In February 2019, I lost my father, and I was with him when he passed. It was a wake-up call about how short life is and made it even more poignant. That summer, after not renewing my teaching contract, I started writing a personal project called 50 Life Stories - I had just turned 50 that June, so it was another pivotal life change. I wrote these stories without any intention of publishing, just as a way to move through healing, letting one story roll to the next from my own experience. It took me about 7 months to finish. One of those stories had more to say and became my novel, Jade's Broken Bridge, which was published in October 2024. In August 2019, I also started my blog, which is still active today. I've overcome that initial fear of sharing my writing with the world, and I've published hundreds of poems, recitations, audio readings, and photography - another passion of mine. I've published 2 novellas, 3 illustrated chapbooks, and been included in poetry anthologies. My novel is new adult fiction, also called autofiction or literary fiction and women's fiction. It's based on my own experience as a young woman in the late 1980s and written in poetic prose, which is my style. Since January 2020, I've been working with another author teaching narrative therapy online. Our first workshop together was at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, where most participants were dealing with cancer, which is how I lost my father. That was in person, but we've been online since COVID hit. My days look different depending on whether I have a workshop or other commitments. I typically start my day meditating with the rising sun, then go on a bike ride before my workday begins. I might have a book talk or book festival - I've done a couple since my book launch. I'm currently revising one of my novellas for a second edition with a new cover, with a goal to have it ready by June. My blog is part of my weekly, if not daily, routine, though I'm currently on a blog break to get my business affairs in order. Publishing my book was probably my most notable achievement because it got a lot of local media attention - I was on Channel 12 News in Phoenix. They called a couple days before the book was released and asked if I wanted to come on. I wanted to say no and hang up, but I said okay to Wednesday because that gave me 2 days to prepare. Since losing my father, I've been learning to move through fear - I've always been a very fear-based person. I've had the courage to share a difficult and darker period of my life through my book. I'm now moving into becoming a speaker, working on a keynote for the past few weeks, looking at venues, and planning to start with a smaller focus group next month, tying into International Women's Month. My work focuses on themes of women empowerment and overcoming difficulty, including experiences from watching my mom and her six sisters live difficult, unfulfilled lives when I was a child.