Meet Michele Montgomery

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Michele Montgomery a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Michele, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

I used to think my superpower was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I stumbled upon tragic events like a gold medalist. Despite having a stable, loving family, my house burned down, I was caught in a riot, and I arrived at the apartment of a best friend moments after he died by suicide–all before I turned 20. Yet those events were the building blocks of my resilience. The adversity in my life became the weights I lifted to gain strength. They taught me I could survive tough moments and once again find joy.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

The New York Times and The Sun Magazine have published my essays, but fiction is my first love. I’m finishing up a novel.

The working title is The Crossing Guard, the Bee Boy, and the Secondhand Heart. The Crossing Guard must transport a girl to the next realm when she dies. Her father, Bee Boy, will save her life at all costs. A heart transplant recipient unwittingly helps them both.

I’m very excited about it. An early draft has already won 3rd place in a competition. I’ve revised a ton, and it’s nearly ready for the world.

In addition, I run the Writing Date Program for The Women’s Fiction Writers Association. Every day, we bring writers together from around the world to write at the same time on Zoom and support each other. It’s fun and a lot of novels get finished. I started the program to help other writers during the pandemic and it has gifted many writers–including me!–with new friends and powerful community.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

It’s important to have faith in ourselves. A daily positive or spiritual practice is critical. It’s impossible to always be happy, so I listen to uplifting things on YouTube as I get ready in the morning. It takes almost no time and sets the highest tone for the day. Who doesn’t love multitasking?

Perspective is so important. We feel we’re the center of the universe, but often the crisis around us isn’t personal. I try to step back for a second before reacting to any explosion. That way, I come from my power rather than being someone else’s marionette.

Choose. I consciously choose who I want to be and what I want to achieve. I review my intentions before I work and write a sentence or two just before I start. For example, I might jot down something like… I write stories that are entertaining, interesting, suspenseful, etc. before I begin writing them. It’s easier to overcome any obstacles when I have momentum and clarity.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

My roommate gave me the novel “Breakfast of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut. When I finished it, I said, “Finally! Someone wrote a book for people like me!” Vonnegut saw the world in an offbeat and atypical way. It was refreshing. When I read that novel now, I can’t connect with it. But, at the time, it convinced me it was okay to be different. Not all writers had to live in England and balance teacups on their knees. Stories could be about so much more. Vonnegut proved unusual writers could be successful.

We all want to believe we’re special, but we’re not. What we are is unique. I believe our quest in life is to develop our originality and gift that to the world. No one can ever take our uniqueness away unless we give it up. Thank you, Kurt.

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Joel Binder

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