About the Author

Photo: Sue Hoffman

Michelle M. Welch was born in Tucson, Arizona, and grew up playing music and filling countless reams of paper with fiction creations. At the age of 9 she wrote her first “book”, which was bound and shelved in her elementary school library. The following year her next work, a fantasy populated by princesses, magical creatures of her own invention, and a talking mouse, won a youth writing award. (She has since completely forgotten what the award was and what happened at the conference she was invited to attend as recognition.)

After studying music–playing viola–for three years, she gave up plans for music as a vocation and instead earned a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and a Master’s in Library Science. Still, she continued in music as an avocation and has collected various instruments, including a violin, guitar, and viola da gamba, some of which she actually finds time to play.

Her first novel, Confidence Game, was published by Bantam Spectra in 2003. The Five Countries trilogy was completed with The Bright and the Dark and Chasing Fire. In 2013 she took a detour into independent publishing with the Gbahn and Archipelago novels, The Sea Between the Worlds and The Source in the Desert. She is the editor of the podcast anthology Theme and Variations, a collection of short speculative fiction stories with music as a theme. Other works in progress include a crossover romance series, a science fiction/mystery crossover, and a children’s  novel co-written with her husband.

Currently, she lives in the Phoenix, Arizona area, where she works as a reference librarian and is gathering an assortment of cats.

Read more: Visit my author interviews at Smashwords and at Rachael Horsma’s website.

You can also reach me on Twitter or Goodreads, or by email: m_welch (at) cox.net

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