About Little Ol' Me!

Well hello there! Pull up a chair and sit a spell. I can be quite the talker. Just tell me to shut up if you need. I am not easily offended. I absolutely am a lover of life and feel my mission in life is to make people happy and to smile. REALLY! Try it, it will make you really happy too! Promise!

And below, this picture? Is TOTALLY me with Judy Blume holding the very first, original Whatif Monster!!! OMG! RIGHT??? I met* her at the the SCBWI Conference in LA in August. SO. FREAKING. Cool.

So, about me. This could get long, so maybe I should try bullet points so you can get the facts quickly. Yes? Okay.

• I am an artist. Have been since I was born.
• I am a childrens picture book author and illustrator. You can see (and buy) my books here.
• You can see all my art and books at www.michellepaints.com
• I started out being able to make a living with my art by selling pet portraits at art festivals. I still paint pet portraits. I love it. I have painted over 700 portraits of peoples' pets. It NEVER gets old. Just contact me if you want me to paint your pet!
• I am a crazy Facebook addict. I love it. I update and post pictures all the time. Yes, I would HONESTLY love to be your friend. But don't friend me if you get annoyed by happy sunshiney updates. I have been told I am rampant with my overuse of exclamations points. REALLY! I do not think that is possible! (My editor disagrees.)

• I have an agent. She helps sell my books. Her name is Deborah Warren with East/West Literary Agency. I love her. VERY MUCH.
• I have a husband whose name is the same name as my first husband. Which is how I know the universe has a wicked sense of humor.
• I have two amazing children that are 13 and 15 and I feel it is my main job in life to teach them to follow their dreams with everything they've got. And be willing to work really, REALLY hard to do that.
• I have four, yes you read that correctly, FOUR dogs. Lucy a 14 year old yellow lab (100 lbs), Rufus a 9 year old black lab (100 lbs), Skyler a 9 year old german shepherd (70 lbs) and Otto Von Schmidt, a 4 month old mini doxie (6 lbs).
• Yes, I might be crazy. And I love chaos. See the above bullet point.
• I have tried and failed things many, many times. I have been rejected more times than I can even remember anymore. Apparently failure and rejection don't scare me. Life is way more fun that way.
• I love my life!
  
  
  *met - I use the term loosely. Really what I did was wait in a group of other crying 30 and 40 something women whose childhood hero was in front of them and we were all remembering the turmoil of teenage adolesence that she helped us through. Then, right before she left, I THRUST the Whatif Monster into her hands, yelled at my sister to "TAKE THE PICTURE!!" and ran away before she could get my name for the restraining order. True story.