Michele's major influence was a traumatic event that happened to her at the age of 12, causing her to "fracture" into eight different personalities and which she wrote about in her first book, "Thorns in the Rose: A Story of Survival From Mental Illness and Addiction."  She was then influenced by her bipolar disorder, leading to her second book, which she wrote for other sufferers of bipolar disorder, called "Bipolar Disorder: One Day at a Time." Michele's life has been one of adversity and the overcoming of it, which was a major influence in her book, "Water in the Desert: A 40-Day Devotional Journal Through the Desert of Deliverance."  She herself was delivered from a life of mental illness, alcoholism, and drug addiction, and uses these experiences as background for this devotional.  At one point, Michele was greatly influenced by her weight, and was very depressed over it, so she decided to do something about it.  She lost 60 pounds in 9 months, "losing weight God's way," as she puts it, which was the influence for her fourth book: "Feasting on the Banquet of His Presence: Weight Loss God's Way."  Michele lives in a quiet, small town in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee with her husband and where she enjoys writing her books.  She also has three grown sons of whom she is very proud.