Interview with Michele Miles Gardiner

Published 2019-03-19.
Who are your favorite authors?
Eve Babitz, Jack Kerouac, David Sedaris, Sandra Tsing Loh, Fran Lebowitz, Anne Lamott, Dorothy Parker, Charles Bukowski, John Steinbeck, Bill Bryson, and Dave Barry. Sadly, three of my favorite writers have recently died: Cynthia Heimel, Nora Ephron, and Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

I love writers who get me thinking and laughing.
What are you working on next?
“How to Become Broke and Influence Nobody.” You know books like “How to Become Rich” and “How to Win Friends and Influence People”? You won’t learn any of that in this book. What you will learn is what doesn’t seem to work. As you read how I’ve struggled in life–whether working, raising a child, having pets, traveling, encountering celebrities and musicians–my tales will only confirm you’re doing even better than you believe.
How do you discover the ebooks you read?
Recommended by someone or I go on Goodreads.com and search through reviews.
Do you remember the first story you ever wrote?
I've written stories since I was able to write. The first one I remember was about a little farm girl kidnapped by aliens. They took her to their planet, where they allowed her to stay up late and eat junk food. She never wanted to return to her farm house. That was my 8-year-old fantasy at the time, as the child of health food fanatics.

I didn't submit any of my work until about 15 years ago, an essay about an encounter I had in the grocery store, which was published.
Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?
"Charlotte's Web." I couldn't put it down and it made me cry at the end.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I started life in the suburbs of San Francisco. Then, after the summer of love, my parents took my little sister and me to travel the world in a trailer.

I wrote my stories for "Craving Normal," about these experiences, and then how I returned back to America and had a hard time fitting in, after our adventures.
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Books by This Author

Craving Normal: An Ordinary Life Veers Off Track...Way Off
Price: $7.99 USD. Words: 56,400. Language: English. Published: March 15, 2019 . Categories: Nonfiction » Biography » Personal memoir, Essay » Sociology
(5.00 from 1 review)
Living in a rock hut on a nude beach. Staying in a religious commune. Facing an angry man with a gun. Riding camels. Hiding freaky health food lunches from lucky Twinkie eaters. Michele didn’t experience these things living in the suburbs of San Francisco. Then came the counterculture revolution. Her entire life changed.