Omigodomigodomigod! It's Michy!

Ladies and gentlemen-Michy:

DP: Who are you (by that tell me a little about
yourself including personal stats like age,
place of birth, etc...)

MD: I was born in a small town in West Texas known as San Angelo, in the very early 70s (which makes me somewhere in my late 30s), and have lived in Texas all my life. While growing up, we frequently returned every summer to the three dirty lakes in my birthplace and I still have family there to this day. Today, we live in another small town in the Permian Basin oil and gas area of the state. A small city girl with a big city heart, I lived in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area for a couple of years before I returned to small-town West Texas to raise my family where the cost of living is low and ice cream melts outside before you can even think of eating it.

Eventually though, my wandering big-city heart has plans to move to the state capitol, Austin, Texas, where I feel my writing and networking in the literary community will better be served, and I hope to open a small bookstore/coffee shop where artists and authors are showcased, along with all sorts of other creative art endeavors. Of course, I'm waiting for my college student daughter to finish school and my teen son to get old enough (and hopefully mature enough too if he survives his teen years!) before I make that move. My passion is to write; my dream is to help others fulfill their dreams. I think this creative arts center I want to pursue in the near future will bring both those things together in a very special way.

Today, I'm an author/novelist and a freelance writer and editor, working from home, where I live with my unique and amazing family. I used to say I'm living my dream, but if I'm being honest, my life right now is better than anything I could have ever dreamed for myself, and it just gets better every day. It's not perfect, but in many ways, it's better than perfect. I'm living my purpose, surrounded by people who love, encourage, support and challenge me. I simply couldn't ask for more.

DP: What initially drew you to AC? Or, How
did you hear of AC?

MD: I heard about Associated Content in a writers forum where paying writing leads were posted for freelancers. I saw it come up several times, and every time it did, there was much debate about whether it should be allowed as a legitimate paying lead for freelancers. There was so much debate about it, in fact, that I had to check it out for myself. I registered one day and then sat and watched the site, and finally decided to put up for free a couple of poems I had written and had good feedback on in print, just so I could see how the publishing template worked. After those published, I decided to take one of my old print articles that I still had electronic rights for and put it up for upfront payment.

My offer of $6.00 was nothing spectacular. In fact, I was very put off by it, and if I wasn't such a stubborn woman, I probably would have walked away from AC right then. However, the challenge AC now presented to me - they said they offered up to $40 per article, and darn it, I was determined to get one of those offers! Well, it took me over a year, but I did eventually get a $50 offer on one article, and then almost two years later, I won the PMA for Best Content - Text for my Confessions of a Writer article, brining in $1000 bucks. Can't beat that for one article I submitted for free.

I do understand why the writing forums debate about AC's status as a legitimate freelancer's lead. I don't recommend Associated Content to established freelancers who are already making good money, but for someone just starting out, there is a wealth of information, training, education and networking AC can provide, while bringing in some cash. For an experienced writer who knows how to promote, there is potential for residual income through the Performance Bonus. I don't really know how AC hooked me, but it did, and now nearly two years later, I'm still an active Content Producer for Associated Content.

DP: What genre are you wanting to publish the most?

MD: Well, honestly, I prefer fiction writing and prose style essays (creative non-fiction) to anything I write on Associated Content. If I have to say what I enjoy writing the most on AC, I'd have to say it's my opinion pieces about the educational system, in America as a whole, but particularly in the country where I live and have battled the school system for years now. Those articles aren't always good performers, but they are something about which I am very passionate, and I enjoy seeing the comments they bring.

DP: What are your favorite titles so far?
(Don't be modest.)

MD: My article that won the PMA, Confessions of a Writer: The Ugly Truth about Being a Writer, is one of my very favorites. I also enjoy the comments and page views I get on Corporal Punishment in Schools. Again, any of my articles about the educational system.

DP: How has AC Treated you so far?
(Support, that is)

MD: Over all, I can't complain too much about how AC has treated me. I've been lucky enough to chat with some of the people behind the scenes and get to see them as 'real people' and not just faceless drones who review my content, and for that, I am thankful. My biggest complaint is that AC is a bit low or slow on communicating changes and information to the CPs that could help us maximize our performance, but over all, it's workable.

DP: Where else have you been published?

MD: Gosh, I've been published lots of other places. Print is my media of choice, preferring print publication over web content. However, I do also write for Helium and have articles on Suite101, and there are other niche websites where you can find my writing, such as Looking for Clues, Chocolate Zoom, etc. I do a lot of newsletter/ezine writing as well, good money in that, but again, print is my media of choice: books, novels, magazines, etc. I have four books published so far, two creative non-fiction books, one fiction short story anthology, and a non-fiction book. My most recent book has a video trailer for it on my profile here on AC. It's titled The Path: A Series on Redemption & Sensual Awakening. I'm very proud of this book. I have at least two more that have pending publishing contracts for this year. I'm very excited about those.

DP: Please tell us about your favorite pet.

MD: My favorite pet? You mean, other than my son? I have a puppy, but he's human, not canine. Actually, my favorite pet is definitely my pet rabbit, Rex the Funny Bunny. He's fantastic! Rex is a dwarf rex (yes, I know, I'm so creative naming my pets), and he's dark grey and white. We 'rescued' him from a pet store, where they had him in a communal hutch with some guinea pigs and they were chewing on his ear and making it bleed. He was so gentle he wouldn't fight back, and I didn't have the heart to leave him there to get chewed on, so we bought him and brought him home. He makes me laugh.

DP: What would you do with a million dollars?

MD: If I had a million bucks, I'd use it to open that creative arts center in Austin I discussed earlier. I want to have a bricks and mortar bookstores, where we also have a stage, poetry readings, open mic night, display artists paintings and drawings, give private instrument lessons, crafts and art classes for adults and kids, a computer lab, wireless internet cafe, a gourmet coffee and snack shop, and all sorts of creative arts endeavors where people of like creative minds can gather to share, learn and network.

I'd love to do this in the next few years, and a million bucks would go a long way to getting that done!

DP: In 100 words or more; where do you want
to be when you're 50?

MD: I can actually answer that in one word: Alive.

But since you asked for more than 100 words, I guess I can say that I hope when I'm 50 (which relatively speaking isn't that far away) that I'm still doing mostly what I'm doing now, only more of it. I'm happy now, and I live my purpose and do what I love for a living, so I can't really ask for much more than that, except more of it. All that being said, my health continues to be a pressing concern for me, so if I could ask for just one thing to change, I'd like my health to improve so I can fully experience and enjoy the creative arts center I plan to have before I'm 50.

Of course, I wouldn't mind hitting a major best selling list with one of my novels before I'm 50 either!

DP: What is you're favorite quote about writing?
(and who get's the credit?)

MD: My favorite quote about writing is: "The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense."

I believe this quote is credited to Tom Clancy. My life, as it is and was, I have often said could never be made into a novel, because no one would believe it was true, and it was too crazy for fiction. A fiction writer really does walk a fine line between the real world and the fantasy world in what can and cannot happen in a novel, and many times things that happen in real life are simply too fantastic to make good 'fiction'.

There are days I feel like my life is a novel, and other days I wish it were.

DP: If you had any advice for newbies to get better exposure, what would you say?

MD: Advice to new writers: Never give up if you have a dream and have a passion for writing. It will consume you if you don't let it out. Short of that, visit the forums, ask questions, read everything you can when you're not writing, and again, keep writing!