About

Michele Caldwell

I’ve always lived as a small town girl in the corn belt. Although the Mysteries of Rosemarie series is my first foray into writing for publication, I have been a storyteller all my life. I remember in grade school writing and illustrating little pocket readers, mostly about dragons and knights and fair ladies, and in high school I did speech competitions. In college, I got my bachelor of arts degree in French language with Spanish and business minors, and I even tried my hand at writing French poetry. But, like George McFly, I never showed anything I wrote to anybody. I wish now I had saved some of them. 

When I taught French at the high school level, I would always use storytelling to teach my students fluency. Together, we would invent and act out stories, the more bizarre the better. But the funniest stories have always been the true stories of everyday life because life is funny, and the God who invented the armadillo also invented humor. As the great philosopher Red Skelton said, “Don’t take life too seriously because you’re not about to get out of it alive.” 

I have accumulated a lifetime of funny stories, scary stories, poignant stories and inspiring stories that all testify to how very much God loves us. I have lived a blessed life—small, but interesting. I got lots of laughs around the break room sharing anecdotes. For years, colleagues and friends would tell me I should write a book, and I considered it. But I was still too busy living my small life to write about it.

I’ve heard it said that we spend the first half of life living it and the second half writing the commentary. While I don’t totally agree with that statement, I have noticed that, as we age, we do tend to look back and try to find meaning to our life story—to see the hand of God in it. It was only after my mother died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2017 that I decided if I’m going to write, then I had better do it, while I still had all my marbles. Maybe I felt a desire to write about a life I wish I’d had, come to peace with my past, or connect with my inner child—whatever metaphor works. I don’t know for sure. Whatever it was, I bought me a new laptop, a bunch of legal pads and pencils, and got to work. And I love it, even if most of the time I’m groping in the fog and bumping into things.

I decided to write fiction because, number one, it’s more alluring. I’ve got lots of hilarious stories I could tell, for instance, about how I earned my black belt in karate at age forty, but nobody’s going to buy my autobiography—I wouldn’t buy it so I should know. 

Secondly, in fiction, I don’t have to tie myself to either historical accuracy or dubious memory. I’M FREE TO MAKE IT UP! So, The Joyful Mysteries of Rosemarie was inspired by a wonderful summer I spent in the south of France in 1970 when I was sixteen. I actually did get lost at the Eiffel Tower the first day. But everything else in Rosemarie’s world is totally out of my imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Thirdly, I write Christian fiction because life is not about me (or us)—it's about Jesus and his transforming power. Every good story ever told was somehow about redemption and there is nothing more relevant today. Christ has transformed my life, and because He lives in me, His story is also my story and, by extension, Rosemarie’s story. 

When I’m not writing or reading, I like taking my faith to the streets and sharing the Love of Jesus Christ with a culture hungry for Truth and Beauty. I have given testimonies and talks at women’s retreats on the importance of forgiveness, on discipleship and on community. I also enjoy cooking and gardening with my husband.