Michaela MacColl

I grew up in upstate New York. After I graduated Vassar College, I came home for about an hour, then moved to Connecticut for graduate school at Yale University. I studied Russian and Soviet history. I visited the USSR (while it still was the USSR) in 1987 - when very few students could go there. 

So, I began applying to law schools and planning my wedding. My life changed when my fiancé called one day to ask if I would mind moving to France. Two months after the wedding, we moved to Toulouse France. We lived there for three years, a city filled with contradictions: aerospace technology side by side with medieval castles. Afterwards came a two year stint outside of Paris.

At that time, drawn by the vision of restaurants that would let you eat whenever you wanted to and genuine customer service, I returned home with my husband and settled in Fairfield County, Connecticut. I worked as a technical writer and project manager for internet design firms while I raised my two daughters. I led a girl scout troup, ran the elementary school book fairs for eight years running and built Habitat Houses.. I was also President of the International Visitors Committee of Connecticut which welcomes the United Nations to my hometown every year. And I began to write.

I was always fascinated by stories of how famous people grew up to be that way. I've written about Queen Victoria, Beryl Markham, Emily Dickinson and my latest, Alway Emily, explores the world and relationships of the Bronte sisters.