Michelle Cameron
Michelle Cameron is a director of The Writers Circle, an NJ-based organization that offers creative writing programs to children, teens, and adults, and the author of works of historical fiction and poetry: Beyond the Ghetto Gates (She Writes Press, 2020), which won the Silver Medal in the 2020 Independent Publishers Award (IPPYs), The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz (Pocket, 2009), and In the Shadow of the Globe (Lit Pot Press, 2003). She lived in Israel for fifteen years (including three weeks in a bomb shelter during the Yom Kippur War) and served as an officer in the Israeli army teaching air force cadets technical English. Michelle lives in New Jersey with her husband and has two grown sons of whom she is inordinately proud.
Twitter: @mcameron_writer
Instagram: @michellecameronwriter
What’s your favorite comic strip or graphic novel?
My husband, Steve, and I met and fell in love because he shared an obsession with comics with my brother. Steve sold his comic book collection to help buy our first home. The collection would be worth millions today – he owned Amazing Fantasy #15, with the first Spiderman adventure. Fantastic Four #1 and Fantastic Four Annual #1. Tales to Astonish #60, with the first appearance of the Hulk. And much more. So I’ve always had a sneaking fondness for comics and what they brought to me. To replace the single issues, we collect anthologies of comics, both the super hero and the newspaper strip ones. My favorite changes based where I’m at in my life. I loved Dilbert when I worked in corporate America and Calvin & Hobbes when my own indefatigable Calvin was growing up.
Is your go to comfort food sweet or savory? Is it something you make yourself? Does food inspire your writing?
This is a dangerous question for me. In one of my interviews, I was asked whether I indulge in food writing, because the interviewer found the food references in Beyond the Ghetto Gates so appealing. The fact is, I love all food altogether too much. My ultimate comfort food is mashed potatoes (from a packet) with butter and salt. But I’m a sucker for super sweet as well, and the corner piece of a supermarket birthday cake – the type decorated with buttercream flowers – has my name on it every time. (Will my readers think less of me now?)
Is there a work of art that you love. Why? Have you ever visited it in person?
John Singer Sargent’s Madame X at the Metropolitan Museum. I could stare at her for hours. Something about her attitude just draws me in. So confident in her own skin. So glamorous in that long black gown. So in tune with her wealthy, high-class lifestyle. So everything I’m not, frankly.
Vacation druthers… City or Rural destination? Why?
City every single time. I’m a museum, bookstore, library, street fair, open market, antique store junky. It’s nice that this is my husband’s preference as well. The only disadvantage to this is that we’re pretty much on the go throughout all of our vacations. I’m adverse to hiking in uneven terrain, mosquitos, and weather extremes, so rural wouldn’t work for me unless I had a screened-in porch, great views, and time to relax and read. I do like chilling on the beach, but it’s been years since I’ve indulged.
Do you speak a second language? Do you think differently in that language? Does it influence your writing?
I lived in Israel for 14 years, so I’m fluent in Hebrew. Yes, I absolutely think differently when I hear it or speak it – the Israeli in me comes out. I notice that particularly when we watch Hebrew-language television series on Netflix – within moments, I’m back to being that person, with subtle but significant differences from my American persona. As for influencing my writing, I write Jewish-themed historical fiction so I do include Hebrew in my novels. But only a sprinkling of it, to give flavor. I also have had to include languages I definitely don’t speak, such as French and Italian. My go-to there is Google Translate, but I do double check with native speakers to make sure I’m not embarrassing myself!
