Michael Welch
AUTHOR

Michael Welch

Literature & Fiction
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Michael Welch grew up in the Midwest and as a boy of 13—Autry’s age in Next Christmas in Girouette—he helped his grandfather farm with horses. “My grandfather, like the Amish who lived nearby, loved to work with horses,” says Michael. “I have woven my memories of him into this book. My grandmother is in there as well, along with the town constable, who watched over our village while running her sewing shop in Cardington, Ohio.” Also woven into the book are memories of the serial Christmas stories that covered the back page of The Marion (Ohio) Star, the newspaper Michael grew up reading, along with the radio dramas such as The Challenge of the Yukon that were still popular in the early 1950s. “The little town of Girouette is modeled on my home town but it’s set in the Montana Rockies,” Michael says, “where my daughters and I spent an unforgettable week on a horse-packing trip in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. We hope to return to Montana in December to see what a western Christmas really looks like.” Michael, whose acting background comes through in the audio version of Next Christmas in Girouette, spent four years teaching young children in the Philippines with the Peace Corps and in Appalachia after he returned from overseas. He earned a Masters Degree in Education with the idea of writing books like this, and then spent the next 40 years as a public affairs officer in the non-profit world. “I am back to writing for young people now,” he says, “and loving it.” Michael’s younger daughter, Dylan, illustrated the book drawing upon a visit with her father to a preserved ghost town in the California Sierras called Bodie. His older daughter, Katrin, is doing the PR and social networking for Next Christmas in Girouette.
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