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My name is Michael Purdy, but you may know me by my pen name Colleen Michaels and I want to welcome you to my website.
I chose the pen name Colleen as a way of recognizing my sister, whose name I’m borrowing. She is a nurse at a children’s cancer hospital in California. Despite having a melancholy job, she is known by her patients, family, and friends for bringing hope and love to everybody she comes across. This is my way of honoring her. I’m hoping my novel will also bring those same kinds of emotions to people’s hearts. My first name is Michael, hence the other part of my pen name.
While writing this novel the song ‘Just the Way You Are’ by Bruno Mars was a big inspiration for the character of Liz. Play the song while reading about her and I hope you will feel the same way.
My sister and I were lucky to grow up in a home where being a romantic was almost inevitable. Mom and dad showed us a steady diet of Disney movies and my mother would also have us watch films like ‘Dirty Dancing,’ ‘When Harry Met Sally,’ and numerous other romances. My passion for writing romantic novels came after reading Pride and Prejudice. I read the book in three days and from there, I always knew I would write a novel one day.
Due to my father’s job, we moved around quite a bit while I was growing up. I’ve lived in: New York, Michigan, California, Oklahoma, and Luxembourg. We’ve also traveled all around the world from Africa to Central America. This allowed me to witness so many different kinds of cultures and meet people with every kind of opinion on life.
I went to school at the University of Oklahoma where I have a degree in Journalism and minors in English and Film and Video Studies.
Throughout all my travels and life experiences, I’ve found two things to be consistently important to people; love and hope. I want my novels to always represent those two ideals.
Michael Purdy
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