60-летняя предпринимательница из Талсы превратила жизненные уроки в бестселлер

On Her Mind: Life lessons become novel for a Tulsa businesswoman TULSA, Okla. — Michelle Hardesty, Executive Director of the Hardesty Family Foundation, turned life lessons into a novel and found an unexpected new creative outlet at 60. In Tulsa, Michelle is used to seeing her last name on buildings. Now she's getting used to seeing it somewhere new: on the cover of a novel, on the shelves at Magic City Books, and on Amazon. At 60, she didn't plan to become an author. "Honk If You've Been Married to Me" started as she was trying to make sense of the patterns in her own love life. "I was kind of in a breakup, heartbreak kind of period, and so I was doing a lot of journaling and I started writing in the third person, and it just kind of took off like a story." says Michelle. The book centers on Shelly Green, a fictional character whose story is built around what Michelle calls emotional truths and lessons from her own life. "It just kept pouring out of me and within a few months, I had written most of the novel." she says. Shelly's search for answers takes her to a jungle medicine retreat, part of a story that also explores addiciton, mental health, friendship, and recovery. Michelle will celebrate 25 years of sobriety next month. The title "Honk If You've Been Married to Me" actually came from a friend in AA who joked about putting the phrase on a bumper sticker. "Never finding true love that lasts," she says. "I've been married and divorced three times, but I haven't been married in 20 years." At her sold-out book launch at the historic Big Ten Ballroom earlier this month, Michelle heard from readers who saw parts of their own lives in Shelly's story. "They really seem to see either something that they've done to someone else or something that's been done to them." she says. And there's something else in Michelle's story that has nothing to do with heartbreak or who she married. At 60, she's discovering there may be entirely new chapters to write. "I'm sort of seeing that women in their late 50s or early 60s kind of have a creative spark." she says. You can find "Honk If You've Been Married to Me" at Magic City Books, on Amazon, and coming soon to Audible. It was last week's number one Oklahoma Best Seller in fiction. Michelle plans to have another book signing in February at the Museum of Tulsa History. You can follow "Honk If You've Been Married to Me" on Facebook and Instagram. What's on your mind? Email [email protected]