Michelle Paula Barton-Romeo Michelle hails from the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, born in the mid-sixties of the 20th century; she is the eight of ten children born to Gregory and Gloria Barton. Her childhood was pretty simple. She attended both primary and secondary school in the village of Diego Martin. The family then moved to Tobago where she completed her secondary school education. Michelle's love for writing was evident throughout her life as she competed in essay writing competitions, wrote short stories, plays, poems and songs. Her first newspaper article was published in the late 80's. Michelle attended college in the US where her love for writing took on a new perspective. She learned the art of bringing stories to life from one of her professors. At college she wrote a column in the school's newspaper entitled, "A Caribbean Student's Perspective on College Life" she also wrote articles in the Features section. Michelle took part in the "All USA Academic team" essay writing competition. She placed first among the students of her college and third in all of New York. Michelle is also featured in the National Dean's List publication of 2001-2002. "My dream as far back as I can remember was to become a published author. I love writing fiction with factual messages. I may have gotten this from Jesus' repertoire of speaking in parables. Being a Life Skills facilitator I often tell stories to bring serious life issues to the fore, effecting change to anyone who will apply the concepts." This is the strategy used to write Prisoners, Michelle's first book, a novel that is fiction while it carries a factual message. She vows that it will not be the last.