Interview With Author Michelle Hooey
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a writer, speaker, and the creator of The 15-Minute Rewrite™ — a simple, sustainable framework for personal transformation rooted in nervous system regulation and identity work.
Before I was an author, I was a mother navigating the unimaginable. My daughter Goldie was born with a rare, undiagnosed genetic disorder after five pregnancy losses. Her birth marked a before and after in my life. It dismantled who I thought I was and forced me to rebuild from the inside out.
The Goldie Effect is my first book. It blends memoir and method, because that’s how transformation actually happens. We don’t change through theory alone. We change through lived experience and small, brave decisions made daily.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is The Goldie Effect: The Steps to Rewrite Your Life (Without Burning It All Down).
It was inspired by the moment my life split in two — the day my daughter was born and immediately admitted to the NICU without answers. I was living inside crisis, uncertainty, and fear. At the same time, I felt something quietly rising in me: clarity.
I didn’t need a new life. I needed a new way to live the one I had.
The book is both a love letter to my daughter and a lifeline for anyone who feels stuck, burned out, or on the edge of reinvention. It introduces The 15-Minute Rewrite™, the practice that helped me regulate my nervous system, rebuild my identity, and move forward in sustainable steps instead of dramatic overhauls.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write in 15-minute increments.
When you’re parenting a medically complex child, you don’t get long uninterrupted writing retreats. You get small windows. I learned to trust them.
I also write scenes before structure. I let memory lead. I follow the emotional heat first, then shape the framework around it. The book was built the same way my life was rebuilt: piece by piece. I actually wrote a lot of my latest book over voice notes walking out in nature. The parts that felt heavy felt easier to say than write out.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Brianna Wiest’s work has deeply influenced me, especially her ability to articulate the emotional mechanics of self-sabotage and transformation in a way that feels intimate and precise. She writes about identity and responsibility without shaming the reader, which I respect.
Gabby Bernstein’s work introduced me to the idea that spiritual surrender and personal responsibility are not opposites. There’s power in both structure and faith. That balance shows up in my work.
The Brain That Changes Itself by Norman Doidge changed the way I understand possibility. Neuroplasticity isn’t just scientific theory to me. It’s lived experience. When you’re parenting a medically complex child, the idea that the brain can rewire itself becomes more than interesting. It becomes hope.
And The Surrender Experiment by Michael A. Singer challenged my instinct to control everything. That book helped me loosen my grip on outcomes and focus instead on showing up for what life placed in front of me.
I’m drawn to writers who blend neuroscience, spirituality, and responsibility without losing emotional honesty. That intersection is where I write.
What are you working on now?
I’m expanding The Goldie Effect into a larger movement around capacity, identity, and sustainable transformation.
I’m developing a live speaking platform and building a community around The 15-Minute Rewrite™. I’m also continuing to write, exploring essays and a second book that dives deeper into capacity building for moms.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I’ve built an engaged community on social media by telling the truth about what our family’s life actually looks like. The most effective promotion hasn’t been strategy tricks, it’s vulnerability paired with authenticity.
Long-form storytelling, short-form video, and direct conversations with readers have consistently created the strongest momentum.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Write the book your younger self needed.
Don’t chase trends. Don’t write toward what you think will sell. Write toward what is true and specific and honest.
And finish it. A finished imperfect book will change your life. An unfinished perfect one will haunt you.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You can’t think your way into a new life. You have to practice your way there.
Clarity doesn’t come from overanalyzing. It comes from small actions repeated daily. Those small shifts become habits. Habits become identity. And one day you realize you’re living differently because you practiced differently.
What are you reading now?
I’m currently rereading Find Your Unicorn Space by Eve Rodsky. I love books that challenge cultural assumptions about identity, ambition, and creative capacity, especially for women and mothers.
Rodsky’s argument that women need a space that belongs entirely to them, not as a luxury but as a necessity, resonates deeply with me. As someone who writes about capacity and sustainable change, I’m always drawn to work that reframes what’s “selfish” as essential.
I tend to reread books that shift perspective rather than just inform. The right book doesn’t just teach you something. It reorganizes you.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I want to continue writing books that sit at the intersection of memoir and method. I’m also stepping into speaking in a bigger way, bringing The Goldie Effect to stages, conferences, and leadership spaces.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Brain That Changes Itself — because I would need the reminder that adaptation is built into us.
The Surrender Experiment — because resistance is exhausting and I would eventually need to let go.
A Brianna Wiest book — likely The Mountain Is You — because she understands identity in a way that feels both confronting and compassionate.
And a blank journal. Always a blank journal. If I’m stranded, I’m writing.
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