About me.
Drummer, programmer, writer, artist, wife, mother, tinkerer and overthinker. Not one thing. More than the sum of my parts. Trying to make sense of a nonsensical world.
I studied illustration at University of Plymouth, then moved to Bristol and went on to work for arts organisations, and later in the events industry — my introduction to programming was teaching myself how to program the lighting desk at a concert hall. This led to working as a conference organiser for web development conferences, where my curiosity got the better of me and I learned how to build websites, eventually changing careers to become a web developer full-time.
Web development and creative coding became a huge part of my life. I wrote a blog, CSS { In Real Life }, which became quite popular. Through it I met many wonderful friends, was invited to speak at conferences and got paid to write technical articles for well-respected companies. I thought I’d found my niche, and I still build web apps for my day job.
Today, the tech world is in a weird place, and I’ve become pretty disillusioned with it. But I’ve always loved writing. When I was young, I loved writing stories, it was my favourite thing to do at school. Somehow, I convinced myself that that wasn’t my path, and so that muscle lay dormant.
In May 2026 I began a month-long challenge to write every day. It could be anything — opinion, fiction, non-fiction, poetry, long or short — and was frequently all of those things. Since then, I’ve kept writing regularly (although not every day), and am currently working on my first novel. Writing is how I make sense of the world.
I play the drums in two bands — Puffins and Green Sirens. You won’t have heard of either of them. I live in Trowbridge, UK, with my husband, son and cat.
Get in touch: contact@michellebarker.co.uk