Blog: Mel's Muse

(Quotes from the book - with permission from Michele Guinness, below -  are in italics)

There were a number of salient points in Michele Guinness’s book when it came to personal discipleship in these troubled times, and we all agreed with Archbishop Vicky that it is only ‘In...

Posted at 12:53pm on 13th November 2017

What a great book!  When I first suggested that we read it for Book Club, one of the members thought it looked somewhat ‘heavy-going’.   On the contrary, when we met to discuss it, we all felt it was an easy read and had much to say to us about following...

Posted at 14:02pm on 4th December 2016

Sometimes people of faith speak of coincidence as being God-incidents.  So while a coincidence might be described as random - an accident, chance, luck, fluke, or twist of fate - a God-incident is thought to be an unexpected occurrence in which God is perceived to have had an influence. ...

Posted at 17:34pm on 8th September 2016

I suppose it was the letters that were the trigger – first for my depression, then for my understanding.  Small blue folded airmails that bore my mother’s name on them, plus whatever address happened to be relevant at the time.  She had kept them all...

Posted at 12:52pm on 6th September 2016

1 Comment

A good deal of laughter accompanied our Readers’ Group discussion last week.  The book we had been reading, which I had suggested some two months earlier, was titled Naturally Supernatural, and was written by Wendy Mann.  With a new senior minister joining us, in the meantime, we felt sure -...

Posted at 14:19pm on 18th November 2015

And another excerpt from my latest novel, Time to Shine, which has gained more 5* reviews since the last taster on my blog.  Sorry that the photos of the sky don't quite match the description in the book.

Here, Evie Adams, with a broken marriage behind her, takes some time out...

Posted at 20:28pm on 17th July 2015

1 Comment

How do you tell your children they are going to have a step-parent? How do you handle disagreements about access and money? How do you deal with past hurts and fears?

All families have their difficulties, but stepfamilies often face special problems. And with nearly a million of them in the...

Posted at 21:22pm on 7th February 2015

1 Comment

Sometimes, when you're counselling a client and she lobs a direct question at you, protocol requires that you bounce it back to her. A case in point is my two-o'clock this Friday afternoon, a mother of three, early-forties, by the...

Posted at 07:25am on 10th November 2014

8 Comments

Having prayed for absent book club members, particularly one, who is back in hospital on a second course of chemo, we started the evening with a general overview of Jeff Lucas’ book, Faith in the Fog. Without exception the group professed to having enjoyed it, though one person found his self-deprecation...

Posted at 17:36pm on 28th June 2014

The theory of transactional analysis is a subject of never-ending fascination - both to those who find themselves participating in the Drama Triangle, and to aspiring authors involved in writing and publishing a book! Last week I met up with the friend of a friend and, during the course of...

Posted at 19:54pm on 25th August 2010

2 Comments

Is it ever a good idea, as a book author, to stop writing? This isn’t a trick question: I have a genuine interest in your views – especially those of you who subscribe to my blog and are regular readers of my articles – plus it may be something you should be asking yourselves....

Posted at 03:21am on 4th June 2010

INTRODUCTION TO GUEST BLOG BY LUCY CRIPPS

Posted at 20:07pm on 30th March 2010

2 Comments

The Drama Triangle is a model of dysfunctional relationships, in which I might see myself as occupying one of three roles: Victim; Rescuer; or Persecutor. As Victim I require you to become my Rescuer. If you don’t comply, I may become a Persecutor, accusing you of neglecting my needs. If you choose not to...

Posted at 02:33am on 5th February 2010

4 Comments

What I’m about to tell you will revolutionise the way you perceive your personal relationships. It will also give you immense insight when it comes to creative writing and publishing a book and, in particular, when you’re creating fictional characters. So, whether you are attempting to make sense of your own relationships, or looking for...

Posted at 01:28am on 7th January 2010

1 Comment

The Power of Positive Thinking, Norman Vincent Peale, has electrified society for over half a century as the means of feeling valued and attaining success in life. Now, it appears, to have been unplugged – or at least to have suffered power failure and fizzled out! Despite an epidemic of positive thinking for the last...

Posted at 17:53pm on 22nd July 2009

3 Comments

I wrote, last week, about public speaking as being an act of investing in people, and suggested that it had a three dimensional nature: I give; I receive; I am filled. Having put in the effort to find out something about your audience, assembled your public speaking ideas and arranged them into a coherent...

Posted at 01:52am on 14th July 2009

2 Comments

One of the seminars I attended at the Conference at which I was speaking last week was about seeing your life as a cookie. Kathy See is the editor of Revive magazine and she wanted us to focus on our self-perception and what we might be able to offer in terms of writing a...

Posted at 03:57am on 3rd July 2009

2 Comments

A comment on my post The Structure Of A Novel: 12 Tips, complimented me for my articles on writing fiction, but asked when you should give up the brainstorming and simply sit down and let the narrative flow? It’s a good question and one which I thought deserving of more attention than I could give...

Posted at 00:00am on 25th April 2009

2 Comments

This is the first Post on my shiny new laptop. As I wrote, yesterday on my Twitter wall (I think that’s the correct jargon) setting up a new computer is a nightmare of mistakes, misunderstandings and misapprehension. Hence the lack of time to add anything to my blog for a few days.

So I thought, today,...

Posted at 06:22am on 16th January 2009

2 Comments

I hope that 2009 will bring you good health and happiness. If you’re an aspiring author, let this be the year that you achieve success in publishing terms. And if you’re simply in need of a little love and understanding, may you find it where you least expect it. Read on ....

Posted at 00:44am on 1st January 2009

I woke, yesterday morning, feeling bad-tempered. This is a rare occurrence and is almost alwaysas a result of my husband’s snoring! There’s something deeply offensive about lying next to someone whose somnolence – loudly and bed-tremblingly declared - is the sole reason for your inability to sleep. Don’t you think?

Posted at 18:37pm on 2nd December 2008