Blog: Mel's Muse

Picked For A Purpose 3: Seeds Sown

SEEDS SOWN

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...

Posted at 09:34am on 8th September 2016

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Picked For A Purpose 2: Seeds & Weeds

SEEDS & WEEDS

Have you ever felt useless? As if nothing you do has any meaning or purpose? Ever thought you didn't fit in? In your family? At school? At work? Or that everyone else was more successful? While you . . .? ...

Posted at 05:49am on 6th September 2016

Picked For A Purpose 1 - Me And Daddy, Daddy And Me

ME AND DADDY, DADDY AND ME

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...

Posted at 04:52am on 6th September 2016

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Would You Want Maggie Smith And Her Smelly Van Living On Your Neighbour's Drive?

QUESTION: Would you want Maggie Smith and her smelly van living on your neighbour's drive? Well? Would you?

Interesting discussion last night at the community book club I went to. The book was Alan Bennett's Lady in the Van, and one of the topics raised (by one of several people who...

Posted at 05:33am on 3rd August 2016

So You're Planning A Book Launch. What About Pre Launch Promotion?

In my last blog post, So you're Planning a Book Launch. Do you Know What You're Doing? we considered some of the forward planning that's necessary. Now, with mine so recently behind me, I'll continue to share my experiences. We've looked at Venue, Timing, and Ease of...

Posted at 03:25am on 2nd July 2016

So You're Planning A Book Launch. Do You Know What You're Doing?

MY BOOK LAUNCH

With all the trauma of the British referendum to leave the European Union last week, I can't quite believe that it's now a fortnight since the launch of my latest book, Chosen? The second novel in the Evie Adams series, it is set in Devon as was...

Posted at 04:54am on 30th June 2016

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The Elevator Pitch: What Defines What & Why You Write?

In my last blog post, What Makes A Writer Write, I mentioned the World Book Night event at Stoke Lodge, in Devon. Invited to speak, briefly, to an audience of forty-plus about my own writing career, I began by saying that someone had asked me, ‘What is an elevator pitch?’ ...

Posted at 01:48am on 3rd May 2016

What Makes A Writer Write?

I was reading a blog post on Women Writers, Women’s Books which posed the query, Do you have to suffer to write?

It’s a valid and interesting question.

LESLEY PEARSE: A NAUGHTY LITTLE LIAR?

I attended a World Book Night event yesterday, at which Lesley Pearse, bestselling novelist, was speaking. She had us...

Posted at 07:39am on 24th April 2016

A Book Club Thriller - The Jazz Files

I suggested we read The Jazz Files by Fiona Veitch Smith for our January meeting of the book club I lead, partly because I’d seen the film, Sufragette, starring Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter, and greatly enjoyed it. Fiona’s book, the first in the Poppy Denby investigates series, is...

Posted at 01:45am on 26th January 2016

Break Loose (2015) Fly Free (2016)

What are your New Year’s resolutions? How likely are you to achieve them?

I read an article recently, which said that 95% of diets fail. Why? Precisely because they are diets! Counting calories or eliminating certain categories of food focuses your mind on the very thing you want to...

Posted at 04:34am on 4th January 2016

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