Blog: Mel's Muse

Forgiveness After Betrayal: Is It Possible? (or How Well Do You Know The Man In Your Life?)

Dear Mel,

I have never done anything like this before, but I feel I am at the end of my tether. I am 32 and I was previously in a relationship for 8 years, with someone who I thought was the love of my life. We had been friends since we...

Posted at 20:49pm on 25th September 2009

2 Comments

Bereavement Poetry - Death Is But A Door

IF YOU WISH TO USE THIS POEM FOR THE BEREAVED DURING A FUNERAL OR THANKSGIVING SERVICE, PLEASE SEE THE FREE REPRINT NOTICE AT THE END OF THIS ARTICLE.

I lost my daughter some years ago, so I know what it’s like dealing with the loss of a loved one. You wonder...

Posted at 16:06pm on 25th September 2009

Creative Writing Tips: Take Inspiration From The Poets

Sometimes the sheer effort of writing seems to be almost overwhelming. Whatever inspiration you once had has evaporated. You feel tired, drained and dispirited.

We’ve all experienced it. You wake up one morning and think, what on earth am I doing with my life? All those hours spent cooped up with no one but yourself...

Posted at 21:48pm on 18th September 2009

How To Write Description In A Novel: Viewpoint

Viewpoint, or Point of View (commonly referred to as POV) is, arguably, one of the most difficult aspects of creative writing for a novice to grasp. Even when the theory is understood, it is so easy for a new writer to slip up and write from an omniscient (all-seeing) point of view. I have...

Posted at 18:57pm on 14th September 2009

How To Write Description In A Novel: Describing Location

Revised: 19th September, 2010

When you read a novel, you are being invited to inhabit an imaginary world: a fictional place, in which fictional characters live, and move, and have their being. If good descriptive writing is used, their experiences become yours, too, for the duration of the book. But because the medium is...

Posted at 17:37pm on 9th September 2009

8 Comments

Book Review: Can You Hear Me - By Brad Jersak

BOOK REVIEW: CAN YOU HEAR ME BY BRAD JERSAK - This will be the next study book for UV Book Group on 15th October, 2009

Reading this book, which was written just a few years ago, was a refreshing reminder that God speaks to ordinary people like you and me every day. It’s about...

Posted at 15:51pm on 7th September 2009

My Sister's Keeper - Readers' Group Summary

MY SISTER'S KEEPER BY JODI PICOULT: SUMMARY OF THE READERS' GROUP DISCUSSION

One of the intriguing aspects of Jodi Picoult’s novel, My Sister’s Keeper is that the reader is invited to read the Prologue before starting the book, and then to re-read it on finishing. The purpose was to determine in whose Viewpoint the piece had...

Posted at 19:39pm on 6th September 2009

Readers' Group Questions - My Sister's Keeper - By Jodi Picoult 03/09/09

Readers’ Group Questions – My Sister’s Keeper By Jodi Picoult DISCUSSION QUESTIONS Summarise the plot: this is a story about two sisters . . . OR this is a story about two parents . . . OR . . . Who, in your opinion, is the central character in the book? e.g. Sara, the mother; Kate,...

Posted at 09:35am on 3rd September 2009

How To Write Description In A Novel: Characters

Revised: 15th September, 2010

Writing and publishing a book requires an understanding of how to write description. Describing characters is a necessary part of creative writing, as is describing location. But I had to smile when I read a review in The Daily Telegraph, of the American TV drama, The Tudors. It appears that in...

Posted at 20:16pm on 2nd September 2009

1 Comment

Successful Step Parenting: Three Potential Pitfalls - No 3 Contact With Absent Parent

The absent parent and the role they play in a stepfamily is, without doubt, one of the major blended family challenges. In the BBC Birmingham Andrew Peach show on which I had been invited to speak, I was able, in the brief amount of time allotted to me, to get something of this across.

But...

Posted at 21:37pm on 24th August 2009

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