Author: Inspire Envisioning
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Book Review: Centauri’s Shadow by Ross Garner
I was very excited when my colleague Ross Garner published his debut novel Centauri’s Shadow. It’s not every day that someone at work shows up with a thrilling space adventure, so I jumped at the chance to review it. Centauri’s Shadow is a hard science fiction space opera with two separate storylines, told in two…
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New Site and Folklore Anthology
I’ve been busy this month updating my website and social media. It’s a work in progress, to be sure, but it seemed like time to move on from the old “Inspire Envisioning” business name. My new social media handles are: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelanieBellWrites Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melaniebellwrites/ Twitter/X: @InspireEnvision I’ve started a Substack newsletter, with a free story…
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…And Here’s How the Songwriting Retreat Went!
I’m back from my songwriting retreat in the Peak District, where I spent a week in a converted barn in the countryside with a group of musicians and our facilitator, Murray Webster, who arranged daily activities and masterminded the whole thing. There was a lot of talent in that one living space! Guitar chords rang…
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Off I Go to a Songwriting Retreat…
In September 2021, I took a songwriting course with London Songwriters. Later this month, I’ll be joining facilitator Murray Webster and other songwriters for a retreat in the Peak District. I’ve enjoyed making up songs since childhood, though not with the same intensity as I’ve pursued other types of writing. I look forward to making…
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New Year, New Attempts at Hard Things
Goal setting is a topic that’s attracted a long-time blend of fascination and skepticism from me. I often set and try to achieve goals. Sometimes they go well. Other times, the results… well, they make good stories! Anecdotally, I’ve seen that achieving things is usually a process, and successes tend to have invisible trails of…
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Artificial Intelligence: A New Chatbot and Anthology
Advances in artificial intelligence have been key technological developments in 2023. And I’ve been fortunate to be involved in the action in my own small ways. Mind Tools, the workplace learning company I work for, launched an innovative product called AI Conversations in collaboration with Learning Pool last year. AI Conversations allows managers to practice…
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The Collaborative Process of Making a Play
This month, I’ll have a play performed at London’s Tower Theatre for the second time. It’s been a massively collaborative process to get it there! Last year, my short play The Pictures of Dora Gray was one of five chosen for the Writers’ Room showcase, featuring new writing from the Tower Theatre’s playwriting group. I’ve…
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Keeping It Simple for NaNoWriMo
One of my writers’ groups had a recent discussion about how easy it is to make a novel too complicated. This is a challenge I encounter a lot. I love worldbuilding and complex ideas. When I attended Julie Cohen’s writing retreat in France, she called me out for it: “Keep it simple, stupid!” I need…
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New Play and Chasing Harmony Book Tour
Lots of good writing news lately. September was my book tour to celebrate Chasing Harmony’s one-year anniversary, following shortly after its ebook release. What a whirlwind! From August 28 to September 22, a variety of book blogs hosted guest posts, excerpts, gift card giveaways, and reviews for my YA novel. You can catch up with…
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Happy One-Year Anniversary to Chasing Harmony!
My first novel, Chasing Harmony, has been out for a year now! It’s now available in ebook format as well as in paperback, which I’m excited about because it means more people can read it. It took 10 years for this strange, literary, bisexual YA coming-of-age story to find a publisher, and I’m grateful it…
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