Melanie Bell

Category: Writing

  • Keeping It Simple for NaNoWriMo

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    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…

  • New Play and Chasing Harmony Book Tour

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    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…

  • Happy One-Year Anniversary to Chasing Harmony!

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    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…

  • Book Review: Agony’s Lodestone by Laura Keating

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    Laura Keating, a fellow student from the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College program, is both a lovely person and a stellar writer. I read some of her work during our student days, and both of us have since been doing our best in the literary trenches. She’s carved out a niche and a name…

  • Want to Write a Book? Tap Into Your Weird Obsessions

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    What do you Google at 3 am? What’s that one odd thing you can’t stop thinking about, perhaps to the point where you have a hard time explaining to other people why it captivates you?  If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book, one starting point is personal interest. Scratch that: personal passion, obsession, or…

  • Onward, 2023!

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    2022 was an intense year. I’m not sure what to expect from 2023 yet. So far, I’ve found joy in learning Spanish on Duolingo, which feels more like a game than an education, and in exploring the pebble beaches of my new home.  I’m revising my NaNoWriMo novel, working on another novel, and continuing to…

  • Book review: A Consuming Fire by Laura E. Weymouth

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    “I don’t want to be an offering, she thought with a new and sharp urgency. I never have, nor a prayer, either. I will be a knife in the dark or nothing, no matter the cost.” –A Consuming Fire, Laura E. Weymouth What would you do if a god killed your sister? For Anya Astraea,…

  • NaNoWriMo Was a Wild Time

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    I started NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) this November as an incentive to finish my fantasy novel, the one I’d been working on for a year and a half. At 55,000 words in, it was rolling along toward a conclusion, but it hadn’t gotten there yet. When I applied last year for a grant I…

  • Oh, the Drama!

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    These last couple months have been exciting ones for my short play, The Pictures of Dora Gray. I’ve seen it read by two different casts. And at the end of the month, I’ll see it performed at the Tower Theatre’s Writers’ Room showcase. In Oscar Wilde’s classic novel, The Pictures of Dorian Gray, a young…

  • My Play Is in a December Showcase

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    The Tower Theatre has become one of my favorite places in London. It’s that rare thing, an amateur theatre company with its own performance space. The plays are diverse and high quality, ranging from Shakespearean comedies to contemporary theatre about the Black British experience, from intimate monologue series to expansive productions like Coram Boy. I’ve…