I’m Melanie Harvey, a 38 year old wife (17 years) and mother of 3 kids, aged 9, 12 and (yikes) 15. I’ve written two novels, and no, none of them have been published, so no you can’t buy them and quit asking. Tell you what, you write a novel, sweat out a query letter and a synopsis, then send it out to fifty agents and then you come ask me when my book’s gonna get published.
I live in Columbus, Ohio in a messy house that holds five people, one dog that sheds a lot but also protects me from my rejection-letter carrying mailman, and a cat that likes to stay out until 3 a.m. As said cat can’t open doors, he alerts me to his homecomings by whacking on my bedroom window until I get my lazy ass out of bed to let him inside. (We recently acquired a second cat who is just as obnoxious but in completely new and fun ways.)
In between all this, I try to write, work a boring job so everybody here can keep eating (on the rare occasions I actually go buy food) and now…well, now I’m going back to school.
Yeah, that’s the insane idea of the year.
If you have any comments you want to pass along to me, you can reach me at mel (at) melanieharvey.com
I’m reachable other ways too, but if you think you might be too far away for the hollering-out-the-window method, try the email.
November 3, 2007 at 2:16 am
So, you buy food… do you cook it?
November 11, 2007 at 6:59 pm
rarely
January 1, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Most of us work boring jobs so we can write. Writing certainly doesn’t pay for me and I now realize and accept I will never be John Grisham. I have proclaimed that I will write for the sheer joy of it. No more queries, synopses, rejection POST CARDS, or literary snobbery. I write my books, publish them through my own little publishing company, promote them as much as I want and sell a few. As I told someone else yesterday, I spoke to a bookclub of about 10 ladies who were throughly interested in my books. They referred to me as an author and I didn’t tell them any different.
January 1, 2008 at 3:52 pm
I totally agree. Lawrence Block said in one of his books that writers rarely have demanding careers– and seem to have a high tolerance for financial instability. I would add, for female writers, a high tolerance for household disorder.
March 5, 2008 at 6:46 am