I pulled onto the Turner Turnpike and merged with traffic heading from Oklahoma City to Tulsa. Beside me, Cheri Fuller writhed in guilt. “I shouldn’t be going! Melanie, why are we going to this conference? What good will it do us?” Those were valid questions, but I didn’t pretend to have the answers. I’d never…
In 1968, composer Alex North walked into the New York City premiere of the latest film he had been commissioned to score, 2001: A Space Odyssey. He was fresh off Oscar nominations for Sparticus, Cleopatra, The Agony and the Ecstasy and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? It was another chance for this extraordinary composer’s talent…
On a dreary fall day almost ten years ago, I drove through my neighborhood to pick my kids up at the corner where the school children flooded into the neighborhood to go home. Even though we lived only four blocks from that spot, I insisted on picking them up instead of letting them walk….just an…
I’ve written news copy for more than two decades and print articles since 2005. Then in 2011 I decided to try fiction. Initially I took some novel writing classes but then got stuck and stopped. That was mistake number one. Having penned many magazine pieces I didn’t study the art of non-fiction writing and that…
When I first started writing I had no idea how important it was to build a platform. To be honest I didn’t even know what a platform was. I just thought if I started writing people would flock to my blog. Like the famous movie quote, I imagined… If I build it, they will come….
When I began the journey to become a working writer, I took a freelance writing course taught by Kathryn Fanning at the local library. Week by week, I learned from Kathryn how to study the markets, identify what topics I was qualified to write, query magazines with the article ideas, write and submit my work….
