My name is Melanie, which I guess my blog’s title has made obvious already. I am a proud new mother of a little man and I love to write. That pretty much resumes my life. Okay, it’s a little exaggeration but yet not so far from the truth.
Having a baby changed my life and takes a lot of my time, and writing has always been a significant part of my life so now I juggle both and I have never felt that accomplished in my life.
But for conversation sake and because it’s always nice to know who we are dealing with, I will tell you a little more about me. I am a 30-years-old francophone from Montreal, Canada who got suck into the English’s world through the force of work, friends, and movies and books. (They always come out in English first!) Strangely, I found a freedom in English’s writing that I couldn’t reach in French so I started to write strictly in English. That said, I will never forget or deny my French’s roots, beside they give me a good excuse for my little grammar and syntax’s errors!
I'm happily married for a little over a year now and hope to keep the happiness going for a long time, not to use the cheesy word forever. I have a good 9 to 5’ job that pays the bills, have two older brothers, six nieces and nephews, a group of cherished friends that I can count on the fingers of one hand (but who needs more?) and I could probably describe myself in one single word: passion.
Okay, I might be flirting with cheesiness again but the truth is the truth. I get passionate about everything that I do. And when I say everything I mean everything. Whether it’s doing my job or a sport activity, defend a friend or a point of view, fight for my rights or just with my husband; I do all those with passion. Some might say I graze obsession and it would be a hard one for me to argue.
I am what you call a bookworm. Seriously, I read every day and believe that a day without reading is a wasted day. But sometime it gets to the point that I am so enthrall by stories that I get mad and pout the author for weeks or months if he dares to kills one of my favorite character or if the story line don’t go as I want to! I refused to read Harry Potter for three months after J.K. Rowling killed the character of Sirius Black because he was one of my favorites. I had imagined so many outcomes and developments for his character that I felt she let me down by killing him. Of course, curiosity got the best of me after a while, and I devoured the rest of the series avidly.
I am also a really opinionated person. I love to argue, critic, defend and share my points of views on things. I take everything to heart. It doesn’t matter if I plead a procedure at work, the monstrosity of a new fashion wave or the right not to give your child Ritalin to register him to school. I will devote myself with the same passion discussing the three subjects.
Then come the writing part of my life. For as long as I can remember, writing have been the most important part of my life. Reading paved the way for me to start writing. Using my imagination and creativity to visualize the various characters and worlds of a book stimulated me to create my own characters and stories. I have to admit that I have a parallel life in my head, as I make up stories, enhance my daily routine and fantasize about glamorous and adventurous journeys. I am my favorite heroine. When I write, I tend to make myself the main character. I create a world or a situation and then, I question myself on how I would react, what my response would be to a given question or quest. It's an extremely enriching process and I often get caught in daydreams about my stories. Writing brings out such amazing feelings in me, that I wonder how others can go without writing.
It started with poetry when I was only 10-years-old –writing poems to my secret cupid– and it grew into an amazing outlet to express my teen’s worries, fears and anxiety by writing essays, letters and lyrics. While I left behind the essays and letters, I kept working hard on my song’s writing. I won a few contest here and there, and I still have the hope on seeing my name on a music album one day. NickleBack would be the absolute dream!
I kept looking and searching for what I would do of my life, thinking that writing couldn’t be it, but no matter where I looked, I kept coming back to writing. Not only do I enjoy writing but also I need it. So I stopped fighting and dived.
I took numerous freelance classes in Creative Writing, Journalism and Print communication at Concordia’s University. I was eager to learn the vast and different avenues of writing, plus I wanted to improve my skill and open my horizons.
I also started to write my first novel; one I had in mind for years, the first tome of a trilogy. I am proud to say that it’s now finished and in editing process and that tome two is almost finished as well!
Until I can find an agent or a publisher who’s willing to dive with me, I have decided to ePublish my book myself. I am presently working on the editing and pagination. I will obviously let you know when it’s available. (So you can tell all your friends !!!)
And now, here I am creating this blog. The idea has been in the back of my mind and has nagged me for quite some time now. Many friends encouraged me to do so but yet again, I didn’t take my writing seriously enough to see potential and a future in it. I found numerous excuses, among which, one of my favorite was, and “I don’t have time.” Well that excuse went right down the drain when I fell on maternity’s leave. True, I have a son that requires a lot of my time but still I have some free time these days. So without any more excuses, I decided to dive for that one too.
Now the question is: why would you read my blog? I am no superstar or famous person. I do not have a specialization or some fancy degrees that give me the expertise to provide advices on a specific subject. I will give you that. What I do have though is the passion for what I do best, which is writing. I was told that I have a special and unique way to tell stories, whether they are others or mine. So the answer is, “ For pure entertainment’s sake!” Come and share my passion, extravagance and sometime craziness.
The goal here is to create a forum where ideas can be share through the medium of writing. I like to talk about any subjects and I love to debate them. Although I rarely change my mind when it’s made up, I am more than willing to listen to someone else arguments. You might not convince me or swing me your way, but I will most likely respect you for your ideas and the fact that you stand by them.
My writing’s subject may vary from serious ones, such as relationships, morals and principles or even death, to more silly and light ones such as holiday or the origin of expression like: “ Cute as button.” (Seriously, I am still trying to figure that one out.) Bottom line, everything that cross my mind, that happens to me, that I witness or that makes the news headline, might trigger a new post. You’ll see life through my eyes, the life as per Melanie!
