Melanie Faith
Author Interview - Melanie Faith
Author of Writing It Real: Creating an Online Creative-Writing Class for Fun and Profit and Writing It Real: Crafting a Reference Book that Sells
I have two books that were published this year so far in the Write It Real series.
The first book, released in February, is for writers who are interested in teaching online. It’s called Writing It Real: Creating an Online Creative-Writing Class for Fun and Profit. Whether you’re just getting started on your teaching journey or if you’ve taught for years in a brick-and-mortar classroom and would like to make the leap into online instruction, this book offers insight into such topics as: choosing your class theme or genre, determining target audience for your class, choosing the length of your class as well as the platform, ways to market your class, tips for what to charge, determining class objectives, creating a syllabus, marketing your class, interviews with experienced online teachers, and so much more.
My second book is for writers who are want to write a nonfiction reference book. Packed with tips, this book will walk you through insights into planning, writing, editing, pre-publication, and marketing your reference book, from pre-writing to post-publication. It’s called Writing It Real: Crafting a Reference Book that Sells, and its book birthday is in April.
Author Interview - Mary Camarillo
Author I draw inspiration from: So many! My writing clients, students, and friends are certainly among them. I admire their talent, stick-to-it-iveness, and determination.
If I had to pick another craft book writer whose work continues to inspire me, it would be Natalie Goldberg. I first bought her classic, Writing Down the Bones, with my allowance money in fourth grade at the local bookstore, because it had the word writing in the title and I so wanted to be a writer, even then. As you might imagine, I didn’t understand a lot of it as a ten-year-old kid, but I certainly gave reading it a good go! My next experience reading it was in college when I researched a thesis project about women writers and the writing process, and it was an invaluable resource.
I own two or three copies of Writing Down the Bones and have recommended and/or gifted copies to numerous friends over the years. It’s a fantastic book to be read either chronologically or dipping into or out of the chapters, and it never ceases to bring me inspiration as a writer, teacher, and thinker. Different chapters speak to me at various points in my life, depending on what I’m going through personally. Goldberg’s tone is informative, whimsical in an expansive sense, and connective, like sitting and talking with an engaging writing friend.
Author Interview - Melanie Faith | Author I Draw Inspiration From
Favorite place to read a book: I read anywhere and everywhere, but my favorites are curled up like a cat in an armchair with a space heater nearby or in my bed, propped against a cloud of pillows, with no hurry. The no-hurry part is as much a place and the actual furniture and as comforting—it helps the mind to roam pleasantly into the narrative world.
Book character I’d like to be stuck in an elevator with: Atticus Finch. He’s compassionate and comforting, level-headed, intelligent on many levels, and he’s been through some tough times. He’s also handsome (in the Gregory Peck movie version). Plus, if there were any problems with the elevator, he would totally keep me from panicking because he would calmly and directly take steps to get the situation fixed. I feel like calm people are always good companions for an elevator (or anywhere else), just in case.
Author Interview - Melanie Faith | Book Character I’d Like to be Stuck in an Elevator With
The moment I knew I wanted to become an author: It was long before I could write, that’s for sure. I’ve always been a word person; my mom recorded in my baby book that I started to talk at 4 months (don’t worry—I didn’t start to read until kindergarten like so many of us, LOL). I remember holding up my storybooks at around age 3 and pretending to read to my stuffed animals and dolls (my favorite one was an oversize brown bear whose left eye I’d bitten off while teething and a bald-headed baby with a contorted, crying face and a soft flannel beanbag body); when I couldn’t remember the real story, I improvised. Author was my identity very young, and I remember both my 5th and 7th grade teachers saying I would be an author, which were certainly wonderful moments of confirmation for what I already wanted to become.
Hardback, paperback, ebook or audiobook: Paperback and ebook for my own recently-published books. I appreciate all four formats for various reasons as a writer and a reader: ebooks and audiobooks for their portability and space-saving potential, audiobooks for hearing the author’s voice or a great professional voice actor reading them and for the tone in a spoken voice (although my mind tends to wander sometimes without the print in front of me), hardbacks for their sturdiness, and paperbacks for hitting the in-between sweet spot of carry-ability, nice price-point, and entertainment. I mostly buy paperbacks or hardbacks, though, because I still love that tactile sensation of holding the heft of a book and turning the pages—it’s very sensory and reminds me that a book is a work of art as well as an object with volume and physical weight, too. All four formats have awesome cover art.
The last book I read: I’m usually reading multiple books at once for myself and/or my teaching, but one of the most interesting recent books was: Being Here is Everything: The Life of Paula Mendersohn-Becker by Marie Darrieussecq, translated by Penny Hueston. Paula was an Expressionist painter and a friend to poet Rainer Maria Rilke, married (often unhappily) to a fellow German painter, trained as an artist in Paris, and tragically died shortly after childbirth of an embolism when she was just 31. With quotes from her letters and diaries, this book reads like a combination of juicy memoir (of Paula, certainly, but also of the author’s life) and autofiction. It’s a riveting work that covers many of my favorite topics to read about: makers, the creative process, women artists, her and her friends’ trajectories as artists, their obstacles and successes, and more. I’d never heard of this painter before reading the book (it was an online recommendation), but I’ll never forget her after, which I think is one of the nicest things to say about great, well-written nonfiction. I love the unexpected richness of stepping into someone else’s proverbial shoes and learning about another life and time period while retaining one’s own POV and having empathy and interest in the struggles and joys of artists before me who have paved the way so that I get to practice as a writer and an artist today.
Author Interview - Melanie Faith | The Last Book I Read
Pen & paper or computer: I need both for different moments. Pen & paper for the joy of writing on the go and/or late at night. Pen & paper also for the grace of fine motor movements and making little slashes and squiggles and carats to include words that pop up like popcorn in my sentences and flood into the margins. Computer for ease of typing and editing my drafts. Also, computer because my handwriting swings between loopy and lovely cursive and a sloppy, sloping, and nearly indecipherable print-cursive combo when my brain thinks faster than my hand moves. I’m grateful I live in an era where we have both in abundance, as well as voice-recognition software and tools for writing on our phones; although I don’t use these latter two technologies very often they’re available and handy in a pinch.
Book character I think I’d be best friends with: Anne Elliot in Persuasion. She’s loyal, gentle, wry, and out of place. I admire that, like all of us, she’s been through some life stuff that was painful, and yet she’s still a connector, a great listener, and a passionate person who finds her own authentic path in the end. Anne’s the ultimate underdog protagonist to root for, and I imagine she’d tell funny stories. As a flesh-and-blood friend, I imagine she’d be a lot like Amanda Root’s BBC movie depiction of the character. I bet Anne is a total INFJ on the Meyers-Briggs, like me.
Author Interview - Melanie Faith | Book Character I’d be Best Friends With
If I weren’t an author, I’d be a: documentary filmmaker or a full-time photographer. I think in visual imagery, and I love that all three jobs can explore what it means to be both an individual and a part of one or more communities. All three vocations can develop stories in beautiful and compelling ways. As a creative and an introvert, I love that they give the creator freedom to be both active participant and interested observer.
Favorite decade in fashion history: I like the look of the early 1960s/Mad Men/Jackie Kennedy look, and I still miss my ‘90s black Mary Jane shoes with the thick soles that were so cute and kicky, but for variety, now is the best because we can mix and match any era we like.
Place I’d most like to travel: Topsail Island, N.C. is one of my favorite places, so that tops the list—standing before the ocean is always super meaningful. I’d still one day, post-Covid-19, very much like to take a literary tour of England with my wonderful sister; we had started to talk about it a bit before Covid-19 struck and set the world into a tailspin.
My signature drink: Mint tea, which I frequently make to savor while I write. I love the taste, and I’m totally a tea person. Once, I had a seven-course meal at a Moroccan restaurant that included the waiter pouring tea from an ornate silver tea service and individually washing the hands of each person at my table. I can’t say I’ve ever had a person (much less a stranger) gently and briskly wash my hands before or since. It was sensory overload and a very interesting ritual to take part in that day. I sometimes still think of that unique and beautiful experience when I make my own mint tea.
Favorite artist: I’ve been digging the music of Fleet Foxes (especially “Featherweight” which has been in heavy rotation for a lyric that feels of-this-moment and for a beautiful guitar solo at the beginning). The photography of Cig Harvey is another a touchstone that makes me want to create more books and photos. I’m also really intrigued by relaxing ASMR videos—they’ve sometimes lulled me to sleep during this turbulent pandemic time, and they have a wide array of personalities and content creators from all around the world. One of my favorite creators is ASMRctica ASMR from Sweden; he draws and narrates maps in a slow-moving voice that is a cross between Fred Rogers and Bob Ross on a calmness scale. Instant relaxation. I’m really into writing and art right now that feels layered, simultaneously vibrant and authentic as well as soothing and balanced.
Number one on my bucket list: · While I love making goals and pursuing them and I do heartily believe in dreaming big combined with follow-through, I’ve not really been focusing on specific bucket list items for the past few years. A part of me wants to stay surprised and open to greater opportunities than I can imagine. I know I’d like to do more with my photography and my writing. Good things ahead!
Anything else you'd like to add: Many thanks for this lovely opportunity to share my books and my answers to these insightful questions with you and your readers. May the muse continue to be kind to you all!
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Author Bio: · Melanie Faith’s writing has been nominated for three Pushcart Prizes. She likes to wear many professional hats, including as a poet, photographer, prose writer, professor, editor, and tutor. In 2021, she had the joy of having poems from her collection, This Passing Fever, (FutureCycle Press 2017), set to music and voice and performed at Iowa State University, two of her photos were part of themed photo exhibition, and a poem appeared as part of the Film Shooters Collective’s “Ekphrastic Magic” exhibition at the Revela’t Analog Photography Festival in Barcelona, Spain. In 2022, she has the honor of three craft books being published by Vine Leaves Press, and she’s also published books through the press about writing poetry and flash fiction as well as Photography for Writers. Her next book, From Promising to Published: A Multi-Genre, Insider’s Guide to the Publication Process, will be published in May 2022. She’s currently working on a novel about two sculptors as well as two historical poetry collections. To learn more, please visit: https://melaniedfaith.com/ .
