Interview with Melissa Beck

Please help me welcome our guest for today, Melissa Beck!

What was your first published book and with whom? I first sold to HardShell Word Factory in 2000. That book is no longer available.

How many books did you write before selling one? Not sure. I would guess 7 or 8 full manuscripts. I wrote two young adults, and then several contemporaries.

How many books have you published? Two. My current release is The Daddy Issue, published by The Wild Rose Press.

What themes go through your books? Longing for family, a gaining of self-confidence, mutual trust in each other. I would say my books have a mainstream feel. They're centered around a couple who need to discover what is hurting them, holding them back from the full capacity to love. Their love helps them grow and evolve into the best they can be. But they've always had good core beliefs. Maybe some trauma in their lives has made them forget, or push aside their inner strengths, and love helps them find and use those great traits again.

Which other jobs have you had? Waitress, retail sales, bank management, needlework finisher, freelance editing/writing—nonfiction.

Which "bucket list" types of things have you done? Beauty pageant participant, judged shelties at my local club's dog show, took improv comedy classes, taught Vacation Bible School, facilitated Adult Disciple Bible Study classes, entered and was a finalist in a suburban newspaper's cooking contest, took quilting, rug hooking, rug braiding and beaded jewelry making classes, sold collectibles on Ebay and at antiques market, member of garden club. Oh, and blue and red ribbon winner at North Georgia Fair with my needlework projects. And my family and my cattle dog, Shadow, just auditioned to be on the national TV show, "It's Me or The Dog."

What do you love most about writing and do you not like? I love probing characters' minds and creating their lives for them! I enjoy the puppetry act of being a writer. What I dislike is that it involves a lot of sitting down. I like to be active. And I wish I wrote faster, so I could get up off the sofa in a more timely manner! I don't like the way it takes a few false starts and a lot of character analysis and synopsis work before I know my people well enough to write their story. And I don't like it that I write so much, I don't have a lot of time for pleasure reading.

What are you writing now? It's another twist on the secret baby theme. I'm a little shy about discussing the details of the next one until I'm further along with it. But suffice it to say, I'm happy with how I'm doing on the early chapters.

What would you write if you could do write anything you wanted to write? Exactly what I'm writing. Contemporaries with plenty of emotion.

Why do you write? Because I can! And because I can do it for hours, and then look up at the clock and time has just ticked away. That's a good feeling, to know that you've gotten yourself so occupied, you haven't noticed the time. Life coaches are always telling people that's the type of job they should have!

How do you write? Laboriously, and all the while wishing I could be faster!