The Author Spotlight Series shines a light on writers creating heartfelt and original work across genres, giving them an opportunity to talk about their books and why they do what they do.
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“Melodie has a BA in English from the University of Toronto, a Master’s degree in communications from McMaster University and Syracuse University, and studied comedy writing at the Second City Training Centre. Her writing has been featured in Writer’s Digest, GI60 UK Theatre Festival, the Austin Film Festival Playwright Competition, and the Hart House Drama Festival”.
When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I have always written in my imagination, but I distinctly remember feeling envious of specific clever lines written by others and wishing I had that ability, probably around age 10. A few years later, watching Sorkin’s West Wing with my sister, I remember wanting desperately to be Sorkin while my sister wanted to be C.J. (the White House Spokesperson).
Do you remember the first thing you ever wrote?
As an adolescent I set out to write a novel as a gift for Mother’s Day. My intention was to give her a chapter per year. I think I gave her three…and she’s still waiting for the rest! The first thing I completed was a play in grade 10 for a high school drama competition.
How did you develop your skills?
Constant and broad reading really did help to embed language and narrative structures, storytelling, from childhood and on to studying literature at university. I developed skill by writing different styles: plays in high school; endless academic essays; journalism articles for the university newspaper; press releases and myriad other documents working in law firm communications. I also entered contests to get professional constructive criticism.
Who are some of your biggest literary influences? Do you have a favourite book/author?
I look for wit, humor, and complexity so I love Dickens (Bleak House), Austen (Pride and Prejudice), Wilde (The Importance of Being Ernest), Pullman (The Golden Compass), and Tolkien (Lord of the Rings). More recently I’ve been rereading Trollope’s The Way We Live Now for its Ponzi scheme and Woolf’s Orlando for its time travel.
How would you describe your work?
I hope my novels are entertaining and offer moments of laughter or comedy amid the heavier content of broken families, heartache, injury, and so on. I hope I’m mimicking the emotional rollercoaster of life and demonstrating resilience as the path to follow. So far, my two novels (Jane & Edward; Once Persuaded, Twice Shy) have been adaptations of classic Bronte and Austen novels, though I think sufficiently changed that knowledge of the originals is unnecessary…unless a reader wants to play BINGO between the original and my retelling. I think audiences/readers like to have intensity and complexity somewhat ‘diluted’ so I use humor. In one novel I used personification of objects, and in the latest novel I inserted a chaotic goose.
What’s your writing process like?
I find a physical setting first, one where I can imagine the characters walking, and I take lots of photographs. Then I handwrite snippets of scenes, usually dialogues until I sense the characters are distinct —not sounding like me— and have life. Since my first two novels are adaptations that use the skeleton of the original, I identify the theme (the lessons to be taken away), find the critical plot engine moments/beats, and decide which characters will be used, discarded, replaced, or added in order to modernize the work. Then I try out different charming ways to set the meet cute, write that chapter, and write random key scenes, seaming the novel together at the end. A lot is changed from plan to final product.
Tell us about your most recent book.
Once Persuaded, Twice Shy is a retelling of Austen’s Persuasion —her last novel and arguably her wisest take on life and romance. Two young people meet at university, become deeply attached, and expect to share life. But an experienced elder relative points outs the potential pitfalls, particularly in the young suitor’s lack of maturity and future prospects, so he is dumped and heartbroken. Fast forward eight years to a gorgeous little town called Niagara-on-the-Lake where the heroine Anne has become a successful theatre manager and town counsellor amid a group of unintentionally comical townsfolk, and her ex has purchased a winery for his retired aunt and uncle. The wounded hearts collide but pride and insecurity, and a rotor of town festivals with a troublesome goose, keep them dancing the ‘will they, won’t they’ right to the end. And, as I like to do, I’ve added a financial scam as an added complication.
What are you working on now/next?
My next book is currently in the writing phase and I am trying a new genre by utilizing some magic realism and history to landscape an unusual romance. It is an original story. I’m also, in the background notebooks working on another Austen retelling, and researching for a mystery thriller.
Where can we find you online?
Melodieedwards.com is my website, and Instagram handle is @MelodieWritesEdwards