About author & freelance writer, Melanie Toye: Melanie Toye aims to inspire people through writing and help motivate readers to chase their own dreams. The love for writing has always co-existed in Melanie’s life through writing letters, creating play scripts to her found dream career as a story-teller. With an inspirational blog, frequent freelance writing gigs and Melanie’s first novel release, Entice Me, she is on her way to achieving her dream career as a writer. As well as spurring on all those around her to chase their own dreams.
Interview with Melanie
People would describe you as…? Positive, go getter, gentle
Describe what the writing/editing/publishing was like for you: Lengthy. Entice Me was first demolished when my computer crashed. Starting from scratch I rewrote Entice Me better than the original. Then I spent one and half years applying to publishers. Discovered self-publishing and all fell into place once I decided to travel down this path.
Where did you get the idea for your book, Entice Me? Mainly I want to convey how easy it is for people to get stuck in their daily unfulfilling lives without taking the time to follow their true hearts desires. I have spoken to many people who don’t like their jobs, yet they have been working there for decades. I wondered why they just didn’t change paths. I wanted to provide a message through Entice Me to chase your dreams and follow your own path.
Take us through your typical day: Three days a week, I am at home looking after my young son and spending any free time writing. A typical day looks like this, my young son wakes me up. I cook breakfast for us, then clean the kitchen, put a load of washing on. Go outside with my son to play with our gorgeous German Shepherd dogs. We then might go to the park or go out somewhere. Morning tea time arrives and we sit outside and eat in the shade. I love the outdoors it refreshes me and my spirit. We play games, maybe paint or draw. Then around midday my son has a two hour nap. This is when I strap myself to the computer and write, type and social network and promote my work. When my son wakes up, we play or go to the park in the afternoon then I cook dinner for when my husband returns home. We spend the evening together. My son goes to sleep at a time I would call late. I spend a little more time with my hubby. Then back to the computer for my writing, typing and promoting as well as brainstorming. This usually lasts till about midnight when I decide to go to bed. It seems uncanny that now I have less time to write, yet before I had a child I would spend about the same time or even less time than I do now writing. For me, working within a time frame each day motivates me to get what I need done.
Have you always wanted to be a writer? Good question. I have always loved to write and write stories but I never thought of it as my dream career or any type of career for me really. One day I started writing down characters and their personalities and then the locations. How they were connected with each other and words they spoke. Then scene’s built from that and I couldn’t stop writing. After a few years of writing Entice Me and now with a blog and freelance writing for businesses I have realised this is my dream career.
Do you have any guilty pleasures? If so, what are they? Wow, absolutely. Do you want to know all of them? Hmm … my guilty pleasures would include secretly divulging in chocolate while no one is looking, ice cream while watching a romantic chick flick, reading in bed while everyone is asleep, getting dressed up all girly when going out and eating peanut butter from the jar by the spoonful.
What author(s) would you like to meet? Janet Evanovich, Stephen King, Marian Keyes, Esther Hicks, Robert Kiyosaki and Stephenie Meyer. Can you imagine the mix of these authors all attending a dinner event together? Interesting conversations would be said I can assure you.
Who inspires you? There is an endless list … but really it comes down to people going out there and making their dreams come true. It pushes me to keep going and inspires me to never give up.
What’s your favorite word? Right now … Entice Why? Every sentence I use I want to use entice as a word. For example, ‘for an enticing read, read Entice Me.’ A bit much perhaps? But I just cannot get the word out of my head.
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook, I feel it’s more personable. Though my husband recently told me, ‘Facebook is old.’ Sigh.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given? To not worry about what others may think.
Can you tell us about any of your upcoming projects? Sure, I have a couple of non-fiction eBooks that I am working on to help other writers in non-costly ways to promote their novels as well as other topics. I am also in the midst of writing my second novel, which is fantasy themed, about a woman who lives two lives. The hardest part is choosing which book to work on first.
Additional comments by Melanie: For anyone wanting to chase their dreams, an important point is to find what will motivate you to really dedicate your time and energy to go for it.
Guest Post, “How to Daydream”
Thank you Chick Lit Goddess for the invitation to guest post here. My name is Melanie Toye, author of chick lit fiction novel, Entice Me. I am a dream chaser and I will not give up until I achieve my destination and then I will create even bigger goals. So what about me? I hear you ask. You know dreaming is pretty easy, but for some it can be a daunting process. Let’s make it real simple.
Go outside, wait, print or write down the next steps first then go outside with your instructions. I love the outdoors, because it makes you focus in the moment, rather than taking in all the technology inside.
Once outside, lay down on a towel. Look up. See the beautiful sky and the trees close by. Breathe. Close your eyes holding the image of the glorious sky. Give thanks to yourself for taking the time out of your day to experience this moment. Feel the excitement of this new venture. Breathe.
Take a moment and think about what you really love to do in your spare time. Do you enjoying releasing your stress with a paintbrush and paint to your heart’s content? Do you find your passion is by creating new ideas when cooking meals for the family? Hold what you love to do in your mind. Then think about if you spent your whole day doing what you loved, how would that make you feel? What would your day look like? Who would you meet? Would this be a direction you would like to head towards?
Now open your eyes. Are you smiling? Life doesn’t have to be stressful or dramatic. Life can be enjoyed at every turn, if you let it. The more you listen to your inner voice the more your body and mind will be attuned your true heart’s desires. When opportunities arise you will sway automatically to what will get you closer to your destiny.
If I can give you a little magic to spur on your imagination then imagine what you can do when you give yourself the power to recreate your life to live how you want to live.
“Entice Me” by Melanie Toye
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