Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
My name is Melinda Irvine (Mel) and I am an Australian writer, poet and musician. After coming to the Philippines after a calamity in 2014, I have found myself unexpectedly an adopted mom and living dual lives between the Philippine Western Visayas and my home country. Sometimes my life can get a little challenging and my outlet is writing, photography and music, all channelled into my blog.
I’ve just released my first book, a small collection of poetry called Paperbark Wetlands.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Paperbark Wetlands: 10 Little Multimedia Poems Lyricing the Australian Landscape was inspired by a quiet place near my parent’s house in my home town. Whenever I go home to visit mum and dad, I grab dad’s old ute (pickup), dad’s brown dogs and head onto an old dirt road which eventually turns to black sand. The melaleucas (paperbarks) arch a little trail to the beach. It’s a magical place and I have been walking there since I was a kid, or riding my bike when a teen. It’s my place of calm, nostalgia and rejuvenation. There are so many photographs and poems on my blog in that space.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write everywhere, roadsides, truckstops, bushwalks, coffee shops, restaurants, waiting in queues, walking the beach, wandering the wetlands, aeroplanes, lobbies … everywhere. Being a songwriter sometimes I compose songs lyrics and melodies while I am driving and can’t pull over, I never write them down, just memorise the whole thing in my head.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I read a lot of poetry, especially that older style verse poetry by poets like Tennyson and Longfellow. I’m fairly obsessed with Sylvia Plath’s Ariel. I first read the Hobbit when I was 12 and I can’t count how many times I have read it over the years. Tolkien also satisfies my love of rhyme. Oh and Enid Blyton too.
What are you working on now?
I’m currently working on another book of multimedia poetry called “My Mother’s Garden”. The book is themed around family and that feeling of home, wherever you find it. It’s a more substantial work than Paperbark Wetlands and has a lot more humour. After all that’s what families are, when they’re not driving us crazy they are awfully funny. One highlight is a poem I have literally been working on for almost 10 years now called ‘The Red-bellied Black Snake”. I am determined to finish for the book. The story surrounds a phone call from the city (me) back to the country (mum) who, while on the phone, is shouting directions and orders at my father and my brother-in-law, while they try to direct a rather large snake in the backyard into a hessian sack. True Story. Mostly true poem. It should be out in about 8 weeks.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Used well, social media can be great BUT, focus your attention on what you already know how to do and in the place or places you love. Meaning if you love Facebook and use it all the time, that’s your place, though it could be your blog, it might be emailing, it might be Twitter or Pinterest. Whatever it is stick to what’s true for you.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
I am a new author so I am actually doing a lot of listening. Write, write, write, write, write. Edit, edit, edit, edit, edit.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
If you move to a small town, make friends slowly.
What are you reading now?
Mother Teresa: An Authorised Biography (Kathryn Spink)
Faunaverse: Australian Wildlife in Poetry (Alexander Dudley and Jane Sullivan)
The Famous Five Series (Enid Blyton)
Ariel (Sylvia Plath) (I’m always reading it)
What’s next for you as a writer?
My next major project is a book about my adopted son Jerry. He has a tragic yet beautiful story. I feel a great desire to get it down and share it with the world. There are so many kids like Jerry out there who need love and a future.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Ariel (Sylvia Plath)
The biggest art book I can find, maybe Gardner’s.
The Republic (Plato)
The Hobbit (Tolkien)
Author Websites and Profiles
Melinda Irvine Website
Melinda Irvine Amazon Profile
Melinda Irvine’s Social Media Links
Facebook Profile
Twitter Account
Pinterest Account