Storyteller, Writer, Speaker
Peg Melnik
After years of telling the truth as a journalist, I decided to give lying a go. Fiction writing, that is, where I let my imagination have full rein to do the storytelling.
I had the good fortune of crossing paths with Brenda Copeland, the former executive editor of St. Martin's Press. Brenda has taught graduate students at (NYU) New York University. And after reading 20 pages of my manuscript, Brenda agreed to be my mentor.
After taking a seminar with Brenda in Pitch to Published, she said “your strength is your emotional truth – trust that.” She also said my efforts showed I was “dedicated to the craft of writing.”
Brenda sensed something many suspect. Former journalists have the work ethic to be tireless novelists. With looming deadlines, we've never had the luxury of writer's block.
After the seminar Brenda took me on as a private client. She agreed to read my full manuscript and guide me with her feedback.
As for my journalist credits, I'm an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in The Explorer's Guide to Napa & Sonoma, published by W.W. Norton, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Press Democrat, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Huffington Post. My most daring story, published by the Los Angeles Times, chronicled my adventure of sneaking onto company-owned property with activists to see Headwaters Forest, the most political woods in California at the time.
As a speaker, I'm a wine educator. I draw on my expertise from being the wine critic at the Press Democrat for 25 years. My seminars are for high-end European cruise lines like AmaWaterways and Oceania, as well as for corporate clients stateside like Google.