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, she agreed to be my developmental editor.
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.
But, Brenda said, “One of the things tenacity won't necessarily get you is voice. And that is your greatest single asset. And it's there from the first page. The voice here is immediate and it doesn't waver. It operates on a specific frequency that is witty, sensual, self aware and emotionally intelligent simultaneously. It can move from comment to tender within a single paragraph without the tonal shifting feeling jarring. That's really sophisticated and it can't be taught.”
My novel is still under wraps, but I hope Brenda's comments will keep you in suspense.
As for my journalist pursuits – where I still tell the truth – check out wineriddler.com. It's my online wine class that's unorthodox. An award-winning writer, my 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.
