Her Story
About Melissa
My journey to becoming a book author came through motivation and determination during a very challenging time in my life. After working for a company for more than 10 years, the company went out of business, and I lost everything and had to relocate with my family. I've always had a background in writing - I've done that since I was a young girl in my 20s, always kept a journal everywhere I went, always studying, going to college, doing research on different things. Instead of having to go to the 9 to 5 every day that I ended up losing, I turned back to my passion of writing. That opened up a whirlwind of different things for me, and I ended up writing my series, which is the Awakening series. I'm on my third book now in my series that I'm writing at the particular moment, and hopefully I will be done in a few months. It came through a lot of struggle and a lot of different adversity, but I was able to go through it and master that and push through it. I'm grateful for that motivation that I had to keep moving and keep going. As a self-published author who went on this journey by herself, different doors have been opened through my books and the people reading them.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Melissa
01What do you attribute your success to?
I would say I attribute my success to God, and to my family that stuck by me, and just being motivated to keep moving. Through all the struggles and adversity I faced - losing my job after more than 10 years, having to relocate with my family, losing everything - I was able to push through because of my faith, the support of my family, and my determination to keep going forward no matter what challenges came my way.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I ever received was from my former mentor, who told me to always be open-minded and always be open as a child to learn. It doesn't matter how old you are, it doesn't matter how much experience you have - everyone has the ability to learn more. So I should always be receptive and be open as a child to learn and to gain more wisdom from anyone else that has more than me. It doesn't matter if they're younger than me or older, I should still always be open to learn more from someone else.
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