Ask the Author: Melissa Muldoon
Answered Questions (8)
Melissa Muldoon
Hi Nancy! Thanks for your message. I'm so sorry but I'm just seeing this message now. 2020 has been a crazy year and I've been writing my 4th novel due out in a few weeks so haven't spent a lot of time on Goodreads. Thanks so much for highlighting my novel on your site. That is wonderful. The novel is available in both English and Italian in epub and print and now as an Audio book. I'm sorry you won the version you couldn't read. I'd love to send you a version you can read. Would you be interested in the epub version or perhaps a link to the Audio version? Let me know.
Melissa Muldoon
I have many favorite fictional couples. It is hard to choose just one. I think my first and most favorite however, would have to be Anne Sheridan and Gilbert Blythe from the "Anne of Green Gables" series. Through L. M. Montgomery's writing we follow the development of these characters from childhood to young adult to middle age and the ups and downs of their relationship.
I also have to mention that as a young girl I was also a fan of Natasha and Pierre of War & Peace and Scarlett and Rhet Butler of Gone with the Wind.
But hands down, I have always loved Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. I have to make contact with them at least once a year and re-read Pride and Prejudice. They are quite dear to me, after all!
I also have to mention that as a young girl I was also a fan of Natasha and Pierre of War & Peace and Scarlett and Rhet Butler of Gone with the Wind.
But hands down, I have always loved Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy. I have to make contact with them at least once a year and re-read Pride and Prejudice. They are quite dear to me, after all!
Melissa Muldoon
"Dreaming Sophia" is the culmination of my personal experience learning Italian and living in Italy as well as being an artist. It is a fictional story, but it is also very much my story of how I fell in love with the language and a country that isn't my own, but which I have come to call home. The book also evolved out of all the many stories I have written for the Studentessa Matta blog. It weaves together many strands of Italian culture, art, romance, and history.
When I first sat down to develop a fictional story, I tossed around several ideas, but as I glanced up at a picture of Eleonora de' Medici painted by the Renaissance artist Bronzino pinned to my idea board next to my computer, the original draft of Dreaming Sophia began to flow out of me. I was a little surprised at first by the direction the story took right from the beginning and was immediately captivated by the characters of Sophia and her mother.
As I continued to write and began developing the conversations between Sophia her Italian muses—Eleonora de’ Medici and her encounters with Leonardo and Michelangelo and Prince Lorenzo I was thoroughly hooked. I wanted to continue exploring the theme of a young girl rising out of tragedy, learning how to cope with her grief who eventually finds the confidence to create a new life and artistic career for herself in Italy. I also wanted to tie in the many personalities from Italian art and history and have my character “meet” them through her daydreams. Although the story begins with tragedy, ultimately it ends joyfully. It is about falling in love with one’s self and finding inner confidence, as well as falling in love with a country and its culture.
When I first sat down to develop a fictional story, I tossed around several ideas, but as I glanced up at a picture of Eleonora de' Medici painted by the Renaissance artist Bronzino pinned to my idea board next to my computer, the original draft of Dreaming Sophia began to flow out of me. I was a little surprised at first by the direction the story took right from the beginning and was immediately captivated by the characters of Sophia and her mother.
As I continued to write and began developing the conversations between Sophia her Italian muses—Eleonora de’ Medici and her encounters with Leonardo and Michelangelo and Prince Lorenzo I was thoroughly hooked. I wanted to continue exploring the theme of a young girl rising out of tragedy, learning how to cope with her grief who eventually finds the confidence to create a new life and artistic career for herself in Italy. I also wanted to tie in the many personalities from Italian art and history and have my character “meet” them through her daydreams. Although the story begins with tragedy, ultimately it ends joyfully. It is about falling in love with one’s self and finding inner confidence, as well as falling in love with a country and its culture.
Melissa Muldoon
Ideas come to me all the time. I have so many that it is hard to keep up with them all. I keep extensive lists of all the things I want to write about - it is almost ridiculous! I get excited about lots of things I read about in newspapers, social media, history books as well as by images and artwork and interesting places and all the curious things that I encounter in my travels. My romantic nature takes over, and I start naturally inventing stories. I get swept away and want to find an expressive way to share my thoughts and communicate with others through writing.
Melissa Muldoon
Currently, I am writing for the Studentessa Matta blog and the Dreaming Sophia blog, as well as producing "Matta" Youtube videos to help promote Italian language and culture.
I am also co-leading my 2017 Italian language immersion programs to learn and travel in Italy in Lucca (June 4-14) and Arezzo (September 1-12). I am also planning a Dreaming Sophia Art program in Florence in September (dates TBA).
I am also working on a new idea for a new novel about Italy. At the moment I am in the early stages of researching and developing the story line. Stay tuned! State sintonizzati!
I am also co-leading my 2017 Italian language immersion programs to learn and travel in Italy in Lucca (June 4-14) and Arezzo (September 1-12). I am also planning a Dreaming Sophia Art program in Florence in September (dates TBA).
I am also working on a new idea for a new novel about Italy. At the moment I am in the early stages of researching and developing the story line. Stay tuned! State sintonizzati!
Melissa Muldoon
Just keep writing. Write every day. Be a careful observer of your environment. File away every nuance, feeling and sentiment in your daily life. It all comes back when you sit down to write. Tap into what you know best. Be creative and invent, but base it on real feelings and things you know. I think writing that comes from a genuine place within you resonates with readers and they are more likely to believe and enjoy what you are writing about and the story you are creating.
Melissa Muldoon
I have always been an expressive person, and I have found many ways to communicate my ideas and the visions in my head with others. As I painter I have done this in oils and acrylics on canvas. As a graphic artist, I have done this through computer graphics, color, photography and illustrations. Writing is just another artistic means by which I can paint pictures with words. As a young girl, I wrote stories and poems and kept journals. In recent years I have consistently written the Studentessa Matta blog in which I explore Italian language and culture and communicate and connect with others who love Italy too.
With the publication of "Dreaming Sophia" I have gone to a new level - I am now a fiction writer. Through the writing of Sophia's story, I have discovered I love inventing new worlds to inhabit and creating new characters and personalities to become friends and foes with. Each morning when I wake up, when I am in the middle of a writing project, I can't wait to enter into the world I am inventing and see what will happen to my characters. It is as if I have a movie in my head and sometimes I didn't even know things will turn out. At times the characters seem to have wills of their own, and they dictate the story line to me. The characters in Dreaming Sophia are so real to me now that I know their tastes in music, art, movies and what they like to read. I can envision what they wear and what they are feeling. I know them so well that sometimes I would stop the writing process and illustrate their faces on paper.
The joys and the challenges of writing for me are to set all my fanciful ideas down in an enjoyable read, keeping things clear and concise, fun and moving at a brisk pace all at the same time. It is like a giant puzzle that comes together through inspiration and lots and lots of re-writing. At times the twists and plot developments come to me unexpectedly. It was as if muses, similar to Sophia's was guiding my pen, whispering suggestions into my ear.
With the publication of "Dreaming Sophia" I have gone to a new level - I am now a fiction writer. Through the writing of Sophia's story, I have discovered I love inventing new worlds to inhabit and creating new characters and personalities to become friends and foes with. Each morning when I wake up, when I am in the middle of a writing project, I can't wait to enter into the world I am inventing and see what will happen to my characters. It is as if I have a movie in my head and sometimes I didn't even know things will turn out. At times the characters seem to have wills of their own, and they dictate the story line to me. The characters in Dreaming Sophia are so real to me now that I know their tastes in music, art, movies and what they like to read. I can envision what they wear and what they are feeling. I know them so well that sometimes I would stop the writing process and illustrate their faces on paper.
The joys and the challenges of writing for me are to set all my fanciful ideas down in an enjoyable read, keeping things clear and concise, fun and moving at a brisk pace all at the same time. It is like a giant puzzle that comes together through inspiration and lots and lots of re-writing. At times the twists and plot developments come to me unexpectedly. It was as if muses, similar to Sophia's was guiding my pen, whispering suggestions into my ear.
Melissa Muldoon
The best way to deal with writer's block is to write without inhibition. You have to give yourself permission to wander off the path. You can always reign yourself back in through the re-writing stage. I find, simply sitting down and starting to write without agenda opens my brain and gives permission to explore new ideas I hadn't developed or thought of before. Often I find ideas spilling out of me onto the page I had no idea were inside me. I also find that my best ideas come to me while I am doing other things...walking my two beagles at night while listening to Italian music or lying in bed reviewing the story in my head before I fall asleep. Countless times I get up in the middle of the night and start writing because ideas come to me in my unconscious state. It is important to get these ideas down and then refine them later.
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