BLOGWORDS – Thursday 22 May 2025 – CHAT THURSDAY

BLOGWORDS – Thursday 22 May 2025 – CHAT THURSDAY – MELISSA WARDWELL with GIVEAWAY

CHAT THURSDAY – MELISSA WARDWELL with GIVEAWAY

Please give a warm feathered welcome to author and friend, MELISSA WARDWELL.

rem: Welcome MELISSA! Tell us three random things about yourself.

MELISSA: I’m on a personal journey to figuring out life with an empty nest, so here are a few new ideas for me.

1) I would be okay with having a mini farm with chickens and maybe a milk goat plus barn cats. Honestly, I love nature and caring for animals. I just don’t want them all in my house. rem: MEEE TOOO!!!!

2) I am currently an ordained minister. Yes, I have the title Reverend. Not as a lead pastor, but a supporting one.

3) Just one time in my life, I would love to drive on a race track just to see how fast I can go and if I can make the turns smoothly. rem: MEEE TOOO!!!!

rem: What is your favorite quotation and why?

MELISSA: “For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, heirs according to the promise.”

Galatians 3:27-29 CSB

Not to be cliché, but I really appreciate this verse in Galatians because what it tells me is that there is no hierarchy in the body of Christ. We are all servants to one another, and in serving one another, we honor our God. No one person is more important than the next based on social status, gender, or race. We are equal in the eyes of God and co-airs of Christ.

rem: When reading, what makes or breaks a story for you? Your fiction pet peeve?

MELISSA: clichés that are clearly not appropriate for the time period of the novel I might be reading. I started to read a book one time that is by a very popular independent Christian historical fiction author who writes stories that take place out west in the late 1800s. She used so many phrases that were more modern or clearly wouldn’t fit for that time in just the first chapter that I had to stop the book. I couldn’t do it.

rem: Me too, absolutely! What are you reading right now?

MELISSA: I wish I could say that I am reading a book. Honestly, the only thing I really have time to read are emails and my Bible. My life has changed a bit in recent months and I’m struggling to have the energy to even read a book right now.

rem: This, too, shall pass. Tell us a little about your writing journey.

MELISSA: I started writing in August 2014 and have published several books since then. Recently, the rights to several of my books were returned to me, and I am in the process of publication.

I love to write. Especially stories that shine a light on those dark areas that even fellow believers hide in the closets. Not to bring Shame, but to give Hope that even in those seasons that we might not like ourselves, God is still with us and it’s just waiting for us to come back to him.

rem: Melissa, that’s beautiful. What genre(s) do you write and why?

MELISSA: I enjoy writing stories that have a romantic thread in them. what better way to share examples of Christ’s love for the church then through romance stories. I tried to create characters that are complex, messy, and relatable so that the reader might be able to see themselves in the characters. I then throw just enough biblical truth in Christ like love for the reader to see that they’re really not that far from his heart.

rem: Who doesn’t love a good love story? Even better when it’s the Love Story. Tell us a little about your latest book? What is your current project?

MELISSA: The last book I published, All An Act, which will be released in May, features a character that is unlike any I’ve written so far. Why? Because she is the most like me than any of my other characters. It was interesting to essentially put myself on paper and allow readers to see a part of me that I keep hidden as best as possible. That is until recently.

As for anything new, I’m doing research right now on a historical series that I have been putting on the back burner since I started writing. It loosely follows the book of Ruth with the backdrop of four different war periods, and the women who were left behind. It’ll be bordering on women’s fiction, but there will still be a romantic thread. The series will start readers off in a little port town in Scotland in 1942 and bring them to Michigan for a while. The last book will return the readers and all the characters back to Scotland but in the early 2000s.

rem: Oh, my word! I am so looking forward to that—don’t’cha know! What is YOUR favorite part about the book or why do you love this book? Why should we read it?

MELISSA: All An Act is loosely based on one of my favorite romcoms, the wedding planner. It’s kind of a cute summer read. Something you can sit around a bonfire or lounge in the campground and enjoy in the weekend. This book and it’s predecessor, An Unexpected Gift, were written in a time that I needed to produce something that wasn’t mentally heavy. So if you read some of my older books, many of the topics are very heavy weighted. These two are pretty lighthearted. So if simple and lighthearted is what you need, then these are the books for you.

rem: I’ve read them both and I truly enjoyed them. What is one take-away from your book(s) that you hope readers identify with?

MELISSA: Lulu in All An Act struggles with her own abilities to stay organized and be present with people. Because she has such a high expectation of herself, she struggles to forgive or let go of things others have done unknowingly to her. Things that have hurt her feelings or caused major offense. Especially if she had a crush on them.

My hope is that readers will read her story and reflect on their own hearts in areas of unforgiveness and letting go.

rem: A tough lesson to learn, but oh, so valuable. One more and then we’ll close. Do you have a life Scripture?

MELISSA: I used to. Jeremiah 29:11 got me through a lot of uncertainty when I was younger and raising young children. I don’t exactly have one now. After studying scripture for the last four years, I appreciate and have found great value in many different areas of the Bible. Complex characters, poor choices, and the ultimate Savior, who gave us one final directive that sums up the heart of God, beautifully in two phrases – love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.

rem: You’re so right, it’s nigh impossible to choose one single favorite Scripture or verse, when so many speak to the depth of our heart. But those two verses you quoted, Matthew 22:37 and 39, are the sum of Father God’s whole law and purpose. And, I might add, His heart.

Anything you’d like to add?

MELISSA: I want to encourage readers that you can read all the novels in the world or all the self-help books on the shelves of the stores, but there is no book more necessary than the Bible itself. So I challenge readers to commit to reading the word front to back. If it’s confusing, I would recommend pairing it with a good Bible study like The Bible Recap.

rem: What a simple yet profound truth. Melissa, thank you so much for chatting with us on my blog today!

MELISSA: It was a pleasure!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR