Melanie Bell

Author, Writer, Editor

Tag Archives: Chasing Harmony


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New Play and Chasing Harmony Book Tour

Lots of good writing news lately. September was my book tour to celebrate Chasing Harmony’s one-year anniversary, following shortly after its ebook release. What a whirlwind!

From August 28 to September 22, a variety of book blogs hosted guest posts, excerpts, gift card giveaways, and reviews for my YA novel. You can catch up with the tour stops here! I had fun writing about everything from the cover design process to my research and forthcoming books.

Last year, I had a short play performed in the Tower Theatre Writers’ Room showcase. I’ve stayed involved with the Writers’ Room this year, and am delighted to have a play chosen for performance in the showcase again!

It couldn’t be more different. Last year’s play was a dark, feminist Dorian Gray-meets-Faust story about art and death. This one is a comedy called An IQ Test for My Birthday, directed by Ragan Keefer:

Callie gets a surprising birthday present from her father. An appointment to take an IQ test. Upon her arrival she meets a straightlaced journalist, a hard working mum and her energetic daughter. All are here for the same thing, to pass the test for their own personal agendas. Will they pass? Will their nerves get the best of them? A play that deals with themes of family, acceptance, and pride.

The Writers’ Room Showcase this year has the theme of “Home” and features four brand-new short plays that explore the theme from different angles. They’ll be onstage from December 12-16 in London.

“Home: A place? An ideal? An emotion? Tower Theatre writers explore a range of ideas suggested by this richly evocative little word in an exciting programme of short plays. Come along and see some ground-breaking new writing!” 

There’s more information on the showcase here. I hope to see some of you in the audience this winter!


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Happy One-Year Anniversary to Chasing Harmony!

My first novel, Chasing Harmony, has been out for a year now! It’s now available in ebook format as well as in paperback, which I’m excited about because it means more people can read it. It took 10 years for this strange, literary, bisexual YA coming-of-age story to find a publisher, and I’m grateful it has a good home.  

My publisher, Read Furiously, has been wonderful to work with. One reason I chose them is that they donate a portion of royalties to charity, primarily literacy charities. Some of you might remember that my first foray into publication was self-publishing two poetry books as a teenager to raise money for charities… back in the pre-digital era of the early 2000s, when self-publishing meant applying for a grant, giving your files to the printer, and having them print the books out! I got extra “imperfect” copies of my first book, Tears for the World, to sell, because a hair got stuck in the printing press. 

Tears for the World raised money for Farmers Helping Farmers, a Prince Edward Island-based organization which helps farmers in Kenya, while Fire in the Sky raised money for a local literacy organization. With Chasing Harmony helping a similar cause, I feel like things have come full circle. 

In this whirlwind of a year, Chasing Harmony has been featured in an Autostraddle interview, on Reads Rainbow’s lists of July-December 2022 LGBT releases and Contemporary releases, and on CLMP’s end of year list for children’s and YA books of 2022. I’ve written craft articles for DIY MFA on what I’ve learned from the novel: how to write a coming of age story and how to craft a novel with alternating timelines. And at the Conscious Living Center, I shared my process of facing personal shadows as I wrote.

Chasing Harmony has a Spotify playlist and a book trailer:

It always makes me happy when I hear from someone who’s read Chasing Harmony, especially if they connected with the characters. I poured my heart into this story.

Read Furiously has scheduled a virtual book tour to celebrate Chasing Harmony’s anniversary, and if you’d like a review copy to feature a review, guest post, or interview on your blog, you can request one from Goddess Fish Promotions here. There will also be gift card giveaways! Stay tuned for more on the tour which is happening from August 28 – September 22! 

Here are Read Furiously’s kind words on my book’s anniversary:

“Last July we introduced a wonderful young adult novel filled with music, vulnerability, and lost love. One year later, we are still haunted and inspired by Anna Stern’s search for her authentic self.

Happy one year anniversary to CHASING HARMONY by Melanie Bell. If you haven’t experienced the magic of Anna’s musical talent, or haven’t fallen in love with Liss, or danced with Ay-a in a forest kingdom, we recommend making CHASING HARMONY a must read this summer.

We have big plans to celebrate one year – stay tuned!

CHASING HARMONY is available wherever books are sold.”


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Want to Write a Book? Tap Into Your Weird Obsessions

What do you Google at 3 am? What’s that one odd thing you can’t stop thinking about, perhaps to the point where you have a hard time explaining to other people why it captivates you? 

If you’ve ever dreamed of writing a book, one starting point is personal interest. Scratch that: personal passion, obsession, or even unhealthy devotion. 

If you’re this fascinated by a topic or idea, you probably won’t get bored engaging with it for thousands of words!

And if you’re looking to build a career as a writer, you can mine your obsessions again and again. How often do you turn to a favorite author because you love the themes they delve into and the approaches they take? If you feel like you’re writing about the same things over and over again, that’s not a bug; that’s a feature!

Alternatively, it doesn’t have to be the same thing each time. It can be an obsession of the moment. Going through an insect phase? (See what I did there with the “bug” thing?) Maybe there’s a book in that. Researching cybersecurity? Ditto.

As I mentioned above, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a healthy obsession. One of the factors that inspired my novel Chasing Harmony was losing a lot of music competitions in my youth. Sometimes I’d wonder: What did the talented winners have that I didn’t? What was it like to be them?

This was one of many factors that got me interested in researching the stories and lives of musical prodigies, and eventually crafting a fictional character who shows early and astonishing musical aptitude. 

So, what piques your interest? What can’t you stop thinking about? Could there be a book in that?


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Onward, 2023!

2022 was an intense year. I’m not sure what to expect from 2023 yet. So far, I’ve found joy in learning Spanish on Duolingo, which feels more like a game than an education, and in exploring the pebble beaches of my new home. 

I’m revising my NaNoWriMo novel, working on another novel, and continuing to engage with interesting peer groups, including the NaNo group and the Tower Theatre Writers’ Room. 

I set a one-word intention for myself last year: “outward.” It’s easy, as a writer and introvert, to spend my time “inward,” but I can only accomplish things in the world if I venture out into it! I didn’t do too bad a job of it, either, if I dare say so. 

My mostly-speculative short story collection Dream Signs came out at the end of 2021, and I’ve heard from readers who continue to enjoy the stories. Sadly, it went out of print when the publisher went under, so I’m looking into options for re-release. A few print copies are still available online as of now.

My young adult novel Chasing Harmony came out in July 2022. It’s the coming-of-age story of a musical prodigy. The main character, Anna, is bisexual, and the book featured on Reads Rainbow’s lists of July-December 2022 LGBT releases and Contemporary releases. I had an author interview with the queer website Autostraddle and wrote about the process of confronting the shadow through writing a book for the Conscious Living Center. I was delighted to see Chasing Harmony make CLMP’s end of year list for children’s and YA books of 2022!

In 2022, I published my poem “FetLife” in the Spoon Knife 6: Rest Stop anthology and my dark fantasy short story “Home Bound” in Cossmass Infinities. I wrote for DIY MFA about how to write a coming of age story and a novel with alternating timelines. My colleague Jonathan Hancock and I did an interview for my workplace, Mind Tools, about what it’s like to be published authors. And I wrote some book reviews, including a review of Kevin Mahon’s Radio Ireland for the Miramichi Reader (which also reviewed my book Dream Signs).  

This National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November, I finished a draft of a manuscript I’d been working on and started another. The power of this event lay with the peer group I found. The local WriMos did writing sprints in person and online and urged each other forward. I didn’t think I could write 50,000 words in a month – but, reader, I did it! 

To cap off the year, I saw my short play The Pictures of Dora Gray performed twice! First, it was included in a scratch night at the Barons Court Theatre. Then, it was included in the Tower Theatre Writers’ Room’s December showcase, along with four other fantastic plays by members of the group. It was an emotional experience to see two casts perform something I’d written in my living room, and to witness the wonderful direction, music score, and acting that brought my play to life over the holidays.

This year, I’ll continue to put myself out there – while respecting my inward nature, too. Onward, 2023!


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Chasing Harmony Playlist, Trailer, and Publication

Chasing Harmony, my YA novel about a musical prodigy, is now out in paperback! Here I am with my box of author copies.

My publisher, Read Furiously, did a wonderful job putting the book together, including little music-related details in the design. They are also donating a portion of proceeds to literacy organizations.

It was a pleasant and delightful shock to open a book and read lines I’ve pored over on screen for years, available in a new context for readers to enjoy.

My book has a Spotify playlist! If you want to listen to many of the songs mentioned in Chasing Harmony, from the characters’ classical performance pieces to 90s tunes they hear on the radio, it’s all here (sadly, the imaginary songs from imaginary bands couldn’t be included).

There’s also a book trailer where I talk about the inspiration behind the title. You can check it out below.

Chasing Harmony is available wherever books are sold. Here are some up-to-date purchase links:

Read Furiously 
Bookshop.org
Barnes & Noble
Amazon
Waterstones

In less happy news, Dream Signs’ publisher is no longer in business and the book is currently out of stock. I am waiting on the files and hope to republish it down the line.

As with Anna’s story in Chasing Harmony, writing and publishing is full of successes and failures, and one often goes along with the other. Anna discovers that it’s one thing to love an art form, but the real challenge comes from being human and living your life.

Here’s to life! And here’s to new books!


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My Novel Chasing Harmony Is Out July 19!

In 2009, I started writing a novel while traveling across Canada. I was thinking about art and failure and how life seldom meets our expectations. I finished the manuscript while studying Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal, went through several drafts, and over a decade later, I’m delighted that the book found a home.

My YA novel, Chasing Harmony, is available for pre-order now and releases on July 19! The publisher is Read Furiously, a small press which donates a substantial portion of proceeds to literacy charities. They have shown a wonderful level of care for my book. Take a look at the cover and layout and you’ll see what I mean.

I’m honored that Reads Rainbow has featured Chasing Harmony on their list of Contemporary LGBTQ+ releases this July. (The main character is bisexual.)

Here’s what the book is about.

“What happens when the music stops?

Since she was a child, piano prodigy Anna Stern has always stood out. As she becomes a teenager, Anna struggles to find her identity without the soundtrack of sonatas and concertos. There’s also the worry that comes with the crushing expectations of her musical gift and her parents’ imploding marriage.

Anna finds refuge in her best friend Liss, who is full of magic and escape plans, and the mysterious new boy at school… which becomes more complicated when she develops feelings for both of them. Most importantly, Anna has concerts to perform that will determine the course of her future as the haunting spectre of burnout lurks close by. As everything builds to a crescendo, what follows is an authentic life in the making.

Melanie Bell has created a compelling coming-of-age story for those that can relate to the search for untapped potential. Told in alternating timelines, Chasing Harmony reminds us of the exhilarating feeling that comes with hearing your heart’s song.”

And here are some places it’s available for pre-order:

The Furious Reader – https://readfuriously.com/products/chasing-harmony
Bookshop – https://bookshop.org/a/3392/9781737175896
Barnes & Noble – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chasing-harmony-melanie-bell/1141640134?ean=9781737175896
Amazon – https://amzn.to/3nKS1rK

You can find Chasing Harmony wherever books are sold. Soon the physical copies will be in bookstores too!

In other publishing news this month, I have a poem in the Spoon Knife 6: Rest Stop anthology, and a story (about a woman who inherits a family home in England – but it comes with a chilling catch) in Cossmass Infinities, Issue 9.

I can’t wait for readers to pick up Chasing Harmony, and I hope some of you will see yourselves reflected in Anna’s journey!