Please add me to your email list.
I am currently working on a creative non fiction book to accompany my new website which is being updated for the first time in many years.
In addition I have been working on
a memoir to follow the current book
project.
I live in the Bay Area and would like
to learn more about what you offer writers.
Hi Ms Bishop, I know it’s been years since its publication but I need you to know how much I love your book. When my mom brought home an uncorrected proof of “My So-Called Ruined Life” from a librarian’s convention, I read it all in one go and it made me feel so wonderful. That must have been five or six years ago. I’ve read it countless times since, and am never not in the mood for more Tate. I’m off to college this fall and it feels like the end of something, but I’m glad to have had her with me these past few years and it felt like an appropriate time to say goodbye (for now?), and thank you.
Wow. What a very sweet note. Can you send me your email address so I can write to you? Maybe you’d be willing to be one of the first readers of Book Two? I’m so glad your mom brought home the copy from her librarian’s convention so that you were introduced to Tate McCoy. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING TO ME. It means a great deal. Melanie
Just read Melanie Bishop’s piece in the NYTimes today and it really moved me. Although my Mom is currently blessed with strong mental health, the article rings true for me in so many ways. Love the parts about being “hammered by misfortune” and releasing all that tension. We just budgeted for about 18 years forward and I know that if we don’t get that much time, I too will be sitting in that seat, wishing. Bravo Melanie, can’t wait To read more of your work.
Dear Hilary,
Wow. I just love getting these notes from readers. It means so much to me. This sentence: “We just budgeted for about 18 years forward and I know that if we don’t get that much time, I too will be sitting in that seat, wishing.” Beautiful. I hope you get those 18 years and then some. Thanks so very much for taking the time to write me.
Melanie
Melanie, I’ve never written fan mail to a writer before but today I must! Your essay in the NYTs about your mother and your shared Honda was just so beautiful and moving. It took me straight back to the final months of caring for my mother before her death, and the ache of missing her afterward. Thank you for taking me there!
Dear Robert,
Well, I’m honored to be the lucky first writer you’ve written to. Seriously. It means so much to me that this essay is resonating with so many readers and that they are taking the time to write me such kind notes. That “ache of missing”; a universal human experience, but one that feels so lonely and isolating when we’re immersed in it. It’s heartening to hear how many people know these feelings. THANK YOU for writing to me.
Melanie
Melanie, I too was deeply touched by your NYT article and was moved over thinking about caring for my mother who died 10 years ago. It was a labor of love and I would do it again in a heart beat. I also still have my mom’s 2002 Ford Explorer and am caring for her beautiful farm and farm house in Miss. – trying to find ways to make is sustainable for future generations. I have served on Rosalynn Carter’s Caregiver Board of Directors for 17 years. They offer several national training programs to help better care for love ones and training to care for the caregivers. http://www.rosalynncarter.org/ Thank you again for this thoughtful article.
Dear Ellen Hartman,
Thank you so very much for reading my essay and commenting on it here. I love the detail of your mom’s old car and your attempt to keep her farm and farmhouse alive. Where in Mississippi? I grew up in New Orleans and my best friend’s family had a country house near Liberty, MS. I also have family in Ocean Springs and friends in Pass Christian. I didn’t know about Rosalynn Carter’s organization. I will go check it out now. Thanks again.
Melanie
Melanie, just reread your “I Would Have Driven Her Anywhere” in last November’s NYT. Thanks for your wisdom, insight and compassion.
Notes after this column mentions that you’d recently completed a non-fiction work about your work. Do you have projected date/s as to when it’ll be available for purchase? Most interested in hearing more about those next steps!
Much appreciation to you, Betty Stoddard, Raleigh, NC
PS: Added my NC location, even tho’ it’s miles from your family. Your mother must have been in the Asheville area for several years near your sisters.
Thanks so much, Betty. Yes, my mom was in Asheville for a few years. So beautiful there. I will send you an email with info about the longer work about my mother. Thanks again for getting in touch. Best, Melanie
Melanie Bishop 
January 15, 2016 at 2:28 pm
I have a 67000 word literary fiction manuscript that needs a grammar check. Have you got any possibility to help me with it?
Best wishes
Zea
July 8, 2016 at 3:38 pm
Melanie,
Please add me to your email list.
I am currently working on a creative non fiction book to accompany my new website which is being updated for the first time in many years.
In addition I have been working on
a memoir to follow the current book
project.
I live in the Bay Area and would like
to learn more about what you offer writers.
Thanks,
Linda
July 8, 2016 at 3:44 pm
Hello Linda. Sending you some info now on upcoming writers’ retreat. Thanks!
July 25, 2019 at 9:44 pm
Hi Ms Bishop, I know it’s been years since its publication but I need you to know how much I love your book. When my mom brought home an uncorrected proof of “My So-Called Ruined Life” from a librarian’s convention, I read it all in one go and it made me feel so wonderful. That must have been five or six years ago. I’ve read it countless times since, and am never not in the mood for more Tate. I’m off to college this fall and it feels like the end of something, but I’m glad to have had her with me these past few years and it felt like an appropriate time to say goodbye (for now?), and thank you.
July 25, 2019 at 10:06 pm
Wow. What a very sweet note. Can you send me your email address so I can write to you? Maybe you’d be willing to be one of the first readers of Book Two? I’m so glad your mom brought home the copy from her librarian’s convention so that you were introduced to Tate McCoy. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR WRITING TO ME. It means a great deal. Melanie
November 18, 2018 at 6:55 am
Just read Melanie Bishop’s piece in the NYTimes today and it really moved me. Although my Mom is currently blessed with strong mental health, the article rings true for me in so many ways. Love the parts about being “hammered by misfortune” and releasing all that tension. We just budgeted for about 18 years forward and I know that if we don’t get that much time, I too will be sitting in that seat, wishing. Bravo Melanie, can’t wait To read more of your work.
November 18, 2018 at 7:42 am
Dear Hilary,
Wow. I just love getting these notes from readers. It means so much to me. This sentence: “We just budgeted for about 18 years forward and I know that if we don’t get that much time, I too will be sitting in that seat, wishing.” Beautiful. I hope you get those 18 years and then some. Thanks so very much for taking the time to write me.
Melanie
November 18, 2018 at 7:55 am
Melanie, I’ve never written fan mail to a writer before but today I must! Your essay in the NYTs about your mother and your shared Honda was just so beautiful and moving. It took me straight back to the final months of caring for my mother before her death, and the ache of missing her afterward. Thank you for taking me there!
November 18, 2018 at 8:04 am
Dear Robert,
Well, I’m honored to be the lucky first writer you’ve written to. Seriously. It means so much to me that this essay is resonating with so many readers and that they are taking the time to write me such kind notes. That “ache of missing”; a universal human experience, but one that feels so lonely and isolating when we’re immersed in it. It’s heartening to hear how many people know these feelings. THANK YOU for writing to me.
Melanie
November 25, 2018 at 6:57 am
Melanie, I too was deeply touched by your NYT article and was moved over thinking about caring for my mother who died 10 years ago. It was a labor of love and I would do it again in a heart beat. I also still have my mom’s 2002 Ford Explorer and am caring for her beautiful farm and farm house in Miss. – trying to find ways to make is sustainable for future generations. I have served on Rosalynn Carter’s Caregiver Board of Directors for 17 years. They offer several national training programs to help better care for love ones and training to care for the caregivers. http://www.rosalynncarter.org/ Thank you again for this thoughtful article.
November 25, 2018 at 9:37 am
Dear Ellen Hartman,
Thank you so very much for reading my essay and commenting on it here. I love the detail of your mom’s old car and your attempt to keep her farm and farmhouse alive. Where in Mississippi? I grew up in New Orleans and my best friend’s family had a country house near Liberty, MS. I also have family in Ocean Springs and friends in Pass Christian. I didn’t know about Rosalynn Carter’s organization. I will go check it out now. Thanks again.
Melanie
August 30, 2019 at 1:17 am
Melanie, just reread your “I Would Have Driven Her Anywhere” in last November’s NYT. Thanks for your wisdom, insight and compassion.
Notes after this column mentions that you’d recently completed a non-fiction work about your work. Do you have projected date/s as to when it’ll be available for purchase? Most interested in hearing more about those next steps!
Much appreciation to you, Betty Stoddard, Raleigh, NC
PS: Added my NC location, even tho’ it’s miles from your family. Your mother must have been in the Asheville area for several years near your sisters.
August 30, 2019 at 7:22 am
Thanks so much, Betty. Yes, my mom was in Asheville for a few years. So beautiful there. I will send you an email with info about the longer work about my mother. Thanks again for getting in touch. Best, Melanie