Writer Profiles
Meet Melinda Blau
A published author of 15 books and a prolific writer on Medium
Melinda Blau has been writing for Medium since 2020. She told her story several times in her own voice. She also posted her Second Bio: What I Could Never Have Imagined Twenty Years Ago. We have come to know Melinda through her writing and through Illumination’s Slack group where she collaborates with other writers.
Her editing and writing career spans over 55 years. As with all of us, each step along the way brings new experiences and unexpected insights.
Interestingly, Dr Mehmet Yildiz, chief editor, and owner of Illumination Integrated Publications on Medium featured one of her old stories in a short form titled Has Anyone Seen A Medium Article Dated 1996?
Melinda began her career in the mid-1960s in educational publishing. She calls those early years her “basic training.” It helped her understand the structure, pacing, and what words can do.
But writing educational texts and teacher’s guides taught her nothing about brevity. If she said something in 10 words, she was urged to use 20!
Because educational writing was so different from journalism, Melinda says, “My first magazine piece for New York was overwritten and boring.”
Luckily, the editor assigned to her was the legendary T. George Harris, who patiently led her through four total rewrites of that piece. She remembers his words: “Blau, you skip through life! Why are you lumbering on paper?”
Melinda says she’s still learning. You can find much of her early magazine work on her website. Reading work from “those days,” she says, is “like peeking into an earlier psyche. I see what interested me then, what I deemed important, what I discovered.”
She remembers how hard it was — the research, interviews, then putting it all together. But she also recalls how rewarding it was to “break the code,” as she still calls it, and to finally produce a cohesive and engaging piece.
In addition to hundreds of articles, in print and online, Melinda wrote 15 books, some of their collaborations. She has given talks around the United States and in several other countries, and appeared on talk shows and podcasts.
She is now writing a proposal for a book about her “old ladies” — energetic and engaged women who are ninety and older. It’s a daunting task. To borrow Samuel Johnson’s description of remarriage, diving into another book is “the triumph of hope over experience!”
To date, Melinda has written around 100 pieces for Medium — some serious explorations of an idea, some playful romps. They touch on relationships, her life in Paris, her dog, tech woes, writing, aging, mental health, family dynamics, and “whatever other random ideas pop in my head.”
According to Melinda, “Loved ones anchor you at home; consequential strangers convey a sense of belonging in the world.” She literally wrote the book about these “loose ties.” They are all important — neighbors, colleagues, gym friends.
We provide a sampling of her work via the following links.
Consequential Strangers When We Need Them Most
The Surprising Benefits of Collecting Consequential Strangers
Consequential Strangers Offer Something a Soulmate Can’t
A Forever-After Valentine’s Reminder
How to Embrace Your Partner’s Differences for a More Fulfilling Relationship
The Therapist Who Taught Me How to Have a Healthy Relationship
Shock and Awe! I Survived Long Enough to Become Someone Else’s “Old Lady”
The Miracle of Living Joyfully to 104: 12 Compelling, Counter-Intuitive Tips
Note to Emily: Ditch Mindy for a French Friend!
Someone Stole My Caddy and No One Believed Me!
Easter: A Brief Ecumenical Contemplation on Religion, Spirituality, and Interfaith Marriage
Melinda is grateful to have found a career so well-suited to her always-churning “gerbil brain” — a result of dyslexia with a dash of A.D.D. Here she compares writing to tournament tennis: How a Good Writer Is Like a Tournament Tennis Player. She says, “I feel blessed to be having so much fun!” How to Not Maim, Injure, or Somehow Disappear Yourself
If you enjoyed her sample stories, you might also subscribe to her content on Medium.
Other Featured Writers
We also featured several others writers listed below
Meet Carla Woody on Illumination YouTube Channel Carla Woody
Meet Bill Abbate on Illumination YouTube Channel Bill Abbate
Meet Dr. Gabriella Kőrösi on Medium Lady Dr. Gabriella Korosi
Meet Lawson Wallace on Illumination YouTube Channel Lawson Wallace
Meet Arlo Hennings, PhD on Illumination YouTube Channel Arlo Hennings, Ph.D.
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