Happy New Year 2026!

Dear Reading Friends,

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful holiday season and are looking forward to the New Year ahead of us. Does anyone else feel like the years are racing by faster and faster?

Counting Our Blessings

2025 was overall a good year for my family. We were thrilled to welcome two new grandchildren to the clan (35 and counting). We’re constantly busy with family, friends, and church activities, so hardly feel “retired.” My husband Bill remains an Elder and Pastor Emeritus of The King’s Chapel (TKC), and I spoke at our Women’s Breakfast, served as a mentor mom for our MOMs group, coordinate bi-monthly fellowship lunches for our seniors, and am still active in four book clubs. TKC celebrated 30 years of blessings this fall! God has been so faithful, and the church is thriving under the leadership of our son Mark. As to our travels, thanks to the generosity of friends, we enjoyed a winter break on Fripp Island, near beautiful Beaufort, S.C., where author Pat Conroy lived and wrote. Much of our family journeyed to Michigan to celebrate the marriage of our grand-niece, and on our road trip, my husband and I visited my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA; Cuyahoga Nat. Park, OH; and Berkley Springs, WV. Our annual family beach week was a smaller gathering this year, unfortunately marred by rain and cut short by Hurricane Erin. In September, I coordinated a reunion in Charlottesville of the Christian women I lived with in my UVA days. We are so grateful that most of our growing clan was able to gather together for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Inklings News

In July, I served as volunteer staff for the Inklings Fellowship conference in Oxford and reconnected with dear friends and colleagues. Pictured here with us is British actor and evangelist Nigel Goodwin, who introduced me to the Inklings/Oxbridge community, which inspired both my novels and academic career. He also inspired the creation of one of my characters in the Oxford Chronicles, Nigel Elliot; and if you are familiar with Inklings, you’ll recognize the physical characteristics of my fictional Nigel in my old friend. We had a wonderful stay just outside the city with hospitable friends, who hosted a professional theatre production of As You Like It in their garden for a charity event, and our gracious hostess also took me to Highclere Castle, aka “Downton Abbey.” (Bucket list: check!). Brief stays in Stratford-upon- Avon and Bath (my personal celebration of Jane Austen’s 250th birthday) topped our trip. A fun fact for you Janeites out there: I paid homage to our greatest English romance novelist by naming a major character, Austen Holmes, in The Oxford Chronicles in her honor, and also named most of the minor characters in Inklings after Austen characters.

The Inklings Fellowship conference in Oxford focused on The Chronicles of Narnia in celebration of the 75 th anniversary of the publication of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, so I re-read all the Narnia books, as well as The Completion of C.S. Lewis, and The Inklings of Oxford by Harry Lee Poe. “Hal” Poe is our Inklings Fellowship leader and actually took my Oxford walking tour, which was largely informed by his book. Just a little pressure :). (For several months previously, I had been unable to walk for exercise, due to a bone spur and arthritis, and had been put in an orthopedic boot for a possible stress fracture. Just before the trip, I ditched the boot, and miraculously, I was able to walk and conduct the walking tour, pain free!).

Writing News

In the late summer and early fall, my reading/writing project was to re-read and write reviews for a great website that connects readers to authors called shepherd.com. The category I chose for my book reviews was “the five best novels set in Oxford” (excepting my own). Here’s the link to my page: https://shepherd.com/best-books/novels-set-in-oxford-england

I regret to say that in the past year, I’ve not made much progress finding a new agent or publisher for my novel Dancing in Hemlock, the love story of Edith and J.R.R. Tolkien, or working on revisions of my murder mystery novella, Death at Clifton Manor, which is set at the country estate of my Oxford Chronicles characters, Lord Stuart Devereux and his new bride Natalie MacKenzie. I hope to put more focus on these projects in the coming year and have better news for those of you who have been patiently waiting for the release of a new book. Meanwhile, thank you for your support and interest in my books! I pray you will be abundantly blessed in this New Year.

Melanie