About

Hello there!

I'm Mel.

"Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down" - Kobi Yamada

I grew up in concrete jungles in Southeast Asia (Hong Kong, Singapore, very briefly Taiwan) and books were my refuge and inspiration in a world I found noisy and intrusive. I loved the way words made me feel; alive, illuminated, tickled, inspired, and most of all—understood. In day to day life rule-following, caution and conformity were encouraged and I was a negligent student in some of these areas. In many ways, I started forming my own compass, my raison d'être, through reading words penned by brave, imaginative souls .... and starting to put pen to paper myself.

I dreamed of writing like these other amazing people. I copied down quotes and passages I liked in stacks of notebooks. I wrote little notes, attempted stories. At uni and as a young working adult I kept blogs. But mostly, I found reasons to abandon unfinished works. I was (and still am) a perfectionist, and have also been affected by seasons of anxiety and depression.

It is with full credit to God, my husband Jarred, a few good friends and the amazing gift of becoming a Mama that I completed How to love with a healing heart and self-published it just before my second child was born. Since then, there have been a few other releases and I hope to keep creating and sharing new work.

I write because I have to, because I love to, because I need to "taste life twice" (in the words of Anaïs Nin) to make sense of things, and I share it with the hope of passing on a measure of inspiration, connection and joy to readers—just as so many writers have done for me all my life.

Originally from Singapore, I am now based in Auckland, New Zealand with my family.

Click here for more info on my books.

And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

Roald Dahl
A photo of an open laptop and a sleeping baby - a mama carving out time to write
Writing the beginnings of my book
A photo of a mum carrying a baby in a garden
With baby #3 at a beautiful cafe Mia Flora in Geraldine, NZ
An illustration of our family in 'Simpsons style'
Someday I will update our 'fam portrait' with #3! Art by makemeyellow.co

Contact me

Contact

You can also find me on Substack, Amazon and Goodreads.

Scroll to Top