Today I will skip talking about the third story in Aberrant, because it is somewhat traumatic to talk about, and tell you about the events that led to the creation of the fourth story, So Intimately Entwined. This story I wrote so I could use the name Melina, although in the story I spelled it Marlena. The character of Marlena, Marlena Geiger, is very loosely based upon Melina Marchetta, a famous Australian author I went to uni with, at Australian Catholic University. We were two of the inaugural editors on the student newspaper, Chalkdust, and I was present when she informed her newspaper colleagues that she had been offered a publishing contract for her first book, Looking for Alibrandi. This novel has since gone on to receive many awards and Melina is now a very successful author and teacher.
I decided to use Melina's name for a character because I always found it fascinating being so close to my life goal (to be a published author), yet so far. Of course, I have been published since leaving uni, although not to the same level of fame as Melina. Mind you, as I said last week, I have indeed experienced fame and it was not at all what I thought it would be. These days I consider myself successful because I am in a position to do what I want, when I want, and how I want to. I have plenty of money and choose to spend most of my copious free time in reading nineteenth century fiction. In fact, I am in the position of being paid to read whatever I want, which I choose over being paid to write whatever I want.
I lost contact with Melina after uni, which doesn't surprise me since I only saw her when we were working on the paper. I am greatly chuffed that she has become so famous, as well as a well respected writer. Melina, whilst at uni, was also respected by her lecturers because she achieved high marks whilst also being a busy editor on the student newspaper. We have both gone on to great things.
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