Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.
-- Melinda Haynes
Melinda Haynes (born 1955) is an American novelist. She grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. For much of her adult life she was a painter. In 1999, she wrote her first published novel, Mother of Pearl, while living in a mobile home in Grand Bay, Alabama. Melinda Haynes currently resides in Mobile, Alabama with her husband, Ray. Her writing is intimately connected with the Mississippi of the 1950s and the 1960s. Wikipedia