Melinda Haynes (edit name/settings)

Biography of Melinda Haynes (2000)
By Catlin Connor (SHS)

Melinda Haynes was born in 1955 and grew up in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.. She was the daughter of a Baptist minister, who was the pastor of two small churches in Petal, Mississippi. As a child, she had panic disorder that caused problems with school. The disorder caused Haynes to never complete high school (Mudge). She has suffered for years from agoraphobia (O'Briant). Melinda tells in an interview, "I would ride the bus to school at seven in the morning and get off and walk back home. At the end of the eleventh grade, I just couldn't handle it anymore" (Mudge). As a result, Haynes was tutored to receive a diploma, but never considered going to college. At the age of eighteen, she married another minister's son. She had three daughters, one after another (Veciana-Suarez). She felt that she was too young and that getting married was not the right thing to do. However, she never admitted it until twenty years into the marriage. She was not proud of how her life was turning out, "I was living the definition of poor Southern: three daughters in diapers, no education, and no job."

She felt that it was time to do something and decided to study art. Her grandfather Opie Braswell taught Melinda the values and tones of light and color when she was little. He was a painter who focused on baptistry scenes and taught her how to see things with an artistic eye. A friend paid for her art studies and because she had a natural aptitude for it, she continued to broaden her talent at a local gallery. Melinda's ability in art, particularly in portraits, allowed her to support herself and her family with commissions. Her paintings and watercolors won both local and national awards. During this time, she was making roughly $6,000 per portrait.

Although her paintings were quite successful, Haynes was having frequent panic attacks and no longer could deal with her clients. Her life was getting a little too out of control. Her husband lost his job, and they were facing bankruptcy, plus their marriage was disintegrating. In 1987 the bank foreclosed on her house (O'Briant). Everything Melinda did depended on pleasing some one else and she "crashed" as she herself has said (Mudge). Haynes attempted suicide by taking an overdose of antidepressants and ended up in the hospital (O'Briant).

After "the crash," Melinda started all over again. She converted to the Catholic Church. Although the news was hard on her father, she liked the independence she had never had before, so she broke away from her father, children (who are grown), and husband. Haynes also started a new line of work. She was the production manager for the Archdiocese of Mobile, Alabama's Newspaper, The Catholic Week (Mudge). While working there, she reached a real turning point. She was sent to Jamaica to cover relief organizations at work in Kingston. Her photos from the trip won Mobile Press Club's Award of excellence, and her essay was picked up and published by "Food for the Poor" (Finding Literary Voice). Also at her new work, she met her present husband, Ray, a co-worker and retired Marine captain and Vietnam veteran (O'Briant).

Haynes began to write short, fictitious stories. She first wrote "Strange Dirt." Her husband was the one who decided to send her two short stories to The Crescent Review, a literary journal. Eight weeks later, both pieces were accepted (Finding Literary Voice). From one short story came her present novel, Mother of Pearl. On how this came about, Haynes recalls, "I wrote the short story, and I fell in love with one of the characters. I didn't know if I could write, ut the story was so big. I thought I would just try and meet it half way" (Mudge). Again, her husband really encouraged Haynes' writing. He cleaned out a bedroom for her to work, screened her calls, and researched the best possibilities for a literary agent. Ray Haynes contacted Wendy Weil of Poets & Writers (Finding Literary Voices) to whom Haynes sent the first few pages of Mother of Pearl, and along with it, a letter asking for an exchange of trust if there was to be an exchange of funds as well as the information about her lack of formal education. She wanted everyone to know that she was who she was and did not try to hide anything. Within sixteen days, Weil called her back about Mother of Pearl (Mudge). Mother of Pearl was written in the fall of 1997. Six months later, the book was sold to Hyperion Press. In June of 1999, Mother of Pearl was available to the public in hardcover ("Art in Alabama"). In June, 1999, her book was chosen as Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club Choice of the month (BookBrowse).

New to the writing scene, Haynes has only published (Editor's Note--as of 2000) two short stories and one novel. In Mother of Pearl, Melinda Haynes has put a little part of herself. She elaborates on her book, "The location is completely real, the visuality of it is real…The way Joleb Green (a main character in the book) feels about life is similar to what I felt:…Everything I was afraid of, I put in the book…" Two–thirds through writing her novel, Haynes started on a second, just to make sure it was not a "one time thing." She is still in shock by what has happened to her.

Melinda Haynes is now forty-four years old (in 2000) and is the mother of three daughters. She tries to keep life simple. She and her husband Ray enjoy fishing and riding motorcycles. She lives out in the country in a trailer with her husband near Grand Bay, Alabama. They also have a fishing camp out on the river. Haynes has no intention of changing, even with the promise of more money than she ever imagined. Some day though, she and her husband want to build a house and get out of the trailer because she doesn't like the thunderstorms in them. Haynes plans to keep writing and likes the fact that she does not have to worry about going out and getting a job (O'Briant). She is currently (2000) working on a second novel called Chalktown (Haynes).

From the website: http://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/writers/melinda-haynes.html#biography