Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.10, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site. # Melanie Ormand Writing Stories to Heal a World in Pain ## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://melanieormand.com/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [Blog](https://melanieormand.com/blog/) - [It's Trifecta Time!](https://melanieormand.com/its-trifecta-time/) - I didn't plan it this way. The clerk called, offering my second COVID injection. She volunteered today. The 26th of February. Did she know it was my birthday? And not any birthday - the beginning of my 65th year. A Marker Day. Perhaps hers was a clueless two-fer? I spied opportunity and boosted myself into - [Starting Over, Again](https://melanieormand.com/starting-over-again/) - A decade ago, I began this website. Quickly, blog posts became sporadic. Blame 11 family funerals and 16 hospitalizations. The Lost Decade ended last December. I'm still catching my breath. But, between onset of the coronavirus pandemic last March followed by last week's Snowpocalypse here in Houston, my breathing grew ragged again. We lost power, - [Play Time: Required by Writers & Anyone 50+](https://melanieormand.com/play-time-required-by-writers-anyone-50/) - We writers don’t play enough. Neither does anyone over age 50. My prescription? Locate your nearest park. Go. Play. Who says these places are Kids Only? Be sure to bring only one thing: your long-buried child. Let her (or him) climb the playground equipment. Dare to move higher than a foot off the ground (provided - [Oh, Go Mask Yourself!](https://melanieormand.com/oh-go-mask-yourself/) - My eyes spied the big, black, bold numbers printed below the words “Pay this Amount:” $1,778.00. My jaw dropped. “Excuse me?” I roared into the silence of my kitchen, “they bill me nearly double what they promised the sleep apnea test would cost?” I threw the bill onto the countertop. With my left hand, I - [No Blogging when your Brain says "Hello!"](https://melanieormand.com/when-your-brain-says-hello/) - Today marks three months since my last blog posting. You yawn and say, "who cares?" then cite statistics about how most of the 175 million blogs on the web go inactive in less time than that. How about what happened a month later, I volley back with a description of the previously-unknown aneurysm rupturing in my - [Launched!](https://melanieormand.com/launched/) - For months, the call to blog has screamed at me. I kept stalling, hoping the technology would perhaps change and thus the need to be present here would vanish. Alas, no such luck. So it was that a few weeks ago, I promised myself and someone else that today-August 9th, a personally significant day in - [He's baaaaack!](https://melanieormand.com/hes-baaaaack/) - It was 4:06 a.m., January 27, 2004. An old man whispered in my ear. "Get a piece of paper and a pen," the voice spoke with an eerie confidence and calm. "Write down everything I say." I lay still in bed but closed my eyelids tight, as if to ward off this rude intrusion into - [Running Late: a Novel Way to Leap](https://melanieormand.com/running-late-a-novel-way-to-leap/) - This Leap Day, I want to change my name. I choose “Running Late.” It’s an apt moniker for a middle-aged demi-goddess who can’t quite get anywhere on time. Besides, as a lover of everything Native American, the name might gain me entrée into a hip tribe. I once blamed my time-arrival deficit on a decade’s ## Pages - [Home](https://melanieormand.com/) - Stories to Heal a World in Pain - [Stories & Essays](https://melanieormand.com/stories/) - Melanie's stories - both fiction and nonfiction - appear in print, broadcast, and online media. She also performs on stage. Her story credits include her debut memoir, plus the Boston Globe, Medium, MOTH StorySlam, National Public Radio/KUHF, The Sun, The Writer, and multiple anthologies. Several of these appear below. Melanie has won numerous fiction and - [Why Mélange?](https://melanieormand.com/why-melange/) - Can you find the "M" and the "O" inside the orange and black symbol above? How about a spiral shape engulfed inside the larger circle? This game of hide and seek mirrors how I operate in the world of storytelling. In this logo—as in my life—I hunt meaning. Mélange became the name of my writing - [Travels](https://melanieormand.com/travels/) - You ask: What does travel have to do with the writing life? My best stories begin on the road. I met my husband at a state broadcast convention. Competitors in radio news, we created our first story. Later we married, left broadcasting and started a communications business. Travel became a client, sometimes to places - [An Author's Life](https://melanieormand.com/about-the-author/) - Melanie makes up stories. In others, she tells the truth. Melanie authors essays, op-eds, short stories, flash fiction, and blog posts from her Houston-area home. She writes in multiple genres, including upmarket women's fiction, thriller/suspense, and prescriptive nonfiction. Her story presentations vary, too, from traditional print and broadcast to online and live stage. She nears - [Contact](https://melanieormand.com/contact/) - Contact Melanie using the form below: Sign up for My Newsletter: * indicates required Email Address * First Name Last Name Facebook: @MelanieOrmandWriter Instagram: Melanie_Ormand Twitter: @MelanieOrmand - [Blog](https://melanieormand.com/blogs/) - I hear voices. That's why I blog. Amid the sights, sounds, and smells of a full life, these voices flood like water in a creek roaring with winter's snowmelt. These voices accompanied my first website, pointing toward blog posts about life adventures and random encounters. I acquired a bonus: sorting chaff from the worthy. Two ## Categories - [Uncategorized](https://melanieormand.com/category/uncategorized/) - [Writing Life](https://melanieormand.com/category/writing-life/) - [Art](https://melanieormand.com/category/art/) - [Healthcare](https://melanieormand.com/category/healthcare/) - [Novelists](https://melanieormand.com/category/novelists/) - [Real Life](https://melanieormand.com/category/real-life/) ## Tags - [Novelists](https://melanieormand.com/tag/novelists/) - [Writers](https://melanieormand.com/tag/writers/) - [Creative Writing](https://melanieormand.com/tag/creative-writing/) - [Art](https://melanieormand.com/tag/art-2/) - [2012](https://melanieormand.com/tag/2012/) - [Writing Life](https://melanieormand.com/tag/writing-life/) - [Playground](https://melanieormand.com/tag/playground/) - [Ruptured Brain Aneurysm](https://melanieormand.com/tag/ruptured-brain-aneurysm/) - [Hospitals](https://melanieormand.com/tag/hospitals/) - [New Normal](https://melanieormand.com/tag/new-normal/) - [Health Insurance](https://melanieormand.com/tag/health-insurance/) - [Balance Billing](https://melanieormand.com/tag/balance-billing/) - [Park](https://melanieormand.com/tag/park/) - [Childhood](https://melanieormand.com/tag/childhood/) - [50+](https://melanieormand.com/tag/50/) - [Coroonavirus](https://melanieormand.com/tag/coroonavirus/) - [pandemic](https://melanieormand.com/tag/pandemic/) - [Snowpocalypse](https://melanieormand.com/tag/snowpocalypse/) - [Houston](https://melanieormand.com/tag/houston/) - [Texas](https://melanieormand.com/tag/texas/) - [healing](https://melanieormand.com/tag/healing/) - [wisdom](https://melanieormand.com/tag/wisdom/) - [snow](https://melanieormand.com/tag/snow/) - [ice](https://melanieormand.com/tag/ice/) - [Website Launch](https://melanieormand.com/tag/website-launch/) - [COVID-19](https://melanieormand.com/tag/covid-19/) - [Second Shot](https://melanieormand.com/tag/second-shot/) - [65](https://melanieormand.com/tag/65/) - [Happy New Year](https://melanieormand.com/tag/happy-new-year/) - [Vaccination](https://melanieormand.com/tag/vaccination/) - [Birthday](https://melanieormand.com/tag/birthday/) - [Coronavirus](https://melanieormand.com/tag/coronavirus/)