Author Bio
• Birth—July 31, 1948
• Where—San Antonio, Texas, USA
• Education—B.A., University of North Texas
• Currently—Tyler, Texas
Born in San Antonio, Melinda Richarz Lyons was raised an "Air Force brat," and lived in Okinawa, Oklahoma, Alabama, Colorado, and Oregon, where she graduated high school. She attended Kilgore College in East Texas (now University of North Texas), where, as a member of the Rangerettes, she had the opportunity to perform in places like the Astrodome, The Cotton Bowl and Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In 1968 she married her college sweetheart, Sid Bailey. The couple spent a few years on the road, temporarily living in Chicago, Canada, and Atlanta while Sid played professional football. His business career then took them from Texas to Denver, Memphis, Springdale, Arkansas, Oklahoma City, and ultimately Murfreesboro, Tennessee, where they settled in 1994.
Ms. Lyons suffered a devastating loss when her husband of almost thirty-eight years died in 2005. Determined to put her life back together, she moved to Tyler, Texas a year later. In 2007, she met Tom Lyons and they were married June 14, 2009. This union blessed her with something she always wanted but never had—children and grandchildren!
In her words:
I have actually been writing creatively since I could speak. My Mother said I would sit in my crib with one of my favorite picture books, babbling away as I turned the pages. When I was eleven, a prayer I wrote was published by a national children’s Christian magazine. I got paid a whole dollar! That thrilling experience made me realize that sometimes other people actually not only like what you write, they occasionally reward you for it. I wrote a book at the age of 13, and have penned numerous stories, poems, newspaper articles and even songs over the years.
I have enough rejection letters to paper a room, but I have also had quite a few things published. It is fantastic to see your name in print, and even better to get paid. But—like most writers—I don’t do it for the money (what little there is!). I write because I have to. It is what I am supposed to do. I write for the sheer joy of writing, and that wonderful feeling I get when I know words that came from my heart and my head touched someone else.