Local author and motivational speaker Felicia Pressley-Melvin recently published her fourth book, “Press and Let God Do the Rest Workbook.”
                                 Courtesy photo

Local author and motivational speaker Felicia Pressley-Melvin recently published her fourth book, “Press and Let God Do the Rest Workbook.”

Courtesy photo

LAURINBURG — Local author and motivational speaker Felicia Pressley-Melvin recently published her fourth book, “Press and Let God Do the Rest Workbook,” a companion piece to the first book she wrote of the same name.

Melvin began writing after surviving a head-on car crash in 2019. She said, “When the wreck happened, I felt this great weight on me like someone was sitting on me to keep me from going through the windshield. I know it was the Holy Spirit. The cop was surprised I survived.”

Not only did she survive, she walked away without a scratch on her.

“Being an author was not on my agenda at all,” she said. “… but after I survived the wreck, I just had the urge to write.”

Melvin said she never really adhered to a writing schedule.

“I write when the Holy Spirit tells me to write,” Melvin said. “So, I write at different times and different places. I’ve written in the park and sitting in my car.”

The first book, “Press and Let God Do the Rest” was 149 pages and took her about a year to write. “Broken so I Can Live” and “Peace in the Presence” were a little shorter and didn’t take quite so long to write while the workbook also took about a year.

“The hardest part of writing a book,” Melvin said, “is getting my thoughts down on paper in a way that satisfies me. I’m a perfectionist, so I’m always wondering if I could do it better.”

That perfectionism is why Melvin published her first three books in 2022 though they were ready before that. She let them sit on the computer while she fretted about whether they were good enough to publish.

Melvin’s four books are inspirational religious books that center around the theme that we are all broken and wounded but so long as we persevere and have faith, God will see us through our trials and tribulations.

The books contain nuggets of wisdom like “When life begins to rage and yield difficult obstacles, you will never fail unless you decide to stop moving forward.” and “You can’t allow your past to dictate your future.”

The workbook’s overview on Amazon states that the book is designed to “…motivate you to move forward through all the pain and discomfort that life may bring.” and to bring “healing and deliverance”.

Melvin said the workbook has examples and assignments to help achieve these goals. One lesson asks readers to go on their phones and write down the last five people they talked to and what the conversation was about. They are then asked to examine whether these interactions had a positive or negative energy and impact on them.

Melvin tells readers to ask themselves, “Is this bettering me or keeping me stagnated? You want to be around people that are going to push you to do better.”

The books can be purchased on Amazon. For more information about Melvin’s motivational seminars, go to her website feliciamelvin.com.