Mel Penrose
One Author. Two writers.
‘Mel Penrose’ is the pen name of former journalists Mike Truscott and Francesca Hanikova whose heartwarming, amusing storylines – laced with Cornish sea air – aim to appeal to a broad readership.
Following many years working in the media, including 25 years running his PR company, Cornish-born Mike wrote local history books before embracing fiction. Married with two adult daughters, Mike lives in Falmouth and, as well as writing, enjoys painting, walking, swimming, and blogging.
He is a life-long football fan and, until retirement, was PR officer for Truro City, Cornwall’s premier football club.
The Entrepreneur and wife, Janet. Mike ran a successful PR business.
Francesca flying high as
a reporter with British Gas.
Francesca started her career as a trainee reporter at the Falmouth Packet newspaper, under Mike’s tutelage. After working on provincial papers and in local radio, she moved into PR, working in the UK and abroad. Married with five adult children, she lives near Hayle.
A keen walker, cyclist and circuit-training fan, Francesca enjoys gardening and takes an active interest in environmental and health-care issues. She currently campaigns to improve dental provision in Cornwall. She loves spaniels, having had several, and has kept chickens for many years.
Mike and Francesca started collaborating in 2016 after discussing their mutual addiction to writing. Francesca persuaded Mike to dig out an unfinished draft and, during several coastal walks with springer spaniel Whisper, Mel Penrose was born. The pair have completed the draft of a second novel with a third in the pipeline.
Links:
Whisper – mascot of Mel Penrose.
© Mike Truscott (July 2018)
LAUNCHING IN 2021
Lottery Loveboat
Reality strikes when fortune turns a resigned bachelor into marriage material
Shy, bespectacled Harold Pettigrew leads a sheltered life. Nearing 40, he’s never had a girlfriend, rarely left his hometown, and a strict father and possessive mother have kept him in line. His job at the public library is his only escape. Then, things change.
A vast lottery win finds Harold on a luxury cruise with six women as companions, but what are their motives? Do they know of his secret wealth? Does Harold’s eligible bachelor status arise from his money or genuine attraction, and who is not the happy holidaymaker they appear?
Board the Lottery Loveboat and take to the high seas for an amusing, heartwarming story of romance, revelation and intrigue—with one petrified millionaire.